Life on Hadrian's WallHow the Romans Survived on the Frontier of the EmpireHadrian’s Wall was a defensive wall with numerous fortifications running across the entire width of Northern England. Built under Emperor Hadrian’s orders in AD 122, the wall stretched roughly...

5 short WW2 Survival stories  1. The Pianist’s Secret Refuge   Władysław Szpilman, a Polish-Jewish pianist, survived the Warsaw Ghetto and Nazi occupation by hiding in the ruins of Warsaw. After narrowly escaping deportation to Treblinka, Szpilman went...

How did People Survive the Sinking of the TitanicThe sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, is one of the most infamous maritime disasters in history. Known as the "unsinkable ship," the Titanic's collision with an iceberg and its subsequent sinking led to the...

The 10 Worst Natural Disasters in HistoryNatural disasters are something we will never be able to control as a species, and even though detection and rescue technologies are constantly advancing, we will forever be at the mercy of Mother Nature. The following are ten...

Surviving the Vietnamese tunnelsDuring the 1950s, Vietnam was a very politically unstable country and was divided into two major factions, the communist north and the democratic south. On 1 November 1955, a conflict broke out between the two sides and this led to a...

What was life like in the trenchesIn 1914, a war broke out that at the time was the biggest conflict ever seen by the human race. An unfortunate series of events unraveled and this led to over 30 countries taking up arms and joining either the Allied forces or the...

The Darien SchemeScotland's disaster in the AmericasMany countries across Europe could have done better during the late 1600s. Between 1695 and 1697, several northern countries experienced a huge famine, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths. France and Italy saw...

The Nazino Island tragedy (The only map showing the location of the Nazino island tragedy, though the exact island used seems to remain unknown)   After the Soviet Union was formed in 1922, the early years of its rule were filled with problems. There was a...

What was life like during the BlitzOne of the biggest advancements in military technology during the First World War was airplanes. These new flying machines were able to quickly travel across difficult terrain and survey the battlefield like never before, but they...

Life in the Dark Ages - Surviving as a PeasantThe Dark Ages are also sometimes referred to as the Middle Ages but are generally the gap between the departure of the Romans and the start of the Viking era. This would have been one of the most dangerous times to be...

Surviving the American Civil WarBetween 1861 and 1865, the United States split into two main factions and declared war on each other. There were many reasons for the outbreak of war, but the one advertised the most was to end slavery on the North American continent....

Surviving in MesopotamiaMankind's first real homeThe oldest human remains have been confirmed to be just over 200,000 years old and were discovered in modern-day Ethiopia. This is believed to be the cradle of humanity and even though bones of other human-like species...

The most difficult times to survive in BritainPeople who live in Britain today may not feel like it's a safe country to live in, but it's certainly far from the worst. If a disaster happened today, there would be a national or possibly even global response to try and...

Violet Jessop - Survived 3 sinking shipsDuring the first part of the 20th century, sailing was far from safe and ships didn't have the safety standards and equipment they do now, leading to hundreds of ships being lost unnecessarily. The chances of surviving a sinking...

Life in Iron Age IrelandThe Iron Age first began in Britain around the year 800 BC when someone in England worked out how to get a smelter hot enough to melt iron. Before this, bronze was the strongest metal that people had, but this was far from being strong enough...

How did slaves survive captivity?The survival rate of someone being kept as a slave would depend entirely on where they were taken and by whom. The most notable and well-documented account of slavery was during the European colonial period of the Americas when around...

What was life like for poor Victorians?   The Victorian era ran from 1837 until 1901, which in comparison to something like the medieval period makes it very recent, so most people would assume things for the average person would be much better. This most...

Life in a Medieval townEvery single day living in the medieval period would be a question of survival. From uncurable diseases to overzealous criminal magistrates to the possibility that a large group of people with swords could come through at any moment and kill...

The lone woman of San Nicolas - 18 years in isolationTowards the earlier part of the 1800s, the west coast of America was recognized as a gold mine, literally. Massive deposits were found in California and the surrounding areas, and settlements sprang up rapidly all...

Life in Iron Age ScotlandThe Iron Age in the British Isles ran from about 800 BCE and ended in England in 43 AD when the Romans invaded, bringing with them their knowledge of how to make steel. Scotland was an exception though as the mighty Romans who conquered dozens...

Creative ways people survived the first world warThere was a time during the early part of the 20th century when people in Britain only heard about war through the newspapers or radio, and it usually consisted of some distant battlefield on the other side of the...

How did the Viking settlers survive in Greenland?The first Europeans credited with discovering Greenland were Vikings who ventured across the North Atlantic Ocean from their settlements in Iceland. These fearless seafarers, known as Norsemen or Norse settlers, played...

The Franklin Expedition One of the most disastrous Arctic voyages of all timeThe Franklin expedition was one of the many attempts to find a route across what has come to be known as the Northwest Passage. During the 1800s, the power of nations depended on wealth, and...

How hard would it be to survive in prehistoric BritainThere are many times throughout history when staying alive would have been a challenge, but nothing seems to come close to the daily horror of what would have awaited anyone trying to settle the mysterious lands...

3 Ancient lands that no longer existDuring the early stages of human history, the earth was a very different place, both in layout and climate. The frozen continent of Antarctica was once a land covered with trees and animals, and everything above Scotland was nothing...

The 5 lowest rate survival jobs in historyIt’s only been over the last 100 years that people have created any real health and safety standards, and workers' rights are also a relatively new invention. Before the creation of enforced safety standards, the general rule...

Would humans survive another ice age?An ice age happens when the planet receives varying amounts of sunlight on its northern latitudes, causing the temperature to drop and the seas to form into ice, which in turn cools the rest of the planet. The axis of the planet...

Who are the ancestors of the BritishOne of the most interesting things about bushcraft and survival is its history and how people managed to stay alive when there were none of the modern-day conveniences we all take for granted. Throughout history, people have had to...

What was life like 10,000 years ago?10,000 years ago would take us back to around 8,000 BCE when the human population of the world had well over 1,000 years to establish themselves from the end of the last glacial period of the ice age. The thawing of the earth...

Is the Shigir idol really 12,000 years old?In 1890 in northern Russia, a group of gold miners were digging around the Shigir peat bog 62 miles north of Yekaterinburg when they uncovered pieces of a wooden statue. Initially, they didn’t think anything of it because it...

How did people survive castle siegesDuring the medieval period, the castle was the ultimate defensive structure, designed to withstand an army no matter the size and act as a beacon of authority over the land. What most people recognize as “castles” didn’t start to be...

Surviving in Victorian BritainOn 20 June 1837, Alexandrina Victoria was crowned as queen of Great Britain, and the nation entered into a new era. The Industrial Revolution started in the country in the early 1820s and was in full swing by the time Victoria took the...

How ancient armies were fed on the marchFor anyone unlucky enough to find themselves having to fight in someone’s army, life would consist of poor food, dangerous battles, and lots of walking. With only a few exceptions, soldiers of most of history's armies were...

What types of food did Native Americans eat?One of the most interesting things about the Native Americans is their ability to live alongside nature without trying to conquer it. They didn’t hunt species to extinction just to get rich as the settlers they encountered...

What was life like during the dark agesEvery country on earth has been through many different time periods that changed the nation in major ways, but none of them were as uncomfortable to live in as the dark ages. In Britain, the exact date of the Dark Ages is debated...

Surviving Napoleons retreat from Russia   Napoleon Bonaparte is recognized as being one of the best army commanders of all time, but he is also seen as making one of the biggest mistakes in military history. During the Napoleonic wars, which ran from 18 May 1803...

How did people survive the great depression?The great depression was a time when the whole world was hit by a huge economic downturn that caused mass poverty across many nations, particularly the United States. It began in September 1929 when stock prices began to...

The lowest survival rate jobs in historySafety standards haven’t always been what they are today, and for the vast majority of human history, people were given the option of doing something that could kill them, or simply starve to death. After the medieval period...

How far can a medieval army march in a day?What people consider bushcraft and survival skills today would be common knowledge for people during the medieval period, and surviving a long journey would require more than just the ability to walk. In a time before the...

How did our ancestors make leatherThe oldest known piece of leather in the world was discovered in a cave in the Vayotz Dzor province of Armenia and is thought to be from around 3,500 BCE which would make it about 500 years older than the pyramids of Giza. Even though...

How did our ancestors discover Bronze?The Stone Age is considered the period in human history where the most advanced things on the planet that people were able to create were sharpened pieces of stone, but this invention was more important than it sounds. Hunting now...

5 extremely dangerous jobs our ancestors had to doIf you’re lucky enough to live in a country that has health and safety laws then you should be thankful, because up until relatively recently the attitude of “we don’t care and there’s nothing you can do about it” was...

Surviving the first ever voyage to AmericaMany people have heard the names of the famous explorers who were the first people to reach the American continent, like Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake, but few know the name Leif Erikson, a Viking explorer from...

Jamestown - Surviving Americas first settlementOn December 6, 1606, an expedition of three ships left port in England and began the 12-week voyage to the east coast of America, looking to find riches in the north half of the continent that could equal the success of...

The source of the Stonehenge bluestonesStonehenge is an ancient monument located in modern-day Wiltshire that was built around 5,000 years ago. Construction of the site is believed to have started around 3000 BCE and wasn’t completed until close to 2,000 BCE, but why...

5 cities the ancients might have builtAncient cultures all over the world have built some incredible things that show their civilization was far beyond all others. From the Egyptian pyramids and Aztec temples to the Roman Colosseum and the Great Wall of China, all of...

Your chances of surviving 5 different warsIn the event that you suddenly get transported back in time and conscripted into an army, you’re probably going to want to know the chances of surviving the war you’re going into, or you may just be generally interested, but...

5 little known facts about Viking cultureLongships, berzerkers, and big hairy men with axes are normally the extent of what most people could tell you about the Vikings, and even though this image would be accurate, there was far more to them than the brutish warrior...

A look at drug use by our ancestors   People taking things they shouldn’t to feel some kind of effect is nothing new, but in the past people mistook feelings and hallucinations as a direct connection with the gods, and drugs became more than something to do in...

The 5 best places to learn about Iron Age BritainThe Iron Age in Britain began around the year 800 BC when someone worked out how to melt iron out of ore. Before the Iron Age began, the strongest material people had was Bronze, a combination of copper and tin, both of...

The most expensive artifacts our ancestors left behindTreasure is defined as any kind of expensive metal, gem, or valuable object, but there isn’t a definition as to how old something needs to be in order for it to be classed as treasure. Most of the things our...

Life changing discoveries our ancestors madeThings that we see every day like people farming, wearing clothes, and cooking food are so normal that it would be hard to imagine a time when these things didn’t exist. Before our ancestors became what we now recognize as...

5 Things our ancestors left behind that we don't understandWe have a pretty good idea of how our ancestors lived from the countless amount of artifacts and ruins we’ve found, but every once in a while our ancestors built or did something that was just plain weird. A...

The diet of early Britain from the stone ageDuring the earlier years of the human race, the food people had available would depend on where they lived in the world, varying greatly from region to region, but in Britain, it remained the same for thousands of years,...

What was life like 1000 years ago1000 years ago from the time of writing this would be the year 1020 AD, a time during the late Middle Ages and only 46 years from the start of the medieval period with the arrival of William the Conquer in 1066. For the average person,...

Surviving the underground railroadDuring the early days of the United States, it was common practice for the ruling powers to import slaves and force them to work on their land. The vast majority of these slaves came from Africa and because they were forced to work...

The importance of survival skills in colonial America   The United States started as a single British colony called Jamestown, a tiny settlement founded in 1607 along the banks of the James River in what is now known as Virginia. In the beginning, the population...

How did settlers make gunpowder?The first documented use of a firearm was a matchlock musket in 1364, but gunpowder has been around since as early as the 9th century when it was first discovered in China. When European colonists established their first North American...

WW2 Jobs with the lowest survival ratesDuring the Second World War, people didn’t have the best understanding of technology and in the attempt to defeat their enemies, many countries invented things that weren’t exactly safe for the operator. Some of these jobs put...

Why did our ancestors die so young?There are huge gaps in history where we will never know exactly what happened and how people lived, but there is one thing that we have found out from countless digs around the world, and that is our ancestors died much younger than...

Napoleon versus natureArmies today have a good understanding of nature and have learned to prepare accordingly, but in the past, there would often be times when someone thought their bravery, faith or some other factor would lead them to success. Some of these...

Surviving as the French resistance   During the second world war, the country of France was overrun by the superior German military and instead of choosing to fight a battle they knew they would lose and risk the entire country being destroyed, they chose to...

How did medieval peasants liveThe medieval period in Britain started with the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066 and ran until the start of the Tudor period in 1485. During this time, life in Britain was tough and no one had it worse than the peasant class, who...

How did people survive the holocaust? (The main entrance to Auschwitz, the words above the gate reads "arbeit macht frei" a German phrase meaning "work sets you free")   The holocaust was the mass genocide of the Jewish people across Nazi-occupied Europe during...

Major time periods of the British IslesEvery country around the world has different time periods that define a particular era in that country’s history. A time period is named after the ruling class or a technology significant enough to change civilization as a whole,...

Interesting facts about our ancestors   Your ancestors didn't have a last name 1000 years ago Last names for people of Britain only became common after the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066 who brought with him new forms of governing and documentation...

The Northwest passage - A survival nightmareThe Northwest Passage is a shipping route that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific by traveling northwest along the coastline of Canada. Before the Panama Canal was completed in 1914, the only way to get from Europe...

3 Strange Ancient maps that shouldn't existThe age of exploration began during the 1400s and by the late 1600s, the vast majority of the world had been mapped. During this time the best that people had to work with were rather basic tools that would show a person's...

Life in the Stone ageOur ancestors lived a primitive life and relied heavily on stone as their primary tool and weapon material, but since the invention of a written language was thousands of years away, we can only piece together what we have found from archeological...

5 Strange ancient traditionsOur ancestors were incredible people and had a level of knowledge that we will never truly understand, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t make mistakes from time to time, or consistently for hundreds of years to be more accurate. Here are 5...

What did cowboys eat?Having to spend large amounts of time in the wilderness is usually quite uncomfortable, especially when it comes to food. Cowboys and gunslingers of the Wild West would spend months at a time away from civilization herding cattle and hiding from...

The oldest structures built by humansIf most people had to guess what the oldest building built by humans would be, they’d probably say something like the pyramids or Stonehenge, but these ancient monuments don’t even come close to these structures. Some of these...

How long can a colonial ship stay at sea?The colonial era in Europe mostly took place between the 16th and 18th centuries and involved dozens of wars and millions of miles sailed. During this age, new and exotic lands were discovered and riches beyond imagination made...

Historic military survival rationsDuring World War two there was a huge campaign to produce food in Britain that was advertised on posters that read “An army marches on its stomach” and was designed to produce extra food to be sent to the fighting forces in Europe....

How our ancestors made thingsMost people don’t realize just how clever our ancestors were and often just view them as primitive people, but it's no coincidence that 700-year-old castles have stronger mortar in between their stones that’s in better condition than the...

Ancient medicines you'd be better off withoutOur ancestors didn’t really understand medicine very well, probably because they had no idea what germs were. This lack of understanding has led to a number of strange and just plain disgusting treatments being invented...

Strange finds our ancestors left behindSince people in the Stone Age and early cultures didn’t have any form of written language there’s no way of knowing why they left behind some of the things they did. We can only guess at the purpose of the artifacts and remains...

The worst ending survival stories of all timeYou've probably heard the story of Aron Ralston, the guy who got stuck at the bottom of a slot canyon and had to cut his own arm off. As horrible as his story is it doesn't even come close to the stories below, and not just...

1000 Japanese soldiers vs saltwater crocodilesThis event is known to some as the worst crocodile attack in history, and a massive over-exaggeration by others. During World War two the Allied forces were heavily involved throughout south-east Asia and one especially...

How our ancestors made processed foodsToday the foods we consider to be processed are things like cheeseburgers and pizza, but back in a time when you’d be living off a handful of different vegetables all your life eating something processed would be considered a...

What did the Vikings eat?The word Viking is the old Norse word for pirate or raider which is something they became very famous for, and because of this people of other countries began to refer to the people of Scandinavia as Vikings. They were known as fierce...

The earliest use of tools by our ancestorsDuring the ice age, much of the northern hemisphere was covered in thick sheets of ice up to 2 miles thick, and life on Earth was either in the sea or in the warmer areas in the south. The earliest part of the planet to thaw...

A quick look at the Aran islands   Sitting on the mouth of the bay of Galway in western Ireland lay the Aran islands. Three small and very unusual islands contain some of the most unique and well-preserved examples of how our ancestors lived in ancient Ireland....

How did people survive the Black Death?The disease often referred to as the “Black Death” or more simply as “the plague”, was a disease caused by the Yersinia pestis bacterium which was carried by fleas. The disease would live within the fleas but not affect them in...

The most dangerous jobs of our ancestorsLiving through certain periods of history would often be nothing short of a nightmare. If you were lucky or rich enough you’d be looked after by someone else, but for the vast majority of people who existed in our past, life...

Historic journeys through history that were hard to survive  The Irish Potato Famine - 1845 - 1852 During the 1900s, Ireland's main crop was potatoes since the landowner's restrictions and local weather didn't allow them to grow large amounts of grain. The entire...

Interesting ancient finds from our ancestorsSimply being alive between the Stone and Iron Ages would mean every single day would be about survival. In a time when there’s no such thing as refrigerators or effective medicine, keeping yourself and your family fed and...

How to survive living in a WW1 trenchThe First World War was a global event that started on 28 July 1914 and lasted for almost 4 and half years, finally coming to an end on 11 November 1918. The whole thing was a complete mess from the start and saw some of the worst...

5 Things our ancestors built that no one can explainMost ancient structures are exactly how you’d expect them to be, with the level of technology at the time matching the architecture and the way they were built. Sites like burial mounds and castles have their...

Survival food of the 1600sDuring the 1600’s the superpowers of Europe developed boat-building technology to sail around the world, and this new type of ship construction allowed them to reach new and exotic lands, meet unique and interesting individuals, and promptly...

How did they survive winter in the Bronze Age?The Bronze Age in Britain started around 3,000 BCE after the Copper Age, a short 500-year period of the country's first metal age. The discovery of how to make bronze gave people huge advantages over their previous Stone...

How did Stone Age people survive winter?The human race has been through some hard times since we've been around, but little comes close to the challenge of surviving through a Stone Age winter. Lacking any kind of proper clothing and having to live in homes made from...

How to survive a voyage to America in the 17th centuryThe very first English colony established in North America was Jamestown on May 14, 1607, a tiny fort-like village built on the banks of the James River. It didn’t take long for people back home to realise the...

How to survive a Viking voyage to England in the 8th century   The Vikings are recognized in history as fierce warriors and excellent sailors, but they were also skilled navigators and traders. This led to them discovering many new lands and being the first...

Surviving the Jamestown winter of 1609Jamestown was the very first English colonial settlement in North America. It was established on May 4, 1607, as “James Fort” and acted as the colonial capital of the country between 1616 and 1699.     The first people...

Horrible Ancient Medicines and why you shouldn’t try themIt has only been within the closer half of the last 100 years that we as a race have started to understand medicine. Before this, it was mostly down to luck and guesswork to cure an illness, with everything from...

What did people eat in the Stone Age?The Stone Age in Britain ended around the year 3500 BC with the discovery of how to use copper. Before this people would have to hunt and farm with nothing but wood and flint, and so were limited to a very small list of foods....

How did the Iron Age begin in Britain?The British Iron Age ran from around 800 BC until the invasion by the Romans in 43 AD who brought with them the technology to make steel, though this new tech took years to spread around the country.     Before the Iron...

How did humans survive the last Ice Age?The answer is both they didn’t and also we still are surviving an ice age. The earth has gone through five significant ice ages in its life, and during the time humans existed, we were not “humans” but one of the earlier...

The worst survival rations in HistoryThroughout history, people have had to resort to eating some pretty nasty things, especially in the earlier days of civilization before the invention of canned food or plastic. There were limited options for what could be taken on...

The 5 best Iron Age sights in BritainThe Iron Age ran from around 800 BC until the Romans first arrived in 43 AD, who brought with them the technology to make steel and other metals. Before their arrival the people of Britain led a semi hunter-gatherer lifestyle they...

The world's most hostile and unexplored islandNorth Sentinel island   The worlds most hostile and unexplored island is a reasonably small island located off the west coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and has never been explored by the modern world. The...

Wattle and Daub   The number 1 Iron Age building materialWattle and daub were the main choices for lining walls right up to the mid-1800s when better building materials became available. It was used many thousands of years before the common era as far back as...

How to make leather like they did in the Bronze AgeLeather is nothing new and has been used since people first learned how to skin animals, presumably tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago. But the early types of leather that would have been used by what people...

Tasty stone age animals you just can't buy at the shops anymoreLiving in the Stone Age wouldn’t have exactly been fun or easy, with giant cave bears and mountain lions roaming the land and every task you do will be with wooden or stone tools. Everything about life was...

Medieval Mortar Recipe (A 600-year-old still-standing section of a castle wall, built using the method described below)   This Medieval Mortar Recipe has been made the same way for over 1,500 years, with evidence of it first appearing in Britain as early as the...

What tools did our ancestors use to survive?  The Stone Age in Britain ended with the discovery of how to melt copper around the year 3500 BCE, and a few hundred years later people worked out that adding tin to the mixture made bronze. After this stage the...

Survival Food of the Past   Have you ever wondered what people during medieval times ate when they were on long journeys? or how hunter-gatherers from the stone age managed to survive the winter?, of course you have, so today we're going to look at survival food...

How did our aboriginal ancestors discover Iron? One of the things that fascinates me about bushcraft and survival is how our ancestors discovered new things for the first time and how they made use of them. How did our aboriginal ancestors discover iron is one of the...

What did hunter-gatherers eat  Before talking about exactly what did hunter-gatherers eat it's important to know what one actually is. As the name suggests it is a person who lives by obtaining food through the methods of hunting animals and gathering wild food,...