How we make it

Every article on this site follows the same process. We publish it here because a reader should be able to judge how a page was made.

1. Choose the question

Each article answers one question a reader might actually search for: who built the pyramids, why Athens chose leaders by lottery, how a charred scroll can be read without opening it. The question comes first; the article exists to answer it in the first paragraph.

2. Research from sources

We start from reference works, museum and university publications, excavation reports and peer-reviewed research. Every fact we use is traced to a source that appears in the Sources section of the article. Where we could not verify a source online, we do not link it.

3. Write with AI assistance

Drafts are produced with the help of large language models, working only from the sources gathered in step 2. The editorial team sets the question, the structure and the facts; the model helps with drafting. We say this plainly because it is true, and because readers deserve to know.

4. Check

Before publication every name, date, number and quotation is compared against the sources. Where historians disagree, the article says so and names the positions. Articles are re-checked when we learn something new; the “reviewed” date on each page records the last check.

5. Illustrate

Illustrations are AI-generated historical reconstructions, made from the same research notes and checked for period accuracy (dress, architecture, tools). They are labelled as reconstructions on every page. Where we show a real photograph — for example of a site as it looks today — it comes from Wikimedia Commons under a free licence, with the photographer credited.

What this means for you

Treat each article as a well-sourced starting point, not the final word. The Sources section is there so you can go further.