"A team of German and Canadian scientists has shown that today's plague pathogen has been around at least 600 years," according to Science Daily.
"The Black Death claimed the lives of one-third of Europeans in just five years from 1348 to 1353. Until recently, it was not certain whether the bacterium Yersinia pestis -- known to cause the plague today -- was responsible for that most deadly outbreak of disease ever. Now, the University of Tübingen's Institute of Scientific Archaeology and McMaster University in Canada have been able to confirm that Yersinia pestis was behind the great plague."
"New research led by economists at the University of Warwick reveals that medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world’s poorest nations today." (Source: Warwick News and Events)
"In a paper entitled British Economic Growth 1270-1870 published by the University of Warwick’s Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) the researchers find that living standards in medieval England were far above the “bare bones subsistence” experience of people in many of today’s poor countries."
"Dismissing skeptics on Sunday when he visited the Shroud of Turin, Pope Benedict XVI said the burial cloth was none other than the same robe that once 'wrapped the remains' of Jesus Christ. ("Pope Benedict Says Shroud of Turn Authentic Burial Robe of Jesus," Christian Science Monitor)
Now, the Shroud of Turin is a priceless Catholic relic, so it's not very surprising that the Pope says it's for real, but I'd really like to know how he came to this conclusion. Maybe he explains his reasoning in the story--I was too lazy to read the whole thing--but I seriously doubt it. After all, what could he possibly say?
No one knows what Jesus looked like--assuming he actually existed--so how can anyone say that the image on the Shroud is actually Jesus? Does the Pope have a photograph of Jesus stashed in the Vatican archives? Does he have a description written by a contemporary? This isn't a matter of faith, but of evidence. If you believe that Jesus was the Son of God, does that mean you automatically know what Jesus looked like?
Now, I don't want to belabor this point (OK, yes I do), but let's say that someone shows you a photograph of a historical figure like William Quantrill. He's long dead, so you never saw him in the flesh, so how do you know the photograph is actually Quantrill and not some Missouri farmer or even a Hollywood actor dressed up like Quantrill? If you can't authenticate the photograph in some way, you don't.
Authenticating photographs is an issue that concerns everyone from historians to baseball card collectors. There are scientific tests to determine the age of materials. Some photographs are documented. Some can be compared to other existing photographs known to be authentic. And so on.
Radiocarbon tests on the Shroud have been called into question for various technical reasons, but they seem to date the fabric to sometime during the 14th Century, suggesting that the Shroud is just another Medieval forgery. As for supporting documentation and the like, it doesn't exist unless the Vatican's hiding something, which I doubt. If they had legitimate supporting evidence, they would have released it long ago, so the whole issue boils down to this:
Even if the Shroud of Turin isn't some kind of forgery and even if it can be dated to the right historical period, there is NO way to know if it shows the face of Jesus. For all we know, the face on the Shroud could have belonged to a common criminal, some lowlife thief and murderer who was executed for his crimes or died from natural causes. What a laugh it would be if that's what actually happened.
"A principal source on the origin of the Black Death is a memoir by the Italian Gabriele de’ Mussi. [...] This narrative contains some startling assertions: that the Mongol army hurled plague-infected cadavers into the besieged Crimean city of Caffa, thereby transmitting the disease to the inhabitants; and that fleeing survivors of the siege spread plague from Caffa to the Mediterranean Basin. If this account is correct, Caffa should be recognized as the site of the most spectacular incident of biological warfare ever, with the Black Death as its disastrous consequence. After analyzing these claims, I have concluded that it is
plausible that the biological attack took place as described and was responsible
for infecting the inhabitants of Caffa; however, the event was unimportant
in the spread of the plague pandemic. "
Source: "Biological Warfare At The 1346 Siege of Caffa." Mark Wheelis, University of California, Davis. Published by the Center for Disease Control's journal "Emerging Infectious Diseases" in Sept. 2002. Image shows the "tentative chronology of the initial spread of plague in the mid-14th century."
"Thirteen hundred and forty-eight years had passed since the fruitful Incarnation of the Son of God, when there came into the noble city of Florence, the most beautiful of all Italian cities, a deadly pestilence, which, either because of the operations of the heavenly bodies, or because of the just wrath of God mandating punishment for our iniquitous ways, several years earlier had originated in the Orient, where it destroyed countless lives, scarcely resting in one place before it moved to the next, and turning westward its strength grew monstrously. No human wisdom or foresight had any value: enormous amounts of refuse and manure were removed from the city by appointed officials, the sick were barred from entering the city, and many instructions were given to preserve health; just as useless were the humble supplications to God given not one time but many times in appointed processions, and all the other ways devout people called on God; despite all this, at the beginning of the spring of that year, that horrible plague began with its dolorous effects in a most awe-inspiring manner..." Boccaccio: THE DECAMERON.
Histories of the Black Death in Britain and its effects on Medieval Europe in general can be found here and here. PubMed Central also has a good article on the "Epidemiology of the Black Death and Successive Waves of Plague" and information on the plague bacillus can be found here. The video below is from the Center for Disease Control.
The Viking ship Gaia, built in 1989-90, is a replica of the Gokstad ship now located at the Viking Ships Museum in Oslo, Norway. These ships were fantastic seagoing vessels, but their shallow drafts also made it possible for the Vikings to navigate rivers and raid inland cities. They could appear anywhere at any time, striking terror in coastal villages and monasteries.
"The earliest documented raids began in 793 in Lindisfarne, England," according to the Web Chronology Project." By 851, the fleet ships had increased from 3 ships to 350 ships per raiding party." Imagine seeing hundreds of these ships suddenly approach your village. The Vikings started off raiding for booty, then for land. "Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks, ended the Viking raids in 911 by giving Normandy to the Vikings." Charles bought them off and they settled down, assimilating with the local population.
The fall of Rome proves beyond doubt that one thing always leads to another, usually in unexpected ways. For example, when the Romans gave up the idea of conquering Germany and switched to a defensive strategy along the Rhine and Danube frontier, they succeeded in blocking the German advance into their territory, but they had no idea that they were starting a long chain of events which would eventually lead to the collapse of the western empire.
The Germanic tribes needed living space. Stymied in their attempts to spread west into Roman Gaul, the various tribes started to move to the east in the Second Century AD and ran into big trouble about a century later. In 372, according to The New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History, "the eastward expansion of the Ostrogoths provoked an explosive reaction from the Huns of the Volga Steppe." When the Ostrogoths intruded into their territory, the Huns drove all the German tribes back towards the Danube like a giant hammer, pounding them against the Roman frontier.
"An 11th-century metalworking site recently discovered in the city of York...is likely evidence of a makeshift recycling center, where Vikings took weapons for reprocessing after battle, according to historian Charles Jones, organizer of the Fulford Battlefield Society, which advocates preserving the battle site against potential development." Source: National Geographic News.
A burial shroud discovered in "a first century [Jerusalem] cemetery filled with priestly and aristocratic burials" provides further evidence that the Shroud of Turin "did not wrap the body of Christ," according to National Geographic News.
This new shroud, "radiocarbon-dated to between A.D. 1 and 50," is apparently the first burial shroud ever discovered from this period and location, and the bones it contained show evidence that the dead man wrapped in the shroud probably had leprosy--"the earliest known case of the disease." And the weave of the shroud doesn't match that of the Shroud of Turin, which was apparently manufactured at a later date.
Ominous Planet News and commentary from the most ominous planet in the solar system.
Phase Four Now Available
My apocalyptic technothriller, Phase Four, is now available from Amazon and UK digital publisher, Blasted Heath. The novel can be downloaded in a variety of ebook formats, including Kindle format from Amazon. My Spinetingler Magazine article on Phase Four can be read here.
Pope Says Shroud Of Turin Authentic
Now, the Shroud of Turin is a priceless Catholic relic, so it's not very surprising that the Pope says it's for real, but I'd really like to know how he came to this conclusion. Maybe he explains his reasoning in the story--I was too lazy to read the whole thing--but I seriously doubt it. After all, what could he possibly say?
No one knows what Jesus looked like--assuming he actually existed--so how can anyone say that the image on the Shroud is actually Jesus? Does the Pope have a photograph of Jesus stashed in the Vatican archives? Does he have a description written by a contemporary? This isn't a matter of faith, but of evidence. If you believe that Jesus was the Son of God, does that mean you automatically know what Jesus looked like?
Now, I don't want to belabor this point (OK, yes I do), but let's say that someone shows you a photograph of a historical figure like William Quantrill. He's long dead, so you never saw him in the flesh, so how do you know the photograph is actually Quantrill and not some Missouri farmer or even a Hollywood actor dressed up like Quantrill? If you can't authenticate the photograph in some way, you don't.
Authenticating photographs is an issue that concerns everyone from historians to baseball card collectors. There are scientific tests to determine the age of materials. Some photographs are documented. Some can be compared to other existing photographs known to be authentic. And so on.
Radiocarbon tests on the Shroud have been called into question for various technical reasons, but they seem to date the fabric to sometime during the 14th Century, suggesting that the Shroud is just another Medieval forgery. As for supporting documentation and the like, it doesn't exist unless the Vatican's hiding something, which I doubt. If they had legitimate supporting evidence, they would have released it long ago, so the whole issue boils down to this:
Even if the Shroud of Turin isn't some kind of forgery and even if it can be dated to the right historical period, there is NO way to know if it shows the face of Jesus. For all we know, the face on the Shroud could have belonged to a common criminal, some lowlife thief and murderer who was executed for his crimes or died from natural causes. What a laugh it would be if that's what actually happened.
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