Al-Biruni’s phases of the moon. Fitting image for the lunar eclipse tonight. Biruni was one of the geniuses of astronomical investigation, active in the 11th century during a Golden Age of Islamic science.
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Britain’s laws preventing cruelty to animals are some of the strictest in the world today, but earlier centuries quite differed. It took a man with a pair of pet leeches, a charismatic MP with a battered donkey, and changes to social classes brought about by the Industrial Revolution to change the scene. Folks living in
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The Knights Templar built the magnificent Castle and Convent of Christ in Tomar, Portugal, in the 12th century. But when the military religious order was dissolved and its members routed and killed after 1319, the kings of Portugal made Tomar a refuge for the monastic knights, changing their name to the Order of Christ and
Tomar, the Castle and Convent Where the Knights Templar Survived Read More »
This is the very first Smithsonian Museum building, known as “The Castle,” and it was built in 1855. The founders of the Smithsonian lay a foundation for the 21 museums that make up the US national heritage that exists in Washington D.C. today. There are photos here of the surrounding gardens, built by people who
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I really enjoyed the Freer Gallery of Art’s small permanent collection dealing with the history of the southwestern part of the Arabian peninsula, or modern Yemen. The area has suffered from horrific warfare since 2014, which has endangered much of its historical heritage. This is tragic, because although the area never boasted the wealth of
Ancient Egypt lasted thousands of years, but across the millennia a few pharaohs stand out, and Ramesses II (c 1303-1213 BCE) was one of them. His 66-yesr reign witnessed great successes economically, he won military conflicts that made Egypt a world power, and he promoted his accomplishments in art that still today remain as some
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This painting, “The Soldier of Marathon”, by Luc-Olivier Merson (1869), shows a nude runner reporting a victory of the Ancient Athenians against the Persians. The information was of extreme military importance, as the autonomy of Ancient Athens was partially dependent on it, and so the runner traversed an arduous distance of 40 kilometers or 26.2
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This is the best illustration I could find of a “Pyrrhic Victory”: and if you are familiar with this phrase, you will understand why. The first-century historian Plutarch tells of battles the Greeks waged against the Romans over three hundred years before his lifetime. At Heraclea (280 BCE) and Asculum (279 BCE), the armies of
This 13th-century fresco illustrates the most influential forgery in history: _The Donation of Constantine_. See the dude in the gold dress with the red beard handing over what looks like a puffy triangle to the larger but thin Santa Claus-guy? That’s supposed to be the Emperor Constantine (4th century) giving Pope Sylvester the right to
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These rock carvings from southern Wyoming date to the early 1600s and relate to the ancestors of the Comanche and Shoshone American Indians. Clearly pictured is a scene with a rider on a horse. The choice of subject — horses among indigenous Americans — is also the focus of a groundbreaking study published in _Science
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This scene of Jesus’ condemnation by the Roman governor of Judea, painted by Antonio Ciseri, is one that millions of Christians contemplate each Easter. In it, Pilate asks his audience whether they want to have Jesus released, and that he had “found no case against him.” In reply, they shouted that they wanted Jesus dead.
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This Medieval cemetery from Kilwa Kisiwani, an important historical site on an island of Tanzania, dates back hundreds of years to the heyday of the Swahili Kilwa Sultanate. The Medieval city there was described by the early 14th-century traveler Ibn Battuta as one of the most beautiful in the world — and Ibn Battuta was
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One of the most pleasurable parts of mythology is that the stories get written anew with succeeding generations. You can see that here with two illustrations of the Ancient Greek Goddess Nyx: the first is by William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1884 (_La Nuit_) and the second is by J.H. Williams III, illustration of Mother Night for
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“Ah, history!” declares author and YouTuber John Green, “always resisting simplicity!” And you can definitely see these sentiments realized in this brass-and-silver-inlay Islamic wine jug. Inscribed on it are the words “To Allah belongs . . . Might. . . Victory . . . Strength”. But we all know that drinking alcohol is forbidden in
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The 13th-century Morgan Bible has some of the best Medieval illustrations for trebuchets, the missile-launchers that shot artillery using a beam that would cast stones or other things (such as human heads during the First Crusade at Nicaea) from an attached sling. There were two sorts of trebuchets — the ones that used hand-pulling to
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Fans of Indiana Jones may remember the film about the Holy Grail, and the part where Indy needs to figure out which of the many ancient cups in front of him was the one Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. Of course, the answer was a drab and utterly innocuous vessel — to match
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The Persian Empires that preceded the Arab invasions of the seventh century developed amazing methods of shaping silver. Usually mixed with an alloy of copper to strengthen the piece, Persian metalsmiths used multiple ways of engraving, stamping, and layering silver. The craftsmanship produced silver objects of all sorts,l. Of course, only elites or royalty could
This baddie not only flourished in 14th and 15th century Eurasia. It also killed millions in the 6th cenuury, and struck again in 19th century China. Scientists are now thinking it might have caused a bottleneck in the population of Europeans in the Neolithic era too!
Jamestown was the first permanent settlement by the English in the Americas, but its earliest years were hardly successful — in fact, the community almost died out at first, during the “starving time” winter of 1609-10. As settlers faced disease and drought, they also were surrounded by the hostile Powhatan peoples, which meant that leaving
The Ancient Egyptian deity Bes had an ugly face, bowed legs, and dwarfism. Yet he inspired the opposite of revulsion, and was a beloved protector of women and children.
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