Webinars

Who were you in Ancient Rome? What was your life like?

Strolling down the Via Appia, on your way to the Forum, would you inspect the new range of togas at the shops, pay a tribute to your favorite god at the temple, pop in to the bank to acquire some Roman  coins, for it may be expensive to live in Rome, or visit the thermae to indulge in a Roman bath, before you dodge the traffic of carts and busy pedestrians on your way home?

Your home? Are you one of the privileged senators from the ancient patrician families to own a Roman Villa, the equestrian class to own a house or domus, complete with atrium and impluvium, or an ordinary plebeian who lives in an overcrowded apartment block or insulae?

Roman Emperors indulged in luscious dinner orgies in the triclinium of their villas, but what simple fare did the ordinary Romans buy at the market and how did they prepare it?  Come and taste Roman cuisine and stay for a board game after dinner. Speaking of dinner parties, since you were not invited to Caesar's dinner, would you like to go to the amphitheater to watch the gladiators, or attend the stadium to watch your favorite chariot team, this Saturday? And by the way, how do you know which day it is? Who developed the Calendar?

How would you prove your identity as a Roman, should the Praetorian Guard confront you? Do you have a passport to travel freely about the vast Roman Empire? Speaking of travel, why do Roman roads still exist? What concrete did they use to build their roads and famous aqueducts? 

Who were the legendary Roman legions who conquered the lands for this empire and what weapons did they use? Conquering other countries means an increase in the slave population.  How wretched would your life be as a Roman slave?

We’re joined by Ancient Origins Premium contributor and author of Ancient Roman Cuisine and Recipes, Victor Labate, who reveals what your life would have been like in Ancient Rome.

 Victor Labate is a Roman history enthusiast and the owner of the website Romae-Vitam, a site focused on ancient Roman history. Victor is a history buff who enjoys Roman history, visiting historical places, museums, and is author of the eBook "Ancient Roman Cuisine and Recipes"   | Join Victor on Facebook

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Could you be a member of the cabbage family?

Genetic ancestry testing can provide surprising insights into where we come from – going back thousands or tens of thousands of years we can find unexpected ancestral connections with populations all around the world: Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. Maybe we can prove that we share a common ancestor with some famous person- royalty perhaps?  

How does genetic ancestry work, and what if we took it to extreme limits; what if we were could trace our ancestors back hundreds of thousands, millions, or even billions of years? What would we find then?

This eye-opening premiere webinar with expert researcher Dr Ian McKay explores the evidence for our hidden connections to other species, whether they are the Ice Age Neanderthals or (you probably guessed it from the title) the humble cabbage!

But is there evidence for these concealed links? Do we have characteristics today that we inherited from other species which might affect us positively or negatively? If this is true, is this evidence for evolution, and actually; is the scientific evidence for evolution really on such a firm footing? And what are its implications for religion?

Dr Ian McKay began his education in 1981 at the University of the Witwatersrand in Zoology which included an MSc and PhD in Palaeontology, where he studied a unique fauna of fossil beetles that lived in the time of the dinosaurs in order to reconstruct the prehistoric environment that they lived in. Recently Ian has taken over the role of Head: Education and Outreach for the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand and Education Specialist for the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaoesciences an NRF funded consortium of palaeosciences researchers including the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of Cape Town Department of Archaeology and the major natural history museums.

As long as he can remember, Ian has been passionate about engaging with the public on evolution, palaeontology, and genetics to explain and discuss all the interesting topics that arise from these fields.

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The mystical site holds secrets and surprises -  Explore the ancient alignments.

The origins of a massive ritual complex at the ancient city of Tiwanaku in modern-day Bolivia have become blurred by a string of modern researchers who present the stepped-platforms, pyramid mounds, sunken-chambers, and massive finely-cut blocks as evidence of a lost civilization, or extra-terrestrial agency.

Cutting through this modern-fictional noise, this Webinar looks at the astronomical and geodetic conditions at Tiwanaku and reveals how the people aligned their sacred city around an ancient prime meridian. This highly-spiritualized alignment was not only utilized as a practical measuring tool in all architectural and astronomical projects, but it was 'the' axis mundi helping worshipers orient themselves while being 'out there,' on meditational and spiritual quests.

Get ready to dive into the mystical history of Tiwanaku with historian Ashley Cowie on Ancient Origins Premium.

 Ashley Cowie is a Scottish historian, author and filmmaker exploring and investigating myths and legends, ancient cultures and kingdoms, science and psychology, artifacts, iconography, and architecture.

Visit AshleyCowie.com and find out more in his in-depth books, A Twist in Time, Secret Viking Sea Chart, and others.

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Searching for meaning in the world of religion…

40,000 years ago, across Europe and Asia, our ancestors felt the need to crawl deep underground, braving the depths and darkness, to paint magnificent images on the walls of caves.  Why?

The incredible megalithic temple called Gobekli Tepe was built 11,600 years ago, before the Agricultural Revolution, before humans had discovered how to grow their own food to support such an endeavor. It begs the question - Why?

6,000 years later humans dragged stones, weighing up to four tons, 140 miles across England to build a monument called Stonehenge. Why? 

On an equatorial band circling the earth, our ancestors felt the need to build pyramids. Why?

Over the course of a thousand years, no less than five world religions were born that are still a source of faith and practice to billions of people around the world. Why?

Over the last hundred years scientists have probed deep into the nature of material existence itself, uncovering a wild and whacky quantum universe unimaginable until our day were it not for the visions and experiences of shamans and mystics.  What they discovered has caused even the most secular people to ask the question, "Why?"

The great questions of humanity have been the same for as long as there have been humans around to ask them:  "Who are we?"..."Why are we here?"..."What is our purpose?"... "Is there more?"

Why does religion even exist? Is religion merely an opiate of the people, salving over the human need to solve questions about the Great Unknown? Or is it so much more? Could there be a very real Great Unknown, such that we can communicate with It, and It with us?

Religion, going all the way back to the earliest forms of Shamanism, attempts to bridge the gap between the material world and the metaphysical, or spiritual, world.  It may even prove to be the thing that made us human in the first place!

We’re joined by Ancient Origins contributor and author Jim Willis for an exploration into the biggest, most vital questions.

Having earned his master's degree in theology from Andover Newton Theological School, Jim Willis is the author of nine books on religion and spirituality. He has been an ordained minister for over forty years while working part-time as a carpenter, hosting own drive-time radio show, as well as being an arts council director and adjunct college professor in the fields of World Religions and Instrumental Music. His current residence in the woods of South Carolina inspired his books Supernatural Gods: Spiritual Mysteries, Psychic Experiences, and Scientific Truths, and Jim digs deep into essential topics with Ancient Gods: Lost Histories, Hidden Truths and the Conspiracy of Silence.

Visit JimWillis.net 

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