Jeremiah is the “weeping prophet” who suffered much anguish because of his people’s sins. He saw first-hand how a good king who worked toward reforming his nation was followed by sons opposed to God’s warnings. He dedicated his life to ministering to the people of Judah and warning them about the impending doom of […]

Before the ancient Egyptians built pyramids to house their god-kings for eternity, they built less enduring and less aesthetically pleasing tomb structures known as mastabas. Taken from the modern Arabic word for “bench,” mastabas were flat, raised mud-brick structures that housed the kings’ tombs underneath. Despite their rather unassuming look, mastabas played an important […]

Few composers in history have had as widespread and controversial an influence as Richard Wagner. Eventually celebrated as the genius behind the music and libretti of works whose impact spread beyond the opera world to inspire poets and painters, Wagner struggled for many years to find an audience. He spent many formative years in […]

The Mayan Codices are four prehispanic books written before the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. The volumes were created by professional scribes using paper made of the inner bark of a fig tree. With no formal titles, three of the four codices have been named after the cities where they were stored: Dresden, Madrid, and […]

The Black Plague is one of the most devastating pandemics the world has ever experienced. A common question about the scourge is how long it lasted. The answer, however, is not simple as the plague did not have a clean start and end date. This was because it was not one single occurrence but […]