Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Time_Traveller
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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wjfox wrote: Tue Jun 28, 2022 6:07 pm
Absolutely fascinating this is something that i didn't know existed.
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Four Aztec Burials Found in Mexico
July 1, 2022

When Spanish forces and their allies conquered the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán in 1521, they began building directly on top of the city’s ruins and eradicating Aztec religion and traditions.

But now, a new discovery in Mexico City indicates that some Aztec customs endured in the years that followed.

Archaeologists have found the graves of four children dating to between 1521 and 1620, all buried in accordance with pre-Hispanic practices, according to a statement from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

The children range in age; the youngest was an infant, and the oldest was between six and eight. This older child was buried with several small items, including a blue figurine of a woman holding a girl on her lap.

Why did these children die? The researchers aren’t sure, but the burials “do not have traces of ritual sacrifice,” per the statement, so their deaths are more likely to be “associated with a time of crisis.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180980358/
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Cartography shows that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was used as an inter-oceanic passage in the 16th century
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-cartograp ... ssage.html
by University of SevilleCartography shows that the Isthmus of Tehuantepec was used as an inter-oceanic passage in the 16th century

by University of Seville
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a region located in the south of Mexico, is the shortest distance between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in all the country. Only 220 kilometers separate the two oceans. In the first half of the 16th century, Spanish conquerors put great effort into finding a strait that would connect the two oceans. This meant that, in the conquest explorations of the 16th century, this region was used as an inter-oceanic passage, making approximately two thirds of the journey along the mighty river Coatzacoalcos and the rest overland.

This information is the result of the paper "The Map of the Coatzacoalcos River (1580): The First Cartography of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec," a study published in The Cartographic Journal and conducted by lecturer Manuel Morato Moreno, from the Higher Technical School of Engineering (ETSI); and emeritus professor José María Gentil Baldrich.

Interest of the Spanish monarchy in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

In 1580, the mayor of Coatzacoalcos received a mandate from the Spanish crown to discover different aspects of the overseas territories, such as the geography, topography, place names, indigenous languages, plants, etc. He therefore commissioned a map to describe the geography of the region, indicating the geographic features, towns, and communication routes. For this, he had the assistance of Francisco Gali, a Spanish sailor traveling across these lands on his way to the Pacific coast.

The exploration of this region between the "North Sea" and the "South Sea" had been, since the conquest of Mesoamerica, fixed in the minds of the Spanish monarchy and their representatives. Charles V made this project one of the priority missions of the explorers whose objective was to connect the kingdom of New Spain with the kingdom of Peru. Hernán Cortés also used it in 1520 to transport equipment, stores, and supplies.
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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How Smallpox Inoculation United America
by Heidi Ledford
December 5, 2022

Introduction:
(Nature) It took some work to convince the physicians of 1720s Boston, Massachusetts, that Onesimus, an enslaved Black man, might hold the key to overcoming an impending smallpox epidemic. As cases mounted, and with no other options, one doctor eventually decided to take a chance.

Onesimus had told his enslaver how people in Africa took material from the pustules of someone with the disease and stabbed it under the skin of others to protect them. This practice, later called variolation, had been used in some parts of the world for centuries, but was not widely embraced by Europeans.

His enslaver found a physician in Boston willing to give it a go. The result was an early step towards widespread inoculation, and towards the concept that governments have the responsibility to protect communities against infectious diseases.

In The Contagion of Liberty, historian Andrew Wehrman traces the path of the smallpox-inoculation movement, and its generally overlooked impact on politics around the American War of Independence. He argues that smallpox influenced the journey towards independence from British rule, and how Americans conceived of their new, hard-won liberties.
Read more here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04334-8
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Scientists Indicate Aztecs Referenced the Sun to Feed Millions
by Carly Cassella
December 13, 2022

Introduction:
(Science Alert) A new study has shown how ancient civilizations in central Mexico might have once used specific features of their rugged landscape to mark key points in the seasons, allowing them to plan the planting of crops needed to keep a thriving population of millions alive and well.

Led by University of California, Riverside plant ecologist Exequiel Ezcurra, the research validates speculations that the jagged horizon peaks of Mount Tlaloc served as a way to monitor the agricultural calendar to match the seasons as per the passing of each solar year.

In the spring, the Mexico Valley is hot and dry. Come summer and early fall, it is monsoon season. The annual cycle of wet and dry means that crops must be planted at very specific times. Otherwise, the entire harvest can be undermined.

"Planting too early, following the cue of a first haphazard early rain, can be disastrous if the true rainy season does not continue," explain Ezcurra and his fellow researchers.

"Waiting to plant late, after the monsoon season has clearly started, can expose the corn field, or milpa, to an overly short growing season and will also put the crop under competition from weeds that have already germinated."
Read more of the Science Alert article here: https://www.sciencealert.com/the-aztec ... ists-say

Read a presentation of the study in PNAS here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2215615119
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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Why the U.S. Never Adopted the Metric System. It's About Pirates
by Jack Dunhill
January 27, 2023

Extract:
(IFL Science) (I)n the late 1700s small cylinders (called “graves” but later named kilograms) were made that represented the mass of one cubic decimeter of water at 4°C (39.2°F) as closely as science allowed….

Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State at the time, wrote a letter to France enquiring about adopting the new system, and France answered by sending Joseph Dombey, a French scientist, and a one-kilogram copper weight on a voyage to the States. Sadly, for Dombey and the crew, they were never to make it across the Atlantic.

A harsh storm hit the vessel, blowing them far off course. When the storm cleared, Dombey and the crew found themselves in the Carribean Sea, which – if you’re a 18th-century sailor – is possibly the last place you want to be. The vessel was captured by privateers, a type of pirate who were helped by the British government to attack shipping lanes, and the entire crew were imprisoned in Montserrat. Awaiting a ransom that never came, Dombey and the crew died in captivity.

Ironically, the pirates weren’t interested in how heavy a kilogram was and didn’t care for the grave, if they even knew what it was. The contents of the ship were auctioned off and the kilogram that could’ve redefined American measurement was purchased by Andrew Ellicott, who passed it down through his family until 1952, when it was given to what is now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, according to NPR.
The US went on to develop their own units, called customary units, which were used until the US and UK made efforts to align their unit definitions in 1959, creating the measurements that are most often used today in conjunction with other systems.

While it’s nice to think that pirates may be the sole reason why the US never went metric, there are plenty of other reasons. Efforts have been made across the centuries to join the rest of the world, but costs, time, and public opinion have prevented the switch from ever happening. However, the original reason, the reason that metric never even touched down on the shores of the US, is absolutely pirates.
Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/why-did-the ... tes-67290
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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DNA: Woman Was On Famed 17th Century Swedish Warship
April 4, 2023

Introduction:
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP via Courthouse News) — A U.S. military laboratory has helped Swedes confirm what was suspected for years: A woman was among those who died on a 17th-century warship that sank on its maiden voyage, the museum that displays the ship said Tuesday.
The wreck of the royal warship Vasa was raised in 1961 and was remarkably well-preserved after more than 300 years underwater in the Stockholm harbor. It has since been placed at the Vasa Museum, one of Stockholm’s top tourist attractions where visitors can admire its intricate wooden carvings.

Some 30 people died when the Vasa keeled over and sank just minutes after leaving port in 1628. They are believed to have been crew members and most of their identities are unknown.

For years, there were indications that one of the victims, known as G, was a woman, because of the appearance of the hip bone, Fred Hocker, research leader at the Vasa Museum, said in a statement.

Anna Maria Forsberg, a historian with the Vasa Museum, told The Associated Press that women were not part of the crew in the Swedish navy in the 17th century, but they could be on board as guests. Seamen were allowed to have their wives with them onboard unless the ship was going into battle or going for a long journey.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/dna-wom ... -warship/
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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When Did Horses Arrive in the Western United States?
by Tory More
March 31, 2023

Introduction:
(Futurity) Until now, the accepted theory of horses arriving to the Great Plains and Northern Rockies was shaped by word of mouth and lore.
The new research, published in Science, establishes the expansion of the domesticated horse through DNA evidence.

The researchers compared genetic samples from horse remains at archeological sites to the genetics of rare, early horse breeds similar to those that came over with early settlers. They found familial ties indicating that horses arrived with Europeans and then made their way west during the 17th century. Horses were not out west 10,000 years ago when nomadic people first arrived in North America.

Some archaeological evidence like bones, horseshoes, and colonial items have been found in various locations across the US and occasionally in deposits west of the Mississippi. However, when it came to whether horses were always in the western US or if they came over with Europeans and Spaniards and made it from the East Coast to the Rockies, horses left an open book.

Horses themselves and horsemanship seemed to have spread west faster than Europeans did, the researchers also found. Some of the early horse fossils showed horses were established in the Great Plains before the European and Spanish made their way west. More research needs to be done to understand just how this happened, but it’s another fascinating finding.
Read more of the Futurity article here: https://www.futurity.org/horses-wester ... 898712-2/

For a Science article containing a full discussion: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adc9691
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Re: Early Modern History (1500 – 1799 AD)

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caltrek wrote: Wed Apr 05, 2023 2:48 pm
The wreck of the royal warship Vasa was raised in 1961 and was remarkably well-preserved after more than 300 years underwater in the Stockholm harbor. It has since been placed at the Vasa Museum, one of Stockholm’s top tourist attractions where visitors can admire its intricate wooden carvings.
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