History Investigations

Egypt on Saturday displayed recently discovered, well-decorated ancient tombs at a Pharaonic necropolis just outside the capital Cairo.

The five tombs were unearthed earlier this month and date back to the Old Kingdom — a period spanning roughly from around 2700 BC to 2200 B.C., as well as to the First Intermediate Period, which lasted for over a century after the Old Kingdom collapsed, according to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Egypt displays recently discovered ancient tombs in Saqqara Egypt on Saturday displayed recently discovered, well-decorated ancient tombs at a Pharaonic necropolis just outside the capital Cairo.

Pity the event planners tasked with managing Cahokia's wildest parties. A thousand years ago, the Mississippian settlement – on a site near the modern US city of St Louis, Missouri – was renowned for bashes that went on for days.

A cosmopolitan whir of language, art and spiritual ferment

Throngs jostled for space on massive plazas. Buzzy, caffeinated drinks passed from hand to hand. Crowds shouted bets as athletes hurled spears and stones. And Cahokians feasted with abandon: burrowing into their ancient waste pits, archaeologists have counted 2,000 deer carcasses from a single, blowout event. The logistics must have been staggering.

The US' lost, ancient megacity In the ancient Mississippian settlement of Cahokia, vast social events – not trade or the economy – were the founding principle.

Finding it difficult to uncover your female ancestors in typical genealogy records? There’s good reason you struggle to add women to your family tree: In the past, a woman’s legal status became feme covert (literally a “covered woman”) upon marriage. She not only gave up her name, but her rights as well. As her identity became absorbed into that of her spouse’s (in official documentation, anyway), so too did any record of her individual accomplishments.

In an article for The Journal of American History, “Of Pens and Needles: Sources in Early American Women’s History,” author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich points out, “Women ‘covered’ in surviving documents were visible in ordinary life… [they] were everywhere, in gardens and fields, kitchens and taverns, on horseback and in canoes, in stagecoaches and at ferry crossing, in church pews and at the front lines of armies.”

14 Unusual Records for Finding Female Ancestors If discovering the women in your family tree is one of your genealogy goals, you’ll love these underused resources for finding female ancestors.