Unruly History in the News #39
Hey everyone,
Bit of a slow news week—well, for the history field at least. But I had big news this week! My debut book, Unruly Figures, is available for preorder. If you like this podcast, you will love this book. Learn more here:
She's (Almost) Here! The Unruly Figures Book Is Available for Preorder!
Okay, onto our short news roundup!
Despite the slow news week, some very cool things were found underground:
Workers unearthed a 19th-century sunken ship beneath a road in Florida! The 19-foot-long fishing vessel found in St. Augustine still had a kerosene lamp and leather shoes on board.
Another shipwreck was discovered in Lake Superior, in water nearly 800 feet deep.
Archaeologists in Finland have discovered a thousand-year-old cemetery and even unearthed a few objects, including a bent sword
This sword uncovered in Finland had a bent blade, a straight hilt, and an oval pommel. The scabbard it would have been held in was also found (I think that’s the thing at the top right). Photo credit: Riikka Saarinen / Turku Museum Center In Switzerland, a metal detectorist discovered Bronze Age jewelry in a carrot field!
Hundreds of unopened wine jars were discovered in an Egyptian queen Meret-Neith’s tomb. They’re definitely not fit to drink. But, these 5,000-year-old jars still had “well-preserved grape seeds and intact stoppers.” And if you like learning about powerful Ancient Egyptian women, listen to this week’s episode on Hatshepsut.
In Northamptonshire, ten volunteers are rebuilding a Bronze Age boat using Bronze Age tools. They’re currently about halfway through the project and hope to get the boat floating on a nearby lake. If you’re interested in these sorts of things, this article has some great photos of the process.
A look at how Deaf artists thrived with and through their art during the Renaissance.
Speaking of art, here are a few art heist updates:
Remember Arthur Brand, “the Indiana Jones of the art world,” who received a stolen van Gogh painting wrapped in an IKEA bag last month? Well, this week a mysterious man showed up on his doorstep with six paintings once stolen from a town hall in Medemblik, Holland!
The British Museum has made a website showing examples of the types of items that were stolen from them by a former curator. People are, of course, making a lot of well-deserved jokes about how the British Museum stole these items and karma has come for them, but some of these items have legit provenances. Also, art just tends to not fare well on the black market—the van Gogh I mentioned above was damaged during its three years with thieves.
Ancient Mesopotamians apparently bred horselike hybrid animals! Through genomic testing, scientists confirmed that the fabled kunga really existed
Four of the fabled kunga hybrid animals were found buried in the Syrian desert, making analysis difficult—but not impossible—for researchers. Photo credit: GLENN SCHWARTZ / JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Japanese history has some bloody eras, and the introduction of Christianity to the island nation was one of them. I didn’t touch on it too much in my episode on Yasuke, but Christian missionaries fueled internal conflicts as part of their conversation strategies.
There’s been debate about whether Europeans brought syphilis to the Americas or if they first contracted it in the Americas and took it back to Europe. But more evidence is surfacing that syphilis had been floating around Europe long before Europeans made contact with the Americas in 1492.
