Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2024 i National Geographic History

ATTEMPTING to reassure the public in times of plague, Rome’s authorities centered on the most important religious building: the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. During the epidemic of 365 B.C., elders mentioned an obscure ritual of driving a nail into the temple’s wall in September to mark the start of a new political year. Believing a pious appeal to tradition would appease the gods and stop the plague, the practice was revived. Livy quoted contemporary views as to the antiquity of the nail ritual, whose origins likely stretch back deep into the pre-Roman Etruscan culture.…

ca 1507 B.C. The future Pharaoh Hatshepsut is born to Thutmose I and Queen Ahmose, his great royal wife. ca 1493 Around age 14, Hatshepsut marries her half brother, Thutmose II. She rules by his side as queen until his death. ca 1479 Thutmose III is too young to rule, so Hatshepsut serves as co-regent. Seven years later, she assumes the position of pharaoh in her own right. 1471-1470 During the eighth and ninth years of Hatshepsut’s rule, she sponsors a celebrated expedition to the Land of Punt. ca 1472-1458 Construction begins on Hatshepsut’s temple in Deir el Bahri, under the supervision of Senenmut, a steward of the pharaoh. 1458 After ruling Egypt for more than two decades, Hatshepsut dies, and Thutmose III becomes pharaoh in his own right.…

In the First Book of Kings, King Solomon stands before the people of Israel to dedicate a temple in honor of their god, Yahweh. The king reminds them that he has fulfilled the promise Yahweh had made to Solomon’s father, King David: “But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name’” (1 Kings 8). The Bible describes how Solomon’s Temple is meant to replace the Tabernacle, a tentlike structure that housed the Ark of the Covenant and other vessels. The Book of Kings details the construction, down to the dimensions of different chambers and structures. Measuring about…

THE ROMAN EMPIRE controlled Jerusalem when Herod the Great was its king. Known for his ambitious construction projects, Herod turned his attention to the Second Temple around 20 B.C. He expanded the centuries-old structure into a magnificent complex. But his grand construction only lasted a few decades. Following a series of revolts in Judaea, Rome razed the city and destroyed the Temple in A.D. 70. Today, the only remnant is a section of the Temple’s western perimeter wall. Known as the Western Wall, this place is one of the holiest sites in Judaism, not only because of its association with the Second Temple but also because the Holy of Holies is believed to be located behind it. From all over the world, millions of visitors come to the wall to pray.…

For the longest time, little was known about the ancient Thracians, a group of highly diverse tribes of Indo-European origin. At the beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. they settled in what is today European Turkey, eastern Greece, and Bulgaria. At the start of the Middle Ages, Slavic migrants joined the mix. Thracians left behind few of their own written records. Most documentation comes from the ancient Greeks, who primarily portrayed the Thracians as barbarians. They appear, for example, several times in Homer’s Iliad as allies of Troy. Later in the tale, the Thracian king Rhesus makes an appearance. In the fifth century B.C. writers Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon described them as warriors and mercenaries in their accounts. Usually depicted in battle attire, the Thracians also are believed to appear…

Hypatia lived at a time when women were not given status equal to men, no matter how brilliant they were. Yet this largely unsung scholar is considered one of antiquity’s last great philosophers before the Middle Ages. She is the first known woman to study and teach mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy, and she drew students from far and wide across the Roman Empire. Many scholars believe she edited the surviving text of Ptolemy’s Almagest, based on the title of her father’s commentary on Book III of the Almagest. She even donned the robes of the academic elite, even though men only were allowed this honor at the time. Michael Deakin, in his 2007 book Hypatia of Alexandria, wrote: “Almost alone, virtually the last academic, she stood for intellectual values, for…

When Raphael showed a draft drawing of his “School of Athens” fresco to the church fathers in the 16th century, the bishop allegedly asked him to remove Hypatia, in the front and center. “Knowledge of her runs counter to the belief of the faithful!” he said. Raphael obliged, but in an act of unflinching deception, he covertly moved her to the left, disguising her face to resemble that of the ruling pope’s nephew. But there she sits, the only figure among 50 of the greatest minds staring straight out at the viewer, as if beseeching you not to forget that she, too, belongs in this venerable gathering of scholars. Or does she? Raphael never admitted he did this. Others claim the figure is actually Margherita Luti, Raphael’s mistress; Francesco Maria…

Archaeologists in northern Peru have discovered a 3,000-year-old burial. Inside it lay one of the first priests in ancient Andean history, a man who lived well before the time of the Inca. The discovery was made in the Pacopampa Archaeological Complex, a 40-acre site of monumental and ceremonial structures that was active between 1200 and 700 B.C. Over nearly 20 years, the Project of Archaeological Investigation has discovered numerous finds at Pacopampa. The latest one, the skeleton of an ancient religious leader interred there around 1000 B.C., has been named the Priest of Pacopampa because of his tomb’s contents. Buried with him were three stamps or seals. The first seal resembles a jaguar, indicating the priest’s status as a leader who could harness the animal’s spiritual power. The second one…

Plague, famine, and war blighted the 14th century, but the period was also marked by an exciting revolution in fashion. Out went the baggy, amorphous robes that had been swathing people for centuries, and in came startlingly lean, body-​conscious styles that revealed the silhouette (at least for men). The sweeping transformation in European elite clothing is regarded by many historians as the birth of modern Western fashion. Aristocratic men and wealthy merchants started donning short, tight doublets, brightly colored woolen tights, and elaborate hoods with dangling tails. Footwear that had long been hidden under robes was now revealed to the public gaze. These pointed leather shoes were known for their extremely long toes. Although the change was less marked for women, a shift in feminine style was also notable. They…

Hatshepsut had several sacred spaces built within her temple at Deir el Bahri. Among the most famous is the sanctuary honoring Hathor, one of Egypt’s oldest goddesses. A splendid procession was held in Hathor’s honor, involving boats crossing the Nile loaded with sacred images and divine offerings. This festive procession was depicted on a four-panel relief in the sanctuary to Hathor. These colorful panels were defaced after Hatshepsut’s reign and A many figures scratched out. What remains nonetheless reveals the opulence and splendor during her rule. On the upper panels B numerous oarsmen row many boats loaded with goods intended for the goddess. Smaller vessels served as escorts for the two main ships. Both boats feature C a throne on deck for the pharaoh. Some scholars believe that where Hatshepsut…

DURING THEIR TIME IN THE SINAI DESERT, the Israelites kept the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle, a tentlike structure that went with them as they traveled, before reaching the Promised Land in Canaan. As described in the Book of Exodus, Yahweh gave Moses very detailed instructions on building the Tabernacle, from the exact measurements for the frame to the colors of the curtains. Yahweh began with the need for an innermost shrine, the holiest chamber that housed the ark. A curtain separated it from the next chamber, where a menorah, a table for the showbread, and an incense altar were kept. In the outermost room stood a sacrificial altar of acacia wood and a bronze basin for the priests to wash. The Tabernacle’s divine design would be replicated…

The Thracian tribes settled in a territory that stretched along the shores of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmara, and the Aegean. In the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. the Odrysians established a vast kingdom that lasted until the rule of Alexander the Great, while numerous Greek colonies prospered on the coast. 490 B.C. After the Persians withdraw, the Odrysian king Teres I unites the Thracian tribes living between the Danube River and the Rhodope Mountains. 325-315 B.C. Seuthes III, king of the Odrysians, builds a city called Seuthopolis and makes it his capital. The only known Thracian capital, its ruins are now beneath a reservoir. A.D. 46 After the Roman emperor Claudius and his army conquer Thrace in A.D. 46, the entirety of the Thracian territory becomes a…

1325 The Aztec (Mexica) build a temple in Tenochtitlan to honor the god Huitzilopochtli. Seven building phases will expand it into a massive pyramid. 1440-1469 During the reign of Moctezuma I, Templo Mayor is expanded several times. Colorful artworks and elaborate architectural elements are added. 1486-1502 Ahuitzotl takes the throne and begins a large-scale renovation of the temple. It is inaugurated in 1487 with numerous human sacrifices. 1519 Hernán Cortés and his Spanish forces first set foot in Tenochtitlan and are impressed by the grandeur of Templo Mayor. 1521 After the Aztec defeat, stones from Templo Mayor are robbed from the pyramid and used to erect the buildings of New Spain.…

On a hot July day in 1983, 18-year-old herder Samuel López made the find that changed his life and put the central Spanish town of Carranque on the world’s archaeological map. “My heart was pounding,” he said. “I started rummaging through the straw and found another tile and then another… With the stick I used to herd the cows, I scraped the ground and realized I’d found a mosaic.” López’s family had worked the land around Carranque for centuries. A tall stone ruin, said to be of ancient origin, dominated this parcel of land. Helping his father as a boy, López was no stranger to finding objects left behind long ago on the farm. He had accrued a collection of ceramic fragments and metal items near the stones, but the…

MEN’S FASHION reached a climax of splendor at the court of Burgundy in the mid-15th century, exemplified in Rogier van der Weyden’s painting (left). Under the 48-year rule of Philip the Good, the court was famed for its short, cinched jackets and pointed shoes. Fashion, culture, and power meshed: Philip named Flemish master Jan van Eyck court painter, and Flanders replaced Paris as the center of polyphonic music, a flowering that rivaled the emerging glories of Renaissance Italy far to the south. Philip was also a power broker who nimbly grew his territories. In 1430 he founded the Order of the Golden Fleece (at left, he wears the necklace of the order), a military group that celebrated the chivalric tradition and added prestige to his rule.…

LUCRETIUS, a Roman philosopher from the first century B.C., is one of the earliest thinkers to attribute outbreaks of disease to physical, and not strictly spiritual, causes. In his work De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) he reflected on the account of the plague of Athens as described in the fifth century B.C. by Greek historian Thucydides, who provided the first descriptions of person-to-person transmission. As an Epicurean philosopher, Lucretius sought physical, not divine, explanations for events. He believed that fear of death and the gods made people behave irrationally. Reflecting on the plague of Athens, Lucretius proposed that epidemics originated from nature. Some epidemics were circumscribed to certain territories, while others attacked specific organs. Lucretius believed air to be the crucial element in propagating epidemics. Air, he…

Hatshepsut ruled Egypt, first as coregent and then as pharaoh, for a total of 21 years. She was one of the few women in Egyptian history to retain power for so long. She reigned during one of ancient Egypt’s golden ages, when Egypt was awash with wealth. Hatshepsut built monumental works all over the nation: a myriad of temples and shrines, four giant obelisks at the Temple of Amun at Karnak, and countless artworks celebrating her accomplishments and immortalizing her prayers. But many of these works were defaced and destroyed after her death in 1458 B.C. Hatshepsut’s successor, Thutmose III, one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs, led the charge to erase her name from history. Her likeness was chiseled away from monuments, and her statues and works destroyed. Nevertheless, following a…

SPLENDID RELIEFS were carved on the portico of the second courtyard of the temple at Deir el Bahri. Some depict Hatshepsut’s expedition to the Land of Punt in the eighth and ninth years of her reign. The reliefs provide a glimpse of the terrain, fauna, flora, and inhabitants of this enigmatic land, perhaps located in the Horn of Africa or in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. THE EXPEDITION reached Punt by sailing along the shores of the Red Sea. The Egyptians loaded their ships with a cargo of ivory, cinnamon, incense, cosmetics, and animal skins. They also took home myrrh trees, which were planted in Hatshepsut’s temple complex. The relief on the portico highlights these myrrh trees and also depicts Hatshepsut presenting the cargo from Punt to the god Amun…

ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE, King Solomon, son of David, ordered the construction of a temple in his capital, Jerusalem, to house the Ark of the Covenant containing the Tablets of the Law that Yahweh had given to Moses. The ark had been housed in a portable sanctuary, the Tabernacle, which the Israelites had employed during their time in the Sinai desert. The first book of Kings describes the splendor of Solomon’s Temple in great detail: [Solomon] lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house to the rafters of the ceiling … The cedar within the house had carvings of gourds and open flowers; all was cedar, no stone was seen. The inner sanctuary he prepared … to set there the…

THE HARLEY CATALAN BIBLE is one of more than 20 lavishly illustrated Sephardi Bibles produced by the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula between the 13th and 15th centuries. Many of them feature so-called carpet pages, which are entirely filled with an intricate background pattern and colorful illustrations on top. The Harley Catalan Bible contains pages featuring the sacred implements of the Temple of Jerusalem embossed in gold. Many of these—the menorah, the Ark of the Covenant, the table of showbread, and the incense altar—are found in the verses of Exodus and Numbers. Other Sephardi Bibles contain similar layouts of the Temple’s most sacred implements and vessels. Religious scholars interpret their inclusion as a statement of the central importance of the Hebrew Scriptures for Jews of the Diaspora: After the Roman…

THE MALE SOCIAL GATHERINGS known as symposia became popular wherever the Greeks settled. The Etruscans, Iberians, Romans, and Thracians who came into contact with Greek colonies tended to adopt the tableware used at symposia: the large krater for mixing wine with water, the jugs for serving it, and vessels for drinking it. This tableware, however, often was adapted to local preferences. The krater, for example, was used in some cultures as an urn in which to deposit the ashes of the deceased—something unthinkable for the Hellenes.…

For centuries, archaeologists searched in vain for Templo Mayor, which they knew existed somewhere beneath modern-day Mexico City. Once rising some 160 feet above the Aztec (or Mexica, as the Aztec referred to themselves) ceremonial center of Tenochtitlan, the ancient capital of the Aztec Empire, the pyramid served as the religious focal point and, some say, the center of the Aztec universe. But then Hernán Cortés, head of a joint force of Spanish troops and hundreds of thousands of Indigenous allies, conquered the city in 1521, badly damaging the pyramid. Over time, it gradually disappeared. Maps and chronicles indicated that Templo Mayor lay beneath Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral. Once in a while, when work was carried out in the city’s subsoil, objects related to Templo Mayor would appear. In 1790…