The ancient world is all around us. Whether it is coming at us through our televisions, our cinema screens, our computer screens, or our newspapers. The ancient world is used and misused to sell us things, to convince us of things, to persuade us of things, and indeed to even believe things about ourselves and the world around us.

Whether it is from the mouths of politicians, or the words of salespeople, Bad Ancient examines claims that are made about the ancient world and determines whether these are true, false, or somewhere in between. It is not a simple matter of fact or fiction, some claims cannot be proved or disproved and must be rated as “Unproven” – it is, after all, impossible to prove a negative! It is a fundemental belief here that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. So, if you come across any claims that you’d like us to fact-check, feel free to get in touch.

The name of the website is derived from the hasthag #badancient that was introduced by Dr Owen Rees on Twitter to mark posts, articles, and images that perpetuate falsehoods about the ancient world. The site itself is run by Owen with assistance from Josho Brouwers (who also built the website).