Lists about how people had, judged, and treated intimacy around the world throughout recorded history.

The History of Doing It

Ancient History

Rarely have women in history played a more deliciously mysterious role than that of&nbsp;the 600 years of the Ottoman Empire, when what is modern-day Turkey and lands from the Balkans to Syria&nbsp;sat at the center of a great Empire. These were the days of the harem, when women - and girls as young as seven years old - were held in a secret world where they could be governed, educated, and primarily&nbsp;enjoyed by the sultan and his court.

But as slaves or subjects? Given as gifts or claimed as spoils of war, these women represented the caliphate&#39;s&nbsp;power, wealth, and sexual prowess. Just like a scene from Arabian Nights, daily life in an Ottoman harem&nbsp;was a life suspended in a secret paradise full of sensual delights - as well as endless rules, expectations, and boundaries. Derived from the Arabic word haram meaning sacred or forbidden, the harem was part of a legendary patriarchy that tried to bottle&nbsp;the essence of woman, capture it in all its glory, and use it solely for its own felicity.&nbsp;

A Glimpse Of Life In An Ottoman Sultan's Harem

General

What It Was Like To Be In An Ottoman Sultan's Harem

Jen Jeffers

Lists about the fascinating, often brutal customs and rituals about the legendary Norse seafarers.

A Viking's Life for Me

Vikings

The Vikings were a brutal group of conquerors and explorers who were famous for ransacking villages and riding around in ornately crafted boats. As a concept, they&rsquo;ve grasped ahold of the public&#39;s consciousness and pillaged their way into our homes via television, but it turns out that there were some brutal Viking acts that were too hot for TV. Audiences are used to seeing warlords and clans of warriors fight&nbsp;en masse, but some of the things Vikings did go beyond being historically interesting and are vile enough to make you rethink ever opening a history book again. Bloody Viking rituals applied to animals, children, and especially their slaves, who&nbsp;were treated with as little respect as possible.

The Viking practices too graphic for TV have one major theme in common: not knowing when to stop. From torture methods like the &quot;blood eagle&quot; to the filing down of their teeth to appear more frightening, there are multiple moments in Viking&nbsp;history when the ancient Scandinavians could have chilled out or pulled back the reins, but instead, they pushed forward and turned their crazy up to 200%. You may think you know about the brutality that Vikings dished out on a daily basis after watching shows - like History Channel&#39;s Vikings -&nbsp;about the ancient Norse people, but until you read about these incredibly graphic rituals, you&rsquo;ll never truly know how the Vikings lived.&nbsp;

15 Brutally Violent Things The Vikings Did That You Won't Be Seeing on TV

Viking Sh*t Too Brutal for TV

Jacob Shelton

Trending on Ranker

Every so often, researchers dig up treasure troves of <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-archaeological-facts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">cool archaeological finds</a>. While some of those <a href="/list/mysterious-ancient-scientific-discoveries-and-inventions/kellen-perry" target="_blank">ancient discoveries are a mystery</a> to us, others are easily explainable. We know what the people of yesteryear used anchors, keys, and helmets for, but the fact that those artifacts survived hundreds - sometimes thousands - of years is pretty amazing.

The objects listed here may seem mundane at first glance, but once you realize just how long ago they were made and used, the only thing left to say is, &quot;Whoa.&quot;

25+ Archaeological Finds That Made Us Say ‘Whoa’

20+ Archaeological Finds That Made Us Say ‘Whoa’

Garri Chaverst

Exploring the folklore, stories, and teachings in different cultures around the globe and throughout history.

Mythology Around the World

History

Greek mythology is full of stories about justice and vengeance. More often than not, the gods dealt with the transgressions of mere mortals by serving punishments that far outweighed the misdeeds. Hera&#39;s anger about her husband&#39;s illegitimate son, Hercules, for example, led her to send two snakes to destroy him (she didn&#39;t succeed). Still, there are a few satisfying revenge stories in <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/worst-punishments-in-mythology/edira-putri" target="_blank">Greek mythology</a>.

The most justified punishments doled out by <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/real-historical-figures-behind-ancient-myths/carly-silver" target="_blank">mythological characters</a> are often a result of someone&#39;s extreme arrogance, infidelity, or attempt to eat&nbsp;their own children.

The Most Satisfying Revenge Stories In Greek Mythology

Greek Mythology Revenge Stories: The Most Satisfying Tales

Hannah Gilham

As one of the oldest continuous civilizations on the planet, Egypt never fails to stir the imagination. With its lavish mythology, pyramids, and millennia of rich history, there&#39;s always something new to explore.

That&#39;s why curious Redditors often stop by the AskHistorians subreddit to pose their Ancient Egypt questions. There, Ancient Egypt historians provide well-sourced and mind-expanding answers to any and all questions. Some of these questions, included below, are so simple you&#39;ll wonder why you never asked them before. Vote up the answers that are truly informative.

Real Historians Answer Questions About Ancient Egypt We Wish We Asked Sooner

Historians Answer Questions About Ancient Egypt We Wish We Asked Sooner

Alby Thompson

The ancient world was a dangerous place, filled with bloody battles, despotic rulers, and perilous wild animals. It was also a time of discovery, when philosophers and&nbsp;scientists&nbsp;were still learning how the world worked through&nbsp;trial and error - and some of those errors were deadly.

Here is a list of some of the weirdest deaths in ancient Greece, Rome, and the rest of the classical world.&nbsp;There are gruesome punishments, like being forced to drink molten gold, and absurd accidents, like an&nbsp;eagle accidentally killing&nbsp;one of the world&#39;s greatest playwrights. In some cases, these weird deaths were the result of bad luck, and in others, bad judgment, like the king who gave himself mercury poisoning trying to live forever, or the&nbsp;philosopher who leapt into a volcano to prove he was a god.

From being crushed by an elephant to smothered by clothes, many notable figures of the ancient world&nbsp;died in very strange ways -&nbsp;and in some cases, bizarre things continued to happen to their body parts&nbsp;after they died, too. While all of these stories have been recorded, they were written by contemporaries and biographers who may have exaggerated the depictions for different reasons. Though some may be apocryphal, read on for a list of the strangest deaths of the classical world.

The Most Bizarre Deaths in the Ancient World

Person

Unusual Deaths | List of Ancient People Who Died in Strange Ways

Notable Famous Deaths

Lists about customs, rituals, and daily life in Ancient Rome and the Roman Republic, which ruled the Mediterranean from 8th Century BC until its spectacular collapse in 476 AD.

Rome If You Want To

The Roman Empire, which lasted for around 1,500 years,&nbsp;stands as one of the most significant examples of the rise and fall of a civilization&nbsp;in human history.&nbsp;And while it would have been fascinating to meet epic Roman emperors&nbsp;like Caligula or Commodus, in reality, <a href="/list/what-was-life-like-in-ancient-rome-golden-age/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">living at the time of their reigns</a>&nbsp;probably wouldn&#39;t have been so great. In fact, the nasty realities of ancient Rome &ndash;&nbsp;from tapeworms to mass enslavement &ndash; create a pretty unappealing picture of life at the time.

There are&nbsp;nearly unlimited examples of Roman squalor.&nbsp;Despite their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermae">vaunted baths</a>, the Romans still had a host of parasites and diseases.&nbsp;Some of their medical remedies were absolutely disgusting (as in dung, anyone?). Emperors, not exactly the paragons of virtue they purported to be, seduced siblings and marrying children.&nbsp;Even <a href="http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub369/item2071.html">tasty dinner dishes</a> were made out of repellant things, ranging from&nbsp;dolphin meatballs&nbsp;to flamingo&nbsp;tongues. Such disgusting conditions in <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-roman-emperor-facts/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">Imperial Rome</a>&nbsp;are enough to make anyone queasy.

16 Disgusting Details Of Every Day Life In Ancient Rome

The Most Disgusting Things About Living in Imperial Rome

Carly Silver

Ancient Rome

You likely know the name Commodus as the bad guy from Gladiator, the Best Picture winner from 2000. Played as a pervy psychotic by <a href="http://www.ranker.com/review/joaquin-phoenix/1294213?q=Joaquin%20Phoenix" target="_blank">Joaquin Phoenix</a>, Emperor Commodus is portrayed as a man with insecurities motivating his actions. And while that may be an accurate, historical understanding of the emperor's persona, there's a lot more to Commodus’ biography than the made-up bits starring <a href="http://www.ranker.com/review/russell-crowe/1951181" target="_blank">Russell Crowe</a>.&nbsp;Who was Commodus? Believe it or not, the movie version of the Roman emperor was actually white-washed to cover up his degenerative insanity. Born into a world that prepared him to be a ruler, Commodus grew up believing some pretty fantastic things about himself. Sure, Commodus fought in the arena with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/ancient-roman-gladiator-facts/aaron-edwards">ancient Roman gladiators</a>, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the atrocities Commodus inflicted on the people around him. If you were fascinated by the profoundly creepy emperor in Gladiator, you haven’t seen anything yet - read on to discover insane tales about Commodus.&nbsp;

The Real Commodus Was An Even More Over-The-Top Emperor Than Gladiator's Version

True Stories of Commodus, The Inept Emperor Who Fought In The Colosseum

Justin Andress

Lists of fascinating facts and lesser-known details about the lives of people whose names you learned in History class (or should have).

Down in History

People Trivia

If you&#39;ve heard of <a href="https://www.biography.com/people/hannibal-9327767" target="_blank">General Hannibal (247-183&nbsp;BCE)</a>, you&#39;re probably thinking of the guy who rode several elephants into Italy, and that would be correct. In reality, though, there&#39;s more to Hannibal Barca&#39;s life story than his fabled crossing of the Alps with war elephants. This general&nbsp;made it a habit of outright embarrassing the Roman Army, defeating them by a landslide&nbsp;on multiple occasions. It wasn&#39;t until Rome drew upon the skills of another name from the <a href="http://www.ranker.com/list/notable-general_s)/reference" target="_blank">list of notable&nbsp;generals</a>&mdash;Scipio Aemilianus Africanus (AKA&nbsp;Scipio Africanus the Younger)&mdash;that they were finally able to defeat Hannibal.

Hannibal Barca&#39;s team&nbsp;was nearly unstoppable, unparalleled in the ancient world. He was the General of all the teams of the ancient Punic Empire, the capital of which, Carthage, rivaled Rome in strength and influence. The Carthaginian Army was augmented by barbarian tribes that Hannibal had enlisted to help in his fight against Rome.

Hannibal himself was strong willed, and these&nbsp;lesser-known Hannibal Barca facts prove it. The timeline of Hannibal&#39;s life, from his early days to his ultimate defeat, tells the story of a man with a single purpose: to destroy the Roman Empire. None would ever come so close to achieving that goal as Hannibal&mdash;that is,&nbsp;until the breakup of Rome hundreds of years later.

Facts About Ancient Military Genius Hannibal Barca You Didn't Learn In School

14 Lesser-Known Facts About Ancient Military Genius Hannibal Barca

Christopher Myers

One reason HBO&#39;s&nbsp;Game of Thrones was so popular was its capacity to shock us. Loyal audiences loved it because each season was filled with larger-than-life events - bloody fights&nbsp;and political intrigue alike - all set against the backdrop of familial drama. But as wild as a show like Game of Thrones can be, none will ever compare&nbsp;to the theatrics of&nbsp;actual history - Roman history in particular.

From its founding as a kingdom in 753 BC, through its days as a republic from 509-27 BC, and up to the imperial era from 27 BC&nbsp;to 476 AD, the Roman civilization was one of the most powerful in the ancient world. At its height, Rome controlled territory from modern Great Britain all the way to Mesopotamia, with a population of up to 100 million citizens. That level of wealth and power meant constant behind-the-scenes machinations. There was always someone new who wanted the throne all to himself and would do anything to get it. Here are 13 stories from Roman history that make the Lannister family look like playful kittens.

13 Dramatic Moments From Roman History That Sound Like They Were Ripped From TV

Jim Rowley

Interesting

Humans didn’t always live in cities and towns.&nbsp;They started out as nomadic tribes looking for whatever food was available in their general area. Hunter-gatherer societies laid the foundations of our modern civilizations, comprising almost all of human history with the exception of the last few thousand years. But what was it like to live as one of them?During their dominant time in the Paleolithic Era, hunter-gatherers spent their days scrounging food from plant life while hunting and fishing for meat. These two means of obtaining food led to the basic cultural structures we see today, especially in the form of gender roles.Hunter-gatherer societies&nbsp;hold many surprises, especially when we study the last few remaining&nbsp;tribes that live a similar lifestyle today. Even though humanity eventually embraced agriculture during the Neolithic Era, a few hunter-gatherer tribes have lived on, and from them we can extrapolate what life was once like for all human beings.

What It Would Have Been Like to Live in a Hunter-Gatherer Society

What It's Like to Live in a Hunter-Gatherer Society

Aaron Edwards

You can learn a lot about a civilization by studying how they went to the bathroom, and how they got rid of human waste. A&nbsp;civilization&#39;s plumbing can teach us about the diets they ate,&nbsp;the diseases they contracted,&nbsp;how they conducted civil engineering projects, and possibly even what their attitudes about bathrooms were.&nbsp;

But our information about ancient bathrooms and toilets is&nbsp;still fairly new, especially when it comes to ancient Rome.&nbsp;Until recently, the bathroom&nbsp;habits of the ancients weren&#39;t considered&nbsp;an appropriate subject for academic study. When previous archaeologists <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/the-secret-history-of-ancient-toilets-1.19960" target="_blank">did unearth</a> ancient toilets, they came up with fantastical alternate reasons for their uses to avoid describing how they were actually used. When Italian excavator Giacomo Boni discovered a Roman toilet in 1913, he imagined that it was a water pump that powered the entire house.&nbsp;

In recent years, archaeologists have been giving ancient toilets a second look. And it&#39;s thanks to them that we can bring you these facts about going to the bathroom in <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/disgusting-imperial-rome/carly-silver" target="_blank">ancient Rome</a>.&nbsp;

What Was Using The Bathroom Like In Ancient Rome?

What Was Using An Ancient Roman Bathroom Like?

Lists about the fascinating culture and practices of the civilization that occupied Northeastern Africa from 3000 to 300 BC. 

Walk Like an Egyptian

More than almost any other ancient ruler, facts about King Tut, the boy who led an empire and was buried in a tomb stuffed with gold and artifacts, have been hard to deduce. Who was this young man given the responsibility of carrying on a line descended from the gods? How did he live? And how did he die?

Since <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/everything-found-in-king-tuts-tomb/pierce-nahigyan" target="_blank">Tut&#39;s tomb was found in 1922</a>, these questions have slowly been answered. Thanks to advanced technology in DNA analysis, we&#39;ve found some <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/weird-but-true-king-tut-facts/melissa-sartore" target="_blank">surprising facts</a> about his heritage and his physical stature. It turns out that he wasn&#39;t the sensual, dashing boy portrayed in the iconography found in his tomb and afterwards in pop culture. Instead, he was the product of incest, born with deformities, with strings pulled by powerful generals, and a death not from murder, but from injuries caused by his ailments.

Even so, mythology swirls around Tut, his death, the &quot;curse&quot; on his tomb, and the mythical figures in his life. Here are some of the stranger, but completely true, facts about this legendary boy king.

21 Weird Facts About King Tut

King Tut Facts | Information about Tutankhamun

Mike Rothschild

Due in large part to popular Hollywood films like&nbsp;Gladiator&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ben-Hur, there are plenty of misconceptions about ancient Rome and the way Romans lived. The ancient Romans wore togas, but not very often.&nbsp;They had several&nbsp;leaders who were&nbsp;certainly ineffectual, brutal, and careless, but they weren&#39;t necessarily insane -&nbsp;nor did they sing a sad song while the city of Rome burned down.&nbsp;There were gladiatorial fights, but they weren&#39;t nearly as bloody&nbsp;as we&#39;ve been led to believe.

When it comes to the details of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/roman-sex-facts/aaron-edwards" target="_blank">Roman relations</a>,&nbsp;gluttonous dinner&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/ancient-roman-party-facts/aaron-edwards" target="_blank">parties</a>,&nbsp;and daily life, our understanding of ancient Rome is rife with inaccuracies.

Myths About Ancient Rome, Debunked

Ancient Rome Myths Debunked

There are more than 8 million species walking, swimming, and flying around Planet Earth. Here are lists about a few worthy of your attention. 

Unbelievable Animals

Hidden deep underground are some of the rarest treasures in all of science. Formed from immense pressure over millions of years, fossils tell us the story of our long-lost ancestors and the strange creatures that populated their world. <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/whoa-fossils/alby-thompson" target="_blank">Bizarre fossil discoveries</a> are becoming more common as we develop new digging techniques and open our minds to the otherworldly phenomenon that is prehistoric life. Many of these insane fossils changed our understanding of the world forever, and we&#39;re still just beginning to understand the importance of these <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/best-state-fossils/mallory-weiler" target="_blank">bony artifacts</a>.

While dinosaurs are some of the most famous of all extinct species, not all of the strangest fossils ever discovered came from those lizards. Some of the most bizarre fossils came from creatures so alien, you have to see them to believe they&#39;re real. These are the last remnants of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/the-top-10-oldest-living-things-on-earth/analise.dubner" target="_blank">oldest lifeforms on the planet</a>, preserved in time and rock for future generations to marvel at.

The Most Bizarre Fossils Ever Discovered

The 21 Most Bizarre Fossils Ever Discovered

Eric Luis

Many of us have heard of the <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/what-spartan-life-was-like/aaron-edwards" target="_blank">unusual practices of Sparta</a>, the war-obsessed, ancient Greek society. Let&#39;s be real: many&nbsp;of us learned them from the notorious 2006&nbsp;film, 300.&nbsp;While the movie, and our history books, highlight some of the more impressive aspects of Spartan society, there are&nbsp;plenty of weird facts about Sparta&nbsp;that seem&nbsp;too extreme to be real.&nbsp;

For example, did you&nbsp;know Spartan&nbsp;teens participated in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/extreme-ancient-sports-that-sound-fake-but-are-true/genevieve-carlton" target="_blank">yearly festival of exterminating&nbsp;slaves</a>&nbsp;to quash any thoughts of rebellion? Or that Spartan babies were dunked in wine to test their worthiness to live? Or that women of Sparta shaved their heads and dressed like men on their wedding nights?

So get cozy, grab your sword (if you have one),&nbsp;and read on to dive <a class="edS-cl" href="https://www.ranker.com/list/christopher-mccandless-into-the-wild-true-story/colleen-conroy?ref=internalCrossLinking_keyword">into the wild</a>&nbsp;traditions of Sparta. Make sure to vote up the facts that seem too outrageous to be real.

Facts About Sparta That Sound Made Up - But Aren't

Emily Mast

Ancient History lists at Ranker - The ultimate source for hundreds of ancient history lists and rankings