Who built Europe’s first cities?

By Tamar SchwartzJanuary 16, 2025January 16, 2025 History, Science

Click Here to Read: Who built Europe’s first cities? Clues about the urban revolution emerge: Around 6,000 years ago, a group known as the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture developed egalitarian settlements north of the Black Sea and created the region’s earliest urban centres. Then, after two millennia, they vanished. By Emma Marris on the Nature website on January 7, 2025.

A map of the approximate extent of the Neolithic Cucuteni-Trypillian culture.Image: Saukkomies at English Wikipedia. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

How Archaeologists Discovered Europe’s Oldest-Known Book, Revealing Never-Before-Seen Insights Into Ancient Religion and Philosophy

By Tamar SchwartzJanuary 15, 2025January 15, 2025 History, Literature

Click Here to Read: How Archaeologists Discovered Europe’s Oldest-Known Book, Revealing Never-Before-Seen Insights Into Ancient Religion and Philosophy: Charred by the flames of a funeral pyre, the Derveni Papyrus has proved to be a fascinating—and confounding—artifact by Teresa Nowakowski on the Smithsonian Magazine website on January 15, 2025

Derveni papyrus. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

How AI is unlocking ancient text—and could rewrite history

By Tamar SchwartzJanuary 6, 2025 History, Science

Click Here to Read: How AI is unlocking ancient text —and could rewrite history: From deciphering burnt Roman scrolls to reading crumbling cuneiform tablets, neural networks could give researchers more data than they’ve had in centuries By Jo Marchant on the Nature website on December 30, 2024.

Sumerian account of silver for the govenor (background removed) . Image: Gavin.collins Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

2,600-year-old shipwreck is raised from waters off Spain

By Tamar SchwartzDecember 30, 2024December 30, 2024 History

Click Here to Read: 2,600-year-old shipwreck is raised from waters off Spain by Emily Mae Czachor on the
AOL website on December 30, 2024.

Phoenician ship Carved on the face of a sarcophagus. 2nd century AD. Image: NMB. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Medieval scholars say 536 CE was the worst year to be alive

By Tamar SchwartzDecember 18, 2024December 18, 2024 History

Click Here to Read: Medieval scholars say 536 CE was the worst year to be alive on the History Facts website.

A medieval depiction of the Ecumene (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver), constructed after the coordinates in Ptolemy’s Geography and using his second map projection. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The chutzpah of a supposedly dying language that’s thrillingly alive

By Tamar SchwartzNovember 28, 2024November 28, 2024 History, Literature

Click Here to Read: The chutzpah of a supposedly dying language that’s thrillingly alive by By John McWhorter in The New York Times on November 28, 2024.

Poster for “The Yiddish King Lear”. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

History of the Jews of Ukraine

By Tamar SchwartzNovember 19, 2024November 19, 2024 History

Click Here to Read: History of the Jews of Ukraine Once Europe’s largest Jewish community, Ukraine has had a major influence on the development of Ashkenazi Jewish culture on the My Jewish Learning website.

Jewish musicians (Faust family) from Rohatyn (modern western Ukraine). Klezmorim (Klezmers) – traditional musicians among Jews, most of them members of the Faust family. Rohatyn, 1912 (then in Galicia, Austro-Hungarian monarchy). Jewish klezmer music band, antique photo. Image: Unknown photographer from Rohatyn