Archive for the ‘Ancient Europe’ Category
By: The Scribe on November, 2010
If you lived in Tudor England, you worried about the various illnesses that 
could strike without warning. One of the most terrifying, however, was not the plague but the sweat. The English Sweating Sickness, as it was often known, was a disease that struck England several times in the years between 1485 and 1551. Outbreaks took place in 1485, 1507, 1528 and 1571. One outbreak which took place in 1502 is rumored to have taken the life of King Henry VIII’s older brother Arthur, paving the way for Henry to take the throne. An image of Arthur, Prince of Wales is seen here.
It brought with it a number of symptoms. Individuals who had contracted the sweat would often feel a sensation of impending doom or tragedy. They often felt severe pain in their necks, their backs and their arms. They often felt extremely tired and profound exhaustion was another one of the most common symptoms.
In later stages, victims would break out in the heavy sweating that would give the disease its name. They would also feel exhausted and were often delirious as well. They had an urge to sleep and often never woke up from this sleep.
The sweating sickness is very different than many of the other illnesses that swept through the British population. Unlike the plague, the sweating sickness did not seem to have any rashes or skin problems associated with it. Death often happened much more quickly with the sweating sickness than with any of the other illnesses that were common at the time. As well, where someone may have developed immunity to an illness such as smallpox or the plague by living through an outbreak, this was not the case with the sweating sick
ness.
Although each outbreak was responsible for the deaths of many people, it appeared that the later outbreaks were particularly severe. One of the worst was the fourth outbreak, which took place in 1528. It affected the court of King Henry VIII and a large number of members of court perished during this outbreak. King Henry, who was always nervous about the chance of contracting an illness, was forced to flee to the country and accounts written at the time showed that he changed his residence each day in order to avoid contracting the disease.
Experts have been able to determine the cause of illnesses such as small pox and the bubonic plague. The cause of the sweat, however, is still unknown. It is true that there were a large number of people living in very crowded conditions and it is also true that good hygiene and cleanliness were rare. One theory is that the disease was spread by ticks and lice. The other is that it tended to spread most often when ticks and lice were at their most active. There have been a number of different theories but the belief that it is either a form of remitting fever because of these facts or that it was spread by a form of hantavirus are two of the most common.
By: The Scribe on November, 2010
When people think of mummies, images of linen-wrapped forms pulled from Egyptian tombs are what generally come to mind. While it is true that the most famous man-made mummies can be found in Egypt, many people do not know about the natural mummies that have been found throughout Europe. These mummies have been called “bog bodies” due to their location within the many peat bogs scattered across Europe.
Instead of using the dry desert air of Egypt to pull moisture from human remains, many of the mummies found throughout Europe were created naturally. Bodies, often those of individuals who had been a part of human sacrificial practices, were disposed of or buried in peat bogs.
These bogs had some very unique conditions which caused the bodies to become mummified instead of rotting away. Unlike Egyptian mummies, bog bodies are often extremely well preserved and in some cases were even mistaken for the bodies of individuals that were recently deceased.
A body will go through several stages as it decomposes. Microbes and bacteria break down the cells, causing a body to rot. As well, insects such as blowflies and flesh flies will either consume a body directly or lay eggs so that their offspring can do so. If conditions such as temperature, acidity and oxygen levels are not right, decomposition can either slow down significantly or, in the case of the bog bodies, stop altogether.
A peat bog is made up of partially decomposed vegetation. The conditions that make it impossible for vegetation to decompose properly are the same conditions that mummify the bog bodies. In a peat bog, the level of acidity is quite high and the temperature is quite low. Both of these factors mean that bacteria and microbes cannot aid in decomposition. As well, there is very little oxygen. There are very few insects in a peat bog, making it almost impossible for these bodies to completely rot away.
Bog bodies tend to have the skin, hair and clothing intact as none of it is able to rot away. Many of the bog bodies that have been discovered in Europe date from the European Iron age to the Roman period and were deposited in the bogs sometime between 800 BCE and 200CE. Bog bodies have taught us many valuable pieces of information about the lives of individuals who lived during this time and are among some of the most significant archeological finds to date. 
In fact, it is not only clothing, skin and hair that can be found on bog bodies. In some cases, the weapons used to kill them were also found on the bodies. In the case of one bog body known as Tollund Man, a length of rope was found still wrapped around its neck. This rope had been used to strangle the man to death. This particular bog body was discovered in a bog located in Denmark on the Jutland Peninsula.
It is known that many of the bog bodies were placed there as a form of sacrifice. Some bog bodies have shown signs of torture and other practices such as augury.
By: The Scribe on January, 2008
Sister Maria Celeste, born under the name Virginia Gamba, came into the world on August 16th, 1600. She was the daughter of the now-famous astronomer, mathematician, and philosopher Galileo Galilei and a woman named Marina Gamba – Marina actually bore all three of Galileo’s children, but the two never wed. As a result, Virginia and her sister Livia were considered illegitimate and unmarriable – and so Galileo entered his two daughters into the San Matteo convent of Florence just after Virginia’s 13th birthday.
Galileo wanted his daughters to have a good life and to be cared for, and since they could not marry, life in a convent was the best option at the time. Unfortunately, the girls were considered too young to make the decision to enter a convent for themselves, and Galileo was met with significant resistance from the church authorities. After a time, Galileo was able to obtain special dispensation from the Cardinal Maffeo Barberini – who just so happened to be an admirer of Galileo’s work – and in 1613, his two daughters were placed in the San Matteo convent of Arcetri, Florence.
In 1616, Virginia realized that the life of a nun was truly what she wanted for herself, and proceeded to “take the veil”. She chose the name of Sister Maria Celeste – young women were expected to take a new name, symbolic of their new devotion – which represented both her reverence for the Virgin Mary, and her father’s passion for astronomy.
As Galileo’s scientific books began to stir up controversy among leaders of the Catholic Church, father and daughter began composing letters to each other, an activity which likely sustained Galileo through some of his darkest trials. While very little is known about Maria Celeste’s actual life, about 120 letters have survived – written between 1623 and 1634 – that she wrote to her father while in the convent. Unfortunately, only one side of the story survives – after Maria died, the church authorities burned Galileo’s letters to his daughter, not wishing to retain the writings of someone considered to be a heretic.
The picture of Maria that emerges from these letters is of a caring, loving daughter, who was not only constantly concerned with her father’s well being, but who also seemed to nearly match him in intelligence and wit. She often prepared her father’s manuscripts, a feat which must have been remarkable to accomplish inside the convent – under the rule of the very church that accused her father of heresy. However, Maria saw that Galileo was a devoted man of God whose scientific discoveries clashed in no way with his religious beliefs – yet, in 1633, Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy.
For a time, Maria served as the convent’s apothecary, and was able to send various remedies to her father, now living in Tuscany, for his ailments, and managed to appeal to him on more than one occasion to help the convent’s upkeep – the convent of San Matteo was extremely poor, as the nuns had no means with which to feed themselves or repair the buildings. After notifying her father of various problems, Galileo even took it upon himself to ensure that the convent clock was running properly at all times.
When Galileo was convicted of heresy, he was sentenced to house arrest in Arcetri – which happened to be near enough to the convent that he could see its outer walls and hear the bells each day. Another portion of his sentence had been to recite the seven penitential Psalms once every week for the next three years, which Maria Celeste took upon herself to perform for him – however, it wasn’t long before she contracted dysentery and died on April 2nd, 1634, only four months after her father’s return to Arcetri.
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
By: The Scribe on January, 2008
For decades, scientists believed that ancient cave bears which lived around the same time as prehistoric humans were nothing to worry about – they were supposedly the ‘gentle giants’ of the time, vegetarian animals that thrived on berries and roots…
Unfortunately for these human ancestors, that no longer appears to have been the case. Along with saber-toothed lions, man-eating birds of prey, and dire wolves, ancient cave bears can now be added to the list of terrifying predators that prehistoric humans struggled to avoid in their fight to survive.
New bones found in the Carpathian mountains indicate that the ancient cave bears – named ‘Ursus spelaeus’ or ‘cave bears’ since their bones have been commonly found in caves – have caused scientists to throw away the idea that all these bears were largely herbivores.
For 30 years, studies of their skulls, teeth and jaws revealed the same long-term wear as other herbivores, and the bones of the bears had very low levels of nitrogen-15. Nitrogen-15 is something accumulated by all animals, but carnivorous animals build up far more nitrogen-15 in their bones than herbivores. Oddly enough, these new bones from the Carpathians had quite the opposite results from previous cave bear bones, with extremely high levels of nitrogen-15.
The bones were quite difficult to retrieve, located within a cave where the entrance had collapsed thousands of years before. In order to reach the back rooms, archaeologists had to wade through a spring and then swim underwater across an underground river, using scuba gear. To get up into the cave, climbing equipment was needed.
So far, the cave bear bones from this location are the only bones that show signs of carnivorous activity. The question that arises is whether certain regions of Europe were home to carnivorous Ursus spelaeus while other regions were strictly occupied by herbivores, or whether these bears practiced a degree of bear-bear cannibalism. There are examples of bear cannibalism from a cave in Western Turkey, where a young bear’s skull holds tooth marks from a larger bear.
This discovery might also shed some light on the rituals that were practiced by ancient humans, who often deposited large amounts of cave bear bones inside of caves that they had taken over and occupied themselves. One theory is that if humans and bears were competing for food resources and living space – assuming that there were more meat-eating bears than just the group found at this one Carpathian cave – humans might have found the bears compelling, and felt the need to venerate or honor them in some way.
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
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could strike without warning. One of the most terrifying, however, was not the plague but the sweat. The English Sweating Sickness, as it was often known, was a disease that struck England several times in the years between 1485 and 1551. Outbreaks took place in 1485, 1507, 1528 and 1571. One outbreak which took place in 1502 is rumored to have taken the life of King Henry VIII’s older brother Arthur, paving the way for Henry to take the throne. An image of Arthur, Prince of Wales is seen here.
ness.
