During the Golden Age of Piracy, from about 1650 to 1730, pirates roamed much of the world’s seas, stealing valuable cargo from merchant ships. Pirates were generally successful against poorly armed merchants, but some were exceptional tacticians and found even greater success.

How Many Ships Did an Average Pirate Captain Actually Capture?

As a baseline, when a sailor was elected as a pirate captain (a common occurrence), he would lead the crew in an attempt to close in on a merchant vessel, raise a flag identifying themselves as pirates, and capture and loot the ship of any cargo. Most pirate captains only managed to accomplish this feat a few times, at best. Piracy was a high-risk profession, and very few were able to make it a long-term lifestyle.

Black Bart: The Pirate Who Looted Over 400 Ships

Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts was probably the most successful pirate, capturing over 400 ships in his lifetime. At first, he was a sailor kidnapped by pirates, but a change of heart a short time later elevated him to the captain of his ship following the death of pirate captain Howell Davis, who had captured Bart. 

Black Bart would go on from 1719-1722 to terrorize ports throughout the Atlantic Ocean, capturing over 400 vessels. One of his earliest was an almost accidental – and daring – capture of a Portuguese treasure ship transporting gold from the Americas to Portugal. It was part of a 42-ship fleet, and Bart and his crew captured one ship and learned which ship held the most treasure. They went on to capture the richest ship in the fleet and escape with a large amount of treasure.

Which Pirate Commanded the Largest Fleet in History?

Probably the largest pirate fleet under one person was the fleet under the control of the woman pirate Zheng Yi Sao from 1801-1810. At its peak, the organization boasted over 1200 ships and 80,000 crew members, operating in a tightly controlled enterprise with what could be described as near-modern corporate accounting standards. 

With tight accounting and high standards for her “employees,” Zheng Yi Sao was able to control a vast empire of pirate operations which, at times, rivaled the navies she fought against in the South China Sea, including China and Portugal. Zheng Yi Sao, even though she eventually surrendered and disbanded her network, was a rare pirate allowed to retire and die of old age with much of her captured wealth.

The $100 Million Heist: History’s Most Successful Act of Piracy

During the Golden Age of Piracy, even though the capture of merchant vessels was common, one incident rises above all the others. On September 7, 1695, Henry Avery (or Every) and the pirate crew of the Fancy and a few other ships attacked an Indian flotilla in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb between Yemen and Djibouti. The flotilla had at least two ships known to be large, dangerous, and laden with treasure – the Fateh Muhammed and the Ganj-i-Sawai. Avery and his crew captured and looted both ships, coming away with a modern value of over $100 million in gold, silver, and jewels. 

This raid on the Indian ships is likely the most valuable act of piracy ever and resulted in what may be the first worldwide manhunt, and severely damaged relations between India and England. Henry Avery would go on to evade capture and disappear from history less than a year later with much of his wealth. Unlike most pirates, and despite a rich reward for his capture, Avery appears to have escaped, retiring with his piratical gains.

When gunpowder weapons were first introduced into feudal Japan, they revolutionized warfare and transformed nearly four centuries of established military practice and structure. Before this, samurai culture and tactics included elements of ritualized combat, archery, and swordsmanship. The introduction of guns sparked an arms race that favored sheer numbers of soldiers and extensive production of weaponry over individual skill and lifelong training.

How Did a Shipwreck Bring Firearms to Feudal Japan?

Japanese history changed forever on August 25, 1543, when Portuguese merchants aboard a Wokou vessel were shipwrecked and drifted ashore at Tanegashima Island south of Kyushu. The European weaponry aboard the vessel caught the attention of the Tanegashima lord, Tanegashima Tokitaka, who was amazed by the ability of firearms to ignite powder with fire. He bought two matchlock arquebuses for a staggering fortune said to be around 2,000 ryō of silver. Realizing the advantage the firearm could provide his forces in battle, Tokitaka quickly ordered his head swordsmith, Yaita Kinbei, to copy the design.

While Japanese swordsmiths had great expertise when it came to forging steel for blades, the construction of the threaded breech plug proved remarkably tricky. Some mythical tales say that Kinbei was so desperate to learn the secret of the screw that he married off his daughter Wakasa to a Portuguese sailor in exchange for the technical knowledge. 

Within two decades of their introduction, matchlock weapons were being manufactured in the thousands by production centers in Sakai and Kunitomo, among other places. By the late 1500s, Japan likely had more firearms than any single European country, and it had produced tens of thousands of guns by the start of the 1600s.

How Did Matchlock Guns Change Japanese Warfare?

Prior to the introduction of the matchlock, years of dedicated training determined a warrior’s effectiveness in battle. Years of practice were also required to draw, aim, and release the asymmetrical yumi longbow properly. At the time, elite martial skills were passed down through strict family lineages and kept power in the hands of the samurai class. Regarding the function of the matchlock, the weapon worked by using a slow match to ignite a pan of powder, which then fired the lead ball. The simple process required only days or weeks of training for an average peasant infantryman to defeat armored opponents.

While a master archer could land multiple arrows in the time it took a gunner 20 to thirty 30 seconds to load and fire one shot, thousands of peasants could be trained into an effective army for a far lower cost. As such, tactical battles in the Age of Warring States shifted from personal combat to controlling disciplined volley fire. Oda Nobunaga, one of the first unifiers to grasp the true power of firearms on the battlefield, acquired 500 matchlocks for his infantry units in 1549.

Why Did the Battle of Nagashino Prove Samurai Cavalry Was Obsolete?

The greatest example of the matchlock’s effectiveness came on July 28, 1575, at the Battle of Nagashino. Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu‘s combined forces faced off against the mounted warriors of the Takeda clan, who were known far and wide for the strength of their horsemen. Roughly 12,000 to 15,000 Takeda warriors attacked in waves across the plain of Shitaragahara in an effort to smash through enemy lines with mounted force.

They were met by roughly 3,000 of Nobunaga’s matchlock gunners positioned behind staggered wooden palisades. To counter the slow rate of fire of the matchlock, Nobunaga organized his gunners into three rotating ranks to provide a continuous stream of fire. By the time the charging cavalry reached the barricades, they were greeted with rotating volleys from the matchlocks and sustained terrible casualties. Approximately 10,000 Takeda men were killed, including a large portion of their most experienced generals. The strategy at Nagashino significantly altered the belief that traditional samurai cavalry could survive against concentrated gunfire, gradually changing the nature of samurai warfare.

Why Did Japanese Rulers Ban Firearms and Disarm Commoners?

One way guns affected Japanese society was by making Gekokujō easier, a pattern in which the lower overcame the higher in rank. All of a sudden, an ashigaru foot soldier armed with a simple matchlock could defeat an experienced samurai with advanced martial arts skills. The situation caused the political class to take steps to curb the problem. Weapon ownership among commoners was soon restricted. Declarations such as the Edict of 1588, outlawing peasants from owning swords, guns, and other weaponry, also assisted leaders in maintaining Japan’s class system. During Japan’s Edo period between 1603 and 1868, the shogunate strictly regulated firearm production and distribution.

Mansa Musa was the fabulously wealthy emperor of the Mali Empire. In 1324, he undertook a Hajj to Mecca, accompanied by a retinue of at least 500 slaves, more than one hundred camels, soldiers, officials, and horses. They also took vast amounts of gold. En route to Mecca, the caravan stopped in Cairo, where their immense expenditure of gold caused the dinar to crash by 20%, and it took 12 years for the gold market there to recover. News of this reached Europe, where myths of the vast wealth of African empires began to circulate. 

Inside the West African Empires That Dominated Medieval Wealth

The first of these empires was the Ghana Empire, north of present-day Ghana. By about 800 AD, the empire had become powerful enough to conquer neighboring gold-producing areas. It also began trade with camel caravans from the north, bartering gold for salt, which was not available there, and other goods. This was often done using mute barter. When there was no common language, they used drums, sign language, and hand signals. The Songhai Empire was the largest of the Gold Empires and at its apogee from the mid-15th to the late 16th century.

It absorbed part of the declining Ghana Empire and also traded with North Africans. The Mali Empire was the wealthiest of these empires and was at its peak from 1235 to 1610. By the late medieval period, an estimated 10% of the world’s gold came from West Africa.

How Famine and the Black Death Caused Europe’s Coin Shortage

In Europe, barter began to decline during the medieval era in favor of the use of currency. This was especially important for trade with the Middle East and Asia, and this commerce used a large proportion of existing silver coinage. The Great Famine in the early 14th century, followed by the Black Death in the middle of the century, wiped out about 50% of the European population. This led to a reduction in silver mining and therefore a shortage of coins needed to replace those that were traded to countries outside Europe. 

The decrease in silver coinage can be illustrated by the example of England. Here the number of silver pence coins fell by 75% between 1351 and 1422. This led to a reduction in credit, resulting in economic decline. By the early 15th century, European trade was crippled by this shortage. There was some recovery, but there was another extreme bullion shortage in the 1440s. There was a return to barter, and pepper was sometimes used in place of coins.   

The Saharan Trade Routes That Carried African Gold North

The trade in West African gold to the southern Mediterranean dated back to early Roman times. However, it was only with the use of the camel, from about the 3rd century AD, and the rise of the North African Islamic empires, from the 8th century, that the trade in gold began to boom. These empires wanted gold for trade with Venice, Spain, and other southern European states. 

The West African empires needed salt, and regular trade routes boomed after the Islamic conversion of the West African empires in the 7th and 8th centuries. Islam gave both sides a common religion, language, and trust. Gold, ivory, and slaves were sent north, and in return the West Africans received salt, cloth, beads, and metal goods. Salt was traded almost weight for weight for gold.

How West African Gold Saved European Currencies From Collapse

Silver was the primary metal for currency in Europe until the shortages in the early 15th century. Gold, until then, was used predominantly by royalty, in diplomacy, and international trade. However, West African gold bullion was increasingly minted into coins to alleviate the currency shortage. The first gold coins in Europe were issued in Florence and Venice during the 13th century, and by 1422 Venice had minted 1.2 million gold ducats, a coin used for international trade. 

The bullion famine prompted merchants and nations to look for new routes to bring gold to Europe. In 1441, West African gold began to be shipped by Portuguese ships from the African coast. The sea trade ended the trans-Saharan monopoly, and this route began to decline, although it continued for many years. West African gold continued to be conveyed to Europe up to the 19th century. The new routes for gold, including from the Americas, ended the precious metals shortage, and European economies began to recover by the late 15th century.  

Gold from West Africa to Europe, transported first by camel and later by ship, allowed European economies to recover from recession caused by a lack of silver currency. This trade boomed in the 8th century and was of vital economic importance until precious metals from the Americas began to be imported in the early 16th century.

The story of the Siberian frontier is a brutal tale of imperial greed, ruthless mercenaries, and fierce indigenous resistance. Unlike the American Old West, Imperial Russia’s push into its own “Wild East” was driven by a single, lucrative commodity: “soft gold,” or furs, especially sable. In the mid-16th century, the promise of immense wealth from the fur trade drove the Tsar to unleash armies of tough, semi-independent Cossacks across the Ural Mountains. What followed was a bloody, centuries-long campaign of conquest that forever altered the map of Asia and the fate of its native peoples.

The Hunt for Soft Gold Across the Ural Mountains

The main reason imperial Russia set its sights on Siberia was the fur trade. Fur, especially sable, commanded higher prices than gold during the 16th and 17th centuries. Sables, a type of mink, became a major export. Native tribes paid tribute with sable fur filling Imperial coffers. Meanwhile, pelt hunting in Russia’s West had depleted populations, making it harder to keep up with demand. Siberia’s vast boreal forests contained virtually untapped reserves of these animals.

Siberia also meant increasing security with a buffer zone, a constant theme in Russian history. A continual drive east pushed potential enemies further out. Moreover, though fur provided the economic engine, this colonizing effort still carried Imperial prestige. The expansion made Russia appear to be a civilizing force. The control over such a large area, too, put Imperial Russia on par with the Ottomans and Habsburgs.

Yermak Timofeyevich and Indigenous Uprisings

But expansion into Siberia did not begin as a grand state-planned military campaign. Tsar Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) granted the wealthy Stroganov merchant family vast charter lands along the Ural frontier. To protect their commercial holdings from raids by the neighboring Khanate of Sibir, the Stroganovs hired a force of well-armed Cossacks led by Yermak Timofeyevich.

Siberia’s Indigenous tribes fiercely resisted Russia. The Yakuts (Northern Siberia) fought bitter battles between 1634 and 1642. The Evenki people around Lake Baikal fought but were defeated by the Cossacks. Even after an initial defeat, tribal resistance could last decades. Some tribes adjusted, but others fled. The Evenki migrated to places such as Sakhalin Island and Mongolia. Like most Indigenous populations, outside diseases, Cossack massacres, and forced relocations decimated the tribes.

Cossack Mercenaries and the Bloody Tribute System

With initial resistance crushed, the Cossacks crossed the Urals. These tough, mobile semi-independent soldiers made their first inroads. Using Siberia’s major rivers for rapid movements. Rivers like the Yenisei led them to central Siberia; the Ob opened western Siberia, and the Lena led to the far northeast. The Cossacks did more than merely pass through.

In 1581, Yermak’s expedition defeated the forces of Kuchum Khan, a successor state of the Golden Horde, seizing the Siberian capital of Qashliq. They also established ostrogs (forts) and mapped the territories. The Cossacks founded important fort-towns like Tyumen (1586), Tobolsk (1587), and Tomsk (1604). Each was built on or near river junctions, enabling rapid movement and communication.

The Cossacks established an annual fur tribute, or yanak. To collect such tribute, coercion and hostage taking became the norm. The Cossacks reacted violently against resistance, often killing many.

The Cossacks crossed the breadth of Siberia. The first group reached the Pacific at the Sea of Okhotsk by 1639.

The Second Wave of Settlers and Exiles

The Cossacks created a path across Siberia, touching many places. It would be the second wave to fill out that space between the Volga and the Pacific. Like America’s western expansion, Russia’s Siberian moves occurred haphazardly. As this wave moved in, each with separate intentions, they slowly integrated Siberia into Russia.

The groups that came east consisted of merchants, promyshlenniki (trappers and explorers), soldiers, exiles, settlers, and clergy. The merchants followed the Cossacks, hoping to profit by supplying frontier forts or establishing trading posts. Their activities created infrastructure and funded expansion. Imperial soldiers also arrived, often to enforce government control or fight uprisings. The clergy followed established routes, often invited by locals. In addition to building churches, the clergy converted local tribes, expanded Orthodox influence, and shaped the culture.

For Russia’s downtrodden serfs, Siberia meant freedom. Once over the Urals, Siberia’s vast expanse offered anonymity. Few landowners had the means to hunt them down. Additionally, frontiers always needed extra hands, bare backs, and bosses asked few questions.

Forging the Border with Qing China

After 1700, each succeeding decade pulled Siberia closer to Russia. Upon reaching the Pacific coast in 1639, efforts turned southward or toward consolidation. Imperial Russia and Qing China signed the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, after repeated clashes, creating an official border. This lessened tension as both moved into the Amur region. The last Indigenous uprisings occurred in the late 1700s, such as the Chukchi.

Siberia gradually became Russia’s economic engine. After 1700, important towns like Irkutsk, Tobolsk, and Yakutsk gained prominence. Mining began in the early 1700s, including silver mines near Lake Baikal. Iron, copper, or lead mines were established in the Altai Mountains. The 1838 gold discovery in the Yenisey River basin created Siberia’s first gold rush.

Siberia’s 19th-century history included greater industrialization and the exile of political or religious opponents. Great cities like Vladivostok were founded in 1860, and the borders were finalized. Siberia proved economically crucial to the Soviets and modern Russia. But Siberia’s frontier era set the tone.

A common belief about the word “crap” is that it came from Thomas Crapper, a plumber and businessman often cited as the inventor of the flush toilet. This is actually a folk etymology and is incorrect on both counts. The word existed in medieval times. And Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet.

The real story goes back many centuries, long before Thomas Crapper made his contributions to the design of the porcelain throne.

How “Crap” Existed Centuries Before Thomas Crapper

The word “crap” likely comes from the Middle English “crappe,” which refers to chaff or grain husks, and thus residue or refuse, and has its roots even further back in French. Used as such, it is likely that this was the word that evolved into “crap,” meaning to defecate. Another theory is that it comes from the Middle Dutch “krappen,” meaning to pluck off, cut off, or separate.

The first recorded use of crap referring to bodily waste, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is in 1846, just 10 years after Thomas Crapper was born. Today, the word is considered vulgar and mildly offensive.

The Truth Behind the Thomas Crapper Legend

The other half of the myth is Thomas Crapper, who was a plumber in Victorian England. He ran a successful plumbing business, which included the installation of lavatories. Such devices were stamped with the company logo: Thomas Crapper & Company. It was a reputable company and even supplied services to Sandringham House for Prince Albert Edward (later King Edward VII).

A common version of the legend is that American servicemen stationed in England during the First World War saw the word “crapper” on cisterns and started referring to toilets as such. While the veracity of this is not proven or disproven, it is conceivable that the word became widely used as a noun as a result.

Even so, as a noun, “crapper” related to Thomas Crapper, and the verb meaning to defecate have similarities that are coincidental. The last name “Crapper” is a variant of “Cropper,” referring to a person who harvested crops, so even the etymology of the last name is unrelated to toilets and human waste management.

Sir John Harington and the Tudor Toilet

While the idea of using water to flush away effluence is an idea thousands of years old, from a modern perspective, the Tudor Era is a good place to start when considering the birth of the modern flush toilet.

Sir John Harington was a writer and translator known for his ribald poetry. Such a reputation got him barred from Elizabeth I’s court for a time. He also invented the forerunner to modern flush toilets. He built his remarkable device, which he named the “Ajax,” and which was a play on words. A “jakes” was slang at the time for a privy.

The system included a pan with a leather-faced valve, and a system of levers that operated the flow of water from a cistern. A popular account states that around the end of the 16th century, when the Queen visited Harington’s house, where the device was installed, she tried it herself and was so impressed that she ordered an ajax to be installed in her palace.

Alexander Cumming and the Revolutionary S-Trap

A massive leap in flush toilet design came in 1775 with the addition of an S-trap in Alexander Cumming’s flush toilet. This allowed water to be kept in the pipe, blocking off foul odors and dangerous gases from entering the house. Along with this hygiene improvement, Cumming’s version also linked the water inlet valve to the flush mechanism. This allowed the pan to be emptied and refilled by pulling a single lever – a process we are all familiar with today.

Cumming was the first to patent a flush toilet, and since then, design tweaks have been applied here and there, culminating in the toilet systems we have today.

Thomas Crapper was behind some of these designs.

The Real Innovations of Thomas Crapper & Co.

Thomas Crapper had a foundry where he experimented with improvements to plumbing design. He improved on the S-trap, creating a more efficient U-trap. He also held a patent for an improvement to the floating ballcock, which is a common feature in cisterns as a method for refilling the tank.

He was a huge advocate for the adoption of toilets in people’s homes, and helped popularize the movement from chamber pots to modern plumbing solutions. He had several royal warrants and was known for his quality work, which garnered him a very respectable reputation.

On March 8, 1965, America’s first official ground combat troops arrived ashore at Da Nang, coming not under fire, but to the welcome of young Vietnamese women tossing flower garlands. To most observers, it signaled a major show of strength by the United States. Beneath the strategy, however, lurked a lethal sequence of traps and blunders, historical blinders, and political paranoia that caught America in its own rationale.

Cold War Chess: The Fatal Trap of Containment

After World War II, the Truman Doctrine of 1947 set the tone for what became known as containment: the policy that the US should extend political, military, and economic aid to all democratic nations threatened by external or internal communist pressures. But policymakers in Washington soon faced a severe political crisis in 1949, when China fell to Mao Zedong’s communist forces in the Chinese Civil War. 

US leaders were convinced that any further spread of communism in Asia would be unacceptable and bring harm to US prestige and safety. Consequently, Vietnam was no longer seen as a nation trying to shrug off the yoke of colonialism, but rather as a pawn in a worldwide game of chess.

The Canceled Elections That Sealed Vietnam’s Division

In 1954, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower popularized what became known as the Domino Theory. As Eisenhower saw it, the communist conquest of Indochina would lead to other nations in Southeast Asia falling to communism like a string of dominoes, and he feared that even Australia and New Zealand would eventually be at risk. Confirming this risk, French forces were soundly defeated at Dien Bien Phu by Viet Minh forces led by General Vo Nguyen Giap in 1954. Following this defeat, the Geneva Accords were signed on July 21, 1954. They temporarily divided Vietnam at the 17th parallel into North and South Vietnam until national elections could reunify the country two years later, in July 1956. 

Under pressure from the US, a strongly anti-communist regime led by President Ngo Dinh Diem was established in South Vietnam in 1955. When it became apparent that communist nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh would win the scheduled 1956 election, the United States supported Diem’s decision to cancel the vote. Consequently, by 1960, over one billion dollars in aid and around 700 military advisors had been committed to South Vietnam.

Coups, Assassinations, and a ‘Blank Check’ for War

When John F. Kennedy assumed office in 1961, he increased the number of US military advisors in Vietnam from about 900 to more than 16,000 by late 1963. When Diem’s regime proved to be corrupt and oppressive toward the Buddhist majority, the US found itself tacitly backing a military coup in November 1963 that resulted in the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem. With political instability mounting in Saigon, Kennedy was himself assassinated mere weeks later, leaving successor President Lyndon B. Johnson with a deep level of commitment from which there was no backing down.

The metaphorical Rubicon was crossed on August 7, 1964, when Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution following clashes between US destroyers and North Vietnamese torpedo boats earlier that month. Although it was not an official declaration of war, it essentially provided Johnson with a blank check to use any means necessary to prevent further armed attack against American forces. Upon receiving authorization from Congress through the resolution, Johnson ordered Operation Rolling Thunder on March 2, 1965. This action marked the start of a sustained aerial bombardment campaign against North Vietnam. By the end of 1965, approximately 180,000 American soldiers had been deployed to South Vietnam.

How Broadcast Television Instantly Turned Public Opinion

By 1967, the war had devolved into a war of attrition. Starting early on January 30, 1968, during the Lunar New Year celebration known as Tet, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, using weapons and supplies provided by the Soviet Union, attacked over a hundred cities and outposts in South Vietnam. Though US and South Vietnamese forces were eventually able to regain control, the Tet Offensive was a strategic victory for North Vietnam. Before the offensive, Americans had been hearing from officials that there was light at the end of the tunnel for years. Seeing the US Embassy in Saigon being breached on their televisions was enough for most to turn against the war.

Following the Tet Offensive, newly elected President Richard Nixon initiated Vietnamization in 1969, the gradual process of withdrawing US troops and placing combat responsibilities onto the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. Yet the fighting and losses continued for about five years. About 58,000 American soldiers lost their lives fighting in Vietnam, and over $168 billion was spent waging the war. The United States withdrew its last combat troops from Vietnam on March 29, 1973.

When reading the Bible, many wonder about the truth behind the words on the page: Are these only characters in a story or real people? Is all of this made-up fiction, or is some of it a proven fact?

Central to this research is archaeology and the uncovering of ancient cities that existed in stone and mortar as well as in the pages of the Scripture. 

How Soil and Inscriptions Turned Biblical Legend Into History

The Bible was not created in a vacuum. The Israelites, as the chosen people of God, walking in Abraham’s promise, lived in a culturally diverse world. While most of modern Western history has been interpreted through a Biblical lens, this is not the only story archaeology reveals.

With the dawn of the Enlightenment, more and more people started shifting from blindly believing toward demanding proof. The slogan, Sapere aude – ‘Dare to Know’, popularized by Immanuel Kant, illustrates the transition from merely debating the Biblical text (literary skepticism) to physically traveling to the Near East and excavating the truth.

Soil layers (stratigraphy), inscriptions (epigraphy), and pottery typing revealed a way to test whether the words on the pages of Scripture are as true as they claim to be. Some findings have been successful in that regard, and others remain up for debate or to be uncovered as digs continue. 

The City of David and the Monuments of Ancient Jerusalem

Probably the most popular historic site among avid Bible readers and pilgrims is the City of David. 

Jerusalem is still a well-known city today. The oldest inhabited sector is home to many excavations and the tourist-beloved Stepped Stone Structure. Other key findings here include clay bullae (thumb-sized clay lumps bearing stamps of official seals) with inscriptions of names echoed in Biblical accounts, and the Siloam Tunnel inscription celebrating the engineering feat of completion of what might be King Hezekiah’s water tunnel. 

“As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city…” – 2 Kings 20:20

There are also many less-popular sites where archaeologists have uncovered signs of ancient Biblical cities, from the walls of Jericho, to Megiddo, to Babylon, and even Nineveh. 

Jericho and the Ancient Walls of the Jordan Valley

Tell es-Sultan is a World Heritage site in Palestine. This site is an ancient mound that tells the story of one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities. 

In 1868, Charles Warren noted the site’s proximity to Ein es-Sultan, which was rumored to be the spring where Elisha made bitter water drinkable (2 Kings 2:19-22). It was rumored that Tell es-Sultan might be the site of Biblical Jericho. In the 1900’s, archaeologists uncovered heavily fortified walls that appear to have been destroyed by an earthquake or fire. John Garstang claimed in 1930 that some of these were the Biblical walls of Jericho.

“…at the sound of the trumpet,
when the men gave a loud shout,
the wall collapsed…” – Joshua 6:20

Kathleen Kenyon and others have studied the destruction layers, using more modern methods and actually dated it centuries earlier. A consensus has not been reached. 

Megiddo and the Strategic Citadel of Armageddon

Another fascinating site is Megiddo, situated in Northern Israel. Given its location and layout, this site was likely a central hub along ancient trade and military routes. 

“Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem…” – 2 Kings 23:30

Excavations here found a monumental six-chambered gate. Gates matching this exact design were also found at Hazor and Gezer. In the 1950’s, Yigael Yadin argued that these were built by Biblical King Solomon (but these dates were also contested by his peers).

“…King Solomon conscripted to build … the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer.” – 1 Kings 9:15

Alongside the Solomonic gates, archaeologists also found ancient horse stables, palace structures, water systems, and hundreds of ivory icons. Yadin’s view is challenged by other scholars and historians alike. What is more generally agreed upon is that this site is Ἁρμαγεδών, Armageddon (Revelation 16:16). 

Babylon and Nineveh Across the Mesopotamian Plains

“…Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon…” – 2 Kings 25:1

Archaeologists found extensive elements of the powerful and prestigious city of Babylon, especially under Nebuchadnezzar II. From 1899, Robert Koldewey and others excavated the site in modern-day Iraq extensively, finding the Ishtar Gate fragments, bricks stamped with Nebuchadnezzar’s name, and monumental palace complexes.

About a century before Nebuchadnezzar II, the Assyrian Empire was the one threatening God’s people. In the 1840’s, Austen Henry Layard excavated the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, proving its enormous scale and power in the ancient world. 

“Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.” – Jonah 3:3

Archaeologists uncovered a library there with ancient Mesopotamian texts that share striking parallels with narratives in the Bible, like the Flood.

What Archaeological Finds Reveal About the Biblical Narrative

While physical evidence provides a clear geographical and historical foundation for ancient texts, we must admit that many of the Biblical timelines of these findings are still heavily disputed and debated among scholars.

Such archaeological findings are a great example of how the cities, and often the kings, mentioned in the background of the Bible storyline can be traced to real artifacts, making the stories they support more tangible.

New technologies are still being used in archaeology today and continue to unveil a world, hidden and long-forgotten – a world that often overlaps with the Biblical account.

As Jesus said, “the stones will cry out.” – Luke 19:40.

World War I was a considerably devastating war with an estimated 20 million deaths. But about 60 years prior, another war in East Asia caused even more devastation. Known as the Taiping Rebellion, it was one of the deadliest civil wars in history, with death estimates reaching 30 million people, while others put the figure as high as 70 million. While World War I lasted for 4 years between 1914 and 1918, the Taiping Rebellion went on for 14 years, from 1850 to 1864.

A Failed Test and a Vision That Triggered a Holy War

The Taiping Rebellion was started in the 1840s by Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka man who, after failing the imperial civil service examination four times and suffering a nervous breakdown, came to believe that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. 

Following a series of vivid visions, he was convinced that God had chosen him to purge China of the Manchu rulers and create a new Heaven on Earth. Eventually, Hong found a massive audience and gained a large following that would swell into millions by drawing on intense local social discontent and combining it with potent religious overtones. By labeling the Qing dynasty as demon worshippers and blaming it for the economic instability following the Opium Wars, he made dissent a holy and righteous act. Soon, he created a group of armed followers called the God-Worshiping Society that resided in the village of Jintian.

Fourteen Years of Relentless Conflict That Shattered an Empire

By late December of 1850, between 10,000 and 30,000 armed God Worshippers had congregated in Jintian. Now organized as a cohesive, communal militia with strict regulations based on religious law, the revolutionaries soon countered Qing imperial forces that tried to encircle their settlement, and defeated them outside Jintian, in the district of Xunzhou. 

On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan declared a universal holy war against the ruling Manchu-led Qing dynasty, officially starting the rebellion. Absorbing hundreds of thousands of impoverished peasants, workers, and local sympathizers along the way as they moved war campaigns northwards, the rebels eventually set up their main administration center in Nanjing. The long conflict ended in July 1864 when imperial forces finally breached Nanjing and suppressed the rebellion.

Total Ideological War in the Most Densely Populated Region on Earth

Unlike World War I, the war in China pitted the imperial government against an ideologically driven revolutionary force that sought the complete destruction of the existing social and political order. Because of this radical goal, there was never going to be a peace treaty to stop the violence. To make matters worse, the Taiping Rebellion was fought mostly in China’s Yangtze River valley, the most densely populated region in the world at the time. Thus, the scale of demographic destruction was appalling.

Additionally, four years is a long time for a conflict, but 14 years allows for generations to be born into a world at war. Whole generations were affected by the violence during the First World War, but in China, there were children born at the start of the conflict who were old enough to be enlisted by the end, a situation that led to higher mortality rates because of the longer duration of constant perils.

Scorched Earth Tactics and Epidemics That Starved Millions

As is common in wars, secondary causes like diseases and starvation accounted for a far greater loss of life than direct involvement in combat. Despite high mortality rates from illnesses during WWI, advancements in 20th-century military medicine alleviated many of the widespread health crises that had defined 19th-century warfare. This led to fewer deaths from ailments compared to the Taiping Rebellion. 

During the Taiping Rebellion, local governments collapsed, allowing diseases like cholera to blitz through refugee encampments and cities alike, and this resulted in the high casualty figures.

Both the Taiping and the Imperial Qing armies, specifically the provincial Xiang Army led by Zeng Guofan, also employed scorched-earth tactics against opposing forces. If the enemy was near, the armies would burn crops, kill livestock, and destroy water systems to starve the opposing side.

By July 1864, when the Siege of Nanjing, the final battle, came to an end, many of the affected regions in China had been rendered incapable of producing food. This led to a cycle of starvation that continued even after the fighting stopped.

Wolves didn’t simply transition from apex predators to loyal companions in an instant. It was a slow, deliberate path that coincided with humanity’s evolution. When wolves left their packs during hard winters, they trailed behind nomadic tribes because of food scraps. The wolves slowly intermingled with humans and formed a stable relationship that survives to this day.

The Harsh Reality of the Last Glacial Maximum

Life during the last Ice Age was extremely difficult. Former apex predators found that the changing landscape didn’t favor them anymore, especially with the declining megafauna populations. Predators were forced to seek alternative food sources, which led them to notice Homo sapiens. While Ice Age wolves did pick off a stray human or two, they also followed the nomadic tribes and ate their megafauna scraps. Both groups had the same meat sources, such as horses and mammoths. It didn’t take long for the wolves to realize that tracking and following humans was more beneficial to their stomachs than going after large prey themselves.

Why Freezing Landscapes Forced Canids to Follow Human Tribes

Apex predators required high caloric diets, and hunting in packs really took its toll on their appetite by increasing it. Human hunters were more efficient in their hunting skills, so they spent less energy killing their prey. This created a reliable surplus of carcasses, so the wolves only had to scavenge for their meals. Only wolves with lower adrenaline levels or who displayed less aggression managed to tolerate proximity to human tribes. Other Ice Age wolves with higher adrenaline stayed farther away and relied on their old wild ways. Lone wolves and abandoned pack members heavily relied on their scavenger skills when they followed humans. Because they had more frequent meals and relative safety near humans, they reproduced successfully and passed their low-adrenaline traits to their offspring.

The Commensal Pathway and How Self-Domestication Altered Wolf Behavior

Humans and wolves evolved along a commensal pathway that was a multi-generational process. As humans acclimated to wolves, they brought the wolves into their camps and began cohabiting. Humans learned how to work with wolves to take down prey, and they also began selective breeding to nurture specific traits. Because wolves ate refuse from human camps, they gained mutations that allowed them to digest starch and have lower baseline cortisol or stress levels. By choosing to reside with humans, these Ice Age wolves diverged from the wild wolf gene pool.

How Shifting Neurochemistry Forged a Permanent Interspecies Bond

Because ancient Ice Age humans practiced selective breeding, they slowly altered the wolves’ physiology.  This is an example of Belyaev’s domestication syndrome, where humans breed wild animals for their friendliness and tame behavior towards humans. The domesticated wolves needed less of their wilder traits. Melanin production and skeletal structure, for example, evolved through generations of selective breeding. Mutual oxytocin feedback loops were also exhibited by the human and wolf symbiotic relationship, so ancient wolves learned to adapt their facial expressions and vocalizations to communicate with humans. There was also a reciprocal survival dynamic as wolves became scouts and hunting allies.

Archaeological Evidence of the Earliest Canine Companions

What is also interesting is that when ancient canine bones are tested with isotopes, the results show they had a diet that matched ancient human hunter-gatherer food profiles rather than wild wolf diets. 30,000-year-old dog skeletons were found in the Goyet Caves in Belgium and the Předmostí in the Czech Republic. There are even Paleolithic grave sites where humans and dogs were co-buried. This demonstrates the important coevolutionary relationship between humanity and canines that continues to this day.

The Moabite Stone, or the Mesha Stele, is a broken black basalt stone slab with an inscription from around 840 BC. It was discovered by a missionary in 1868 and has led to much debate since, even resulting in its destruction. From a Christian perspective, what does the Moabite stone reveal about the Kingdom of Israel and the overarching storyline found in Scripture?

The Discovery and Destruction of the Mesha Stele

While the caves of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls sit on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, 40 kilometers (25 miles) opposite the water and higher up into the desert, Bedouin shepherds knew about yet another astounding archaeological discovery: the Mesha Stele, also known as the Moabite Stone.

Anglican missionary F.A. Klein visited with Bedouin shepherds in ancient Dibon (modern Dhiban) in 1868, when they took him to their great find. The long, ancient-looking, black basalt stone slab with inscriptions captured Klein’s attention so much that he made a detailed sketch of it, which worried the Bedouin.

Word about the stele soon got out. Luckily, one archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, had a papier-mache impression made, because it was not long before the complicated matter of acquiring and protecting the piece of history led to it being shattered. 

The reconstructed fragments are housed in the Louvre today.

King Mesha and the War Against the House of Omri

According to the Biblical Archaeology Society, the inscription on the Moabite stone dating back to about 840 BC reads:

“I am Mesha, son of Chemosh[ît], king of Moab, the Dibonite…”

It goes on to detail the kings, battles, and history of the Moabite Kingdom in those days. Mesha mentions Omri, king of Israel, as well as the Israelite god, Yahweh, versus the Moabite god, Chemosh. Mesha’s account details how Israel oppressed Moab for a long time, but how the kingdom was restored to the Moabites in later years. They, in turn, attacked Israel.

“Chemosh said to me: “Go, take Nebo from Israel!” I went in the night, and I fought there from dawn until noon; I took it and killed everyone…” 

“I took from there the hear[th] altars of Yahweh, and I brought them before Chemosh. The king of Israel had built Yahaz, and he lived there while fighting against me…”

The Controversy Surrounding the House of David Inscription

As the quotes above show, some parts of the Moabite Stone’s text are missing (added in brackets) because its destruction was so severe. There is an ongoing scholarly debate surrounding some parts of the text – especially Line 31 of the Moabite inscription because it might reference the House of David.

In 1994, epigrapher André Lemaire stated that, given the rest of the lines, the nations in the area, and by process of elimination, Line 31 must read “the house of David”. This is a name for the Israelites that is used throughout other biblical sources.

In 2019, Reflectance Transformation Imaging was used to provide new photographic evidence; they explored what the letters could say further. There are strong arguments for Line 31 stating all kinds of people or kingdoms. Lemaire’s position is heavily debated today and dismissed by some. 

Comparing the Biblical Narrative with Moabite Inscriptions

“Now Mesha king of Moab … rebelled against the king of Israel.” – 2 Kings 3:4-5

The Bible and the Moabite stone overlap in some places: They include the Moabite-Israel war, the same historical actors [Mesha, king of Moab (above) and Omri, king of Israel (1 Kings 16:21-28)], while each is led by their own god. There are many other biblical mentions of the Moabites and their god, like: “Chemosh the detestable god of Moab” (1 Kings 11:7). 

Whether or not the Moabite Stone bears the words “House of David,” it remains an important primary monument from the ancient Moabite kingdom. It also provides a rare glimpse of Israel as a real political kingdom, religious group, and military power, broadly aligning with how the Bible describes the Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC.