Eleven windows into the ancient and medieval past, from ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the Buddha and Pompeii to the Vikings, the Crusades, the Mongol Empire, the samurai and Joan of Arc.
The ancient and medieval worlds were far stranger, cleaner and more connected than many history lessons suggest. This collection travels from ancient Egypt and Greece to the Buddha and the Indian emperor Ashoka, and from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried Pompeii to the Vikings, the Crusades, the Mongol Empire, the samurai of Japan, the Hundred Years' War and Joan of Arc.
Popular myths fall one after another. The pyramids were built by paid labourers rather than slaves, Napoleon's troops did not shoot the nose off the Sphinx, Vikings never wore horned helmets, and the samurai eagerly adopted firearms. The Hundred Years' War actually lasted 116 years, Joan of Arc never killed anyone in battle, and the plump "laughing Buddha" is not the historical Buddha at all.
The everyday details are just as surprising. Egyptian police used trained baboons, the Greeks built an ancient "computer" at Antikythera, Vikings set aside Saturday for washing, and Mongol messengers raced across a continent-wide relay network. Ashoka built hospitals for animals, Saladin sent fruit and snow to his feverish enemy Richard the Lionheart, and Pompeii's eruption preserved a whole library of ancient scrolls.
From pharaohs and philosophers to knights and khans, each topic below has fifteen facts to discover.
Every item on this page, with the one fact most people get wrong about it.
| Name | Where you'll meet it | The fact worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient Egypt | Kingdom of the pharaohs on the Nile | Tutankhamun's dagger was forged from meteorite iron. |
| Ancient Greece | City-states of the Aegean | Its marble statues were originally painted in bright colours. |
| The Buddha | Siddhartha Gautama | "Buddha" is a title meaning "awakened one", not a name. |
| Ashoka | Mauryan emperor of India | He built some of the world's earliest veterinary hospitals. |
| Eruption of Mount Vesuvius | Pompeii and Herculaneum, 79 AD | The 79 AD eruption produced no flowing lava at all. |
| Vikings | Norse seafarers of Scandinavia | Horned helmets were invented for Wagner's operas. |
| The Crusades | Holy wars for Jerusalem | Saladin sent fruit and snow to his feverish enemy Richard the Lionheart. |
| Mongol Empire | Empire of Genghis Khan | Its Yam relay network was the first transcontinental postal system. |
| The Samurai | Japan's warrior class | Samurai eagerly adopted firearms rather than rejecting them. |
| Hundred Years' War | England and France, 1337-1453 | It actually lasted 116 years. |
| Joan of Arc | Heroine of France | She never actually killed anyone in battle. |
Longest War
116 years
The Hundred Years' War between England and France ran from 1337 to 1453. Hundred Years' War
Oldest Surviving Peace Treaty
c. 1274 BCE
Ramses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III made peace after the Battle of Kadesh. Ancient Egypt
Biggest Wrestling Prize
10,000 horses
Princess Khutulun won 10,000 horses from suitors who failed to beat her at wrestling. Mongol Empire
Slowest Sainthood
About 500 years
Joan of Arc was burned in Rouen but was canonised only around five centuries later. Joan of Arc
Kingdom of the pharaohs on the Nile
Ancient Egyptian police used trained baboons, kohl eyeliner fought infection and grieving cat owners shaved their eyebrows. Ramses II signed the oldest surviving peace treaty, and Cleopatra lived closer to our time than to the building of the Great Pyramid. Napoleon did not shoot the Sphinx's nose off.
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City-states of the Aegean
The ancient Greeks did not call themselves Greeks and never formed a single country. Athletes competed naked, Athenians voted to exile powerful citizens, and Spartan women were the freest in Greece. The Antikythera mechanism was an ancient computer.
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Siddhartha Gautama
Prince Siddhartha left his sheltered palace after the Four Sights and found enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. He taught the Middle Way, wrote none of his teachings down and preached for 45 years. The plump laughing figure is not him.
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Mauryan emperor of India
Ashoka did not convert overnight after the Kalinga War and never abolished the death penalty. His edicts were carved in Brahmi, Greek and Aramaic, and the wheel on India's flag comes from his Lion Capital. He was forgotten for nearly two thousand years.
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Pompeii and Herculaneum, 79 AD
The eruption probably happened in October, not August, and most of Pompeii's people escaped. Heat turned some Herculaneum victims' brains to glass, and Pliny the Elder led a naval rescue. The Villa of the Papyri preserved the only surviving library of the classical world.
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Norse seafarers of Scandinavia
Vikings navigated with sunstones and ravens, kept themselves clean and made Saturday washing day. DNA showed a Birka warrior chief was a woman, and Norse explorers reached North America around 1000 AD. They founded Dublin and left runic graffiti in Constantinople.
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Holy wars for Jerusalem
One group of peasant crusaders followed a supposedly enchanted goose, and the Fourth Crusade sacked Christian Constantinople. Eleanor of Aquitaine led her own contingent, an excommunicated emperor won Jerusalem without a battle, and Richard and Saladin never met.
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Empire of Genghis Khan
Mongol warriors drank horse blood on long campaigns and signalled with whistling arrows. Princess Khutulun won 10,000 horses by wrestling her suitors, and the empire practised religious tolerance. Genghis Khan's grave has never been found, and Kublai Khan laid out the foundations of Beijing.
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Japan's warrior class
The first samurai were mounted archers, and women warriors called onna-musha fought too. Samurai wore the katana blade-up, changed their names at life events and measured wealth in rice. The African-born Yasuke served Oda Nobunaga.
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England and France, 1337-1453
Wine and wool helped trigger the war, the longbow humbled French knights and mud decided Agincourt. A captured French king returned to captivity voluntarily, and the Black Prince was never called that in his lifetime. French cannons finally won it, and English kings went back to speaking English.
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Heroine of France
Joan heard voices from the age of thirteen, dictated fierce letters though she was illiterate and survived an arrow wound at Orléans. She was condemned largely for wearing men's clothes, impostors later claimed her identity, and her ring returned to France in 2016.
Read the full article →8 questions, every answer is somewhere above.
1. Where did the iron in Tutankhamun's dagger come from?
2. What did the ancient Greek word "idiotes" originally describe?
3. What does the word "Buddha" mean?
4. What happened to the brains of some victims at Herculaneum?
5. Who invented the horned Viking helmet?
6. What did Saladin send to Richard the Lionheart when he fell ill?
7. Which way was the samurai katana worn?
8. What ultimately helped the French win the Hundred Years' War?
No. Archaeological evidence shows the pyramids were built by paid labourers, contrary to popular Hollywood myths.
No. The horned helmet was invented in the 19th century by costume designer Carl Emil Doepler for productions of Richard Wagner's operas.
No. The 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius was a Plinian eruption that produced ash, pumice and deadly pyroclastic surges rather than rivers of lava. Most of Pompeii's inhabitants are thought to have escaped in time.
About 116 years, from 1337 to 1453, in several phases. The name was coined by 19th-century French historians.
She carried a banner rather than fighting on the front line and never killed an enemy, but she placed herself in the line of fire and survived an arrow wound during the siege of Orléans.
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