Eleanor Whitcombe

Eleanor writes about the ancient and medieval world: the empires, cities and ideas that quietly built the modern one. She has a weakness for archaeology stories where the ground gives up something nobody expected.

Hadrian's Gate in Antalya, a triple-arched Roman gateway of white marble set between stone towers, photographed in 2023

Antalya's Founding Dynasty Ended When a King Left His Kingdom to Rome

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 9, 2026

Two pages of a handwritten Rajatarangini manuscript in Sharada script, shown open under glass

Kalhana Wrote Kashmir's History in 1148. UNESCO Has Just Listed It

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 7, 2026

Piranesi etching of the Arch of Titus around 1760, half walled into later buildings, with trees growing beside it and small figures below the carved relief

Rome's Graffiti on Domitian's Arches Said 'Enough.' Then They Came Down

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 6, 2026

Photograph of the Princess Olga Monument in Kyiv, a white stone figure on a tall dark plinth, with the gold-domed bell tower of St Michael's behind

World Figureheads

Ukraine's Top Honor for Women Is Named for a Princess Who Burned a City

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 5, 2026

Coloured painted view of Renaissance Florence after the Pianta della Catena of about 1470, showing the walled city along the Arno

World Figureheads

Florence Tried a Wealth Tax in 1427. The Medici Turned It Into a Weapon

Eleanor Whitcombe · November 4, 2026

Stereograph photo of the Acropolis of Athens seen from the south-west in 1900, with a man in a hat sitting on a rock in the foreground

World Figureheads

Athens Imposed the First Recorded Trade Embargo in 432 BC. It Got a 27-Year War

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 30, 2026

Photograph of the Pantheon in Rome from the piazza, with its portico, dome and fountain, about 1910

Why All Saints' Day Is 1 November: From a Roman Temple to a Frankish Decree

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 30, 2026

Johannes Vermeer's painting Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (about 1662): a woman in a white headdress and a deep blue ultramarine skirt stands by a window holding a brass pitcher

The Blue That Cost More Than Gold Came From One Valley in Afghanistan

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 29, 2026

William Hogarth's 1755 engraving An Election Entertainment: a crowded tavern feast, with a placard reading Give Us Our Eleven Days lying under a man's foot at bottom right

Why the Year Begins on 1 January, and Why Britain's Tax Year Doesn't

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 29, 2026

Hellenistic bronze statue of a sleeping winged boy lying on a rock, 3rd to 2nd century BC, of the kind the divers mistook for drowned bodies (this one is in New York, not from the wreck)

Strange History

Divers Raised the Antikythera Mechanism in 1901. It Sat on a Shelf a Year

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 28, 2026

Colour photochrom print of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) seen from the coast road, with the walled old town on its headland and a man sitting on the hillside, about 1890 to 1900

Why Quarantine Means Forty Days: Ragusa Chose 30 in 1377, Venice Added Ten

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 28, 2026

Mughal miniature of about 1618 showing the emperor Jahangir seated beside Shah Abbas I of Persia, in orange, at a table of gifts

World Figureheads

Hormuz Fell in 1622 When a Shah Hired the English Fleet to Evict Portugal

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 27, 2026

Photograph of the painted food counter in Regio V at Pompeii, with jar openings set into the top and frescoes of hanging ducks, a rooster and a dog on a leash

Pompeii Had 80 Fast-Food Counters, and Four Emperors Tried to Close Them

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 27, 2026

Stained glass panel of King Louis IX of France carrying the Crown of Thorns, made in Paris around 1245 to 1248

The First Paris Student Strike Began Over a Wine Bill and Lasted Two Years

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 25, 2026

Detail of Raphael's painting The Marriage of the Virgin (1504): Joseph places a ring on Mary's finger in front of a priest

Why Wedding Rings Go on the Fourth Finger: A Vein That Was Never There

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 25, 2026

Silver denarius of Didius Julianus, 193 AD: the emperor's laureate head on one side, the figure of Concordia with military standards on the other

World Figureheads

Rome Sold Its Empire to the Highest Bidder in 193 AD. He Lasted 66 Days

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 24, 2026

Brass planispheric astrolabe made in Persia in 1654, with a degree scale divided in sixtieths around the rim

Why a Minute Has 60 Seconds: Babylon's Maths Just Outlived the Leap Second

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 24, 2026

Photo of a round clay school exercise tablet with rows of cuneiform signs, Mesopotamia, c. 20th to 16th century BC

The ABC Order Is 3,400 Years Old and Nobody Knows Why A Comes First

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 23, 2026

Photo of a Day of the Dead ofrenda piled with orange marigolds, painted skulls, candles, oranges and papier-mâché skeletons

Day of the Dead Was Reshaped by Friars, a Printmaker and a Bond Film

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 23, 2026

Photograph of the twelfth-century Lewis chessmen, carved from walrus ivory, set out on a red and white board in the British Museum

Why We Say Checkmate: A Persian Phrase That Followed Chess Out of India

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 22, 2026

Fragments of the Fasti Antiates Maiores, the pre-Julian Roman calendar painted on plaster, showing the columns of months with festival names

Why October Is the Tenth Month, and Why Two Emperors Could Not Rename It

Eleanor Whitcombe · October 20, 2026