Unruly History in the News #83
The extra long one with pictures from Ellis Island, a 2,000-year-old way to make wine, and unsolvable mysteries
Hey everyone,
I’d say Happy New Year, but it’s been sort of a shitshow so far. LA was hit hard this week by the fires. I was fortunate—I didn’t have to evacuate, but just because the fires are almost under control doesn’t mean the problems are over. The fires burned a lot of old buildings, throwing asbestos, lead paint, and carcinogens in the air; it’s basically poison now. Now if we get rain, it’ll cause mudslides. It’s a scary cycle.
If you can, please donate to one of these organizations supporting the thousands of displaced Angelenos.
Anyway! We’re here to talk about history making the news! And this week, there are some interesting stories.
In history acting unruly…
This tomb of a female warrior might be the oldest one on record. She was found in Hungary.
If you’ve been around here a while you might have noticed that I’m a sucker for two things in history: recovered swords and undeciphered languages. And this story has both: Archaeologists found an Early Medieval sword covered in sumptuous decorations… and mysterious runes.
A few Medieval gold crowns, rings, and other royal regalia of Eastern European royalty were found in the wall of a cathedral in Lithuania, where they’d been hidden to protect them from the Nazis.
One of the Medieval crowns hidden in a niche in the cathedral wall. Source: Live Science. What Shakespeare revealed about the chaotic reign of Richard III—and why the play still resonates.
Okay, actually, speaking of fires:
Zora Neale Hurston’s final novel was finally published posthumously this week after being saved from a fire. The Life of Herod the Great subverts the Biblical story of King Herod, exploring the story of a king who has been demonized by Christian-centric history.
Several historic landmarks in LA have been destroyed by the fires that are still raging.
Did the Maya civilization really collapse? Or is it more comparable to Russia pre-1900, where the elite rose and fell but the rural areas remained relatively stable and unchanged for centuries?
In a shocking release, the names of nearly half a million suspected Nazi collaborators have been released by the Dutch government. For 80 years the papers could only be seen by visiting the archive personally, but now that access restrictions have expired, anyone can read them.
What were the dragon houses of ancient Greece? And why are they a mystery that we’ll never solve?
Mark it down: January 11, 1964 was the day many people heard for the first time ever that cigarettes were dangerous to their health.
Interested in this moment in history? Thank You For Smoking is a great film about the 1990's tobacco lobby. (Fictional, not based on a true story.)
Here is a fascinating peek inside Ellis Island during its heyday.
Most immigrants coming through Ellis Island would have never seen this dining room, but ones who had to stay in the hospital due to ill health ate all their meals. For many, it was their first introduction to an American diet. Photo credit: Bettman/Getty Images Where is Vincent van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet? When it comes to collecting art, where is the boundary between the privacy of ownership and allowing the public to access history’s greatest artworks?
Did you know the book industry helped make Christmas the commercialized gift-giving holiday it is?
Some Medieval French murals have been digitally restored after being hidden away in Angers Cathedral for 500 years. They’re gorgeous.
Meanwhile, in Egypt…
12 galleries are now open at the Grand Egyptian Museum. They recontextualize Egyptian history.
And speaking of Cleopatra, does this statue depict the famous queen?
An intricately decorated tomb was just found in Saqqara. It belonged to a doctor who treated the pharaohs 4,100 years ago.
Drone mapping in the Caucasus Mountains revealed a 3,000-year-old fort that is significantly larger than anyone thought.
Pieces of a Roman strategy game have been found in Turkey, on the edge of the Roman Empire’s furthest reach.
How did Ancient Greece—and ancient Greek myth—deploy robots and artificial intelligence to control power?
Using a replica of a 2,000-year-old vessel found in an emperor’s tomb, archaeologists in China have made a distilled wine.
Archaeologists in China using the vessel. Source: Sina Weibo Divers just discovered a Phoenician vessel that sank off the coast of Spain 2,600 years ago.
The 2,500-foot-long Vasari Corridor was built in 1565 as a secret passageway for the Florentine elites. Now it’s finally open to the public.
The passage was built by Cosimo I de Medici, cousin of unruly figure Catherine de Medici:
Did the Ancient Romans accidentally breathe in enough lead to lower their IQs?
Speaking of the Ancient Romans, what does the ancient cult of Aphrodite tell us about how people used to understand love and romance?
For the history philosopher lovers: What is modernity? Does it even exist?
This is the story of Roanoke, but more extreme: This Medieval colony existed on Greenland for 400 years, then vanished without a trace.
And now, in numismatic history…
A rare hoard of Hamonean coins has been discovered near the Jordan Valley in Jordan.
An 11th-century silver coin hoard was just found in England. Being made at rural mints, they’re considered incredibly rare.
A veritable 17th-century fortune has been discovered inside a statue at a German church where Martin Luther preached.
Excavations in Luxembourg have uncovered a Roman hoard of coins that bear the image of an illegitimate emperor.
In the UK, a “dinosaur highway” was discovered after a worker felt some strange bumps while digging.
Also in the UK, a strange handcarved coffin, nearly 1,700 years old, was found filled with plaster by construction workers.
And who, or what, were the Rebecca Riots of Wales?
Scientists drilled a 1.7 mile core of ice in the Arctic, revealing the longest continuous record of Earth’s climate from an ice core.
Speaking of—inside the race to rescue Arctic artifacts before climate change erases them.
These sunken shipwrecks tell the story of WWII’s forgotten battleground: Alaska.
And finally, don’t forget to say, “Happy 100th!” to the Goodyear blimp!
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