insert_link Health / Medical Is your desk job killing your back? Ancient Egyptian scribes had the same aches and pains, say researchers By Petra Brukner Havelková, National Museum (Národní muzeum) Prague and Veronika Dulíková, Charles University Thousands of years ago, during a period of Egyptian history known as the Old Kingdom (around 2649–2130 BC), it was rare for people to be able to read and write. From an estimated population of between 1 million and 1.5 million, only about 1% were literate and able to write in hieroglyphics. […] todaySeptember 10, 2024 20
insert_link Africa Nigeria’s ancient Ilorin city – archaeologist uncovers over 1,000 years of history By Bolaji Owoseni, University of Cambridge Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, is a Nigerian city with a long and rich history. However, much of its distant past is not well known. Archaeology is now uncovering more of this history and the relationships of Ilorin to other ancient parts of the Yoruba world. Situated in north-central Nigeria and predominantly Yoruba-speaking, Ilorin gained prominence in the late 1700s. […] todayMarch 11, 2024 8
insert_link Africa What are Sabaki languages? How people formed ethnic groups along the coast of east Africa By Daren Ray, Brigham Young University A new book called Ethnicity, Identity and Conceptualizing Community in Indian Ocean East Africa tracks the history of the coastal communities of east Africa and how the Sabaki family of Bantu languages was formed, shaped in part by the sea and the arrival of visitors from other shores and within the continent. We asked historian Daren Ray to tell us […] todayFebruary 20, 2024 18
insert_link Africa Africans discovered dinosaur fossils long before the term ‘palaeontology’ existed By Julien Benoit, University of the Witwatersrand; Cameron Penn-Clarke, University of the Witwatersrand, and Charles Helm, Nelson Mandela University Credit for discovering the first dinosaur bones usually goes to British gentlemen for their finds between the 17th and 19th centuries in England. Robert Plot, an English natural history scholar, was the first of these to describe a dinosaur bone, in his 1676 book The Natural History of Oxfordshire. Over […] todayJanuary 8, 2024 15
