The unicorn is one of the most famous mythical creatures, often depicted as a white horse with a spiraling horn erupting from its forehead. It’s not hard to imagine a horse with a horn, and for much of the mythical creature’s history, people thought it actually existed. But where did this myth come from? Unicorn-like … Read more
The graves of dozens of what may have been early British kings, queens, princes and princesses from the era of the mythical King Arthur have been revealed by a new study. It suggests that British royal graves dating from between the fifth and the seventh centuries A.D. have been overlooked until now, possibly because they … Read more
A gold-hilted dagger found in the tomb of King Tut surprised archaeologists when they discovered that it was made of a material forged in outer space. Now, two new studies are painting conflicting pictures of the origins of the mysterious weapon, which may have been wielded by arguably the most famous ancient Egyptian pharaoh. One … Read more
The famous library of Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the most important repositories of knowledge in the ancient world. Built in the fourth century B.C., it flourished for some six centuries, was the cultural and intellectual center of the ancient Hellenistic world, and was rumored to contain half a million papyrus scrolls — the largest … Read more
A new, enormous family tree for all of humanity attempts to summarize how all humans alive today relate both to one another and to our ancient ancestors. To build this family tree, or genealogy, researchers sifted through thousands of genome sequences collected from both modern and ancient humans, as well as ancient human relatives, according to … Read more
Welcome to the latest installment of “Writer Fuel – cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Check out our Writer Fuel page on the LimFic blog for more inspiration. Today: Dragons are among the most popular and enduring of the world’s mythological creatures, believed to have been real for centuries. Dragon tales … Read more
Archaeologists have made some remarkable finds this year, from barnacle-encrusted Crusader swords at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea to non-returning boomerangs in South Australia. In this countdown, we pick 10 of our favorite sword and weapons discoveries from 2021. Ornate Roman Dagger In November, an amateur archaeologist with a metal detector in Switzerland discovered … Read more
As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph). Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about … Read more
The Knights Templar was an order of devout Christians founded in Jerusalem sometime between A.D. 1118 and 1119, after the First Crusade (1096-1099). The Order was created to protect Europeans traveling to the Holy Land, among other duties. The knights were known across Europe as an elite fighting force with a strict code of conduct … Read more
We’re launching a brand new feature on Liminal Fiction – “Writer Fuel – cool real-world stories that might inspire your little writer heart. Today: The Grand Canyon is a layer cake of geological history, with rocks stacked neatly upon one another as they were laid down millions of years ago. That is, until you get … Read more
