History
Here we bring you the fascinating world of history: U.S. history; archeological, anthropological, natural, and evolutionary history; plus historical figures. To know where we are going we must first understand where we have been.
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One of “Publishing’s Greatest Failures” – How a 500-Year-Old Bible Map Changed History Forever
By University of Cambridge – SciTechDaily
A new Cambridge study reveals how the first Bible ever printed with a map, released in 1525 with the Holy Land accidentally reversed, ended up transforming far more than biblical illustration.
The first Bible to include a map of the Holy Land was published in 1525, marking its 500th anniversary this year. Although the map was printed the wrong way round – the Mediterranean was placed to the East – its presence set a new standard that, according to a recent Cambridge study, still influences how modern borders are imagined.
“This is simultaneously one of publishing’s greatest failures and triumphs,” says Nathan MacDonald, Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament at the University of Cambridge.
“They printed the map backwards so the Mediterranean appears to the east of Palestine. People in Europe knew so little about this part of the world that no one in the workshop seems to..Read more here.
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Archaeologists May Have Found the Lost Iron City of the Silk Road in the Remote Highlands of Uzbekistan
Andrew Lawler / Smithsonian magazine
The temperature hours ago climbed past 104 degrees, and the taxi’s air-conditioning is struggling to keep up. We are barreling across the lush plains of Uzbekistan on a midsummer afternoon. Then, suddenly, we climb into rugged hills, and the driver rolls down his window, sending a blast of baking-hot air into my face. But as we roar up hairpin turns, past vacation chalets, hotels and a pedestrian bridge spanning a deep and narrow canyon, a delicious cool replaces the searing heat.
By the time the pavement gives way to gravel, we are traveling through a landscape resembling crumpled paper. Lonely stands of juniper dot the chaotic jumble of sharp mountain slopes. To the south, flecks of snow glint off the jagged peaks of the Turkestan Range. The only sign of human life is a distant cowboy trotting alongside a herd of cattle.
From a treeless ridgeline road we turn onto a narrow track that plunges into a vertiginous…Read more here.
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It Rivaled Ancient Egypt, Then Vanished: New Study Pinpoints Why the Indus Valley Fell
By Springer Nature – SciTechDaily
Long drought cycles reshaped settlement choices in the Indus region. These climate stresses likely contributed to its slow collapse.
A series of severe droughts, each extending for more than 85 years, was likely a major contributor to the gradual decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, according to research published in Communications Earth & Environment.
These results offer new insight into why this influential ancient society — a contemporary of ancient Egypt located near the present-day India-Pakistan border — weakened over time and demonstrate how environmental pressures can shape the course of early civilizations.
Background on the Indus Valley Civilization: The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was...Read more here.
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Newly Declassified Records Suggest Parents Collaborated With the FBI to Spy on Their Rebellious Teens During the 1960s
Aaron G. Fountain Jr. / Smithsonian magazine
On a spring day in March 1969, Laura Mackay Irwin sat in her home in Charlotte, North Carolina, and typed a letter she’d never imagined she would write. A former stenographer at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Irwin addressed her note to the agency’s director, J. Edgar Hoover, as a plea for help.
Irwin’s 17-year-old son, Basil Jr., had joined the Charlotte Student Union, a new organization demanding a more relevant high school curriculum and a greater voice in school decisions. The group’s aims were modest compared with similar organizations like the New York High School Student Union, a student rights group that called for “an immediate end to the draft” and “community control of the schools and every other community facility.” To Irwin, however, her son’s activism didn’t signal ordinary teenage rebellion. She sensed something far more sinister.
“These teenagers are not really prepared to cope with the challenges of…Read more and see records here.
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