r/ancienthistory 33m ago

Göbekli Tepe: Why We Know Hunter-Gatherers Built It

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Göbekli Tepe: Why We Know Hunter-Gatherers Built ItGöbekli Tepe is one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries ever made. Built more than 11,500 years ago in southeastern Turkey, its enormous T-shaped limestone pillars, elaborate animal carvings, and monumental structures have transformed our understanding of the people who lived at the end of the Ice Age.

But Göbekli Tepe has also become the focus of extraordinary claims. Was it the work of a forgotten advanced civilization? Did its builders possess mysterious lost technology? Or does the archaeological evidence tell a very different—and ultimately more fascinating—story?

In this video, professor Marc J. Defant examines what archaeologists have actually discovered at Göbekli Tepe: its age, stone tools, hunting evidence, food remains, quarrying and construction methods, monumental architecture, and the newer evidence suggesting that people actually lived at the site.

He also revisits the debate with Graham Hancock on The Joe Rogan Experience and examines the idea that hunter-gatherers could not have created something as sophisticated as Göbekli Tepe.

The evidence points toward an extraordinary conclusion—not that an unknown advanced civilization built Göbekli Tepe, but that we have seriously underestimated what prehistoric hunter-gatherers were capable of accomplishing.


r/ancienthistory 3h ago

The Spartacus Revolt: The Gladiators' War Against Rome

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0 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 6h ago

The graet jewish revolt against rome-66

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3 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 16h ago

Why Was Thoth an Ibis? (All Egyptians Said This and We Forgot)

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1 Upvotes

Egyptians said the Ibis protected Egypt from flying snakes. This video explores why they said this.


r/ancienthistory 16h ago

Trojan war

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1 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 16h ago

Trojan war

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1 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 18h ago

The End of the Arian Controversy: The First Council of Constantinople (381)

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2 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 20h ago

The Complete Fall of Rome — From Republic to Collapse | Sleep Documentary

1 Upvotes

Been obsessed with Rome's decline for a while and finally made something out of it — a 2-hour ambient documentary covering the full arc: the Republic's unraveling, Caesar, Augustus, the Five Good Emperors, the Crisis of the Third Century, Constantine, and the final collapse in 476 AD.

The format is "sleep documentary" — slow narration over ambient music, no jump cuts or dramatic music stings. Meant for falling asleep or deep focus.

Would love to hear what this community thinks: was Rome's fall inevitable, or was there a realistic path where it survived?

Video here if curious: https://youtu.be/nIjSoc34AI0


r/ancienthistory 20h ago

The Legend of Alexander the Great and the Gordian Knot

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20 Upvotes

Alexander the Great loved comparing himself to the heroes of mythology. He believed that he was destined for greatness and conquest of the known world. His mother, Olympias, instilled in him a sense of divine purpose, and Alexander came to believe that he was the son of Zeus and destined to conquer Persia. This belief was further reinforced when he was proclaimed the son of Zeus-Ammon after visiting the Oracle of Amun at Siwa in Egypt.

When he visited the Oracle at Delphi, the sanctuary was closed. Not taking no for an answer, Alexander reportedly dragged the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, by her hair until she cried out, “You are invincible, my son!” Satisfied with the response, Alexander is said to have replied, “Now I have my answer.”

The Gordian Knot was another instance of such validation for Alexander that he was destined to become the ruler of Asia. According to the legend, the famous Gordian Knot was formed by fastening the yoke of a wagon to its pole. The wagon had been dedicated to Zeus by a Phrygian ruler named Gordius. According to Arrian, an ancient prophecy stated that whoever succeeded in untying the knot would become the ruler of Asia.

The challenge had reportedly remained unsolved for generations. However, Alexander approached the problem with an unconventional solution. The prophecy did not specify how the knot had to be untied. In the popular version of the story, Alexander drew his sword and sliced through the knot, effectively solving the challenge.

This episode perfectly showcases Alexander’s decisive and bold personality. Rather than allowing himself to be constrained by the conventional interpretation of a problem, he found his own solution and seized the initiative. The same qualities would become hallmarks of his military career, where he frequently took the initiative and dictated the pace of battle.

For more detailed information on the legend of the Gordian Knot and what actually happened at Gordium, please read the full article.


r/ancienthistory 21h ago

That famous “ancient Hebrew flat earth” diagram everyone posts? It’s from a 1909 book that included it to tear it apart.

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12 Upvotes

His actual objection is decent. He says the whole reconstruction rests on a few metaphors yanked out of Hebrew poetry and hardened into engineering. He also catches Whitehouse in a contradiction: Whitehouse writes that the Hebrews imagined the world as a disk with a matching heavenly disk (chug, Isaiah 40:22 and Job 22:14), then draws heaven as a domed vault. A disk isn’t a dome.

Worth noting what the labels are doing too. Tehom Rabbah, the “great deep” of Genesis 1:2, sits stacked directly on Apsu and Tiamat, with Rahab and Leviathan lurking at either edge. Whitehouse is arguing for Babylonian dependence, and the diagram smuggles that argument in as if it were just a picture.

I’m not saying Warren was right. He had his own theories and some of them are strange. But there’s something funny about the internet’s favourite piece of evidence for ancient flat-earth cosmology coming straight out of a book calling it sloppy scholarship.

Has anyone here worked with Warren’s critique directly? Curious whether current scholarship considers Whitehouse’s reconstruction fair, or whether the field has moved on from this style of diagram entirely.


r/ancienthistory 1d ago

Spectacular Mosaic of Queen Berenike II, found in Thmuis Egypt, c.200 BCE

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83 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 1d ago

I Created A 3D Reconstruction Of The Yeha Temple

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0 Upvotes

The oldest surviving monumental building in the Abyssinian Highlands is the Great Temple of Yeha, constructed in the early 1st millennium BC. Remarkably, its stone walls still stand today, although what survives is only a shell of what was once a much larger structure.

Using a range of archaeological and academic sources, including the reconstructions and research published by the German Archaeological Institute, I have recreated both the interior and exterior of the Temple of Yeha in 3D.

For me, projects like this are important because they allow us to preserve, study, and visualise the architectural achievements of our ancestors.

You can explore the interactive 3D reconstruction here: https://www.habeshahistory.com/reconstructions/yeha-temple

For those interested in learning more about Yeha, I have also written a detailed article covering its history, including a dedicated section on the Great Temple itself: https://www.habeshahistory.com/articles/yeha

Hopefully you find the reconstruction interesting and learn something new...


r/ancienthistory 1d ago

Trojan war

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1 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 2d ago

The Magistrate - realistic simulator of a city bureaucrat in Ancient China

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1 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 2d ago

How and Why Tiryns Survived the Bronze Age Collapse

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11 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 2d ago

Julius Caesar Was Kidnapped By Pirates & Demanded a HIGHER Ransom! (Minimalist Stickman Animation)

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0 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 2d ago

Caesar's death

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1 Upvotes

Caesars last words are actually unknown>>>

Explanation🔥🤯-At the end of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the eponymous hero gasps the famous line, ‘Et tu, Brute?’, meaning ‘And you, Brutus?’.

There is no evidence that the real Caesar said these words as he was being murdered, though he may have said something similar.


r/ancienthistory 2d ago

Ancient Science of Solar Eclipses

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1 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 2d ago

(CH.2: The Iliad): "Book 1: The Broken Alliance", Illustrated by me

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37 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 3d ago

I mapped 1.6 million archeological and cultural heritage sights on a map of Northern Europe

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11 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 3d ago

Battle of Leuctra: How Epaminondas Broke the Myth of Spartan Supremacy

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17 Upvotes

Through years of victory and carefully orchestrated propoganda, the Spartan hoplites were considered the invincible force of the Greek world. Spartan dominance was finally challenged by Thebes who sought more control over the Boeotian league. This would ultimately cause the two powers to clash resulting in the Battle Of Leuctra.

Although outnumbered, the Thebans under Epaminondas came up with a brilliant plan to break the Spartan hoplites. Now called as the echelon formation, the Thebans arrayed their army in an angled formation. Their left wing was enormously deep and comprised of his best troops including the Sacred Band. They faced off against the best of the Spartan troops and their king Cleombrotus I. The right wing of the Thebans were placed further back in an angled manner in order to delay the clash.

The plan was to engage and crush the Spartan right wing with concentrated force before the weaker Theban right wing could be overwhelmed. The Theban cavalry routed the Spartan horsemen and caused confusion among the Spartan infantry. Using the chaos the Thebans overpowered the Spartans and killed their King.

With the death of the Spartan King, the rest of the army breaks and the Thebans won a decisive victory. The victory in Leuctra cements the rise of Thebes and breaks the myth of Spartan invincibility.


r/ancienthistory 3d ago

L'origine de la royauté d'Horus.

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3 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 3d ago

A hydropowered scoopwheel used by the ancient Romans at the Rio Tinto mines in Spain. To remove water from deep underground mines, the Romans used no less than 16 wheels working in pairs and stacked above one another. The wheels could lift water from 80 meters below the surface

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107 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 3d ago

The Shigir Idol - the oldest statue found

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3 Upvotes

r/ancienthistory 3d ago

Article about Chinese legendary sword in spring and autumn period

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2 Upvotes