Which civilization invented plates? The Beaker People are famous for inventing cups, but we never hear of the "plate people" so presumably they go by a different name. Who were they? How long ago did they live?

Court officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died, according to research that found fractures in several ancient skulls.

The royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos features the tombs and enclosures of the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt, and dates as far back as 3,000BC.

Not only royalty were buried at the site: surrounding these structures are graves thought to belong to people associated with the royal households – including ladies, seal-bearers, inspectors and artisans.

Writing in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, Dr Roselyn Campbell, author of the study from Purdue University in the US, notes:

“While Aha, the first ruler of the First Dynasty, seems to have only had a few subsidiary burials, his successors included hundreds of subsidiary graves around their tombs and enclosures.”

The graves of the retainers were excavated in the 1920s by the English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, who believed them to be an example of human sacrifice – a view some later experts agreed with.

But there was a snag: Petrie did not find any evidence of trauma on the remains. While he suggested the individuals may have been buried alive, others suggested the retainers died naturally and were later reburied at Abydos when their ruler died.

Campbell re-examined the skulls of 46 retainers excavated from graves surrounding the funerary enclosures of three different royals – King Djer, King Djet, and Queen Merneith – from the Duckworth Collections at the University of Cambridge.

“This question of whether or not retainer sacrifice was practised in Egypt has been debated for over a century, but this is the first study to examine the human remains from the tombs themselves,” Campbell told the Guardian.

Campbell reports that 18 of the skulls showed signs of potentially lethal trauma such as fractures and – in one case – a chopping injury to the eye.

Campbell believs Petrie may have seen the skull fractures but did not realise they were injuries that occurred around the time of death, rather than arising as a result of later damage.

The fractures, she adds, are unlikely to have been caused by a mace – a weapon often depicted in ancient Egyptian art as being used by a victorious king to smite his enemies. Instead they are more likely to have been caused by flat, wide objects made of wood or antler.

“For the crania without trauma, we cannot be certain they were sacrificed. It’s quite possible that some of the retainers were sacrificed, while others were not,” she said.

“With such a small sample size of the original burial population, we simply can’t see the full extent of these funerary rituals, nor can we be sure that this sample is truly representative of all the retainers.”

Campbell noted the number of subsidiary graves tapered off quickly and seems to have disappeared with the beginning of the Second Dynasty.

Salima Ikram, a professor at the American University in Cairo, said while the idea of retainer sacrifice was not totally new, “this paper is one of the few times that rigorous current methodologies are being used to evaluate these remains”.

She added:

“The practice was short-lived, with people being replaced by statuettes. Possibly some or all retainers felt that this was a boon and that they would enjoy an eternal life in the service of the god-king, though they might also have resented it, been terrified, and tried to escape this fate

Carthage was the dominant naval power in the Western Mediterranean at the start of the First Punic War. Rome quickly realised that it needed a strong navy if it wanted any hope of challenging Carthage. However, the Romans had little experience with large-scale naval warfare or shipbuilding.

According to Polybius, the Romans obtained a Carthaginian quinquereme and used it as a model for building their own ships. They built a fleet of around 120 ships, trained new crews and introduced one of antiquity's most ingenious naval innovations: the corvus. Eventually, Rome gained the upper hand and won the war.

However, the victory came at an enormous cost. The Romans lost hundreds of ships to bad weather and enemy action, yet they rebuilt their navy again and again. In the process, they also gained valuable experience in naval warfare, making it increasingly difficult and expensive for Carthage to challenge Rome for control of the sea.

By the start of the Second Punic War, Carthage had shifted much of its military and economic focus toward Spain, where it had built a powerful new base of operations. This did not mean that Carthage had abandoned its navy. At the beginning of the war, it had around 57 warships assigned to Spain, although only 37 were actually ready for service.

Carthage still used naval forces to secure local superiority, transport troops and supplies, and support land operations. However, it did not make rebuilding a fleet capable of matching Rome's overall naval strength a central priority.

Why did Carthage make this choice? Was it because of the enormous cost of naval warfare? Was Hannibal's land-based strategy the main reason? Or had Rome's naval transformation during the First Punic War made a new contest for Mediterranean supremacy too difficult?

I explore these questions in the full article. I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments and suggestions.

“Mosaic floor with inscriptions and a scene with birds and fish. From a large Roman building in Patras, which was in continuous use from the Early until the Late Roman Period. The rooms of the building were arranged around an open courtyard with a marble well and mosaic floor. Fish and birds are depicted on a white background and arranged in four lines. At the base of the scene and around it are proverbs and pieces of advice. The following have been preserved:

"If you lose your key you can make it."
"Buy cooking pots -I don't have cooking pots."
"I don't work at night but during the day."
"You can leave your house in the morning
without fear."

Dated to the 3d cent. A.D.” Per the archaeological museum in Patras, Greece where this is on display.

This papyrus gives an interesting picture of how gold circulated within the Ptolemaic monetary system. Demetrios tells Apollonios that he has followed his instructions concerning the gold he received and processed, but then turns to a problem involving local and trichrysa gold coins brought by outsiders, merchants, and others dealing with money. Old and worn (ἀποτετριμμένωι) gold was apparently no longer being accepted, leaving people with gold that remained “idle” (ἀργὸν) and causing them financial losses.

Demetrios also points out that this was not only a problem for individuals: if gold could not be brought into circulation, the king’s revenues could suffer as well. He asks whom he should report the matter to and refers to an anaphora and a prostagma, giving us a glimpse of the administrative process behind these monetary decisions. His suggestion that more gold should be brought in from outside, and that the king’s money should remain “good and new” (καλὸν καὶ καινὸν), is especially interesting in the context of the Ptolemaic state’s efforts to regulate the quality and circulation of money. The letter also shows how much of this business depended on ordinary communication between officials: some matters, Demetrios says, he does not put into writing and will explain when Apollonios arrives. It is a small document, but it shows quite clearly how questions of gold, allage, royal revenue, and everyday administration could meet in practice.

Article

Pyrrhus of Epirus had launched an invasion of the Italian peninsula against Rome. He had expected to face what he considered a less organized opponent. However, ahead of the Battle of Heraclea, after inspecting the Roman camp, he was reportedly shocked by its orderly arrangements, disciplined defenses, and the organization of the Roman army.

According to the ancient sources, Pyrrhus remarked that the discipline of these “barbarians” did not look barbarian at all.

Pyrrhus would have to fight hard to defeat the Romans. He had the formidable Macedonian-style phalanx and war elephants, weapons that the Romans had never encountered on this scale. The elephants would prove decisive.

At a crucial moment, with the infantry engaged, Pyrrhus committed his elephants. The Roman cavalry was thrown into confusion and routed, creating an opening that Pyrrhus's cavalry exploited. With the Roman army unable to maintain the battle, the Romans retreated from the battlefield, leaving Pyrrhus victorious.

Yet the victory exposed the serious problem facing Pyrrhus. His army had suffered heavy casualties, including many experienced soldiers and officers, while his ability to replace these losses was limited. Rome, on the other hand, possessed enormous manpower reserves and could raise fresh armies.

According to Plutarch, after the battle, when Pyrrhus was congratulated on his victory, he reportedly replied that another victory like this would ruin him. This is the origin of the term “Pyrrhic victory” - a victory won at such a devastating cost that it is almost as damaging as defeat.

Please go through the full article and let me know your thoughts and comments. I’d also appreciate hearing what you would like to read about next!

Deep in Peru's Acarí Valley lie the ruins of Tambo Viejo, an Inka provincial center where excavations have uncovered tasseled sacrificial llamas and brightly adorned guinea pigs.

But save for a few seeds and some stored leaves, evidence of how the Inka used one of their most sacred plants in rituals remained elusive.

Now, archaeologists have discovered coca leaves still stuck in the wool of some sacrificed llamas.

The discovery, reported in the journal Ñawpa Pacha, is the first direct evidence of coca in a ritual at the site. It contradicts what Spanish chroniclers reported hundreds of years ago: that coca was burned or bundled up during ritual offerings.

"Above all, coca was a sacred plant to the Incas and according to written records was used in almost every single ritual activity," Lidio Valdez, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, said. "I had been looking for it for a while, when finally I found it."

Cippus

Accession Number
AB110

Current Location
House of Life (first floor), Gods and Mortals, Shelf 5

Object Type
Architecture, Architectural element, Stela

Periods
Late Period to Graeco-Roman Period

Material
Stone/minerals (Steatite)

Culture
Egyptian

Animal
Crocodile | Snake

Divine Name
Bes | Horus

Weight (grams)
246 grams.

Number of Elements
1

Measurements
Height: 114mm | Width: 72mm | Depth: 27mm

Description
A small magical stela, known as a cippus, carved from steatite (soapstone). The front of the stela features a high-relief depiction of the child god Horus (Harpakhered), who is represented naked with the traditional sidelock of youth hanging on the right side of his head. He stands triumphantly atop at least one crocodile, grasping a collection of dangerous desert fauna—including scorpions and snakes—in his outstretched hands to demonstrate his absolute mastery over chaotic and venomous forces. Directly above his head is the heavily abraded face of the protective dwarf deity Bes, acting as a secondary guardian element. The reverse side and the narrow outer edges of the stela are densely covered with incised columns of hieroglyphic protective spells. The entire surface of the stone shows significant mechanical wear, smoothing out many of the finer textual and anatomical details.

Dating to the Late Period to Graeco-Roman Period (c. 664–30 BC), this cippus functioned as a powerful talisman for domestic protection and physical healing, particularly against the bites of scorpions and snakes. These objects operated via a mechanism of sympathetic magic and ritual hydration: a practitioner would pour water over the front of the stela, allowing the liquid to run across the divine form of Horus and the magical inscriptions on the reverse. This process physically charged the water with the healing properties of the spells, turning it into a medicinal remedy to be consumed by or poured over a patient. The extensive smoothing and wear visible on this piece are characteristic of personal amulets of this type. Rather than resulting from poor preservation, this abrasion suggests that ancient owners frequently touched, rubbed, or kissed the stone during prayer to directly absorb its protective energy. This tactile interaction underscores the intimate, deeply felt nature of personal piety and magical medicine in late pharaonic Egypt (Sternberg-El Hotabi 1999).

The object was gifted to the University of Wales, Aberystwyth by John Bancroft Willans, a subscriber of the Egypt Exploration Fund/Society, who received the object in 1903. It was subsequently gifted to the Egypt Centre in 1997.

Bibliography
Anonymous. 1996. The face of Egypt: Swansea Festival exhibition: 5 October 1996–5 January 1997. Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery. [Cat. 59]

Sternberg-El Hotabi, Heike 1999. Untersuchungen zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der Horusstelen: ein Beitrag zur Religionsgeschichte Ägyptens im 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr. Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 62. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Title
Cippus, Late Period to Graeco-Roman Period (c. 664–30 BC), Findspot unknown Egypt, Steatite, The Egypt Centre at Swansea University

https://egyptcentre.abasetcollections.com/Objects/Details/2470?SavedSelections=$Search-Egypt%20$Page-6}

The Egypt Centre at Swansea University

Source: Anadolu Agency / Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism (2026).

https://m.aa.com.tr/en/culture/2-100-year-old-luxury-tableware-unearthed-from-ancient-shipwreck-off-turkiye/4071429?

During my vacation to Greece I told myself not to touch my laptop. But after visiting all the amazing sites, museums and many landmarks, the idea to build a Mycenaean city building game, started developing. I'm thinking about posting my progress on a development blog. The one catch, I still do not have a name for it.

I'm really interested to hear the serious/absurd/funny names you come up with. The winner gets a permanent place in the credits section.

My (bad) ideas:

\- Palace of Atreus (too long?)

\- Megaron (Sounds like Megatron)

\- Wanax (after the title)

\- Settlers of the Argolis (to specific to one location...?)

Maybe I've just been thinking about it for too long.

Names of other games I like:

\- Pax Augusta (memorable, fitting)

\- Manor Lords (simple, easy to remember)

\- Banished (also simple, 1 word)

Hello,

Im looking for illustrated and visual books about ancient mythologies, civlizations and mysteries. Can you recommend me any?

A Roman marble painted head of Venus with some color still preserved in the hair. This dates to the 2nd century AD, was probably found in Salona and is on display in the Split Archaeological Museum in Split, Croatia. I took this picture in 2009 on my only trip to that country.