February 14 is Valentine’s Day, and we all know what that means: a time to remember the mostly fictitious early Christian martyr(s) who became known as the patron of sufferers of epilepsy! This painting of St Valentine by Leonhard Beck (d. 1542) shows the saint raising his hand in blessing over a stiffened body which
This tooth from the mid-6th century contains DNA from the plague, that same pathogen responsible for the Black Death in 14th- Europe. This version of the bubonic plague is known as the “Justinianic Plague,” named after the Byzantine Emperor who reigned during its outbreak in the capital of Constantinople in 541 CE. Many historians have
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So here’s a provocative set of evidence from our pre-historic past: hand stencils. Among other questions, they raise a debate about whether the first artists were mostly women. The painted shadows that silhouette the hands you see in this image were frequent subjects of our paleolithic and neolithic ancestors (40,000-1,000 BCE). In 2013, archaeologist Dean
This newspaper clip reflects a horrific story about the only anti-Semitic blood libel to occur in American history. Blood libels against Jews began in the Middle Ages. Totally unfounded in any degree of fact, they falsely accused people who were Jewish of killing Christian children and using their blood for Passover food rituals. The horror
America’s First and Only Blood Libel Read More »
Is this a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes or just an apt demonstration that the value of money only has a value that we humans collectively give it? Folks, may I present to you the sole remaining copy of a stamp (that we know of), and the most expensive piece of paper in existence
Treskilling Yellow Read More »
If you can read Latin, you might want to stop right here and scroll away. If you don’t know Latin, here’s the sentence to stop if you are squeamish, before I tell you what it says. Ready? “Hic liber Waltonus cute compactus est This book was bound in Walton’s skin.” As the discipline of Peptide
Anthropodermic Books Were Made from Human Skin Read More »
Dear readers, did we want to know much about the multitude of penis graffiti from the Ancient Roman British military fort at Vindolanda and the discovery of the potential first surviving Ancient Roman dildo, or no? Ahem. Depending on your druthers, read on. In a hot-off-the interweb virtual publication from the Cambridge University Press journal
This shipwreck puts a new spin on how historians think about the earliest century of Islam. The usual story is that the decades after Muhammad’s death witnessed a real collapse of trade in the former Roman Empire we now call Byzantium. But this wreck, called the Ma’agan Michael B (or MMB) ship, suggests that eastern
Early Islamic Trade Read More »
This picture of the solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, is not only beautiful but also scientifically important. It was taken by British scientist Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), and was the first physical test of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Of course, in retrospect, over 100 years later it might seem obvious that massive objects
Eclipses and the Theory of Relativity Read More »
The Chi-rho page beginning the Gospel of Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels from the 8th century.
Dr. Timothy May, specialist in Mongolian history, spoke at Shippensburg University this evening. My favorite annecdote was when he talked about the Daoist monk who warned Chinggis Khan that he would live longer if he quit drinking, hunting, and having quite so much sex. The leader of ored the monk, and Chinggis Khan died from
Dr. Timothy May Talk on Mongolian History Read More »
A reconstruction of the Jerusalem palace of King Herod the Great (d. 4 BCE). Only ruins remain, but the opulance and decor of the palace/fortress meant to many contemporary Jews that Herod was a Roman accomodationist. This had many Jewish groups – the Pharisees, the Essenes, and the Zealots, for example, upset.
Jerusalem Palace of King Herod The Great Read More »
Sheila na gigs are medieval sculptures of females holding exaggerated vulva. The highest concentration are found in Ireland, where they were popular in the 12th century – perhaps to ward off evil. You are welcome.
St. Daniel (5th century) was a “Stylite” or pillar saint. That meant sequestering oneself to the top of a tall column and living there. An example of early Christian asceticism, Daniel actually had worms coming out of his feet because he stayed still and pillar-bound for so many years.
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This is an early 14th copy of the _Trotula_, a medical text on women’s conditions. Trota of Salerno was one of the book’s authors. She was from the 1100s, and was called “magistra” or “female master” because her medical knowledge was so respected in her day.
Diogenes followed the Ancient Greek philosophy Cynicism (meaning rejection of conventional materialism and a desire for extreme simplicity and authentic living). He was said to have lived in a jar, and carried a lamp around during the day in search for an honest man.
The origins of human history keeps getting pushed further back in time, as a recent analysis of a wooden structure in Africa dating back almost a half a million years demonstrates. For reference, anthropologists now date the emergence of homo sapiens to about 200,000 years ago (although some argue for 300,000). The wooden structure discovered
Zambia Archaeological Site Has Earliest Known Wooden Structure Read More »
And what, pray tell, is going on here? This macabre device is a 1694 illustration of the weighing chair of Sanctorius Sanctorius (1561-1636), an Italian scientist who was the first (that we know of) to mesh quantitative experiments with the study of how the human body works. For thirty years, Santorio measured people’s sweat. Influenced
The Weighing Chair Read More »
Who doesn’t love a good ghost story? The tale of the Greenbrier Ghost of West Virginia is among the finest in 19th-century American history, and I think it deserves more attention. As you can see in the second slide, the ghost, Elva Zona Heaster Shue (first image), is commemorated on a West Virginia state historical
The Greenbrier Ghost Read More »
