Ancient Egypt

A counting of goats and rams in cuneiform script, ancient Ngirsu, Iraq, 2360 BC. (DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Cuneiform: 6 things you (probably) didn’t know about the world’s oldest writing system

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Issue 12 of BBC World Histories is out now

An elevated view of Cairo's Old City, which is home to a Roman tower, a Greek Orthodox church and an array of historical mosques and madrasas. (Photo by Getty Images)

Battleground of empires: Cairo in 5 cultures

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A painting in the tomb of Inherkha – a priest wearing the mask of Horus is performing the opening of the mouth ritual. The purpose was to restore to the deceased the use of the senses, thus restoring life in the next world. Ancient Egyptian 20th dynasty c1186-1070 BC. (Photo by Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Why was mummification used in Ancient Egypt, and why did they leave the heart in the body?

c50 BC, Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, the last and most famous of the Ptolemaic dynasty. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

6 things you (probably) didn’t know about Cleopatra

History Extra’s top 10 podcast episodes

Tutankhamun’s golden funeral mask. (Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images)

8 things you (probably) didn’t know about Tutankhamun

A reconstruction of a Theban painting from the Ancient Egyptian Dynasty XIX depicting a childbirth scene. The mother is seen being helped by her handmaidens and a midwife. Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

7 surprising facts about the history of medicine

Tutankhamun-Howard-Carter-2-dd8866a

11 shocking moments in history

Joyce Tyldesley.

Joyce Tyldesley

Sarah Dunant. (Alamy)

The history of today

The Sultanahmet district in Istanbul, Turkey, which is classified as World Heritage by UNESCO. (Photo by DOZIER Marc via Getty Images)

General ancient history

A new civilisation rises

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An engraving from Ulrich Molitor’s ‘On witches and female soothsayers’, depicting witches bringing down the rain. Germany, 15th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

General ancient history

A spell-binding history of witches

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Podcast Website large Simon Schama

Schama on ‘Civilisations’