Their function is infamous, their personality disturbing... Outcast from society, the executioners have, for centuries, formed veritable dynasties within which they have passed on their duties. Assistants of the Paris executioner place Eugen Weidmann accused of the murder of five people on the gui
Pachacamac, famous god venerated by the Incas in his dedicated temple, was represented by a statue of more than two meters in carved wood and colored in red, yellow and white. The Idol of the Inca god Pachacamac was sculpted and colored with mysterious pigments. Born from the union between the Su
It lived 437 million years ago:it is the oldest scorpion fossil. However, the animal appears strangely modern. Drawing of a Parioscorpio venator reconstructed from two fossils discovered in the United States. A new species of prehistoric scorpion dating to the early Silurian, around 437.5 to 436.
In matters of torture, the man was able to demonstrate a formidable inventiveness. From the wheel to the pal passing through the punches and even the moray eels, everything was good to punish the condemned in the most atrocious sufferings... Water torture in the 15th century This article is from
The disappearance of Alexander the Great, aged 32, remains a mystery, his body having never been found. Portrait of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) King at 19, master of the world at 28… This could sum up the life of Alexander the Great. But his death? His disappearance, at the age of 32, remain
Researchers have succeeded in 3D printing the vocal tract of a man mummified 3,000 years ago. Using an electronic larynx, they managed to make him utter a sound. Nesyamon was an Egyptian priest and scribe working at the temple of Karnak, Thebes. The voice of a man dead for 3,000 years rose in a r
The chemical analysis of a bar of gold metal weighing nearly 2 kg, discovered in 1981 at the bottom of an old canal in Mexico City, made it possible to authenticate this vestige as coming from the treasure looted by Hernan Cortés in 1520 on the Tenochtitlan site. An exceptional discovery. The Noch
For centuries, justice has been a spectacle. Quarterings, pyres, crucifixions... Frightful punishments with dissuasive properties. The wheel is a means of torture used from Antiquity until the end of the 18ᵉ century. Throughout history, this torture has taken different forms. In antiquity, the con
The city of Cahokia, which was one of the most powerful cities in North America before European colonization, has neither disappeared mysteriously nor suddenly, according to the latest findings of anthropologists. Something to shatter a little more received ideas about the past of an exceptional Ame
Tombs of high priests of the gods Thoth and Horus have been discovered in the region of Minya, Egypt. Photo taken on January 30, 2020 shows tombs containing sarcophagi around 3,000 years old, discovered in Al Ghoreifa, Minya, 300 km south of Cairo. Tombs of high priests, around 3,000 years old a
Simon Coencas, last survivor of the four teenagers discoverers of the Lascaux cave in 1940, a world-famous masterpiece of parietal art, died at the age of 93. Simon Coencas, one of the four teenagers who discovered the Lascaux cave in 1940, on November 18, 2016 in Paris. As the last discoverer
The study of a skeleton found in Tanzania in 1913 has for the first time revealed a practice of facial piercing in Africa from the end of the Pleistocene, at least 20,000 years ago. Artistic reconstruction of OH1 facial piercings, and the impact of labrets on tooth wear. Like a distant echo of t
This innovative civilization did not just invent the state or writing. She wrote the first codes of justice which already punish homicide, rape... and financial crimes! Mesopotamia:diorite stele of the Code of Laws of Hammurabi (or Hammurabi). It is covered with cuneiform inscriptions and at the t
A Palaeolithic sanctuary comprising more than a hundred parietal works dated to around 15,000 years old has been discovered in a cave in LEspluga de Francoli, in the province of Tarragona, in Catalonia. Horse engraved in the Font Major cave, in LEspluga de Francoli (Catalonia). Like a final tribu
An international team of researchers has successfully germinated six date palms from seeds found at ancient sites in southern Israel. 2,000 years old, they could provide valuable information on the longevity of the DNA of these plants. After the first germination of a seed in 2008, six other small
The helmets used during the First World War were particularly effective in protecting soldiers against shock waves due to explosions. Enough to compete with contemporary helmets according to a new study. A French World War I helmet sits under a shock tube. This installation makes it possible to te
Thanks to 3D and recent archaeological discoveries, an iconic work of Angkorian heritage in Cambodia has just been virtually reconstructed. In Angkor (Cambodia), thanks to 3D, the true posture of the famous statue of the sovereign Jayavarman VII, could be found. His smile and his closed eyes are
It is the weapon of a Roman legionnaire who fought the Germanic tribes on the imperial limes, at the border of the empire, 2000 years ago. It was found in an exceptional state of preservation. Restored, this dagger was unveiled for the first time to the public. 2000 years old, the Roman dagger fr
In the heart of the Eternal City, archaeologists have discovered a tomb concealing a sarcophagus which could have a link with Romulus, the son of the Wolf, the mythical founder of the city. An underground chamber has resurfaced next to the Curia-Comitium complex, on the Forum, in Rome. A tuff sarc
Reported by Nature magazine , new analyzes carried out around the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt would relate the presence of possible chambers hidden behind its walls... View of the tomb of Tutankhamun, in the Valley of the Kings, in Luxor, Egypt. New twist in Egypt! Rec
Ancient boats, corsair galleons or ships from the 2nd World War:from the depths of the waters where they lie, how to study wrecks? And keep them? Response on Twitch with 1h30 live with marine corrosion expert Jean-Bernard Memet. Watch it in replay on the Sciences et Avenir website. Jean-Bernard M
There is no doubt that one of the great milestones of Humanity has been the invention of the wheel. Obviously, the exact moment in which it appears in our history is unknown and until relatively recently the oldest reference was the Mesopotamian civilization. But that changed in 2002, when archaeolo
Excavations carried out on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea have discovered some 300 small stones decorated with different motifs, dating from the Stone Age, some 5,000 years ago. Many of them are sun stones , round in shape and with circular motifs, already known to researchers sinc
In northern Australia, archaeologists are using fossil wasp nests to try to date cave paintings thousands of years old. Cave paintings in the Kimberley region of northern Australia are believed to be among the oldest in world. AUSTRALIA. For thousands of years, people have decorated the walls of r