Evolution brings a sense of humility like nothing else can. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to our ancestors? Featured on the first slide is “Kimberella,” probably the oldest of the “protostome” fossils, dating 255 million years ago – from before the pre-Cambrian explosion.“Aha,” you might be thinking. “That doesn’t look like even the […]
Kimberella – the Oldest Protostome Fossil Read More »
Here is a picture of two of the most famous hands in art history, and they go along with a not-very-famous but super important story about how human hands evolved.“Nature does not invent very often completely from scratch,” writes evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll, “rather, it remodels its existing structures with took kit genes that
Hand Evolution From Progenitors Read More »
“The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, is one of degree and not of kind,” wrote Charles Darwin, in his famous _The Descent of Man_ in 1871. And evolutionary biologists still agree. So then what makes the mental capacities of Homo Sapiens and other hominid apes so different?Two
Brain Size in Homo Sapiens Read More »
Wanna know the difference between this kid and a chimpanzee? So do evolutionary biologists . . . And with the use of genetic studies, scientists recently have figured out two additional ways that we Homo Sapiens differ from our common primate chimp ancestors from six to eight million years ago. They have to do with
Genetic Differences Between Children and Chimpanzee’s Read More »
This week, I am looking at hair in Medieval history, and I am starting with the dudes. It turns out that the barbarians of the Early Middle Ages cared a great deal about styling their locks. Careful attention to cut and style announced a “je ne sais quoi” about masculenity and power.For instance, featured in
Early Middle Ages and Barbarian Men’s Hairstyles Read More »
Hairstyles give a lot of information to others — sometimes even more than clothing, because they are both changeable but also part of the body. For Medieval men, having long hair meant high social status in many cultures. The English before the Norman Conquest of 1066 are a case in point — as you can
Medieval Men’s Hair and Their Social Status Read More »
You are looking at the tomb of one Don Sancho Said de Carillo, dating from 1300. But you are also looking at a custom that lasted from Antiquity well through the Middle Ages but has thankfully been abandoned — the practice of women mourners ripping out their hair.It was long the domain of women to
Medieval Women Mourning Practices – Ripping Out Their Hair Read More »
Women’s hair troubled Medieval men. In art and literature, they loved to show women with long unbound tresses, even though in real life, married women usually bound their hair up or wore veils to cover it when they were in public (unless they were mourning, as I wrote about in yesterday’s post).Two types of women
The Trouble of Medieval Women’s Hair Read More »
In my final post featuring this week’s theme of hair in Medieval Europe, I’d like to conclude with . . . . magical hair! You are looking here at the Talisman of Charlemagne, which totally sounds like something out of Dungeons and Dragons, but is an actual object from 9th-century Germany. Medieval people thought that
The Virgin Mary’s Hair from the Talisman of Charlemagne Read More »
This week we are looking at famous cases of poisoning in history. We begin with the murder of Georgi Markov, who was killed by a small pellet of ricin aimed from an assassin’s weaponized umbrella.Georgi Markov was a writer, and had dissented from the authoritarian government of his homeland in Bulgaria. Using his talent as
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One of the most macabre and unintentional poisonings in history is the sad case of the Bradford sweets killings of 1858. Twenty people died and over 200 sickened when they ate candy that had accidentally been prepared with arsenic. Kind of makes whatever mistakes we might be doing on Zoom this week seem a lot
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Here is a member of the Selous Scouts, a group of special military forces active in the former African state of Rhodesia from 1973-1980. During the Rhodesian Bush War of decolonisation, the Selous Scouts represented the minority white government which struggled to keep power as the black majority fought for an independent state. The Selous
Selous Scouts from the African State of Rhodesia Read More »
In the entire history of the world, I challenge anyone to come up with a better name for a group of poisoners: may I introduce you to the Angel Makers of Nagrev.In the years immediately following the First World War, the small village of Nagrev in Hungary experienced an unusually large number of people –
The Angel Makers of Nagrev, Hungary Read More »
In our final post in this week’s series on poisonings in history, I am featuring Alan Turing’s death by cyanide. Turing was, of course, the famous father of theoretical computer science, paving the way for Artificial Intelligence in his development of the “Turing machine,” a mathematical model of computation that enabled much of what we
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Wanna hear about the most famous witch in all of Scottish history? Who wouldn’t, right? This would be one Isobel Gowdie, who gave four testimonials in 1662 confessing her involvement in harmful magical practices and consorting with the devil.Gowdie’s trial is better documented than any other witchcraft confession. Although she was probably treated poorly during
Isobel Gowdie – Scotland’s First Witch Read More »
Everyone has heard of the infamous witch-hunt craze of Early Modern Europe, resulting in the executions of thousands of people, mainly women, based on groundless accusations. The figure in this image from 1629 of “Robin Goodfellow,” is of course the fairy-type known as Puck, made famous by Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Magical witches and the
Puck’s and Early Modern European Witch-hunts Read More »
By the Early Modern period in England, many people associated witches with their accompanying animals called “familars.” At the bottom of this woodcut you can see “Boy” (also “Boye”) the dog and alleged familiar of the military leader Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who died with his master in battle in 1644.The familiars of 17th-century
Witches and their Familiars Read More »
This 16th-century woodcut shows some witches happily gathering ’round a pair of devils. Crimes commonly thought to have been committed by witches included murder of children, cannibalism, and carnal acts with Satan (#Q-Anonfortheages). Many trial records go into minute detail about subjects we would consider crazy, like the accused witches’ sexual intercourse with demons, marks
Medieval Witches and Their Crimes With Devils Read More »
What sort of woman flies around at night, perhaps leading a pack of hunters or accommodated by an assortment of animals, and works magic in the homes of certain women? Although a witch might fit the bill, this description applied to a belief in a variety of magical females across Europe in the Late Middle
The Bendanti of Medieval Europe Read More »
This week’s posts feature women who became famous for something they didn’t do. And we begin with the case of Mrs. O’Leary and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.On a windy day on October eighth of that year, after a lengthy dry season, a barn belonging to the Irish immigrants Mr and Mrs O’Leary caught
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