Mass suicide at Pilenai: Lithuanian Defenders Choose Death over Enslavement The Crusades are best known as a series of military campaigns launched by Western European states, and sanctioned by the Roman Catholic Church, aimed at reclaiming the Holy Land from the Muslims. Less well-known, perhaps, are the other wars sanctioned by the papacy, such as the Spanish Reconquista, the Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades. It was during the Northern Crusades that a rather horrific episode in Lithuanian history occurred – the mass suicide at Pilenai, which is the largest known mass suicide in history. The hill fort bearing Margiris name in Punia, one of the many suggested locations of Pilėnai. The Northern Crusades (also known as the Baltic Crusades) were carried out between the 11th to the 15th centuries. By the 13th century, the crusaders in the Holy Land were losing ground to the Muslims, and the German Teutonic Order decided to bring the crusades back to their homes in Northern Europe, where there was still a significant pagan population. References By Ḏḥwty
Color Photography from Russia in the Early 1900′s Posted Oct 21, 2009 Share This Gallery inShare58 The photographs of Russian chemist and photographer, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, show Russia on the eve of World War I and the coming of the revolution. From 1909-1912 and again in 1915, Prokudin-Gorskii travelled across the Russian Empire, documenting life, landscapes and the work of Russain people. His images were to be a photographic survey of the time. View of the monastery from Svetlitsa Island, Saint Nil Stolbenskii Monastery, Lake Seliger; 1910 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress) Peasant girls, Russian Empire. Trans-Siberian Railway metal truss bridge on stone piers, over the Kama River near Perm, Ural Mountains Region; ca. 1910 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress) Cotton textile mill interior with machines producing cotton thread, probably in Tashkent; between 1905 and 1915 Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress)
The Holy Roman Empire was a complex adaptive system So a few weeks ago my son and I were watching the Crash Course World History series. In it John Green mentioned Voltaire's famous statement that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. A few days later, I found that the phrase "Holy Roman Empire" was still bouncing around in my mind. It seemed like it was trying to tell me something. The pattern of the name, its rhythm, felt similar to something I was familiar with. After a while I realized that "Holy Roman Empire" sounds a lot like "complex adaptive system." I wondered if there might be some connection between these things, so I began to explore. Magic words of power First I read about why Voltaire said what he said. I'm no historian, but my guess is that the name makes use of what I like to call "magic words of power." So, I thought, the three words of the Holy Roman Empire might act as a sort of incantation, a way to draw power from deep sources. What we want to know Is this person dominant or submissive?
La verità sul genocidio degli armeni - Gwynne Dyer È con grande riluttanza che mi occupo del genocidio armeno, poiché so per esperienza che ciò che scrivo farà infuriare entrambi le parti. Ma questo mese ricorre il centesimo anniversario della tragedia e papa Francesco ha dichiarato che lo sterminio degli armeni commesso dall’impero ottomano nel 1915 fu in effetti un genocidio. La Turchia, come era prevedibile, ha risposto richiamando il proprio ambasciatore dal Vaticano. Sono ormai diverse generazioni che assistiamo a questa diatriba, che di solito si limita a scambi del tipo “Sì, lo hai fatto” – “No, non l’ho fatto”. In seguito ho esaminato i documenti britannici e russi relativi ai piani di azione congiunta con i rivoluzionari armeni nella primavera del 1915, e posso quindi dire di conoscere anche il contesto nel quale turchi e armeni si muovevano. C’è stato un genocidio armeno. Enver e il governo turco andarono nel panico. Altri armeni morirono a causa del clima torrido e delle malattie nei campi in cui furono ammassati in Siria.
The French Revolution Network | Revolutionary transitions from the eighteenth century to the present Perchè gli ebrei sono cosi’ potenti e i musulmani cosi’ impotenti? | My Amazighen......Last Exit Marrakech! Concordo con l’interessante e lucida l’analisi (non di parte essendo l’autore musulmano) proposta dal direttore pakistano del Centro per la Ricerca e gli Studi sulla Sicurezza, creato nel 2007. L’autore è il Dr Farrukh Saleem, giornalista indipendente a Islamabad. Ci sono solamente 14 milioni di ebrei nel mondo, di cui sette milioni negli Stati Uniti d’America, cinque milioni in Asia, due milioni in Europa e 100.000 in Africa. Per ogni ebreo nel mondo ci sono 100 musulmani. Ma gli ebrei sono cento volte più potenti che tutti i musulmani riuniti. Mi piace: Mi piace Caricamento... Articoli collegati Simon Levy, una vita per il progresso in Marocco. L’annuncio del suo decesso è arrivato martedì mattina dall’ospedale di Rabat dove Simon Levy era ricoverato a causa di una lunga malattia; muore a 77 anni una figura storica del Marocco, un militante per l’Indipendenza nazionale sin dal 1953. In "Agenda" Il Ramadan nella Storia Il Ramadan nella Storia.
The Thousand-Year Graveyard | Science News Badia Pozzeveri Churchyard, Altopascio, Italy—On a hot afternoon in July 2012, Giuseppe Vercellotti was digging up bones near the wall of an abandoned medieval church here, thinking about getting a cold drink, when he heard his students call his name. Faces glistening with sweat, they told him that they had found something strange buried half a meter down. Vercellotti took a look and saw a layer of lime, used in ancient times to squelch the stench of rotting corpses. When he tapped the hard layer with his trowel, it sounded hollow. “We immediately thought it was a mass grave,” says Vercellotti, a biological anthropologist at Ohio State University, Columbus, who co-leads a field school here. “We instructors were all excited and hopeful.” But the students were apprehensive: “They all started talking about possible contagion,” Vercellotti says. It was the end of the summer field season.
English Dissenters: Ranters Ranters embraced the general concept of the "indwelling spirit", a form of religious perfection. Whatever was done in the Spirit was considered justifiable to a Ranter. Man was therefore free of Sin and the Laws of Moses. This was commonly known as Antinomianism which many radical dissidents of the period also espoused. They were often labelled as religious libertines in the public minds of the period. As with others nonconformists during this period, the very nature of religion was being called into question. Outward forms of religion were rejected. Contemporaries of the period often compared the Ranters and the Quakers as being cut from the same bolt of cloth. Ranters and some Quakers of the period were known to cavort in the all together. Nudity in all its forms was considered a major societal taboo during the period. The Adamites of the early 1640's were often stereotyped in the nude. , [fl. 1650-1652] was a prominent Ranter leader. Primary Sources [Anon.] [Anon.] [Anon.] [Anon.]
Medieval Wild Man relic discovered by treasure hunters has roots in ancient history English metal detectorists have found a Medieval spoon handle depicting a figure of the Wild Man, a hairy, club-wielding legend who existed on the edges of civilization from ancient times. Stories about the Wild Man differ, some say he was a prophet, or that he went mad with grief over the loss of his beloved, or that he was a monster slayer and hero. Two years ago the metal detectorists found the 15th century AD metallic figure. It was declared a British national treasure at an inquest last week in Ipswich, reports the BBC. Early writings about the medieval European Wild Man are known from ninth century Spain. The Wild Man has a long history in humanity’s legends and myths. But stories of the Wild Man go back even further, as long ago as or longer than 5,000 years. Man, Myth and Magic encyclopedia states: A painting titled “Sylvan Men” by Albrecht Durer, 1499; “sylvan” means of the forest. Sir Orfeo wins back his love when he sees her with the Fairy King and his knights and ladies.
The White Slaves of Barbary Much attention and condemnation has been directed towards the tragedy of the African slave trade, which took place between the 16 th and the 19 th centuries. However, another equally despicable trade in humans was taking place around the same time in the Mediterranean. It is estimated that up to 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by the so-called Barbary corsairs, and their lives were just as pitiful as their African counterparts. They have come to be known as the white slaves of Barbary. Slavery is one of the oldest trades known to man. We can first find records of the slave trade dating back to The Code of Hammurabi in Babylon in the 18th century BCE. Anyone travelling in the Mediterranean at the time faced the real prospect of being captured by the Corsairs and taken to Barbary Coast cities and being sold as slaves. Captured victims arrive on the Barbary coast to be sold as slaves. Life as a Barbary Slave The slaves captured by the Barbary pirates faced a grim future. References: