Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2018 i National Geographic History

When studying history, historians look to the facts. Knowing names, dates, and places helps explain past events, but there is often another factor whose influence remains intangible: luck. Fate’s role in major events cannot be denied, and perhaps no ruler understood that more than Queen Elizabeth I. Chance decreed that Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, would not give birth to a son, which soured her young daughter’s luck. Elizabeth’s mother was executed, her half brother declared her a bastard, and her half sister threw her in prison. Elizabeth survived this series of unfortunate events to become queen, and England entered a golden age, one that included the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a victory often credited to Elizabeth’s good luck rather than her good strategy. Despite her successes, it seems that…

Averroës devoted three decades of his life to writing and thinking about Aristotle. Aristotle is one of the best known ancient Greek philosophers, but there was a period, after the sixth century A.D., when his works had fallen out of favor and were almost lost to time. Through his writings, one 12th-century Muslim philosopher pulled Aristotle back from the brink and put him at the center of intellectual European thought. Theologian, scholar, and physician, Ibn Rushd—commonly recognized by the Latinized version of his name, Averroës devoted three decades of his life to writing and thinking about Aristotle. As he tried to understand and explain the philosopher’s original intent, Averroës was forced to defend his beliefs in spiritually and politically turbulent times. Son of Al-Andalus As part of the westward phase…

Throughout time, inhabitants of Mesoamerica, the geographic region comprising Mexico and Central America, all worshipped Panthera onca, the jaguar. Apex carnivores with the strongest bite of all the big cats, they once roamed from the southern United States, through Mexico and Central America, and as far south as Argentina. Stealthy hunters with camouflaging coats and eyes that can see in the dark, they easily take down prey anywhere—up in the trees, down on the ground, or even swimming in rivers. To the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica, the jaguar was more than just an animal; it was divine. Almost every ancient Mesoamerican civilization revered the jaguar in some way. The Olmec (circa 1200-400 B.C.) heavily featured jaguars in their art and religion. Sculptures of cats were popular, as were depictions of…

8th c. B.C. Enslavement by Phoenicians and other powers is chronicled in Homer’s poem The Odyssey. 7th c. B.C. Athens’s slave trade is boosted by Greek commercial expansion around the Mediterranean. 5th c. B.C. The number of slaves in the Athens area may comprise upward of a third of the population. 4th c. B.C. In his Politics, Aristotle examines the ethics of slavery but does not regard it as a “violation of nature.”…

Greco-Roman mummy cases and shrouds were often painted with images reflecting pharaonic religious beliefs about the hereafter but adapted to suit the prevailing Greco-Roman style. Egyptian divinities of the afterlife feature prominently, and include some or all of the following: Osiris, god of the afterlife and the underworld; his sisters Isis (also his wife) and Neftis, also considered a protector of the dead. Anubis, the jackal- or wolf-headed god is also often shown as patron of the mummification process and responsible for delivering the soul of the deceased into the kingdom of Osiris. The falcon god Horus often makes an appearance too. The Greco-Roman tradition had no problem about mixing in classical motifs. So in addition to representations of the Egyptian funerary gods, shrouds and mummy cases might depict figures…

OF THE THREE chroniclers who helped to provide written records of Zheng He’s voyages, Ma Huan was perhaps the most reliable. Of humble origins, Ma Huan converted to Islam as a young man. He studied Arabic and Persian, and at the age of 23 was taken on as an interpreter for the fourth expedition. He participated in the sixth and seventh voyages as well, and he was one of the few members of the expeditions to visit Mecca. On arrival in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, Ma Huan lists the rich array of goods the Chinese exchanged for silk and porcelain: “Frankincense, dragon’s blood, aloes, myrrh, benzoin and storax [both used to make perfume].” In East Africa Ma Huan first saw what he called a qilin—the Chinese word for…

During the summer of 1588, England prepared to face the full might of the Spanish Empire, its most dangerous foe. The indomitable Spanish Armada was sailing toward Albion’s shores, carrying soldiers set to invade. Anticipating the attack, Queen Elizabeth I prepared to address her troops stationed at Tilbury Fort in England. Accounts describe her like a goddess of war: white plumes in her hair, a metal cuirass over white gown, and astride a warhorse as she delivered a rousing speech to her men: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman,”she said, “but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that . . . Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to…

THE RELATIONSHIP between Elizabeth of England and Philip of Spain was complex, but at their birth, few would have seen them as equal sparring partners. Philip, born in 1527, would one day inherit a sprawling empire in Europe and the New World; Elizabeth, born six years later, was an unwanted princess of a minor power. While Philip was mentored by his father, Charles V, scoring his first military victory against France at age 15, the young Elizabeth sought only to survive the religious upheaval of the reigns of her half siblings. The fact that Elizabeth eventually reigned so long, against so many odds, fueled her legacy as Gloriana. Philip, meanwhile, has been branded a gloomy obsessive, whose suspicion of advisers and hatred of Protestantism poisoned his empire. Even so, just…

ELIZABETH DISCOVERED THAT PIRACY WAS a useful means of harassing Philip while avoiding a head-on engagement. She revived an old custom of issuing Letters of marque, royal permits for captains to seize enemy cargoes at sea. The most famous bearer of such a letter was Francis Drake, whose capture of booty from Spanish galleons brought him, his crew, and, of course, Elizabeth herself great wealth while hugely provoking Philip’s ire. As Philip’s Armada plans gathered pace, Drake’s role became more openly confrontational. In 1587 he blasted his way into the southern Spanish port of Cádiz, destroying ships and supplies destined for the invasion of England. Drake’s audacity, which he termed “singeing [sic] the king of Spain’s beard,” delayed the Armada’s attack on England by a year.…

When Swedish brothers Richard and Ingemar Lundgren were children, they visited the Stockholm museum housing the Vasa, a battleship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628. It was raised from the seafloor in 1961 and sparked a fascination with battleships for the boys. The Lundgren brothers dreamed that one day they might find the resting place of the most renowned of all Swedish warships: the Mars, pride of the Swedish fleet, which went down fighting in a naval battle in 1564. Few ships had ever been found from the 1500s, the period in which Europe’s first large , three-masted battleships were built. The prospect of locating the Mars had long energized marine archaeologists and historians. Locating that famous shipwreck would shed new light on naval advances at a crucial…

A MONSTER WAS STALKING London’s squalid Whitechapel district, killing women and mutilating their bodies. The suspected perpetrator of 11 unsolved murders between 1888 and 1891, Jack the Ripper taunted the police as he obsessed Londoners from the crown to the commoner. Over the decades, dedicated “Ripperologists have tried to crack the case, fingering around 100 different suspects, including aristocrats, recent immigrants, and a famous painter, but the identity of “Jack” remains a mystery.…

Although the words of the biblical Book of Isaiah have inspired Jews and Christians for generations, no archaeological references to the prophet have been found from the time when he lived. That may be about to change, thanks to a tiny clay seal unearthed from an ancient Jerusalem rubbish pit. If archaeologist Eilat Mazar’s hunch is correct, the half-inch seal bears the name of the Prophet Isaiah himself. In an article in Biblical Archaeology Review the Israeli scholar argues that although the lettering on the artifact is damaged, it may read “Belonging to Isaiah the prophet.” If it does, it would be stunning physical evidence of the existence of a figure central to Jewish and Christian theology. Many scholars now believe that the Book of Isaiah does not record the…

1126 Averroës is born in Córdoba into a respected family of qadis (religious jurists) and imams of the city’s Great Mosque. 1169 Appointed qadi of Seville, Averroës will become qadi of his native Córdoba two years later. 1182 He is appointed doctor to the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, who values Averroës’s philosophical learning and his medical expertise, while protecting him from powerful enemies 1194-97 Following a power shift, Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur strips Averroës of all his titles to appease theologians. 1198 After heeding the caliph’s summons to travel to Marrakech in North Africa, Averroës dies.…

The first mechanical shower was not invented until the 18th century, but getting clean from above has a history that goes back millennia. The earliest showers were generally enjoyed by the wealthy, who could pay for servants or slaves to pour water on them. In sixth-century B.C. Babylon bathrooms were common in residences, but bathtubs were not; their absence indicates that people probably bathed with water poured from above. Bathrooms were also common in Egypt going as far back as the Middle Kingdom. Wall paintings show how the wealthy were showered by their servants with water. Excavations of wealthy homes in Thebes, El Lahun, and Amarna found stone-lined chambers equipped with sloped floors that allowed water to drain. Ancient Greek inventors created indoor showers at gymnasiums through advances in plumbing…

THE TYPICAL EVENTS at the Hippodrome promised nonstop spectacle and excitement for the fans of chariot racing. The number of races might range from eight to 25 in the course of a day, giving viewers the chance to see many of their favorite racers risk their lives. In the quest for victory a charioteer faced plenty of hideous fates: crashing his vehicle, becoming tangled in the reins and being throttled or maimed; or falling out and being crushed under stampeding horses’ hooves. The number of laps varied, but a seven-lap race could last as long as 15 minutes. There were several categories of race, typically broken up by the age of the driver: teenagers, charioteers in their early 20s, and very experienced pilots ages mid-20s and older. Bets were placed…

THE ROMAN-ERA mask shown on this page was found in the Al Fayyum area. Like the masks that had covered the faces of Egyptian mummies for many centuries before, it is made of cartonnage, a technique in which linen is stiffened with plaster, sculpted into the form of the deceased’s torso and head, and painted. In the Greco-Roman period some masks followed the older, more traditional Egyptian-style designs, typically incorporating a wig and protective necklace known as an usej. This mask features Egyptian gods and religious scenes that will serve to protect the deceased during the journey to the underworld. A crown would often be placed on the head—in this case, a floral wreath, a typically Roman touch. While some masks made an attempt to individualize the deceased’s features, the…

EVEN BEFORE ZHENG HE embarked on his seven voyages, China already possessed a wealth of information about the world beyond the Indian Ocean. The first Ming emperor, Hongwu, commissioned a world map that has been reproduced many times since its original creation. The most famous version of it dates from 1402, a Korean rendering today known as the “Kangnido Map.” This iteration shows a disproportionately large Korea and places China at the center of the known world, detailing its rivers and the Great Wall. Other East Asian countries are located far from their true positions and diminished in size. The archipelagoes of Indonesia and the Philippines, for example, appear as little more than a line of dots, and only the Malay Peninsula is recognizable. Mesopotamia, Europe, and much of the…

September 7, 1533 Elizabeth is born, the second surviving, legitimate child of Henry VIII. Her mother, Anne Boleyn, is executed when Elizabeth is two years old. 1553 On the death of her Protestant half brother, Edward VI, Elizabeth’s half sister accedes as Mary I, intent on returning England to the Catholic faith. 1554 On Mary I’s decision to marry Philip of Spain, Elizabeth is implicated in a Protestant plot. She is imprisoned, but Philip intercedes to save her. 1558 After Mary’s death, Elizabeth becomes queen, and Philip II sees her as an ally against their common foe, France. She will refuse his offer of marriage. 1580 The pope declares that to kill Elizabeth would not be a sin. Amid many Catholic plots against her, Elizabeth sanctions piracy raids on Spanish…

RUMORS THAT SOME of the Romanovs had survived their execution arose almost immediately after their deaths. Because their bodies remained undiscovered for decades and Communist authorities were coy about the events at the Ipatiev House, these whispers grew into legends. All of the Romanov children were impersonated at one time or another, but Anastasia was at the center of the most notorious claims to the Romanov estate. Perhaps the most famous claimant was a woman rescued from a Berlin canal in 1920. Admitted to the hospital, and carrying no identification, she reluctantly told the authorities she was Anastasia Romanov and recounted a detailed story of how she had escaped the slaughter. She later moved to the United States, where she went by the name Anna Anderson and continued claiming she…

Thus Spoke Zarathustra? While the life of Zarathustra, Persian religious prophet, is veiled in mystery, his impact is indisputable. Believed to have lived in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., he founded Zoroastrianism, a monotheistic faith which deeply influenced other religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Plot Against Alexander While Alexander the Great was on top of the ancient world, he began to suspect some of his most trusted associates of betrayal. The mighty conqueror of Asia began a brutal purge of his closest generals, sparking paranoia among the ranks as his forces began to march on India. A Devil of a Time God’s “adversary” in the Jewish and Christian scriptures evolved in Europe’s Middle Ages into the ultimate figure of evil, a monstrous being whose grotesque features would…

HIS ORACLES shaped Jewish national history, and his assurance that “a virgin will conceive and bear a son” is claimed by Christians as the prophetic basis for their faith. But who was Isaiah? Scholars speculate that he was probably of noble birth; his forthright advice to King Hezekiah—portrayed as flawed but righteous—suggests steeliness in a time when the Jews found themselves caught between the might of Egypt to the west and Assyria to the east. Despite his wealthy origins, Isaiah faulted the ruling class for neglecting their duties to the poor, and his vision of justice and peace resonates now as much as it must have done centuries ago: “And he shall judge among the nations . . . and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears…

IN STRIKING CONTRAST to prevailing attitudes at the time, Averroës’s view of women was very progressive. Following Plato, he argues that “since some women are formed with eminence and praiseworthy disposition, it is not impossible that there be philosophers and rulers among them.” If women played a more active role in society, it would benefit the whole state. “The competence of women is unknown, however, in these cities since they are only taken for procreation and hence are placed at the service of their husbands and confined to procreation, upbringing, and suckling. This nullifies their [other] activities. Since women in these cities are not prepared with respect to any of the human virtues, they frequently resemble mere plants.”…

1767 William Feetham patents the first pump-activated shower in London. The bather releases the water in the overhead tank by pulling a chain. 1868 English painter Benjamin Waddy Maughan patents a water heater. Its tendency to explode makes it unsafe for household use. 1889 Norwegian-American engineer Edwin Ruud develops a safe, gas-powered water heater, ushering in a new age of hot showers. 1900s Advances in plumbing and heating drive the popularity of the regular shower in both Europe and the United States.…

LATER FICTION AND ART has often presented Greek slaves in a sensationalist or titillating light, bound in chains or naked on the auction block. Although some unlucky wretches were consigned to the mines, most were employed in agriculture, as farming was the mainstay of the economy. The ability of a Greek polis to retain and control its slave population was essential to its success. The escape of some 20,000 slaves from Athens during the Peloponnesian War with Sparta in the fifth century B.C. was a severe blow to the city because so many branches of the economy depended on them—food production, shipbuilding, domestic work, childcare, the civil service, and even sport.…

FOUND AT HAWARA, this Roman-era mummy of a young boy, on display in the British Museum, London, is made up of a complex structure of bandages. The cloth is wrapped in thick, decorative layers to form diamond shapes to create an effect of depth and geometric rhythm. In the center of each of these diamonds have been placed small pieces of gold stucco. The feet of the bound figure were created separately from cartonnage (plaster-stiffened linen), and protrude from the sheathed body. The mummy was found complete with its very lifelike portrait, shown here as it would have been placed. Painted on wood using the encaustic technique, the boy in the portrait wears a white mantle. His close-cropped hair, the clothing, and other stylistic details allow researchers to date the…

CIRCA 1371 Born into a family of Muslim traders from Yunnan Province in 1371, Ma He (as Zheng He was originally named) is captured and castrated by invading Chinese forces. He is sent to serve Zhu Di, the future Ming emperor Yongle. 1405 The Ming emperor Yongle appoints Zheng He (as he is now known) to lead the first Chinese naval expedition. Zheng He has already proven himself as a high-ranking civilian and military official. 1424 The Yongle emperor’s successor temporarily suspends naval expeditions under pressure from his ministers, jealous of the influence of eunuchs at court. Zheng He oversees work on the Bao’en Pagoda, known as the Porcelain Tower, in the co-capital of Nanjing. CIRCA 1433 After setting sail in 1431 on his seventh and final expedition under the…

RICHMOND PALACE ELIZABETH’S FAVORITE PALACE was named for her grandfather Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, who defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. On the banks of the Thames River west of London, Richmond Palace was built of white stone and brick and sported octagonal towers with distinctive pepper-pot domes. It became the favorite residence of two of Henry VII’s granddaughters: Mary I honeymooned there with Philip of Spain, and Elizabeth spent more time there than in any of her other 13 palaces. Despite its grandeur—its great hall was 100 feet long—it was snugger than her other rambling residences. The nearby park provided all the pleasures of deer hunting, and the hall was the venue for plays, including those performed by the company of which Shakespeare was…

THE ROMANOV DYNASTY ended as it began: in times of massive political upheaval. Since the ninth century, the Rurik dynasty had controlled much of what is now Russia, but it started to collapse in 1598. Fifteen chaotic years followed, known as the Time of Troubles, in which pretenders to the throne, clashes between reformers and nobles, and foreign invasion brought the country to its knees. In 1613 a zemsky sobor (assembly of the land) met and chose a young nobleman Xeria sunt with estem blood ties to the Rurik dynasty to lead. Michael Fyodorovich Romanov, only 16 and not very well educated, reluctantly took the throne. A weak ruler, he allowed his older relatives to dominate his reign and to dictate policy that would restore order to Russia. It was…

YEKATERINBURG-BORN geologist Alexander Avdonin teamed up with Russian filmmaker Geli Ryabov in the 1970s to find the burial place of the seven Romanovs. Because of his previous employment with the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ryabov was able to access classified documents that contained valuable clues. One 1926 publication described the grave site as “a swampy place,” while a 1919 photo of a bridge intrigued them. Their team, working secretly, was able to locate the structure and in May 1979 uncovered a grave. Fearful of Soviet reprisals, they decided to keep their discovery quiet. As the Soviet Union fell, Avdonin’s find was made public. In 1991 an official excavation began, revealing that the grave held only nine people: five Romanovs and four of their servants. Soviet forensic expert Sergei Abramov…