A newly discovered 7th-century gold coin in East Anglia depicts Christian and Pagan symbols intertwined—offering rare insight into Britain’s spiritual crossroads during the Anglo-Saxon era. Scholars believe it marks a cultural turning point.
Europe
Maenads, satyrs, and initiates: friezes of Dionysiac mysteries uncovered in Pompeii
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Archaeologists have discovered a monumental frieze depicting worshipers of Dionysus in a newly excavated portion of Pompeii. The near-life-size paintings portray a procession of Dionysiac figures participating in an initiation ritual as part of the deity’s mystery cult.
Arts & Culture
“Oracles, Omens, and Answers” explores history of divination from tarot to TikTok
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A new exhibit at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library explores thousands of years of practices in divination and prediction, from oracle bones to horoscope apps – and even includes demonstrations of the spider divination carried out by the Mambila people of Cameroon and Nigeria.
Arts & Culture
Danish museum returns a Roman emperor’s head to Turkey
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A bronze head of the Roman emperor Septimus Severus, illegally trafficked from a shrine where he had been worshiped as a deity in antiquity, will be repatriated from Denmark to Turkey.
Arts & Culture
Reykjavík unveils the manuscripts that gave us Norse mythology
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A new exhibition of medieval Icelandic manuscripts showcases the earliest versions of many core texts of Norse mythology and Icelandic literature, including the Poetic Edda and the Saga of the Greenlanders, which details the Norse discovery of the New World.
Europe
Mother Goddess Phrygian religious structures suggest a 250,000-year history
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Archaeologists in central Türkiye have unveiled remarkable finds at Midas Castle, shedding new light on the religious practices of the ancient Phrygians.