What the Barista is Brewing Today
Grab some espresso and dive in for some brewmination
Eclipsing the Occult in Early America: Benjamin Franklin and His Almanacs
Franklin advanced a scientific – not supernatural – understanding of astronomical events such as eclipses. His satirical character ‘Poor Richard’ mocked those who bought into astrological predictions. By the time he was 20 years old, colonial American Benjamin Franklin had already spent two years working as a printer in London. He returned to Philadelphia in[…]
Seeing the Invisible: A Short History of the Scientific Evidence of Dark Matter
About 85% of all matter in the universe consists of a mysterious, invisible, and as-of-yet unidentified substance dubbed “dark matter.” Everything you have ever touched, seen, or tasted; the air you breathe; the ground on which you stand; and the constituents of your body all consist of a type of matter that is only a[…]
The Origins of Modern Dogs in Ancient Asian Wolves
You’ve come a long way, baby. moggafogga, CC BY-NC-ND The how and the when of dog domestication are fairly settled. As for the where: now DNAsays Fido traces his roots back to wolves in Central Asia that lingered around people’s camps millennia ago. By Dr. Laura Shannon / 10.20.2015 Computational Evolutionary Geneticist Adam Boyko Laboratory Cornell University Dogs’ origin story goes something like[…]
Earliest Evidence of Cat Domestication Found in China
So, you found my ancestors? Are you sure this time? epsos There has been much debate about how cats went from hunting in the wild to a much-loved pet. By Akshat Rathi / 12.16.2013 Former Science and Data Editor The Conversation There has been much debate about how cats went from hunting in the wild to a much-loved pet. That is because[…]
How We Discovered That Europeans Used Cattle 8,000 Years Ago
The use of animals for their renewable products greatly increased human capabilities in prehistory. The use of animals for their renewable products greatly increased human capabilities in prehistory. Secondary products – or anything that can be gleaned from a domestic animal repeatedly over its lifetime – expanded the capabilities of ancient human societies. They helped[…]
Baltic Hunter-Gatherer Adoption of Agriculture
Ancient DNA analyses show that – unlike elsewhere in Europe – farmers from the Near East did not overtake hunter-gatherer populations in the Baltic. The findings also suggest that the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family originated in the Steppe grasslands of the East. New research indicates that Baltic hunter-gatherers were not swamped by[…]
Safavid Trade during the 17th Century: Iran’s Transit Economy
Analyzing the role that the Safavid economy played within the rapidly developing global economic system. By Connor J. HamelCompetitive Intelligence AnalystAccenture Federal Services Introduction The seventeenth century ushered in a plethora of changes in global trade patterns. These fluctuating trade patterns began to generate nascent economic, political, and social trends the likes of which had[…]
The Safavid Empire, 1501-1736
The empire established Shi’a Islam as Iran’s official religion and united its provinces under a single Iranian sovereignty in the early modern period. Introduction The Safavids (Persian: صفویان) were a native Iranian dynasty from Azarbaijan that ruled from 1501 to 1736, and which established Shi’a Islam as Iran’s official religion and united its provinces under a single Iranian sovereignty in the[…]
The Style and Regional Differences of Seljuk Persian Minarets
Seljuk art and architecture is a fusion of Persian, Islamic, and Central Asian (Turkic) elements. By Dr. Fatema AlSulaitiExpert in Islamic Archaeology Under the Seljuk rule, Persia gained a period of economic and cultural prosperity. The innovative techniques of the Seljuk period and style in architecture and the arts had a strong influence on later[…]
Kahina: Early Medieval Berber Warrior-Queen Standing against Arab Invasion
Kahina’s life is only known through later Arab historians writing on the Muslim conquest of Africa. Introduction Kahina (7th century CE) was a Berber (Imazighen) warrior-queen and seer who led her people against the Arab Invasion of North Africa in the 7th century CE. She is also known as al-Kahina, Dihya al-Kahina, Dahlia, Daya, and Dahia-al-Kahina. Her birth[…]
The Salt Mine Mummies of Ancient Iran
The “Saltmen of Zanjan” were preserved by a very rare form of natural mummification which had occurred in a salt mine. By Haleh BrooksArchaeologist As a young girl interested in archaeology and history, mummies always intrigued me. From the intricate Egyptian mummies to the naturally and beautifully preserved mummies of the Incas, they seemed to me to be beautiful[…]
From Mummification to ‘Sky Burials’: Why We Need Death Rituals
Death rituals help us to cope with loss and perhaps even feelings of guilt associated with disposing of a corpse. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Few liturgical phrases from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer are so familiar to so many, even those who have never darkened the doors of a church. This part of the[…]
Completing the Work of the Framers: Lincoln’s Constitutional Legacy
Lincoln deserves far more credit than he has received as an architect of American constitutional law. Introduction When we think of the architects of our constitutional order, we naturally think of the Founding Fathers. In particular, we think of James Madison, the “father of the Constitution.” Madison and his colleagues at the Philadelphia Convention drafted[…]
The Election of 1864 and the Importance of Founding Intent
The founders were an essential political and cultural touchstone in the election of 1864. “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”[1] While it might be somewhat trite to begin an article on the[…]
Martin Van Buren: Revered by the Common Man
Martin van Buren was a man for the people, and especially for the downtrodden. Martin van Buren was a man for the people, and especially for the downtrodden. Women loved him. If women would have had the right to vote in the mid-nineteenth century Martin Van Buren might have become a five-term president, and might[…]
‘King Andrew I’: Andrew Jackson’s Power-Hungry Self-Styling as Louis XIV
He claimed that he embodied the people in the same way that Louis XIV believed that he was France. Jackson’s defeat of incumbent John Quincy Adams in the 1828 election was the first great US political upset in which an anti-establishment candidate defeated an insider. Jackson styled himself as a champion of the “common man,”[…]
The Complexity of Thomas Jefferson – Or Not-So-Much
Jeffersonian scholarship is not a fool’s errand, but it is extremely arduous. Merrill Peterson, the preeminent Jeffersonian scholar, writes in his watershed work, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, “Jefferson was a baffling series of contradictions.” Albert Ellis in American Sphinxstates magisterially that Jefferson’s “multiple personalities” are much like “the artful disguises of a confidence man.” Peter[…]
Serenading the President: John Adams, the XYZ Affair, and the 18th-Century American Presidency
Sentiment began to change in earnest in the wake of the decision to publicize the XYZ dispatches during the spring of 1798. Behold the chief who now commands,Once more to serve his country stands.The rock on which the storm will beat,But arm’d in virtue, firm, and true,His hopes are fix’d on Heav’n and you. Joseph[…]
The Politics of Women’s Fashion in the Cultural West
The impact of political and social expectations on women in the Western world. By Dr. Max Barnish, et.al.Research FellowCollege of Medicine and HealthUniversity of Exeter Abstract In this perspective piece, we discuss the politics of fashion in the cultural West. We cover issues of social expectation and individual freedom. We comment on where society draws[…]
Religious Dimensions of Classical and Contemporary Islamic Art
Analyzing classical religious influences on the work of Ehab Mamdouh. Abstract This paper focuses on the work of Egyptian Islamic contemporary artist Ehab Mamdouh who grew up in Saudi Arabia, then moved to Cairo, where he was exposed to religious, historical concepts and art forms, then came back to work in Saudi Arabia to observe[…]
“To Wait Together upon the Lord in Pure Silence”: Quakers in the 18th Century
Quaker worship services have always consisted of long periods of silent reflection. “The voices of the past are especially lost to us. The world of unrecorded sounds is irreclaimable, so the disjunctions that separate our ears from what people heard in the past are doubly profound.” When historians say they hope to retrieve the “lost[…]
A Bit of Serendipitous Magic: The Sorcière of Conques and Grillot de Givry
Grillot de Givry’s discovery of this 18th-century manuscript from an alleged witch was serendipitous – twice over. I grimaced, examining the neat box of pale blue cardboard in front of me. Manuscript number 4171? This wasn’t the one I’d ordered, and I was conscious of my rapidly passing research week. With only a couple hours[…]
Ai Khanoum, the Capital of Eucratides in Ancient Afghanistan
Founded during the conquests of Alexander the Great, the city developed and grew after his death. Ai Khanum (also spelled Ai-Khanoum or Ay-Khanum, lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek), was founded in the 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The site is located in the[…]
The Expansion of the Ancient Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom (Modern Afghanistan)
The expansion of the Greco-Bactrians into present-day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan from 180 BC established the Indo-Greek Kingdom. The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was – along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom – the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BC. It was centered on the north of present-day Afghanistan. The expansion of the Greco-Bactrians into present-day eastern Afghanistan[…]
The Ambulatory Archive: Santa Muerte Tattoos as Historical Sources
Historians have often neglected tattoos as a source, as artifacts that shed light upon society. In Christopher Nolan’s film “Memento,” the main character, Leonard Shelby, suffers from amnesia. To trigger his memories—both real and imagined—he uses a jarring mnemonic device: tattoos, webbed across his body, reminding him of his mission of revenge. Outside the movie[…]
A Brief History of Tattoos
Wellcome Library, Creative Commons A tattoo is defined as an indelible mark fixed upon the body by inserting pigment under the skin, and the earliest evidence of tattoo art dates from 5000 BCE. Across time and cultures, tattoos have many different forms and meanings. By Amy Olson / 04.12.2010 Web Producer Wellcome Trust The Origin[…]
A History of Colombian Goldmaking
The Muisca, Quimbaya, Calima, Tairona, Tolima and Zenú chiefdoms in ancient Colombia used gold to fashion dramatic and sophisticated works of art. El Dorado For centuries Europeans were dazzled by the legend of a lost city of gold in South America. The truth behind this myth is fascinating. El Dorado–literally “the golden one”–actually refers to[…]
El Dorado: The Legendary Kings of Colombia’s Indigenous Muisca and Their Gold, 600-1600 CE
Over time, El Dorado extended its meaning beyond its kings to refer to a lost golden city and even an entire region. By Mark CartwrightHistorian Introduction El Dorado (‘Gilded Man’ or ‘Golden One’) referred to the legendary kings of the Muisca (or Chibcha) people who populated the northern Andes of modern-day Colombia from 600 CE[…]
Inka Textile Fabrication in the All-T’oqapu Tunic
The All-T’oqapu Tunic is an example of the height of Andean textile fabrication and its centrality to Inka expressions of power. Introduction The Inka were masters of statecraft, forging an empire that at its height extended from modern Quito, Ecuador to Santiago, Chile. One of the engines that drove the empire was the exchange of[…]
The Paracas Textile of Ancient Peru
Despite the textile’s small size, it contains a vast amount of information about the people who lived in ancient Peru. By Lois Martin Mummy Bundles One of the most extraordinary masterpieces of the pre-Columbian Americas is a nearly 2,000-year-old cloth from the South Coast of Peru, which has been in the collection of the Brooklyn[…]
