Innholdsfortegnelse for January/February 2024 i National Geographic History

DONATING BLOOD is so easy to do now that it can happen almost anywhere, thanks to mobile donation units, better known as bloodmobiles. When Charles Drew invented them in 1941, they were called “self-contained collection centers on specially built trucks.” There were 63 of them in use during World War II as part of a national blood drive. By the war’s end, some 6.7 million American volunteers had donated more than 13 million pints of blood.…

Located on the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea, Wadi al-Jarf is a quiet, unassuming place today. Dry desert sands and placid blue water stretch out as far as the eye can see; across the water one can spy the Sinai Peninsula. This seeming tranquility masks the busy hub it once was more than 4,000 years ago. Wadi al-Jarf’s historical importance was cemented in 2013 when 30 papyri, the world’s oldest, were found hidden away in manmade limestone caves there. Aside from their age, the socalled Red Sea Scrolls are remarkable for their contents. Not only do they reveal Wadi al-Jarf’s distant past as a bustling port, they also contain eyewitness accounts of a man named Merer who took part in the building of the Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu.…

Ancient Palmyra became a thriving, cosmopolitan capital of trade thanks to its geography. The city’s history stretches back to the second millennium B.C., when inscriptions referred to it by its original name, Tadmur. (The city’s name would change when it came under Roman influence around 64 B.C.) Surrounded by mountains and desert, Tadmur, located some 130 miles northeast of modern Damascus, blossomed atop a lush oasis complete with groves of palm trees. Both a natural spring, the Efqa, and a wadi watered the city, allowing it to grow and become a vital stop along the trade routes between the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. Caravans met, and people developed innovative styles of art and architecture that reflected multiple cultural influences. Historic records show Tadmur possessed a cosmopolitan quality from the start. Writers…

TRADING CARAVANS traveling to and from Palmyra not only had to cross the hostile desert, but they also had to be on alert for bandits. According to an inscription found in the city, dated June, A.D. 144, a group of Palmyrene merchants honored a fellow citizen named So’adu bar Bolyada for saving a trading caravan from these gangs of thieves. The traders were returning from the city of Vologesias, to the east, when they were attacked by a group of Bedouins in the Euphrates desert. Bar Bolyda left Palmyra with a great force and confronted Abdallat of Ahitaya and his gang of bandits, who had long been lying in wait to rob the caravan. Bar Bolyada’s reputation for heroism would earn him at least 17 honorary statues in Palmyra and…

1905 Nicholas II and Alexandra, the rulers of Russia, establish a relationship with Rasputin, a Siberian peasant with an aura of mysticism and healing. 1912 The rulers’ son, Alexei, who has hemophilia, suffers a nearfatal hemorrhage at Spała, a town now in Poland. Alexandra and Nicholas believe that Rasputin has the power to relieve his symptoms. 1915 After Nicholas leaves for the front line of World War I, Rasputin’s influence over Alexandra increases. Rumors spread that Rasputin is controlling her and the government. 1916 Rasputin is assassinated on the night of December 16-17, in a plot hatched by Prince Felix Yusupov with the participation of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, the tsar’s cousin. 1917 After the February revolution, Rasputin’s hastily dug grave is discovered. His corpse will be dug up and…

Raised in the lap of luxury, Prince Felix Yusupov enjoyed throwing wild parties, smoking and drinking, and having love affairs with men and women. After his older brother’s death in 1908, Felix became the heir to the family fortune: palaces, estates, jewels, oil fields, coal and iron mines, factories, and mills. In terms of wealth, the Yusupovs were said to be second only to the Romanovs in Russia. But after Rasputin’s murder in 1916 and the revolution that followed, Felix lost his fortune. Felix and his wife, Irina, were forced into exile, eventually settling in Paris, France, where they lived off their remaining assets. When those ran out, they turned to other means. In 1927 Felix used Rasputin’s death for income when he published La Fin de Raspoutine, his account…

WALTER ANDRAE’S exceptional artistic skills made him invaluable on Robert Koldewey’s excavations of Babylon in the early 1900s. While learning the meticulous archaeological methods that would later serve him in Assur, Andrae made drawings and paintings of the site almost daily. Methodical and scientific, Andrae also had a visionary side: In his memoirs, he wrote how, over many years, he formed in his mind an “inner vision … a spiritual picture” of what life was like in those ancient cities.…

As early as 2,700 years ago, a herdswoman who lived in the arid stretches of northwest China was buried in a coat made of animal hides, woolen pants, and leather boots. Dressed to ride, she was also buried with her leather saddle. Found in the Yanghai cemetery near Turpan and dated to between 700 and 400 B.C., this saddle, the oldest yet found, challenges assumptions about who was using such gear, and for what purpose. The find was “a surprise,” according to Patrick Wertmann of the University of Zurich, lead author of a study of the saddle, published in Archaeological Research in Asia. Saddle finds are rare, as their organic components often decay. Other kinds of horse gear, such as bridles and bits, are more commonly found, but they do…

When people think of market crazes, Dutch tulips or real estate come to mind. But in the 19th century demand for Hirudo medicinalis—the European medicinal leech—nearly drove the species to extinction. Its medicinal properties were touted as a cure-all across Europe, and the animal was used to treat everything from cancer to tuberculosis to mental illness. The coveted worm—dark brown or black in color, with a thin stripe of yellow, green, or red along its back—was popular because it supposedly had a gentle touch, yet also, importantly, a voracious appetite. Physicians of the period often prescribed dozens of leeches to treat what ailed a patient. Someone with suspected pneumonia, for example, might have up to 80 leeches each treatment session applied across the chest. For gastritis therapy, as many as…

Hundreds of people tried to reach the North Pole in the 19th century, all by ship or sledge. All failed; dozens perished. But only three tried to reach the so-called Arctic Grail by balloon. They were led by Swedish engineer Salomon August Andrée, who told a London audience at the Sixth International Geographical Congress in 1895 that a hydrogen balloon could succeed where other methods had not. Andrée’s critics heaped scorn on what the London magazine Punch called his“balloonatic” notions. There was no way to control speed and direction, they said. Failure was inevitable. Undaunted, Andrée would take off from Sweden with two fellow explorers two years later to try to reach the pole—only to disappear. Decades would pass before the world knew of their fate. The Balloon Bug Born…

ca 2613 B.C. Founder of the Old Kingdom’s 4th dynasty, Sneferu comes to power. Several pyramids are built during his reign. ca 2580 B.C. Shortly before Sneferu’s heir, Khufu, becomes pharaoh, a port is built at Wadi al-Jarf, on the shores of the Red Sea. ca 2509-2483 B.C. Wadi al-Jarf becomes a trade hub for the copper and other materials needed to build Khufu’s massive pyramid at Giza. ca 2480 B.C. Around the time of Khufu’s death, the harbor complex at Wadi al-Jarf is decommissioned.…

The Roman Republic was booming in the beginning of the fourth century B.C. Wealthy and powerful, it had just defeated the Etruscan city of Veii, amassed an immense war chest, and doubled its territory. But then, out of the blue, the republic suffered the unthinkable: occupation by a Celtic people, the Gauls. This was the first time that Rome and Gaul would face off, but it would not be the last. Over the coming centuries, the Romans and the Gauls would clash many times. But this first defeat in 387 B.C. caused a collective trauma for Rome that lasted generations, shaping Roman attitudes toward all peoples from the north. Early Encounters By 600 B.C. the Gallic people Insubres had already settled south of the Alps, where they founded Mediolanum (today’s…

ROMAN HISTORIANS SEEMED TO RELISH tales that highlighted the savagery of the Celtic Gauls, including how they decapitated their enemies and kept their heads as trophies. One particularly gruesome account was written by Livy in the first century B.C. He described the fate of Roman consul Lucius Postumius, who died in 216 B.C. fighting against the Boii people, who lived across an area from today’s northern Italy. As Livy recounts, the Boii took the consul’s head “into the most sacred temple … Afterwards they cleansed the head … and having covered the skull with chased gold, used it as a cup for libations in their solemn festivals.” Another account from Greek historian Diodorus Siculus details how the Gauls would also preserve the heads in cedar oil. These accounts may feel…

THIS SANCTUARY, DEDICATED IN A.D. 32, served Bel, the main divinity of Palmyra. The largest monument in the city, it was surrounded by 1 a wall topped with triangular, stepped merlons and standing 50 feet tall at its highest point. The main entrance gave access to 2 the sacred enclosure, a large courtyard with double-columned porticoes. In addition to the main building, there was 3 an altar for animal sacrifices and 4 a sacred pool where priests performed their ablutions. In the center of the enclosure stood 5 Bel’s sanctuary. This central structure combined Greco-Roman elements, such as the columns, with Persian attributes, such as the roof.…

CA 1822 In Dorchester County, Maryland, Harriet Tubman is born to enslaved parents who name her Araminta “Minty” Ross. 1849 Tubman escapes from slavery and travels north to freedom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1850-1860 As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Tubman rescues more than 70 people from slavery in Maryland. 1861 After the Civil War breaks out, Tubman joins Union forces stationed at Fort Monroe in Virginia. 1863 After establishing a spy network in South Carolina, Tubman leads a raid on plantations along the Combahee River.…

BLACK AMERICANS had been clamoring to fight for the Union since the beginning of the Civil War. The first officially recognized soldiers served in the First Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry. Because the Union had gained such a strong foothold in the Port Royal area, people were flocking there in droves to flee slavery. In August 1862 Gen. Rufus R. Saxton, the military governor of the region, saw a valuable opportunity in this growing population and began recruiting men after receiving the secretary of war’s authorization. By January 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, the First South Carolina was nearly a thousand soldiers strong. Recruiting efforts continued, and the Second South Carolina, the unit that served with Harriet Tubman, was organized that month. In May 1863, the Bureau of…

By 1916 the imperial family believed that Rasputin’s influence over Tsarina Alexandra and Tsar Nicholas could be disastrous for Russia. On December 3, Alexandra’s sister Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna (known as Ella) visited the tsar and his wife to warn them that Rasputin was leading the dynasty to disaster. The couple countered Ella’s claims by saying Rasputin was a great and holy man; they advised her to drop the subject. Ella told her friend, Princess Zinaida Yusupov: “She drove me away like a dog.” Zinaida could well understand the situation. Whenthe princess had criticized Rasputin, Alexandra snapped at her: “I hope I never see you again!” Both women were keen to be rid of Rasputin, whatever it took. “Peaceful means won’t change anything,” Zinaida wrote in a letter to her…

As soon as Rasputin entered the room, he took off his coat and began inspecting the furniture … I offered him wine and tea; to my disappointment, he refused both. Had something made him suspicious? I was determined, whatever happened, that he would not leave the house alive. We sat down at the table, and he began to talk … “It is clear my plain speaking annoys a lot of people. The aristocrats can’t get used to the idea that a humble peasant should be welcome at the Imperial Palace … They are eaten up with envy and fury … but I’m not scared of them. They can’t touch me. I’m protected against ill fortune. There have been attempts on my life but the Lord has always frustrated these plots.…

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH was an English Romantic poet who wrote about the leech craze and the troubles it was causing the people who gathered the creatures for a living. In his 1807 poem “Resolution and Independence,” the narrator comes upon an impoverished leech gatherer who laments the hardships of his trade. He notes the growing challenges of finding the animals, even decades before the leech trade peaked: Once I could meet with them on every side;But they have dwindled long by slow decay;Yet still I persevere, and find them where I may.…

WHEN IT WAS INFLATED for the first time in 1896, Andrée’s balloon was leaking hydrogen gas. To make it airtight, the silk was doubled and varnished on both sides. Although no balloon had flown more than 36 hours, its maker said this balloon could stay aloft for a month. Seeing that it still leaked gas, however, an original member of the team, Nils Ekholm, backed out of the mission. He was replaced by civil engineer Knut Fraenkel.…

SACRED GEESE LIVED in the goddess Juno’s temple on Capitoline Hill during the Roman Republic. This gaggle became a band of unlikely heroes when the Gauls sacked the city in 387 B.C. It was the geese that prevented the last stronghold in Rome from falling into the hands of the Gauls. The story appears in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, written around the second century A.D.: “There were some sacred geese near the temple of Juno, which were usually fed without stint, but at that time, since provisions barely sufficed for the garrison alone, they were neglected and in evil plight. The creature is naturally sharp of hearing and afraid of every noise, and these, being specially wakeful and restless by reason of their hunger, perceived the approach of the Gauls, dashed…

THIS RECONSTRUCTION shows what Palmyra might have looked like in its heyday in the second and third centuries A.D. The monumental city planning of the second century is evident in the great processional route that connected the Palmyra’s main entrance with the Temple of Bel. This boulevard divided the city into two sectors: a southern portion, where the luxurious homes of the rich merchants and most of the temples were concentrated, and a large northern neighborhood, where the majority of the population lived.…

LOCATED SOME 20 MILES south of Charleston, South Carolina, is a rich ecosystem created by the Ashepoo, Combahee (shown here), and Edisto Rivers. Known as the ACE Basin, this coastal river system consists of 1.1 million acres of wetlands and coastal islands where rice once flourished. Abandoned after the Civil War, the former plantations have become havens for wildlife, including white-tailed deer, foxes, and American alligators. Tidal creeks serve as habitat for fish and coastal birds like herons, egrets, and ducks.…

On the night of December 16-17, 1916, a murder took place at one of Russia’s grandest palaces. The crime marked the culmination of an ugly, concerted campaign against both the victim and his imperial Russian patrons. It would rock the tsarist elite at a time when World War I was ravaging Europe and Russia was inexorably sliding toward revolution. More than a hundred years later, the sensationalist reporting of the murder of Grigory Rasputin—for so long erroneously portrayed as a mad monk—has persisted in distorting the truth about his close relationship with Russia’s last tsar and tsarina, Nicholas and Alexandra. How this lowly peasant and former horse dealer achieved such unique access to the reclusive Romanovs alarmed the imperial inner circle, who demonized Rasputin and those who followed him. From…

Rasputin’s two teenage daughters, Maria and Varvara, lived with him in St. Petersburg. In December 1916, rumors of death threats against their father had reached them. When they saw him getting ready to go out on the 16th, they hid his galoshes to try to keep him safe at home, but he found them and met his fate that night. After his murder, Maria and Varvara lived with their mother, but the girls’ ties to the Romanovs endangered them. Maria fled Russia for continental Europe, while Varvara remained behind and died in 1924. Touring across Europe, Maria worked as a dancer and circus performer before immigrating to the United States in 1937. She lived there until her death in September 1977.…

The key to understanding the ancient city of Assur (also known as Ashur) to Assyrian civilization lies in its name. Assur was the most revered god in Assyria, whose name means “land of Assur.” In the early days of the Assyrian Empire, Assur was its first capital and the origin of its ruling dynasty. Sited on a crag on the western shore of the Tigris River in what is now Iraq, Assur acted as a vital link for trade between Assyria and Anatolia, today’s eastern Turkey. At its peak, around 900 to 600 B.C., Assyria attained the greatest level of military power and bureaucratic organization the world had yet seen. Later, in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-609 B.C.), Assur’s political influence was declining. It was replaced in 879 B.C. by a…

Walter Andrae’s detailed drawings of Assur, including this 1909 sketch (colorized here) of the ancient temple dedicated to the Assyrian gods Anu and Adad, showed how it might have looked in its prime. Although the building dates back to the 12th to 11th centuries B.C., Andrae depicted it during the reign of King Shalmaneser III (858-824 B.C.). The 1 monumental entrance leads to 2 a large courtyard and double ziggurat, 3 one dedicated to Anu and 4 the other to Adad. Between each were 5 symmetrical chambers devoted to worshipping both gods. Outside the temple enclosure stood 6 the New Palace, while 7 the Tigris River flowed alongside the complex.…