The heartbreak emoji is a near-universal symbol for the despair and desperation of those thwarted by Cupid's sometimes cruel arrow. But where does it come from? The 'love heart' itself is a symbol ...

National Library of Medicine. 10,000-8,000 B.C.E. The heart symbol, the popular icon for the heart, can be traced to before the last Ice Age. Cro-Magnon hunters in Europe use the symbol in ...

But the heart hasn't always just been a symbol of romance. Across cultures and centuries, the heart has been revered as the seat of the soul, a source of supernatural power and a vessel of identity.

He concludes that the enduring nature of the symbol relates to a religious connotation of man's cleaved heart as a creation of God, and to the spiritual connotation of the heart as an empty vessel ...

Many people will be surprised to hear that Claddagh rings were once practically exclusive to rich landlords during The Great Famine.