Get Lost In Time

I'm an Australian High School History Teacher-in-the-making, and in my spare time I've decided to work on this blog dedicated to all things history. I have a particular passion for Ancient Greece and Medieval Britain, but I love all history in between. If you want to see anything in particular, let me know. Also, if you do see any mistakes within my posts, please let me know and I will get right to fixing it up.

[gouldyiv]

The Bielski Partisans

One of the most prominent Jewish resistance groups, the Bielski Partisans, founded by the Bielski brothers Tuvia, Asael, Zus and Aron, was a partisan group operational in Belarus between 1942 and 1944. At the time of their liberation in 1944, the group was made up of 1,230 people, 70% of which were women, children and elderly people who would have otherwise died under Hitler's Nazi regime.

[gouldyiv]

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

1 - Great Pyramid of Giza

Constructed: 2584-2561 BCE Location: Giza, Egypt

The oldest and only remaining of the Seven Ancient Wonders.

2 - Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Constructed: ca. 600 BCE Location: Babylon (Modern Iraq)

The only Ancient Wonder thought to be entirely legendary.

3 - Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Constructed: ca. 550 BCE Location: Ephesus, Turkey

Was rebuilt a total of three times before its eventual destruction in 401 CE.

4 - Statue of Zeus at Olympia

Constructed: 435 BCE Location: Olympia, Greece

The geographer Strabo stated in the 1st century BCE that "if Zeus were to stand up he would unroof the temple".

5 - Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Constructed: 351 BCE Location: Bodrum, Turkey

The term "mausoleum" coined here for any above ground tomb, as this tomb in particular was dedicated to the Persian Empire satrap Mausolus, and his sister-wife Artemisa II of Caria.

6 - Colossus of Rhodes

Constructed: 292-280 BCE Location: Rhodes, Greece

Stood for just 54 years before it was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 BCE.

7 - Lighthouse of Alexandria

Constructed: ca. 280 BCE Location: Alexandria, Egypt

Stood between 393-450 ft (120-140m) and was for centuries the tallest man-made object on the surface of the Earth.

[gouldyiv]

Troy

The ancient city of Troy in modern Turkey is the setting of one of the oldest pieces of classical western literature. Homer's Iliad told the story of the Trojan War, a decade long confrontation between Mycenaean Greece and the Trojans which was sparked after the Trojan Prince Paris took Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world and wife to the Spartan King Menelaus, back to Troy. Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, prompted by this act of betrayal, joined Menelaus and with one thousand ships, sailed across the Aegean Sea to the shores of Asia Minor, proceeding to lay siege to the Trojan city.

Since the time of Homer, people have speculated over the validity of the proceedings found within the Iliad. However, today, though the exact details cannot be verified, it is believed that the Trojan War did in fact occur. Both on mainland Greece and at the site on which Troy is believed to have once stood, archaeological evidence has emerged to suggest that the ancient city did in fact fall to a siege in the late second millenia BCE. Similarly, the Mycenaean civilization is believed to have gone into rapid decline by the 12th century BCE, with some experts believing this to be the result of a mass portion of the population being elsewhere; a factor that in turn supports Homer's mention of such a large army sailing across the Aegean to engage in warfare, never to return.

Whatever way you look at it, whether you believe the Trojan War did or did not happen, the tale alone will never cease to amaze.

[love-of-history]

This image of Boudica was painted by Gordon Napier. After her husband, who was a king, died, Roman law dictated that she was allowed half of his possessions while the Romans claimed the rest. However, the Roman army came and took everything. This caused one of the final Celtic revolts. Boudica and her army fought the Romans and pushed them back, until she was eventually captured. She became a martyr after refusing to becoming a Roman slave, instead taking a lethal dose of poison. 

[love-of-history]

In 1187 AD, Saladin won the Siege of Jerusalem, capturing back after 88 years of Crusader rule. In many ways it is unsurprising Saladin won; he had 200,000 men, compared to 160 defenders.

[love-of-history]

This has got to be one of the most famous mosaics of all time. It is the Alexander Mosaic and it dates from 100BC. It originates from the House of Faun in Pompeii, depicting a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Between 2.5 million and 5.5 million bits of stone comprise the mosaic. Currently, it is on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and interestingly has been put on the wall for people to admire. It shows that what was, at the time, a huge disaster has left the world with something that would have gone forgotten, lost or destroyed otherwise.

[collectivehistory-deactivated20]

Burning Cigarette Dispenser ca. 1931 (Retronaut) 

[collectivehistory-deactivated20]

The Cuban Revolution

On March 10th, 1952, General Fulgencio Batista overthrew the president of Cuba, Carlos Prìo Socarrás, and canceled all elections. This angered a young lawyer, Fidel Castro, and for the next seven years he led attempts to overthrow Batista’s government. On July 26th, 1953, Castro led an attack against the military barracks in Santiago, but he was defeated and arrested. Although Castro was sentenced to 15 years in prison, Batista released him in 1955 in a show of supreme power. Castro did not back down and gathered a new group of rebels in Mexico. On December 2nd, 1956, he was again defeated by Batista’s army and fled to the Sierra Maestra. He began using guerrilla tactics to fight Batista’s armed forces, and, with the aid of other rebellions throughout Cuba, he forced Batista to resign and flee the country on January 1st, 1959. Castro became the Prime Minister of Cuba in February and had about 550 of Batista’s associates executed.

He soon suspended all elections and named himself “President for Life”, jailing or executing all who opposed him. He established a communist government with himself as a dictator and began relations with the Soviet Union.

The Cuban revolution was a turning point in recent history. With Castro’s regime in place, Cuba became an important source of support for the global power of the Soviet Union, and thus affected the severity of the Cold War. Castro was involved in unsuccessful rebellions in Venezuela, Guatemala and Bolivia, which caused Cuba to isolate itself from the surrounding world. The communist regime in Cuba gave the U.S.S.R. an ally neighboring the United States during the Cold War, thus bringing the threat of nuclear war to an all time high.

via

[gouldyiv]

Hypocaust, Northumberland, UK.

Many may have thought that underfloor heating is a reasonably recent idea, but in fact, evidence suggests that human beings have been heating their floors since Neolithic times. The above image of a villa built along Hadrian's Wall, displays perhaps one of the more effective, though expensive, methods of underfloor heating, with the use of hypocausts. The floor of a villa or a Roman bath would be raised above the ground, supported by pillars. A furnace would be lit, and the hot air and smoke would move through the gaps between the pillars, heating the room above. The smoke would then pass through gaps left in the walls that would allow the pollution to travel from the furnace to the outside air while heating, yet not polluting, the room inside.

[historical-nonfiction]

Jackie Kennedy, wearing a blood-stained pink Chanel suite, watches Lyndon B. Johnson take the oath of office aboard Air Force One.

[gouldyiv]

Charlie Allan

I only heard of this man this morning, but I already see him as one of history’s heroes. Charlie Allan is a man many of us should remember as the leader of the Barbarian Horde in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) (you know, the one who through the Roman soldier’s severed head into the mud?), but little did we know he is more than just some movie extra. Allan is in fact the Chief Executive of the Clanranald Trust for Scotland, a non-for-profit organisation that aims to spread the knowledge of Scottish culture and history to anyone willing to listen. One of his biggest efforts, still under construction, is the reproduction of a life-size Medieval fortified village dubbed Duncarron, situated in the Carron Valley, Scotland.

This project has been in the making since 1995, and in that time, Allan, the Clanranal Trust and movie star Russel Crowe (whom Allan met on the set of Gladiator) have been putting their effort and money into the creation of this Medieval masterpiece, which will one day serve as a place of hands-on learning for all those wanting to know more about Scottish culture and history.

Personally, as a History teacher, I feel the world needs more people like this. It’s one thing to learn about a country’s history from the pages of a book or through a television documentary, but it’s a whole other thing to actually experience this. And that is why I tip my hat to Charlie Allan and the Clanranald Trust for Scotland.

[my-ear-trumpet]

Illustrated front cover from The Queenslander, March 13, 1930 Artist: Garnet (Garnet Gerald) Agnew (1886-1951) (from State Library of Queensland Flickr)

[collectivehistory-deactivated20]

“Lost all on the Stock Market”. A man puts his car up for sale. 1929.

[collectivehistory-deactivated20]

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X meet before a press conference. Both men had come to hear the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was the only time the two men ever met; their meeting lasted only one minute.

LOC

[gouldyiv]

Members of Easy Company Photo taken in England, June 5, 1944 (day before D-Day).

E Company, 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, more popularly known as Easy Company, is perhaps one of the most well-known companies of the United States Army as a result of the events during World War II, portrayed in the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers (2001). Easy Company saw action in several decisive battles in 1944 and 1945, including the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of Carentan, Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge.

[gouldyiv]

On August 27, 1991, Pearl Jam's debut studio album was released. This album has had a profound impact on my life. Some of my earliest memories as a kid include sitting in the passenger seat of my father's car listening to this album on camping trips. To this day, Ten remains one of my all time favourite albums.

[unhistorical]

August 27, 1883: Krakatoa erupts.

The volcanic island of Krakatoa, located between the islands of Java and Sumatra, lay dormant for at least two centuries, before a passing European ship reported seeing enormous clouds of ash and dust rising from the area in May of 1883. Over the following months, volcanic activity in the region intensified before reaching an apex on August 26th and 27th of that same year.

Four enormous explosions took place on August 27th, resulting in the destruction of at least two-thirds of the island. The sound produced by the eruption was so ridiculously loud that it could be heard 3,000 miles away (on the island of Rodrigues, the sound was initially thought to be the “roar of heavy guns”). The black clouds of ash spewed into the air by the volcano rose fifty miles high. Each of these colossal explosions was accompanied by tsunamis, which single-handedly killed off a large fraction of the (official) death toll, which was estimated at 36,000. Pyroclastic flow reached neighboring islands (including Sumatra) and wiped out vegetation, villages, and people. For months around the world, sunsets glowed unusually brilliant colors as a result of the gases emitted by the volcano; one British poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, described this phenomenon:

more like inflamed flesh than the lucid reds of ordinary sunsets… it bathes the whole sky, it is mistaken for the reflection of a great fire.

It isalso popularly suggested that Edvard Munch’s The Scream also depicts the after-effects of Krakatoa, similar as to what was described by Hopkins.

In modern terms, the eruption of Krakatoa is estimated to have had a yield of around 200 megatons; to put things into perspective, the “Fat Man” device detonated over Nagasaki had a yield of 21 megatons, while Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated, had a yield of 50.