Amputees in 16th century Europe commissioned iron hands from artisans, many of whom had never made prostheses before.
Lernestål, Erik, Livrustkammaren/SHM
Warrior-monks crusaded for Christianity throughout medieval Europe. Adding to the ongoing mystery surrounding the military order is their enigmatic seal.
Andrea Mantegna, Minerva (Athena) expelling Vices from the Garden of Virtue, from the Studiolo of Isabella d'Este, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua (c. 1499–1502).
Louvre Museum/Wikimedia Commons
When scientists observed planets revolved around the Sun, they posited we were now like other planets. And if other planets were like Earth, then they most likely also had inhabitants.
Remains of the castle in Korolevo, close to the site.
Катерина Байдужа/Wikimedia Commons
A new study reveals the earliest evidence of humans in Europe, at Korolevo, Ukraine, shining new light on prehistoric migration routes.
One of the earliest depictions of flying witches is in a 15th-century text entitled “Le champion des dames,” or “The Defender of Ladies.”
Martin Le Franc/W. Schild. Die Maleficia der Hexenleut' via Wikimedia Commons
The iconic image of a witch on a broomstick has apocryphal origins. But whether they could actually fly didn’t stop Christian society from persecuting them.
Women’s wills and last testaments provide a more nuanced picture of life in the Middle Ages than medieval stereotypes allow, such as that depicted in “Death and the Prostitute” by Master of Philippe of Guelders.
Gallica/Bibliothèque nationale de France/Feminae
European women’s rights expanded in early medieval cities, though they were still limited. Last wills and testaments were some of the few documents women could dictate themselves.
Franz Roselbach, a Roma survivor of the Holocaust who was sent to Auschwitz when he was 15, attends a ceremony at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 2006.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Many young people today know little about the murder of European Jews during the Holocaust, and even less about the murder of Romani communities.
Joaquin Phoenix in Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon.’ Napoleon was a prolific legislator who sponsored the Civil Code, later known as the Napoleonic Code.
(Apple TV+)
A new book evokes the tumultuous nature of 16th century Europe through the eyes of three queens: Catherine de’ Medici, her daughter Elisabeth and her daughter-in-law, Mary, Queen of Scots.
The placenta and umbilical cord. Watercolour image, unknown artist, 19th century.
Wellcome Collection
In my research, I try to uncover the cultural significance of the placenta and afterbirth in premodern Europe to help us better understand the social and medical history of this important organ.
A family photo of Andrea Yates, her husband and four of their five children. Yates killed all five by drowning them in a bathtub in 2001.
Photo Courtesy of Yates Family/Getty Images
The framing of these stories of murder and mayhem have remained remarkably consistent since the invention of the printing press – and may reveal our own hidden fears and desires.
The reburied remains of the ‘founding father’.
Photograph by S. Rottier.
In the largest study of its kind, researchers have used DNA from a 6,700-year-old cemetery in France to reconstruct the lives of everyday Neolithic people.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, photographed in New York circa 1874.
Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Theosophy and its founders had an outsize impact on Americans’ ideas about spirituality and Asian religions.
Samuel Willenberg, the last survivor of the Treblinka uprising, poses for a picture at his art studio in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2010.
AP Photo/Oded Balilty
Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, pointedly commemorates Jewish resistance to the Nazis.
A mural in Derry commemorating the TV show ‘Derry Girls,’ which follows the lives of teenagers growing up amid Northern Ireland’s troubles.
Dominic Bryan
45,000 years ago, people first started arriving in what’s known as Europe today. We thought a worsening ice age made them disappear – but it seems some lineages survived.