Jennifer Still

When we think of medieval punishment, we often picture traitors losing their heads or thieves having their hands chopped off. But not every punishment was...

Britain may never have experienced a full-scale revolution like France or Russia, but that doesn’t mean the country hasn’t come close. While the Glorious Revolution...

The ancient Romans were nothing if not inventive, especially when it came to reusing every possible resource at their disposal, and that included human urine....

Toilet paper is a relatively modern invention, and one we tend to take for granted. Before it became widely available (and mass produced), people around...

Not every discovery comes with a clear backstory. For all our advances in archaeology, some objects continue to stump researchers. They’re dug from the earth,...

Long before colonial borders were drawn, long before globalisation had a name, Indigenous peoples across the world were already engaged in complex, expansive trade networks....

For most of human history, death hasn’t just been about grief—it’s been about fear. Before science could offer reassuring explanations, people across cultures were deeply...

Modern farming has brought us efficiency, high yields, and global food distribution, but it’s also come with huge environmental costs. Soil degradation, water scarcity, biodiversity...

Science hasn’t always had the answers, and in the gaps, people have filled the void with some truly strange ideas. Before the scientific method and...

The Renaissance was a time of dazzling creativity, technical innovation, and artistic ambition. However, for all the work that survived, there are just as many...