The Middle Ages (500 – 1499 AD)

[caltrek]

How a Witch-hunting Manual & Social Networks Helped Ignite Europe’s Witch Craze
October 8, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) The sudden emergence of witch trials in early modern Europe may have been fueled by one of humanity's most significant intellectual milestones: the invention of the printing press in 1450.

A recent study in Theory and Society shows that the printing of witch-hunting manuals, particularly the Malleus maleficarum in 1487, played a crucial role in spreading persecution across Europe. The study also highlights how trials in one city influenced others. This social influence — observing what neighbors were doing — played a key role in whether a city would adopt witch trials.

“Cities weren’t making these decisions in isolation,” said Kerice Doten-Snitker, a Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and lead author of the study. “They were watching what their neighbors were doing and learning from those examples. The combination of new ideas from books and the influence of nearby trials created the perfect conditions for these persecutions to spread.”

The witch hunts in Central Europe took off in the late 15th century and lasted for almost 300 years, resulting in the prosecution of roughly 90,000 people, with nearly 45,000 executions. Belief in witches and witchcraft had been present in European culture for centuries, but the level of systematic, widespread persecution that occurred during this period was unprecedented.

According to Doten-Snitker, the advent of the printing press allowed for the rapid dissemination of ideas about witchcraft that had previously been confined to small intellectual circles, such as religious scholars and local inquisitors. The most infamous of these publications, the Malleus maleficarum, was both a theoretical and practical guide for identifying, interrogating, and prosecuting witches. Doten-Snitker explains that once these manuals entered circulation, they provided a framework for how local authorities could manage suspected witchcraft in their communities.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1060611

For a lengthy presentation of the results of the study as published in Theory and Society: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1 ... 4-09576-1

caltrek’s comment: I think that there may be a lesson for our own times here. That improved methods of communication may allow for the easier spread of irrational bigotry and paranoia.

[Time_Traveller]

Christopher Columbus's DNA to shed light on his origins

12 October 2024, 00:09 BST

More than five centuries after he re-shaped history by opening up the New World to European exploration, scientists say they are ready to reveal the truth about the origins of Christopher Columbus.

The explorer reached the Americas in 1492 with the support of the Spanish Crown.

But although mainstream history books describe him as a native of Genoa, uncertainty has surrounded his provenance and many countries and regions have claimed him as their own.

Now, after more than two decades of research, scientists say they have enough evidence to solve the argument over the birthplace of Columbus.

In 2003, José Antonio Lorente, professor of forensic medicine at Granada University, and the historian Marcial Castro, exhumed what were believed to the remains of Columbus from Seville cathedral to take DNA samples. They also took DNA from the bones of his son, Hernando, and brother, Diego.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2ek271jxpvo

[Vakanai]

caltrek’s comment: I think that there may be a lesson for our own times here. That improved methods of communication may allow for the easier spread of irrational bigotry and paranoia.

This much is obvious looking at Twitter/X, Reddit, TikTok...problem is there's little to nothing being done to stop it, and I'm worried history may once again repeat itself with our own version of "witch" hunts and trials...

Sadly ironic that one of the figures who would/will push for such is the orange man who keeps lying about being a victim of supposed witch hunts instead of acknowledging they're legitimate consequences of his own criming.

[Powers]

Humanity will always find a way, one orbit.

[weatheriscool]

Have we found all the major Maya cities? Not even close, new research suggests
https://phys.org/news/2024-10-major-maya-cities.html
by Antiquity

Archaeologists have analyzed lidar data from a completely unstudied corner of the Maya world in Campeche, Mexico, revealing 6,674 undiscovered Maya structures, including pyramids like those at the famous sites of Chichén Itzá or Tikal.

"For the longest time, our sample of the Maya civilization was a couple of hundred square kilometers total," says lead author Luke Auld-Thomas from Northern Arizona University. "That sample was hard won by archaeologists who painstakingly walked over every square meter, hacking away at the vegetation with machetes, to see if they were standing on a pile of rocks that might have been someone's home 1,500 years ago."

In the modern day, however, lidar technology allows scientists to scan large swaths of land from the comfort of an office, uncovering anomalies in the landscape that often prove to be pyramids, family houses and other Maya infrastructure.

There is a downside, though. Lidar survey is expensive, and granting organizations don't want to sink money into studying areas that are totally unknown and potentially devoid of Maya history. That's why one part of Campeche was still a blank spot on archaeologists' maps—until Auld-Thomas got an idea.

[wjfox]

Smithfield Market to close after 900 years, following City vote

Tuesday 26 November 2024 5:39 pm

London’s oldest meat market is set to close having served the capital for over 900 years, after a City of London panel voted to end its plans to help relocate its traders to a new site in Dagenham Dock.

Smithfield market’s owners, the City of London Corporation, had planned to relocate Smithfield and Canary Wharf’s Billingsgate fish market to the east-end suburb, but on Tuesday the body’s Court of Common Council voted to scrap the move, after a recommendation from the Square Mile’s policy committee.

The committee had said cost overruns of the £1bn relocation plan meant its guidance was to close the market for good and not go ahead with the move to Dagenham.

Traders will continue their operations at both Smithfield and Billingsgate until at least 2028, the City of London Corporation said in a statement, during which time the Square Mile’s de facto local authority will help support the markets’ traders to identify new sites.

https://www.cityam.com/smithfield-marke ... city-vote/

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

Archaeologists uncover maize's significance to Casarabe people—and their ducks

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-archaeolo ... arabe.html

[wjfox]

My Dad has just published a book on Henry III.

If you're into history, especially monarchs, and Shakespeare, please check it out.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HENRY-III-Part-1-play-ebook/dp/B0DS8WL3YG/

[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

Note: He sounds absurd in the beginning, but it's actually a metaphor for the main topic he covers in the video

[firestar464]

Codex of Türi: Study traces origins of Estonia's oldest dated manuscript covers

https://phys.org/news/2025-04-codex-tri ... dated.html

[caltrek]

Archaeologist Sailing Like a Viking Makes Unexpected Discoveries
May 21, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert)) Archaeologist Greer Jarrett at Lund University in Sweden has been sailing in the footsteps of Vikings for three years. He can now show that the Vikings sailed farther away from Scandinavia, and took routes farther from land, than was previously believed to have been possible. In his latest study, he has found evidence of a decentralised network of ports, located on islands and peninsulas, which probably played a central role in trade and travel in the Viking era.

The sailing boat – an open, square-rigged clinker boat similar to the boats used during the Viking Age (800-1050 AD) – travelled from Trondheim up to the Arctic Circle and back in 2022. Since then, Greer Jarrett and his team have sailed over 5,000 kilometres along Viking trade routes (see map). His research shows that the likely routes of the Vikings took them farther from land than previously thought.

“I can show that this type of boat sails well on open water, in tough conditions. But navigating close to land and in the fjords sometimes presents challenges that are just as great, but not as obvious. Underwater currents and katabatic winds blowing down from mountain slopes, for example,” says Greer Jarrett, a doctoral student in archaeology at Lund University.

Jarrett's research trips have not been without risks. When the yard holding up the mainsail snapped off the coast of Norway, the crew were forced to improvise to save themselves from distress.

“The cold in the Lofoten Islands was a challenge. Our hands really suffered. At that point I realised just how crucial it is to have a good crew,” says Greer Jarrett.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1084775

For a presentation of study results as published in Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory : https://link.springer.com/article/10.1 ... 5-09708-6

[caltrek]

In the Year 536 CE, A Truly Miserable Period of Human History Began
by Tom Hale
May 13, 2025

Introduction:

(IFL Science) History is full of crummy times. Flip to any chapter in the human story, and you'll find that peace and prosperity are the exception, not the norm. Sure, periods of plenty and politeness have been enjoyed, but they often came crashing down in an outbreak of violence or, if you were lucky, they slowly rotted away into obscurity. However, of all the times to be alive, one year is particularly prominent in the history of misery: 536 CE

This era was grim – not just because of bloody wars or ferocious diseases, but due to a volcanic eruption that spewed ash and dust into the sky, cloaking the sun with a soft, gray haze.

Nobody is completely certain which volcano was responsible, although El Salvador's Ilopango has long stood as a top contender. However, a study in 2018 put forward evidence that the eruption was in Iceland, as ice cores in Europe contain volcanic glass that’s chemically similar to particles found across Europe and Greenland. It is also possible that the so-called “volcanic winter” was actually triggered by an unfortunate series of explosive eruptions around 536 to 540 CE.

Whatever the volcanic culprit, its effects were dramatic. In a letter written in 538 CE, Roman statesman Cassiodorus wrote: "Men are alarmed, and naturally alarmed, at the extraordinary signs in the heavens, and ask with anxious hearts what events these may portend. The Sun, first of stars, seems to have lost his wonted light and appears of a bluish color.”

"We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon, to feel the mighty vigour of his heat waste into feebleness [...] The Moon, too, even when her orb is fuelled, is empty of her natural splendour.”

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/in-the-year ... an-79191

[caltrek]

Revelations on the History of Leprosy in the Americas
May 29, 2025

Introduction:

(Eureklaert) Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, and the University of Colorado (USA), in collaboration with various institutions in America and Europe, reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, Mycobacterium lepromatosis, has been infecting humans in the Americas for at least 1,000 years, several centuries before the Europeans arrived. These findings will be published in the journal Science on May 29, 2025.

Leprosy is a neglected disease, mainly caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, affecting thousands of people worldwide: approximately 200,000 new cases of leprosy are reported each year. Although M. leprae remains the primary cause, this study focused on another species, Mycobacterium lepromatosis, discovered in the United States in 2008 in a Mexican patient, and later in 2016 in red squirrels in the British Isles. Led by scientists from the Laboratory of Microbial Paleogenomics at the Institut Pasteur, also associated with the CNRS, and the University of Colorado, in collaboration with Indigenous communities and over 40 scientists from international institutions including archaeologists, this study analyzed DNA from nearly 800 samples, including ancient human remains (from archaeological excavations) and recent clinical cases presenting symptoms of leprosy. The results confirm that M. lepromatosis was already widespread in North and South America long before European colonization and provide insights into the current genetic diversity of pathogenic Mycobacteria.

"This discovery transforms our understanding of the history of leprosy in America," said Dr. Maria Lopopolo, the first author of the study and researcher at the Laboratory of Microbial Paleogenomics at the Institut Pasteur. "It shows that a form of the disease was already endemic among Indigenous populations well before the Europeans arrived."

The team used advanced genetic techniques to reconstruct the genomes of M. lepromatosis from ancient individuals found in Canada and Argentina. Despite the geographic distance of several thousand kilometers, these ancient strains dating from similar periods (approximately 1,000 years ago) were found to be surprisingly genetically close.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1085583

[caltrek]

Ancient Temple Ruins Discovered in Andes Shed Light on Lost Society
June 24, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — An ancient society near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca in modern-day Bolivia was once one of the continent’s most powerful civilizations. Known as Tiwanaku, the ancient society is widely considered by archaeologists to be one of the earliest examples of civilization in the Andes and a precursor of the Inca empire, but it mysteriously disappeared about a thousand years ago. Now, a team led by scientists at Penn State and in Bolivia have discovered a Tiwanaku temple, shedding new light on what the society looked like in its prime.

Much about the Tiwanaku civilization remains unknown, explained José Capriles, Penn State associate professor of anthropology and lead author on a study about the temple discovery published today (June 24) in the journal Antiquity.

“Their society collapsed sometime around 1000 CE and was a ruin by the time the Incas conquered the Andes in the 15th century,” Capriles said. CE refers to the common era of the current calendar. “At its peak, it boasted a highly organized societal structure, leaving behind remnants of architectural monuments like pyramids, terraced temples and monoliths, most of which are distributed in sites around Lake Titicaca and, while we know Tiwanaku’s control and influence extended much further, scholars debate how much actual control over distant places it had.”

The newly discovered temple complex is located roughly 130 miles south of Tiwanaku’s established historical site, on top of a hill that was known to local Indigenous farmers but was never explored in depth by researchers due to its unassuming location. However, the position of the site is actually very strategic, Capriles explained.

At the time of Tiwanaku, the spot connected three main trade routes for three vastly different ecosystems: the productive highlands around Lake Titicaca to the north, the arid Altiplano ideal for herding llamas to the west and the agriculturally productive eastern Andean valleys of Cochabamba to the east.

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1088751

For a presentation of study results as published in Antiquity: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journal ... 5F589E1D6

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[firestar464]

England's forgotten first king deserves to be famous, says Æthelstan biographer as anniversaries approach

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-england-f ... lstan.html