Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2021 i National Geographic History

In 1885 the Pittsburgh Dispatch published an article entitled “What Girls Are Good For,” which claimed a working woman was “a monstrosity.” The feature provoked a fiery rebuke from a 21-year-old reader, Elizabeth Jane Cochran, whose argument so impressed the editor that he published an advertisement asking the author to come forward so he could meet her. She did, and he hired her on the spot, her first article appearing under the name “Orphan Girl.” Soon after, she changed her pen name to the title of a popular song by Pittsburgh songwriter Stephen Foster, and so “Nellie Bly” was born—a name forever associated with her pioneering role in investigative journalism. In the course of her life, she spotlighted social ills and corruption, often at great personal risk, resulting in important…

Known by awed gemologists simply as “the Blue,” the world’s biggest blue diamond first vanished in a jewel heist during the turmoil of revolutionary Paris in 1792. Since then, it has resurfaced and disappeared several times around Europe and across the Atlantic. Historians and jewelers have finally ended this treasure hunt that lasted more than two centuries. Most diamonds are prized for colorlessness, but this remarkable gem stood out for its distinctive deep blue hue. Discovered in India and brought to France in the 17th century, the stone measured a whopping 115 carats—a rare heavyweight in gemological terms. The diamond came to the attention of France’s Louis XIV, who bought it in 1668. To craft a fitting symbol for the Sun King, Louis had it cut, reducing it to 69…

MIX AND MATCH THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON comprised numerous fantastical hybrids. Most deities had an animal head on a human body, especially when depicted for display in a temple. Depictions of humans—such as the ba, a manifestation of the soul—take the form of a human head on an animal body. Monsters such as Ammit could be composed of up to four animals. WINGS AND FEATHERS BIRDS had a privileged position in the Egyptian pantheon. At the top of the food chain, the falcon was especially prominent. Embodying the very ancient god Horus, it came to stand as the holy bond between the pharaoh and the realm of the gods. A carrion-eater, such as the vulture, was a protector, and the ibis was associated with knowledge. CATS AND DOGS THERE IS A…

Most contemporary sources agreed that Agrippina was cremated shortly after her death with little or no public ceremony. First-century historian Tacitus reported: “While Nero reigned, her grave was not covered with earth or enclosed, though later her household gave her a modest tomb beside the road to Misenum,” near her estate where she had lived after being exiled from Rome. Located in the Bacoli region of Naples, there are ruins known today as Agrippina’s Tomb, but it is unlikely that this structure was her actual resting place. Some archaeologists believe the ruins are an odeon and part of a maritime villa rather than a graveyard.…

As it moored under Seville’s imposing skyline on September 8, 1522, the Victoria may not have stood out as anything exceptional among the bustle of Spanish ships arriving from the Americas. When 18 men stepped off board, “leaner than old, worn-out nags,” as one of them later recalled, they stepped into the history books as the first people to have sailed entirely around the world. It had been a brutal voyage, led by the brilliant, if ruthless, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan. When they set out from Seville, three years before in summer 1519, they were a crew of 240 manning five ships. A series of blows—including starvation, illness, mutiny, executions, and the death of their leader—decimated their numbers and their fleet before returning to Spain. These men had, however, completed…

WHILE CROSSING THE PACIFIC, Pigafetta recorded how many of Magellan’s crew seemed to waste away from a horrific illness: Their gums bled, their limbs ulcerated, and delirium addled their minds. Scurvy and its symptoms, which are caused by a lack of vitamin C, would ravage many European expeditions. The captain who completed the Magellan expedition, Juan Sebastián Elcano, succumbed to scurvy on a later voyage, and it killed an estimated two million sailors between the 15th and 18th centuries. The medical properties of vitamin C were not discovered until the 1920s, but it became common wisdom in the 1700s that citrus fruit could be a preventative, a remedy that was resisted by some in the British Navy. It was not until the 1790s that fruit was distributed routinely among crews.…

MAXIMUM SPECTACLE FROM ROME’S Circus Maximus to Constantinople’s Hippodrome, the fervor for chariot racing burned hot across the Mediterranean world. What was once an aristocratic hobby became a professional sport during the Roman Empire, complete with giant sporting arenas, dedicated racing teams, and loyal, passionate fans. For centuries the hooves pounded, the crowd roared, superstars rose and fell, and Romans rejoiced and wept at the fortunes of their favorites. AN ARMY FOR THE AFTERLIFE FOR MORE THAN 2,000 YEARS, a massive army stood guard over the resting place of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang Di. To man his mausoleum (near modern Xian), the emperor commissioned thousands of life-size terracotta warriors, including generals, archers, infantry, charioteers, and cavalry. Their discovery stunned the world in 1974. In Search of…

In 1956 the century-old home of the First Baptist Church—one of the United States’ oldest Black congregations—was demolished. The congregation would be relocating to a new home, while Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum in Virginia, would expand into the site on Nassau Street. They did a quick excavation of the site, but then it eventually became a parking lot. A memorial plaque was placed there in the 1980s. In 2020 Colonial Williamsburg announced that it would return to thoroughly excavate the site of the First Baptist Church, whose use as a place of worship goes back as far as 1818. Free and enslaved Blacks began to worship in secret around 1776, gathering just outside of Williamsburg. In 1781, under the leadership of Rev. Gowan Pamphlet, an enslaved man in Williamsburg,…

Near the mouth of the Rhône River, 2,600 years ago, Greek traders founded a colony called Massilia, today the site of the French city of Marseille. Venturing inland along the Rhône Valley, those traders encountered a people who spoke a tongue the Greeks did not recognize. Ruled by wealthy chieftains and hungry for luxury goods, they seemed fierce and warlike. A century later, Greek geographer Hecataeus of Miletus gave them a name—Keltoi, translated into Latin by the Romans as Celtae. Today, the word “Celtic” represents many things: a style of modern jewelry; a typeface; and an epithet of national pride among people of Scottish, Welsh, and Irish descent. In historical terms, however, “Celtic” is harder to define, in part because the Celts lived across such a wide area, inhabiting lands…

Agrippina, in her role as Augusta, founded a Roman colony near her birthplace in what is today western Germany. Her father, Germanicus, had been stationed at a military outpost along the Rhine when Agrippina was born there in a.d. 15. After Agrippina elevated it, the colony was named Colonia Claudia Augusta Ara Agrippinensium (Colony of Claudius Near the Altar of the Agrippinians) but referred to as Colonia. The colony grew and became a major urban center, serving as the capital city of the Roman province Germania Inferior. Today it is known in English as Cologne, Germany’s fourth largest city.…

The moment when Nero examines the murdered body of his mother, Agrippina, is described in several ancient historians’ accounts. In his Lives of the Twelve Caesars, the second-century Roman historian Suetonius related how Nero “rushed off to examine Agrippina’s corpse, handling her limbs, and, between drinks to satisfy his thirst, discussing their good and bad points . . . He was never either then or afterward able to free his conscience from the guilt of this crime. He often admitted that he was hounded by his mother’s ghost and that the Furies were pursuing him with whips and burning torches.” Painting by Arturo Montero y Calvo, 1887. Prado Museum, Madrid…

LOOKING DOWN at a detail of the Madaba Map (right) reveals how its makers imagined the world from above. Looking east is where 1 the Jordan River flows into 2 the Dead Sea. Jerusalem dominates the map with its lozenge-shaped city walls. At its east end is 3 the Damascus Gate leading into 4 the Roman-era Cardo running from north to south. Just below the Cardo is 5 the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, held by tradition to be the site of Jesus’ empty tomb. 6 The New Church of St. Mary, the Mother of God was consecrated in 542; its inclusion therefore helps date the mosaic. Just inside 7 the Jaffa Gate are roadway sections that were excavated in 2010. Other sacred sites include 8 Jericho and 9 Bethlehem.…

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH on Nassau Street, in Williamsburg, Virginia, served as the home for one of the oldest continuous congregations in the United States. The original structure, built around 1818, was destroyed in the 1830s when the African Baptist Church (as it was called then) had as many as 600 members. A new brick building (photographed in 1901, above) was dedicated in 1856. TODAY’S MEMBERS of the First Baptist Church regard the ongoing excavation and hoped-for restoration of its early 19th-century meetinghouse as “a symbol of healing,” said Connie Matthews Harshaw, who heads the foundation that works to preserve the church’s history. The brick building built in the 1850s not only served as the congregation’s home for a century but also played an important role in American history. In…

One of Agrippina’s most fearsome political rivals was Messalina, third wife of Claudius. Writing some 70 years after her death, Roman historians described Messalina as being powerful and influential but completely immoral and lascivious; her husband was in her thrall, unwilling to see her manipulations. Shortly after Claudius became emperor, Messalina gave birth to their son Britannicus, who had the strongest position to become his heir. Messalina ruthlessly tried to eliminate potential rivals—including Agrippina and her son Nero—through gossip, exile, and even murder. Messalina would eventually be undone by her numerous intrigues and affairs. The Praetorian Guard would execute her after word spread of her involvement in a plot to overthrow Claudius and make Britannicus emperor. With her rival out of the way, Agrippina smartly maneuvered to become Claudius’s next…

During the Middle Ages, objects and body parts associated with Jesus, the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, and the saints played a central role in Christian life in Europe. Faithful pilgrims flocked to sites across the continent to venerate these relics, like the skull of St. Bridget in Sweden, the girdle of the Virgin Mary in the Netherlands, and Christ’s blood in Belgium. The top league of medieval relics were associated with Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Apostles, with lesser saints and martyrs ranked below. Pilgrims flocked to Rome, site of the burial of St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Peter, believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Peter, the first pope. Ranked after Rome in importance was the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, which tradition…

A LITTLE WINNER Beginning life on the commercial route between Spain and England, the 85-ton Victoria was bought for Magellan’s expedition for 800 ducats (below its market value) in the name of the crown. With a maximum crew of 45, it was the second smallest craft in Magellan’s fleet. Carracks had high freeboards, (the amount of ship visible above the water). This design reduced the ship’s speed while increasing cargo space. It also made it less likely to be toppled by high seas.…

Tensions between Muslims and Christians in the 1880s in what is today Jordan led to a compromise. The Christians could relocate to a town named Madaba on the condition they could only build churches on sites where churches had once stood before. The proposal had a certain logic, for although Madaba by this time was a dusty, obscure outpost in the Ottoman Empire, during the Byzantine period it had been a thriving Christian city. In 1884 the newly settled Greek Orthodox Christians wanted to build a new Church of St. George over its former site. They duly cleared the ground over what had been the ancient church and made a stunning discovery: Underneath the rubble was a huge mosaic of a detailed map. Although damaged in places, its myriad colored…