Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2021 i National Geographic History

Thundering drums and a piercing war cry kick off “Immigrant Song,” the first track on Led Zeppelin’s third album. Coming in at only 2 minutes, 26 seconds, the song is a lightning strike taking listeners back in time to the Viking age, when fearsome invaders “from the land of the ice and snow” stormed across Europe. Sailors and warriors, raiders and traders, the Northmen used their swift longships to travel as far as Iran in the east, Canada in the west, and Morocco in the south between A.D. 750 and 1066. In this issue, we focus on the Viking campaigns in the Mediterranean. I had “Immigrant Song” on repeat while working on the story, which I hoped would match the song’s speed and simplicity. That was not to be, for…

Following publication of Little Women in 1868, Louisa May Alcott was popularly known as the “children’s friend,” a moniker that became the title of the first biography written about her in 1888. The warmhearted stories she told in Little Women about the March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—growing up in Civil War–era Massachusetts, made her one of America’s best-selling and best loved authors. Little Women spawned two sequels, stage plays, numerous films, more than 10 TV adaptations, a Broadway musical, and an opera. It has sold an estimated 10 million copies and been translated into as many as 50 languages. Alcott went on to write fiction for the rest of her life. Literary historians now know that she had an earlier, hidden career, in which she had produced a significant…

A HAIRCUT serves as a backdrop for one of the most memorable scenes in Little Women. Tomboy Jo March takes great pride in not caring about her appearance, but her long chestnut hair is perhaps her one vanity. After a telegram delivers news that their father is very ill, the March family gathers funds to send their mother to Washington, D.C. Unbeknownst to her family, Jo sells her hair to a wigmaker for $25, her contribution to “making Father comfortable and bringing him home.” As her family laments the loss, Jo puts on a brave face, but later that night, her sister Meg finds Jo sobbing: “My… My hair!… I’m not sorry… I’d do it again tomorrow, if I could. It’s only the vain part of me that goes and…

SEN NO RIKYU (1522-1591) is considered the father of the modern tea ceremony with its carefully designed simplicity. As tea master to the shogun Hideyoshi, Rikyu became entangled in the turbulent politics of medieval Japan. He ran afoul of his patron, for reasons that are unclear, and was ordered to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide. As told by a later writer, Rikyu held one last tea ceremony before taking his life. After serving his guests and emptying the bowls, Rikyu gave them his prized utensils. Then, before hurling his bowl to the floor and shattering it, he said, “Never again shall this cup, polluted by the lips of misfortune, be used by man.”…

BONFIRES lit along strategic coastal points have been documented since the first millennium b.c. Pirates known as “wreckers” used these fires to misdirect ships onto rocks and shoals and would then scavenge the cargo. THE OLDEST structures considered lighthouses stood on the Greek island of Thassos in the fifth century b.c. After the Lighthouse of Alexandria was built in the third century b.c., lighthouses became popular. WHEN ROME ruled the Mediterranean, lighthouses appeared from Ostia, Messina, and Ravenna (in Italy) to far off Dover, England. One of the best-preserved Roman lighthouses is in present-day A Coruña, Spain. Called the Tower of Hercules today and a UNESCO World Heritage site, it was known as the Farum Brigantium when it was built during the late first century a.d.…

THE CHRONICLE of Spanish Muslim historian Ibn Hayyan, written in Córdoba in the 11th century, narrates how Vikings entered the Christian north of Spain and “raged against the Bashkunis [Basques], killing many and taking prisoner their king, Garsiya ibn Wannaqo [García I Íñiguez, king of Pamplona].” The Northmen, Ibn Hayyan wrote, demanded a ransom of 70,000 dinars. This hostage-taking is believed to have happened in 859. Although there is some uncertainty as to where the king was captured, historians believe the perpetrators were likely the same Viking crew who entered the Mediterranean that year. The Arabic word used by Ibn Hayyan and Muslims in Spain for the Vikings was al-Madjus, meaning “magi,” the Zoroastrian priests of Persia. This usage was based on the mistaken belief that the Vikings, like the…

CA A.D. 800 Mississippian culture flowers in southeastern North America. Groups settle in the Cahokia area. A.D. 1000 People move to Cahokia and the population explodes. Mound building begins in earnest. A.D. 1100-1175 During Cahokia’s “golden age,” Monks Mound is completed, and palisades are built around the city. A.D. 1300s After a steady drop in population, the city of Cahokia is abandoned by the Mississippian people.…

THE ALLURE of the Orient Express inspired many works of fiction over the decades, but Agatha Christie’s 1934 mystery Murder on the Orient Express made the train a pop culture icon. The classic novel was inspired by a true event: the snowstorm in 1929 that forced the convoy to stop for days near Constantinople (a year before the city’s name changed to Istanbul). Christie drew the setting for her novel from her first trip on the train in 1928 (Christie had professed a love of the Orient Express long before she boarded it). Her painstakingly detailed descriptions of the carriages—which included clues vital to Poirot’s investigation, such as the position of door handles—captured the essence and luxury of the train, which she then overlaid with mystery and intrigue. The book…

MORE THAN 5,000 fragments had been collected from the Mont’e Prama site since 1975. Putting them back together occurred at the restoration center of Li Punti in northern Sardinia. Between 2007 and 2011, researchers had to organize a stone jumble of broken arms, legs, torsos, heads, and shields. After examining each surface for the type of tools and techniques applied by the Iron Age sculptors, they carefully cleaned and then sorted each fragment. When they had finished, they had assembled 24 statues in as complete a state as possible. Because of the statues’ age and some crucial missing pieces, the team used metal supports to display the giants upright. In their prime, these statues were created with such skill that historians believe they stood without any supports at all.…

1832 Louisa May Alcott is born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1840 her family will move to Massachusetts. 1863 After serving as a Civil War nurse in Washington, D.C., Alcott publishes her much-praised Hospital Sketches. 1868 Following her publisher’s request for a story for girls, Alcott writes Little Women. In 1871 she will pen a sequel, Little Men. 1886 Alcott devotes time to women’s suffrage and other causes. She publishes Jo’s Boys, the last book in the trilogy. 1888 Alcott dies from a stroke at 55, likely because of mercury-laden medicine used to treat typhoid fever during the Civil War.…

IN 1994 a Franco-Egyptian submarine excavation next to the Citadel of Qaitbay found hundreds of marble and granite columns, plus two dozen sphinxes. All these elements had been reused from previous monuments. The remains of the colossal statues of five Ptolemaic pharaohs—believed to have stood at the entry to the lighthouse—were also found. THE MOST SURPRISING discoveries were blocks of pink granite from Aswan, spread over the seabed as if they had fallen from a great height. Their dimensions—over 36 feet long and weighing more than 70 tons—and the quality of their cut indicate they are probably remains of the lighthouse. These pieces were used in key parts of the building—critical sections where the legendary endurance of granite rock was necessary.…

After worshipping the infant Jesus, the magi, according to Matthew, are warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem, where Herod is awaiting their information on the child. Their evasion enrages the king: “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16). The Massacre of the Innocents adds a streak of darkness to the Christmas story and has inspired centuries of revulsion among Christians. No historical record corroborates Matthew’s account of a massacre. The Antiquities of the Jews, written by Judeo-Roman historian Flavius Josephus, offers a detailed portrait of the chaotic end of Herod’s reign, but no gruesome massacre is mentioned.…

843 Following years of coastal raids on France, Vikings settle the Breton island of Noirmoutier from where they launch raids into mainland France. 844 France-based Vikings sail south to raid Muslim Seville (in modern-day Spain), entering the city from the Atlantic. 845 Viking raiders sail the Seine River to sack Paris. A decade later, Viking warlord Björn Ironside also sacks Paris. 859 Chronicles claim Björn Ironside enters the Mediterranean and sacks cities in Spain, North Africa, and southern France. 860 After wintering in the Camargue (in southern France), Björn’s crew raids cities in Italy before returning north.…

THE VIKINGS’ expansion west, south, and east was facilitated by the longboat. These narrow vessels, powered by oar and sail, could resist the fury of the Atlantic while their shallow draft enabled them to travel vast distances along rivers. Overlapping planks created a watertight shell strengthened by ribbing, a design adapted for different purposes. To hold more cargo, trading ships were broader in the beam, while raiding craft needed to be lighter and faster. Ship burials, such as that excavated at Oseberg, Norway, in 1904, provide clues on Viking ship engineering. Buried circa 834, the Oseberg craft was a high-status ship, adorned with intricate carvings. Normal ships were simpler, but some did have the dragon-headed prow, a feature likely to leave a deep impression on those people the Vikings encountered.…

MANY AMERICAN INDIAN earthen mound complexes can be found in North America, from the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys and across the Southeast, but Cahokia is far and away the largest. Over the course of three centuries, Cahokia became a metropolis that spanned more than 4,000 acres. Cahokia’s peak population is difficult to pin down, but many estimate that roughly 15,000 people lived in the city proper and 30,000 more in the surrounding areas. A VIBRANT CULTURAL CENTER, the ancient city was a center of commerce. Some artifacts found there are made out of materials that are not native to southern Illinois, like marine shells and copper. Likewise, artifacts made from Cahokia materials have been discovered at other North American sites, indicating a robust trade network.…

AS MANY AS 15,000 PEOPLE lived in Cahokia at its peak, some estimate, but by 1400 the city was deserted. No one quite knows why, and archaeologists are still searching for explanations. One of the most popular is the so-called deforestation hypothesis. In 1993 researchers from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville suggested that Cahokia’s decline might have been caused by cutting down thousands of trees to build stockades and other improvements. Fewer trees meant more erosion, more flooding, and degraded harvests. Their hypothesis found wide acceptance among Cahokia scholars. IN SPRING 2021 geoarchaeologist Caitlin Rankin turned that idea on its head. She published her findings in the journal Geoarchaeology, showing that it was impossible for deforestation and flooding to cause the city’s demise. Rankin’s excavations at the site found no evidence…

THE ORIENT EXPRESS was used by Britain, the United States, France, and other major powers to transport diplomatic bags containing state secrets across Europe. Larger items were sent along this route too. In 1919 the U.S. Diplomatic Courier Service dispatched a young courier, David K.E. Bruce (who later rose through the ranks to become a senior diplomat), to accompany a baby grand piano on the Orient Express from Trieste to Istanbul. It never arrived: Bruce reported that he had slept under it on a station platform in Bulgaria one night, waking to discover that it had been stolen. The piano’s fate has never been established, and it remains the only item ever lost by America’s Diplomatic Courier Service.…

WITH THE EXCEPTION of a brief European romance, Alcott herself was more committed to writing and her immediate family than to landing a husband. Unlike the March sisters, including Jo (whom Alcott’s publishers pushed into a marriage at the end of Little Women), Alcott never wed or gave birth to any children. She did care for a niece, Lulu, after the death of her youngest sister, May. In Little Women Jo is never shy with her criticisms of marriage, but Alcott saves her probably most telling quote on matrimony for Amy March’s husband Laurie: “For marriage, they say, halves one’s rights and doubles one’s duties.”…

INFLUENCED BY ZEN BUDDHISM, the Japanese tea ceremony became known as chado, , the way of tea. The word do means “way” or “philosophy,” and is applied to several other Zen arts, such as kado, the way of flower arranging. In chado the act of preparing and drinking powdered green tea, or matcha, is a choreographed art involving traditional utensils. These include the kama, or kettle to boil water; the furo, or portable brazier if there is no permanent stove; the fukusa, a silk cloth to handle the hot kettle; the natsume, a container for the matcha; the chashaku, a tea scoop; a chawan, or bowl, in which the tea is prepared; and the chasen, a bamboo whisk to mix the matcha and hot water. Tea rooms are generally modeled…

331 B.C. Alexander the Great founds the port city of Alexandria in the Nile Delta, on a strip of land between the sea and Lake Maryut. 323 B.C. After Alexander dies, his general, Ptolemy I Soter, rules Egypt. Ptolemy’s descendants will be the Ptolemaic dynasty—the last pharaohs of Egypt. CA 297-282 B.C. Lighthouse construction begins during the reign of Ptolemy I and concludes under the reign of his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus. CA 225 B.C. Scholars across the Greek world begin compiling lists of seven wonders, including the Lighthouse of Alexandria. CA 48-47 B.C. Cleopatra VII, the last Ptolemaic monarch, orders the first documented maintenance of the lighthouse. A.D. 796-1323 Earthquakes strike the lighthouse, causing severe damage to the structure. Repairs cannot save it, and it falls in the 14th…

ACCESS TO THE tower-shaped lighthouse, whose height was greater than 350 feet, was gained via a 1 ramp. The lower part of the structure was decorated with colossal pink granite statues, representing the Ptolemaic pharaohs and their queens. The building was divided into three big bodies of decreasing size. The lowest was a 2 square, with sides each measuring about 98 feet. The second had an 3 octagonal plan, while the third housed the flame in a 4 cylindrical structure sustained by columns. ENORMOUS BLOCKS of white limestone were used to build the lighthouse, which would have shined intensely under the Egyptian sun. Its walls had 5 various openings, which illuminated the interior and increased the edifice’s windresistance. The corners of the upper floors were decorated with 6 figures of…

The day and the year when Jesus was born has been subjected to much scrutiny. December 25 was first designated by the church as the Christmas in the fourth century. This date clashes with the biblical sources, most notably with Luke’s description of shepherds “keeping watch over their flocks by night.” This passage suggests that Jesus was born in the springtime when shepherds are watching over the newly born lambs. One theory for the late December birth is that it places the Annunciation in March, nine months earlier. Early Christians believed that late March was when Jesus was crucified. Having both his conception and death in the same month strengthened the sacred connections. There were also practical reasons for adopting December 25 as Christmas: That date was also the Roman…

Luke and Matthew conclude their narratives in strikingly different ways. Luke recounts how an angel announced the divine birth to shepherds, who hurry to the manger to worship the baby Jesus. Soon after, the Holy Family swiftly moves to Jerusalem, where Jesus will be presented at the Temple. By contrast, Matthew’s Gospel concludes with high drama and an escape. Warned in a dream by an angel of the Lord in a dream, Joseph learns that Herod has sent men to kill his son. The angel tells Joseph to take his family and flee to Egypt, where they should stay. So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so it was fulfilled what…

THE MASSIVE Sardinian statues reassembled by archaeologists between 2007 and 2011 fall into three main categories: boxers, archers, and warriors. The statues have elements missing, but archaeologists believe that when they were intact, each sculpture displayed a full set of traits common in their categories. The boxers, the most numerous category found to date, are bare-chested and thickset. Each figure held a shield over his head. Archaeologists have gleaned from fragments that they also once held a ritual combat glove in their right hand. The faces have two concentric circles for eyes. Historians theorize that these figures were the fighter-athletes, who may have played a religious, or even priestly, role. The archers are represented with the right arm raised in a salute and the left hand, encased in a glove,…