News about History

Telling actual time in ancient rocks

In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Copenhagen apply a new technique allowing them to disentangle 500 million-years-old rocks millimeter-by-millimeter, resolving the…

The war is the logical consequence of Putin's ideological struggle with the West

If you have followed what Vladimir Putin has said and written about the West and Russia these past years, the invasion of Ukraine should not come as a surprise. What is surprising is how poorly it seems to have been…

Past global photosynthesis reacted quickly to more carbon in the air

Ice cores allow climate researchers to look 800,000 years back in time: atmospheric carbon acts as fertilizer, increasing biological production. The mechanism removes carbon from the air and thereby dampens the…

Researchers confirm shipwreck could be 400-year-old colonial "Sparrow-Hawk"

The remains of a shipwreck in Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, thought to be a 400-year-old colonial vessel, have now undergone extensive scientific analyses.

Researchers to explore ancient dress practices in Sudan

Archaeologist Elsa Yvanez has received an ERC Starting Grant for the research project "Fashioning Sudan. Archaeology of dress along the Middle Nile", which she will lead at the Centre for Textile Research for the next…

Researchers to explore ancient dress practices in Sudan

Archaeologist Elsa Yvanez has received an ERC Starting Grant for the research project "Fashioning Sudan. Archaeology of dress along the Middle Nile", which she will lead at the Centre for Textile Research for the next…

WORKING PAPER 3: Missionary Networks, Black Preachers, and the Spread of Methodism in the Antilles

This working paper explores interisland networks and the different reactions of island authorities to missionaries in the 18th century, by examining the diaries of Thomas Coke.

Danish chemist helps England extend lifespan of world-renowned shipwreck

Using an advanced new X-ray scanning technique, a team of University of Copenhagen researchers has helped to identify the substances quietly eating their way through the wreckage of the Mary Rose, a 510-year-old English…

Origin of domestic horses finally established

Horses were first domesticated in the Pontic-Caspian steppes, northern Caucasus, before conquering the rest of Eurasia within a few centuries. These are the results of a study led by paleogeneticist Ludovic Orlando. The…

News Podcast: The Geobiological History of Earth

Geobiologist Tais Wittchen Dahl unfolds 4 billion years of history including the insane and enigmatic Cambrian explosion. Understanding the events of the past may show the way through today's climate crisis.

No strategy behind Danish war effort in Afghanistan – we followed USA

When Denmark decided to participate in the war in Afghanistan just three months after the terrorist attacks 11 September 2001, it was an act of solidarity with the United States. The efforts were not part of a long-term…

Niels Bohr Archive and Department of Science Education welcome Hans Halvorson

Professor Halvorson will first and foremost conduct research on the basis of the archival holdings of the Niels Bohr Archive

Olympics in 60 seconds: From Greek myth to modern-day mega-event

The Olympic Games began in ancient Greece in honour of the gods. In addition to an abundance of sports, the Olympics of today are money, politics and propaganda.

Ancient air bubbles speak to a much warmer Antarctica during the ice-age than once believed

Twenty thousand-year-old air bubbles have revealed that Antarctic temperatures during the last ice age were markedly different than what the leading science once suggested. This is according to new research in which the…

10,000-year-old bones reveal earliest goat herders’ practices

To trace the domestication of the goat, an international team of researchers have analysed 10,000 year-old goat bones from two sites in the Zagros Mountains in present-day western Iran. Using ancient DNA and…

Flint stone sounds suggest a Stone Age settlement in Copenhagen’s Svanemøllen Harbour

A new method has made it possible for University of Copenhagen researchers to register mysterious sounds from the sea at Svanemøllen Harbour, most likely originating from chipped-away flint tools of an unknown Stone Age…

Evolution researcher receives ERC Advanced Grant

Associate Professor Enrico Cappellini from the University of Copenhagen receives an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros for his research project ‘BACKWARD’. Using palaeoproteomics, BACKWARD will explore the evolutio…

Ancient DNA hints at diverse Stone Age traditions of kinship

An international team of researchers have used ancient genomes, 22 new genomes from Aşıklı Höyük and Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO site, as well as published ones from Boncuklu Höyük and Barcın to study people whose burials are…

Ancient Egyptian manual reveals new details about mummification

Based on a manual recently discovered in a 3,500-year-old medical papyrus, University of Copenhagen Egyptologist Sofie Schiødt has been able to help reconstruct the embalming process used to prepare ancient Egyptians fo…

Danish research institutions join the leading European network of cultural heritage

Led by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Danish research institutions and museums now join the European Research Infrastructure for Heritage Science (E-RIHS).

The wars in Former Yugoslavia continue in the classroom

According to the Education Act, schools in the ethnically divided Bosnia and Herzegovina must teach students “democratic ideals in a multicultural society." But according to new research from the University of…

The struggle for recognition: The liberal world order is eroded from both within and without

New research conludes that replacing Donald Trump with Joe Biden does not take us back to the liberal international order that represented ideas and rules of democracy, equality, trade and economic prosperity.

New book provides rare insights into a Mesopotamian medical practitioner’s education

2,700 years ago, a man called Kisir-Ashur practiced medicine and magic in the Assyrian city of Assur in present-day Northern Iraq. In a new book, Assyriologist Troels Pank Arbøll traces the healer’s career from early…

Inks containing lead were likely used as drier on ancient Egyptian papyri

Analysing 12 ancient Egyptian papyri fragments with X-ray microscopy, University of Copenhagen researchers were surprised to find previously unknown lead compounds in both red and black inks and suggest they were used…