history

I have made a summary of all the known paternal lineages of the Founding Fathers. I wish I could find those of James Madison, John Jay and the Morris family (Gouverneur Morris, Lewis Morris, Richard Morris, etc.).

Using the neural-net tool Artbreeder, Photoshop and historical references, Daniel Voshart have created photoreal portraits of Roman Emperors. For this project, I have transformed, or restored (cracks, noses, ears etc.) 800 images of busts to make the 54 emperors of The Principate (27 BC to 285...

I have recently come across the concept of spiral dynamics, a model of eight levels of increasingly complex human value systems (or vMemes) consisting of sets of world views, preferences, and purposes. Each level represent a new evolution in the way people interact within a society. The...

Here is a map of the Megalithic cultures in Europe and North Africa, with the main sites highlighted. There are lots of maps on the web, but none that I found satisfactory as they didn't carefully list all the areas with megaliths. The oldest sites are dated to c. 6000 BCE in central Portugal...

Nature: Incest uncovered at the elite prehistoric Newgrange monument in Ireland "The huge, elaborate, 5,000-year-old tomb at Newgrange, Ireland, is thought to have been built for a powerful elite. DNA of a man buried there reveals a case of incest. Was this a strategy to maintain a dynastic...

I finally got around to create a map about the Bell Beaker phenomenon. It was a complex task as there are already many maps out there, but few agree on the distribution of the Beaker and the main hubs of this vast commercial network. Some maps show arrows of the probable diffusion of the beakers...

The great American inventor Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) appears to have belonged to R1b-L151>S1194>S1200>S14328>SZ5489>Y28597>S10242 according to the Edison Y-DNA project (lineage 1). He is descended from John Edison and Sarah Ogden from the Netherlands. This branch of R1b is found in...

The Lee family descended from Richard Lee I (1617–1664), who emigrated from Shropshire, England to Virginia, played an important role in American history. Based on the results from the Lee Surname DNA Research Project, descendants of Richard Lee I and his wife Anne Constable (Subgroup 21)...

The influential Randolph family of Virginia belongs to R1b-P312>Z39300 (aka PH2278) based on the results from the Randolph/Randall/Randle/Randol Surname Group (Albemarle County group). The family contributed numerous politicians, statesmen and military officers in the course of U.S. history...

Here are the Y-haplogroups of US presidents known at present: 1. George Washington R1b-U152>Z56 2. John Adams R1b-S1200>S14328>S6849 3. Thomas Jefferson T1a1a 4. James Madison 5. James Monroe I2a1a-L161.1 6. John Quincy Adams R1b-S1200>S14328>S6849 7. Andrew Jackson I1 8...

I have made a table listing all the Roman gentes who held at least 2 magistracies during the Republic. I also listed the number of consulships, dividing the stats for the Republic and Empire, and the number of dictators and emperors. Please let me know if you spot any error or if you have...

Here is the summary of the worst military debacles suffered by the Romans during over 1000 years of history from the beginning of the Republic to the end of the Western Roman Empire. In chronological order: Battle of Heraclea (280 BCE) Type of battle : pitched battle Belligerents Roman...

Rome has a long and fascinating history. The Roman Empire would more accurately be described as the Principate (from 27 BCE to 284 CE) and the Dominate (from Diocletian's Tetrarchy). There were 71 emperors and co-regents from Augustus to Theodosius, who definitively split the empire in eastern...

This is my first article this year. I have summarised all the fascinating and intriguing factoids I could find about the ancient Romans in the 9 books I have read on the subject over the last year. The page also serve as a general overview on Roman lifestyle and culture. I hope you like it...

Two years ago Kurzgesagt proposed a new calendar that would start 10,000 years before the Common Era, around the time when agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent and the hunter-gatherers of Göbekli Tepe erected the world's first stone temple. They argued that this would be a more universal...

According to Wikipedia, 'the term "World War I" was coined by Time magazine on page 28b of its June 12, 1939 issue. In the same article, on page 32, the term "World War II" was first used speculatively to describe the upcoming war. The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September...

NB: The first post has been updated to take into account new versions of the mod and scenario. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have created two scenarios for the PC game Civilization IV (Beyond the Sword version) in which I attempt to...

I've just read this study (Male Lineages in Brazil: Intercontinental Admixture and Stratification of the European Background) on the distribution of male lineages of Brazilians and there is something that struck me as very intriguing and, I think, difficult to explain. They have a somewhat...

I read if Catalonia were to proclaim independence unilaterally in the next few days without the approbation of Madrid, Catalonia would not automatically become a member of the European Union. The logic is that if it splits from a member state of the EU, it would need to re-apply for EU...

BBC News: Carbon dating reveals earliest origins of zero symbol "Carbon dating shows an ancient Indian manuscript has the earliest recorded origin of the zero symbol. The Bakhshali manuscript is now believed to date from the 3rd or 4th Century, making it hundreds of years older than previously...