This is a photo of The Cave of Hands in Argentina, which is about 10,000 years old. The crowding of the hands is reflective of the way that humans for a long time have formed large communities. What is fascinating is that many anthropologists think they know just how large these average societies were. And […]
The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail is a 70 mile stretch of forested lands begining in Ohiopyle and heading generally northeast almost to Johnstown. Begun in the 1970’s, it is an example of the invaluable natural patrimony of the state of Pennsylvania.
Would you like some Typhoid with your omelette? The illustration of “Typhoid” Mary Mallon, throwing skulls like eggs into a frying pan, conveys the sentiments about her that many Americans felt in the early 20th century. She looked matronly and healthy, but was responsible for spreading the deadly disease to about 50 people, resulting in
Here you see a modern artist’s rendition of a mythical Malaysian evil tiger spirit called “hantu belian,” which the Malay peoples believed would possess a person’s body and make them commit great violence while they were unconsious. This belief in hantu belian’s destructive powers was pervasive enough that they formed the origin story of the
Hantu Belian and Running Amok Read More »
This statue of a worshipping man is from the third millennium BCE is from Ancient Sumeria, and I like the way his lips are pursed, almost like he has a half-smile. Judging his age by the long beard, I think his IRL corresponding figures would have had good reason to smile: they, unlike most other
If I had more time, I would read original treatises in mathematics. The reason is because — when I do get a chance to go over such writings — it is so much clearer to me that math isn’t just a bunch of static pronouncements that everyone agrees about, but a conversation built on emergent
Bhāskara II and the Pythagorean Theorem Read More »
I have a new historical figure that I want to invite to my imaginary dinner party with fascinating but dead people I wish I could talk to. And that’s this guy, Karl Pearson. A British Germanophile who lived from 1857-1936, Karl was a quirky, free-thinking mathematical giant in the field of statistics. He had a
The association of a snake and a woman in peril bring to mind many images in today’s world — the story of the serpent tempting Eve, the snake as representative of the “don’t tread on me” anti- government control in the United States, and of course the bodily autonomy of women in peril with the
France and Her Deadly Foe Read More »
The Catholic Church had a tremendous influence in Medieval society. This did not mean that folks didn’t write about sex, however. These two figures from a 14th-century manuscript show a monk and a nun canoodling with each other. They weren’t supposed to be doing that, btw. The writings about sex undertaken by Constantinus Africanus (died
Medieval Studies on Sex Read More »
One of the unique features of human nature is that we are often motivated to do extreme actions — both good and bad — because of ideas. This drawing illustrates one of the uprisings leading to the Haitian Revolution, when slaves revolted against their masters and eventually established a slave-free state. (1791-1804). The slaves —
The Hatian Revolution and Hegel Read More »
Here’s the first automated game ever made: the Nimatron. Making its first appearance at the 1940 New York World’s Fair, it pitted a human against a machine which made perfect moves. The _New York Times_ wrote about the “new electric robot 8 feet tall”, that it would “play a variation of an old Chinese game
In the late 1600s, a young wealthy Englishwoman decided to lead a very different life than her aristocratic sisters: this was one Celia Finnes (1662-1741), who decided not to marry and instead to travel all over the countryside on horseback — for over two decades. Celia Finnes had a couple servants who joined her, but
These skeletons are part of a massive burial discovered in 2008, a find that put some metaphorical meat on the bones of our knowledge about a notorious state-sponsored killing known as the “St Brice’s Day Massacre”. Corroborated by two written sources that date from the time of the deaths, the St Brice Massacre happened on
St Brice’s Day Massacre Read More »
Birthday celebrations in history have differed across the globe, and historically an annual ritual to recognize the anniversary of a completed lap around the sun wasn’t the norm for most people. In the United States it was the advent of Industrialization — between 1860 and 1880 — that common people began to regularly acknowledge birthdays.
Here are fine specimens of an unusual plant called ghost pipes (sometimes Indian pipes), or Monotropa uniflora (“one-turn one-flower”). Although they grow on three continents (both Americas and Asia), the conditions they require are not simple to come by and they cannot be cultivated. Ghost pipes lack chlorophyll, something all plants require, and so these
Things very old and very new feature prominently in this newly-released image from the James Webb Space Telescope. Going by the catchy name “Cosmic Cliffs,” this is an edge of a section of a nebula (the Carina Nebula, to be exact, appearing in our southern hemisphere) known as NGC 3324, first identified by James Dunlop
It’s an old photo, but with a squint this looks like a fishing village from the mid-20th century. And that’s exactly what Camp Hero was designed to fool the viewer into thinking it was. But in fact, this settlement of quaint-looking wooden clapboard buildings was a secret military base known as Montauk Air Force Station,
Camp Hero/Montauk Air Force Station Read More »
This is the face of Queen Nanny of the Maroons, a hero so important to Jamaican history that she earned her visage on the $500 Jamaican bill. Living from indeterminate dates from the 1600s to 1700s, accounts of Queen Nanny largely come from oral histories and are difficult to pin down with certainty. She probably
Queen Nanny of the Maroons Read More »
The interwebs are all a-flutter this week over the pronoun identification of this Roman emperor, Elagabalus, né Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The given name is confusing enough, being a pastiche of other famous Ancients, but historians are more confounded by other aspects of Elagabalus. As an article from last week’s _Guardian_ put it: “Was Roman emperor
The Roman Emperor Elagabalus and Trans-History Read More »
This humble assemblage of metal has been the subject of fierce debate among historians — it is a 10th-century viking-age stirrup found in England. Horseback riding today would be unthinkable without this contraption, but it was not always that way. When the stirrup was introduced to Western Europe on a broad scale and what difference
The Introduction of the Stirrup to Western Europe Read More »
