History
Category archives for History
Continued Afro-Chinese History Manipulation
Posted by Martin R on July 29, 2010 In the early 15th century, Imperial Chinese mariners under the eunuch admiral Zheng He made great voyages of discovery in enormous ships. Then the Hongxi Emperor decided that what they had found on far shores was underwhelming, the whole fleet was scuppered and the Chinese paid no further attention to seafaring. In 2007 I discussed…
A Deadly Find
Posted by Martin R on June 3, 2010 What’s the most dangerous find an archaeologist can make? Some fear anthrax spores in sealed burial caskets. Others the asbestos used to temper certain types of North Scandinavian pottery. But German construction workers are on a whole other level than us. They regularly find Allied bombs from WW2. One weighing 500 kg was recently found…
The local cub scouts had asked me to accompany them on a forest walk to give them some culture and history. And so I guided them in the evening sun to the singing of blackbirds along the wooded southern shore of the Baggensstäket narrows. History is thick there. Early and Late Modern sea-lane tavern. Napoleonic…
Not the Real Face of Jesus
Posted by Martin R on April 3, 2010 I was annoyed and surprised to learn from a publicist that this weekend the History Channel is airing a programme named “The Real Face of Jesus” that takes a credulous approach to the shroud of Turin. The shroud is a 14th century fake relic, as has been well documented by historical sources and radiocarbon analysis.…
Ancient Kings On the Edge of Historicity
Posted by Martin R on March 29, 2010 Asked Felicia: “… those Viking saga kings, Ragnar Lodbrok and Björn Järnsida. I’d like to know if there exists any evidence at all that these persons ever existed?” In the present, the categories “real person” and “fictional character” are pretty distinct. But when we look retrospectively at the first historically documented centuries in any given…
Dendro Dissidents
Posted by Martin R on March 17, 2010 How long ago was the time of Emperor Augustus? Most educated people, including professional historians and archaeologists, will reply “about 2000 years” if you ask them. But a considerable number of amateur dendrochronologists say “about 1800 years“. And because of an unfortunate peculiarity in how professional dendrochronologists work, it is very hard to convince these…
Mistitled Book on Graveyard Folklore
Posted by Martin R on February 15, 2010 The somewhat elusive central thesis of M.C. Jenkins’s new book Vampire Forensics is that original European vampire folklore was based upon misinterpretation of the slow decay that occurs when you bury a body deep. Particularly so during epidemics, when upon discovery an unusually well-preserved corpse might be made into a scapegoat to explain why people…
Futile Land Reclamation
Posted by Martin R on January 28, 2010 As part of the reading course I’ve set myself on Bronze Age sacrificial finds, wetland archaeology and landscape studies, I’m reading a new book whose title translates as “Swedish bog cultivation. Agriculture, peat use and landscape change from 1750 to 2000″. It’s about various ways that Swedes have tried to make use of wetland in…
Fear of Time Travel
Posted by Martin R on December 28, 2009 The blog entry I had been thinking about and repeatedly forgetting about came back to me. Turns out those story beginnings never went far because I had been thinking about situations where I probably wouldn’t survive for long. I’ve had this scary scenario playing in my head, while awake, for quite some time. First, imagine…
News From Old Uppsala
Posted by Martin R on December 4, 2009 [More blog entries about archaeology, history, uppsala, Sweden; arkeologi, historia, idéhistoria, Uppsala.] Magnus Alkarp defended his PhD thesis in Uppsala on 21 November. I just read the book, and my opinion is that Alkarp definitely deserves his PhD. In fact, I believe that he probably deserves two such degrees: one in the history of ideas…
