News about History

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…

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…

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…

Alaskan volcano linked to mysterious period with extreme climate in ancient Rome

An international team, including researchers from the University of Copenhagen, has found evidence suggesting that the megaeruption of an Alaskan volcano may be to blame.

Paper on early agriculture’s impact on human lifestyle awarded prestigious prize

Together with an international team of researchers, University of Copenhagen archaeologist Scott Haddow receives this year’s PNAS Cozzarelli Prize for co-authoring the best paper in the field of Social and Behavioral…

Historical inequalities and uncertain land tenure systems create problems in protected areas of Patagonia

Systematic repression through harassment, violence and bureaucracy. This is how families experience everyday life in the hands of a powerful national park in the Argentine region of Patagonia. One hundred years ago, the…

Researcher discovers terrifying epilepsy demon on 2,700-year-old clay tablet

A 2,700-year-old cuneiform tablet from ancient Iraq describing medical treatments has suddenly revealed a secret – a hitherto overlooked drawing of the demon that the ancient Assyrians thought caused epilepsy. It is the…

Ancient “Chewing Gum” Yields Insights into People and Bacteria of the Past

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have succeeded in extracting a complete human genome from a thousands-of-years old “chewing gum”.

Rare find: human teeth used as jewellery in Turkey 8,500 years ago

At a prehistoric archaeological site in Turkey, researchers have discovered two 8,500-year-old human teeth, which had been used as pendants in a necklace or bracelet. Researchers have never documented this practice…

New research project will tell the entangled history of the Lesser Antilles

In history books, the islands of the eastern Caribbean, the Lesser Antilles, are described as small isolated societies controlled by European colonial powers. But the many small islands were in fact deeply dependent on…

Major EU grant for research on collective identity

The ERC has awarded Professor Dan Zahavi from University of Copenhagen an Advanced Grant of €2.4 million for the research project “Who are we”, which will examine what it means to feel, think and act as a group - as a…

Forgotten Islamic literary tradition uncovered in the Horn of Africa

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have spent the last five years identifying and analysing more than 2,000 Islamic manuscripts in the Horn of Africa in order to map and preserve the rich, but largely…

11,500-year-old animal bones in Jordan suggest early dogs helped humans hunt

11,500 years ago in what is now northeast Jordan, people began to live alongside dogs and may also have used them for hunting, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows.

Archaeologists discover bread that predates agriculture by 4,000 years

At an archaeological site in northeastern Jordan, researchers have discovered the charred remains of a flatbread baked by hunter-gatherers 14,400 years ago. It is the oldest direct evidence of bread found to date,…

New research shows how Indo-European languages spread across Asia

A new study has discovered that horses were first domesticated by descendants of hunter-gatherer groups in Kazakhstan who left little direct trace in the ancestry of modern populations.

Ink from ancient Egyptian papyri contains copper

Until recently, it was assumed that the ink used for writing was primarily carbon-based at least until the fourth and fifth centuries AD. But in a new University of Copenhagen study, analyses of 2,000-year-old papyri…

Scandinavia’s earliest farmers exchanged terminology with Indo-Europeans

5,000 years ago, the Yamnaya culture migrated into Europe from the Caspian steppe. In addition to innovations such as the wagon and dairy production, they brought a new language – Indo-European – that replaced most loca…

Etymology and the European Lexicon: Call for Papers

We are pleased to announce that the 14th Congress (Fachtagung) of the Indogermanische Gesellschaft / Society for Indo-European Studies / Société des Études Indo-Européennes will be held in Copenhagen from Monday 17…