Innholdsfortegnelse for September/October 2022 i National Geographic History

Going to hell and back often makes for a memorable chapter in a story. Medieval author Dante takes such a trip in Inferno, part one of his Divine Comedy. His trip through the nine circles of hell belongs to a long tradition of journeys to the afterlife, joining ancient heroes like Odysseus and Aeneas who venture to the underworld. More modern works likely feature a figurative journey. Think Bilbo Baggins going beneath the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit or Marlow steaming on the Congo River in Heart of Darkness. They’re not actually going to the fiery pits of hell, but they, like the epic heroes of old, travel to places that challenge them, scare them, and force them to reassess everything they thought they knew. When they return, their lives…

New Jersey is a popular place to live. Sandwiched between New York City and Philadelphia, it is the most densely populated state in the Union with more than 1,200 people per square mile (Alaska has the lowest with slightly more than one person per square mile). Despite the reputation for suburban sprawl, New Jersey holds a pristine surprise: the Pine Barrens. Also known as the Pinelands, this enormous tract of land covers some 1.1 million acres—22 percent of New Jersey’s total area. The Pine Barrens’s sandy soil, dense forests, and pristine waterways are largely undeveloped, but they are also home to something sinister: the Jersey Devil. Haunting the barrens, a beast with giant leathery wings, a horse’s head, glowing red eyes, and sharp claws has been scaring residents for nearly…

Michelangelo placed him in heaven in his“Last Judgment”; Sandro Botticelli re-created the circles of hell created by his poetic imagination; and Hieronymus Bosch, William Blake, and Gustave Doré imagined his infernal visions in brilliant works of art. Even today, when the theology and politics of late medieval Florence seem so remote, Dante Alighieri’s masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, still fascinates and inspires readers the world over. Completed just before Dante died in 1321, it consists of three parts—Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso—The Divine Comedy is a long poem recounting the author’s journey among the damned in hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. Later, he is reunited with his beloved, Beatrice, who guides him up to purgatory, and then to Paradise, where, in a moment of ecstasy, Dante glimpses God. In naming…

1 ENTERING THE MERIDIAN GATE WUFENG LOU (Five-Phoenix Tower) is the imposing southern entrance to the Forbidden City. It is also known as the Meridian Gate because it was believed that the meridian line passed through the palace complex. The emperor issued his imperial decrees in this most auspicious place. The gate is set in the external wall’s center and has a lateral wing extending out on either side. Its design follows the tower style used to decorate entrances of palaces, temples, and tombs in the Zhou dynasty (11th-3rd centuries B.C.). Five doors open through the Meridian Gate’s tower for access to the complex. The center door was solely the emperor’s. The only exceptions were for the empress on her wedding day and for the top three national exam scholars.…

The Ardines massif on Spain’s northern coast is riddled with limestone caves. It lies a few miles from some of the most famous sites of Paleolithic cave art in the world, including Altamira, discovered in 1868, and El Castillo, discovered in 1903. In spring 1968 young cavers exploring the massif were about to find another one. Equipped with only basic gear, the group was spelunking in a cavern known locally as Pozu’l Ramu. On their way into the cave, they stopped at a subterranean spring, but one of them wandered a little farther forward from the group. “Paintings!” they suddenly heard him shout. As the cavers pressed forward, the light from their lamps caught an animal’s leg painted on the wall. Despite not being archaeologists, they could tell this find…

Analysis of the remains of huntergatherers who lived in Portugal 8,000 years ago has revealed the oldest evidence yet found of human mummification. The finds predate by a thousand years the Chinchorro mummies of Chile, previously believed to be the oldest examples of the practice. The evidence comes from newly discovered rolls of film taken in the early 1960s at two archaeological sites in Portugal’s Sado Valley—Poças de São Bento and Arapouco. The images show 13 burials in situ. The bodies are held at Portugal’s National Museum of Archaeology, but until now they lacked contextual data showing their position when found. The quality of the images enabled archaeologists to study the mortuary practices of the site, which thrived in Europe’s Mesolithic, right before the dawn of agriculture. Photos of two…

On October 31, 1589, a large crowd gathered in the German city of Bedburg, near Cologne, to witness an execution. The condemned man was Peter Stump, a 50-year-old farmer who had confessed to making a pact with the devil. He wasn’t seeking riches; he wanted the ability to turn into a werewolf. His shocking crimes included multiple murders and cannibalism. Of the 16 people he killed, 13 were children–his own son among them, whose brain he allegedly devoured. He also admitted to having had sexual relations with his daughter and with a succubus (a demon in the guise of a beautiful woman). “Of all other that ever lived, none was comparable unto this Hellhound,” an account of his execution said. Stump (called Stubbe and Stumpf in some sources) suffered terribly…

Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London: How aptly the title states the major roles of this iconic structure. Rising next to the River Thames, it was once the largest nonecclesiastical building in England and a focus of power for each new monarch. Over the centuries, the structure has been renovated, enlarged, and enhanced. As the architecture has changed, so has the Tower’s purpose. It’s been a fortress, a prison, and a palace. It’s served as the Royal Mint, displayed a menagerie of exotic animals, housed the crown jewels, and become the home of the six royal ravens, whose presence, tradition says, keeps the kingdom from falling. Fortress on the Thames The Tower of London’s origins go back to 1066. After defeating Harold II, last Saxon…

Every year two fleets set sail from Spain to provision its colonies with agricultural products, food, and manufactured goods. The New Spain fleet’s ultimate destination was Veracruz (Mexico), and the Tierra Firme fleet’s was Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). Another fleet plied the Pacific between Acapulco and the Philippines to stock up on Asian goods. Later, the New Spain and Tierra Firme fleets joined in Havana to return to Spain. Laden with goods, they returned under convoy, to protect them from corsairs. They carried back silver and cocoa from the Americas, and silk from Asia. 1 To the Canaries Loaded with goods needed in the colonies, the fleets sailed down the the Guadalquivir River from Seville, entering the sea at Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Passing within sight of Africa, they headed for the…

Lingustic Life 1790 Champollion is born in southern France during the French Revolution. 1807 Age 17, Champollion moves to Paris to study Coptic and research hieroglyphs. 1822 After years of research, he discovers the key to the hieroglyphic system. 1832 After years of illness, Champollion dies in Paris at age 41. The paper presented before the Académie de Grenoble in eastern France in 1806 was noteworthy for two reasons: First, the author was only 16 years old, and second the astonishingly erudite teenager made a very bold claim. He believed the ancient language of Egypt lived on in the form of the African language Coptic. Although his assertion would not turn out to be quite correct (Coptic is not identical to ancient Egyptian, but derived from it), the young scholar’s…

In the heart of modern Beijing is the world’s largest palace complex, big enough to hold 50 Buckingham Palaces and covering more than 7.75 million square feet. Known as the Forbidden City, it served as the symbolic and political center of imperial China between 1420 and 1912. Its forbidding moniker reflected how most subjects of the realm were never allowed to enter its walls. The entire complex is filled with palaces, gardens, courtyards, and living quarters. It was built by the Yongle emperor, the third Ming ruler (r. 1403-1424). He declared himself emperor and consolidated his power in Beijing, moving the capital some 620 miles from Nanjing in 1403. Sources say it took 100,000 artisans and a million forced laborers to build the Beijing complex between 1406 and 1420, on…

Located more than 60 miles from the sea, the river port of Seville may seem like a strange place to establish a port to control Spain’s newfound wealth from the Americas. Although maneuvering large ships along the Guadalquivir River required great skill, Seville’s inland location was more secure than Cádiz (the pirate Barbarossa attacked Spanish ships off Cádiz in 1521; the English raided Cadiz in 1587 under Drake, and again in 1596 as part of an Anglo-Dutch force). Seville’s port (above) was made up of a wide esplanade that extended south of the city, between the city walls and the Guadalquivir River. This area buzzed with activity, a meeting place for water carriers, wheelwrights, merchants, and soldiers. Seville supplied crews for the transatlantic fleets and channeled the goods needed in…

Passengers and goods traveled between Spain and the Americas in fleets with armed escorts to defend against attacks, but the most feared adversaries were the elements, because storms destroyed more ships than did enemies of the Spanish crown. A hurricane spelled disaster for the treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha. On the night of September 5-6, 1622, violent winds took the Tierra Firme fleet by surprise off the Florida Keys, sinking eight of the 28 ships, including the Atocha. It sank laden with a cargo of gold, silver, emeralds, and pearls. Of the 265 people on board, only five survived. The Spanish authorities tried to recover the cargo but another hurricane struck before they could, destroying any trace of the wreck; it lay submerged until a much publicized salvage operation…