Archaeologists Just Discovered a 1,000-Year-Old Viking Fortress. Viking 'ring fortress' discovered in Denmark. However, some historians contend the fortresses were constructed by his son Sweyn Forkbeard, the first Danish King of England, as a military training camp or barracks from which to launch his invasions of England. Sweyn Forkbeard seized London in 1013 and was declared King of England on Christmas Day of that year.
The newly discovered fortress has a diameter of 475 feet, making it the third-largest of its type, and consists of a 35-foot wide circular rampart surrounded by a palisade of wooden spikes. Although only small portions of the new fortress have been uncovered, it appears to match the design of Denmark’s other ring fortresses, sticking to a strict geometric pattern. The fortresses have four gates facing outward in different compass directions, and an interior courtyard symmetrically divided into four quarters. Historians believe the geometric design may have been inspired by old Roman army camps found by Vikings during their raids on England. The Dying Russians by Masha Gessen. Sometime in 1993, after several trips to Russia, I noticed something bizarre and disturbing: people kept dying.
I was used to losing friends to AIDS in the United States, but this was different. People in Russia were dying suddenly and violently, and their own friends and colleagues did not find these deaths shocking. Upon arriving in Moscow I called a friend with whom I had become close over the course of a year. “Vadim is no more,” said his father, who picked up the phone. “He drowned.” I showed up for a meeting with a newspaper reporter to have the receptionist say, “But he is dead, don’t you know?” I didn’t. The deaths kept piling up. Back in the United States after a trip to Russia, I cried on a friend’s shoulder. “But there is,” said my friend, a somewhat older and much wiser reporter than I. My friend’s framing stood me in good stead for years. Parsons chose as her subjects people who were middle-aged in the early 1990s.
Russia has long had a low birth rate. Hitler, Continued: Afterword from the Updated Edition of "Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil" | The Los Angeles Review of Books. 4 Tiny Historical Changes That Made Modern Life Possible. #2. We No Longer Carry Around Bloodsucking Worms That Make Us Poor Despite its cuddly name, the hookworm is actually quite nasty.
Hookworm larvae live in soil that's been contaminated by fecal matter, and their attitudes don't really get much better from there. After burrowing through the bare feet of unsuspecting victims, these tiny parasites eventually take up residence in the small intestine, where they start living off the host's blood like they're paying rent. viaWikipediaIf this guy was a roommate, he'd put the empty milk carton back in the fridge after spitting in it. Luckily, if you live in America and are a human, you probably don't have to worry about hookworm-gut anytime soon. Rockefeller's foundation threw millions of dollars into wiping out hookworm in America: They built thousands of outhouses to prevent soil contamination and ran education campaigns warning people about the horrors that lurked before they walked outside barefoot.
What If It Hadn't Happened? #1. A Brief History of Videogames. Masters Of Money: Friedrich Hayek (2/3 BBC) Masters Of Money: John Maynard Keynes ( 1/3 BBC) Masters Of Money: Karl Marx (3/3 BBC) The oddities of the first American election - Kenneth C. Davis. For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II. Viking 'Sunstone' Discovered. 40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World. If you’re a visual learner like myself, then you know maps, charts and infographics can really help bring data and information to life.
Maps can make a point resonate with readers and this collection aims to do just that. Hopefully some of these maps will surprise you and you’ll learn something new. A few are important to know, some interpret and display data in a beautiful or creative way, and a few may even make you chuckle or shake your head. If you enjoy this collection of maps, the Sifter highly recommends the r/MapPorn sub reddit. You should also check out ChartsBin.com. 1. 2. 3. 4. Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming about 300 million years ago. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 37. 38. 39. 40. *Bonus* World Map Tattoo with Countries Visited Coloured. Why Some Civil War Soldiers Glowed in the Dark.
By the spring of 1862, a year into the American Civil War, Major General Ulysses S. Grant had pushed deep into Confederate territory along the Tennessee River. In early April, he was camped at Pittsburg Landing, near Shiloh, Tennessee, waiting for Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell’s army to meet up with him. On the morning of April 6, Confederate troops based out of nearby Corinth, Mississippi, launched a surprise offensive against Grant’s troops, hoping to defeat them before the second army arrived. The Union troops began forcing the Confederates back, and while a counterattack stopped their advance it did not break their line. All told, the fighting at the Battle of Shiloh left more than 16,000 soldiers wounded and more 3,000 dead, and neither federal or Confederate medics were prepared for the carnage.
The bullet and bayonet wounds were bad enough on their own, but soldiers of the era were also prone to infections. A Bright Spot And that’s just what Bill did. A Good Light. King Richard III Skeleton, Found In Parking Lot, Identified By Archaeologists. LEICESTER, England -- He was king of England, but for centuries he lay without shroud or coffin in an unknown grave, and his name became a byword for villainy. On Monday, scientists announced they had rescued the remains of Richard III from anonymity – and the monarch's fans hope a revival of his reputation will soon follow. In a dramatically orchestrated news conference, a team of archaeologists, geneticists, genealogists and other scientists from the University of Leicester announced that tests had proven what they scarcely dared to hope – a scarred and broken skeleton unearthed under a drab municipal parking lot was that of the 15th-century king, the last English monarch to die in battle.
Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley said that a battery of tests proved "beyond reasonable doubt" that the remains were the king's. Lin Foxhall, head of the university's school of archaeology, said the discovery "could end up rewriting a little bit of history in a big way. " Online: Smithsonian: New evidence shows Jamestown colonists ate 14-year-old girl’s brain. By Stephen C. WebsterWednesday, May 1, 2013 14:04 EDT The first American colonists at Jamestown, Virginia resorted to cannibalism to survive harsh conditions between 1607 and 1625, according to a new find by scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
The remains of a 14-year-old girl whose skull was split open after her death and later dumped in a trash pit with slaughtered animals were recovered in Jamestown during an excavation in 2012. Researchers were able to date the bones to the winter of 1609-1610, known to historians as the “starving time” when hundreds of colonists died. “Our team has discovered partial human remains before, but the location of the discovery, visible damage to the skull and marks on the bones immediately made us realize this finding was unusual,” archaeologist Bill Kelso said in an advisory.
It’s not clear what killed Jane, but her facial reconstruction will go on display at the National Museum of Natural History on May 3. Stephen C. Were The Vikings Really That Bad? 'You Have to Know History to Actually Teach It' - David Cutler. An interview with Eric Foner, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.
It’s tough for a historian to earn the adoration of both academia and popular culture, but Eric Foner has managed to do it. His books on American history are assigned reading at universities and colleges across the country. Reviewers have praised his work as “monumental in scope” and declared that it “approaches brilliance.” He won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2011 book, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery—and appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss it. I recently spoke to Foner about the teachers who influenced him and how high-school history teachers can better prepare students for college. You’ve spoken of how as a history student, many professors inspired you and your career, such as James Shenton and your dissertation adviser, the legendary Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter was a little different. I respect what high-school teachers do enormously. What Europe looked like 8,200 years ago.