Ancient World Review

Franz Schmidt, The Faithful Executioner

"One afternoon in May 1573, a 19-year-old man named Frantz Schmidt stood in the backyard of his father's house in the German state of Bavaria, preparing to behead a stray dog with a sword. He'd recently graduated from 'decapitating' inanimate pumpkins to practicing on live animals. If he passed this final stage, Schmidt would be considered ready to start his job, as an executioner of people." Source: Live Science.

"We know the details of this morbid scene because Schmidt meticulously chronicled his life as an executioner, writing a series of diaries that painted a rich picture of this profession during the sixteenth century. His words provided a rare glimpse of the humanity behind the violence, revealing a man who took his work seriously and often felt empathy for his victims. But what's more, Schmidt wasn't necessarily all that unusual; historical anecdotes reveal that the prevailing stereotype of the hooded, blood-spattered, brutish executioner falls far short of the truth."

Curiously, Schmidt also worked as a healer on the side. According to Slate (2013), he eventually became a "locally established and respected figure," but an executioner's social position back then was ambiguous, to put it mildly:

"Legally empowered to torture, maim, and kill suspected or convicted criminals, the professional executioner is one of the more evocative and charged symbols of pre-modern Europe's otherness [sic]. An ubiquitous and integral part of the European social fabric well into the modern era, these human 'weapons of justice' were simultaneously viewed with suspicion and disdain by the very communities they served, formally marginalized as members of the 'dishonourable trades', a delimited menagerie that included slaughterhouse workers and gravediggers. And yet 'Meister Franz', as he was popularly, endearingly known, remained a revered member of the local establishment, widely respected for his piety and steadfastness." (Wikipedia)

Schmidt was chopping heads off during the late medieval period. Next video briefly describes the executioner's job under the Tudors. I'm not sure how accurate this is.

Related: How long do you remain conscious if your head is chopped off?

Footage From King Midas' Tomb 1951/1957

Note: This footage shows the excavation of Gordium, Turkey and the supposed tomb of King Midas by a team of University of Pennsylvania archaeologists in 1951/1957. According to the video description, "The Midas Mound was opened in 1957 by an archaeological team headed by Rodney Young who appears at the beginning of the film and makes a brief appearance as he pieces together decorative wall moldings."

The burial chamber of King Midas was discovered under the Midas Tumulus or burial mound. According to the LA Times (1988), "About 90 pyramid-shaped mounds of earth rise on the land [Anatolian plateau in western Turkey] where the Phrygians had their ancient capital of Gordion. The largest and highest of the burial mounds is believed to be the tomb of King Midas, who is said to have lived from 725 BC to 675 BC."

Molecular Genealogy Of A Mongol Queen's Family And Her Possible Kinship With Genghis Khan

"Members of the Mongol imperial family (designated the Golden family) are buried in a secret necropolis; therefore, none of their burial grounds have been found. In 2004, we first discovered 5 graves belonging to the Golden family in Tavan Tolgoi, Eastern Mongolia. To define the genealogy of the 5 bodies and the kinship among them, SNP and/or STR profiles of mitochondria, autosomes, and Y chromosomes were analyzed." Source: PLOS One (2016).

Comment: This is a long technical paper, too complex for my fuzzy little brain. The goal of the 2016 (?) study was "to determine the matrilineal and patrilineal origins of the Golden family members," but I can't tell if the question was ever completely resolved. It does appear that the Mongols went through a long period of genetic mixing with other Eurasian populations:

"Evidence suggests that many Mongoloid and Caucasoid nomadic tribes inhabited the present-day Mongolian plateau over thousands of years. Since Genghis Khan’s era, the Mongolian population underwent rapid and considerable gene flow from Eurasia, resulting in additional genetic admixture. Likewise, the Mongolian population was formed by the continuous admixture of indigenous tribes who inhabited the Mongolian plateau, with European and other Asian populations who inhabited regions geographically distant from Mongolia. This admixture has deeply influenced the physical appearance of modern-day Mongolian people, exhibiting both Mongoloid and Caucasoid features."

Ancestors Of Modern Humans Interbred With "At Least Five Different Archaic Human Groups" After Leaving Africa

Video from 2017. Closed-captions helpful.

"Genetic analysis has revealed that the ancestors of modern humans interbred with at least five different archaic human groups as they moved out of Africa and across Eurasia." Source: Science Daily.

"While two of the archaic groups are currently known -- the Neandertals and their sister group the Denisovans from Asia -- the others remain unnamed and have only been detected as traces of DNA surviving in different modern populations. Island Southeast Asia appears to have been a particular hotbed of diversity."

Note: When anatomically-modern humans left Africa "at least four other groups of archaic humans" were already living in Europe and Asia:

"'Island Southeast Asia was already a crowded place when what we call modern humans first reached the region just before 50,000 years ago,' [according to one researcher]. 'At least three other archaic human groups appear to have occupied the area, and the ancestors of modern humans mixed with them before the archaic humans became extinct."

Note: The difference between modern humans and archaic humans isn't very clear. According to Wikipedia, "The category archaic human lacks a single, agreed upon definition." Archaic humans "are distinguished from anatomically modern humans by having a thick skull, prominent supraorbital ridges (brow ridges) and the lack of a prominent chin." Their brain sizes overlap with modern humans, so they were probably just as smart (or dumb) as we are. Some authorities argue that archaic humans were the first to develop language and there is evidence that Neanderthals made stone tools and they may have known how to make fire. Whatever their differences, though, they couldn't have been that dissimilar if they were interbreeding with modern humans.

Yamnaya Migrants Wiped Out Polish Family 5000 Years Ago?

"Researchers have shed light on a mysterious 5,000-year-old mass grave in Poland. Despite being killed brutally, the victims were buried carefully. Ancient DNA has revealed the mass murder to be that of a large family. The new research results shed light on a particularly violent era in European prehistory of which little is known." Source: Science Daily (May 2019).

"...'We do not know who was responsible for this massacre,' according to University of Copenhagen archaeo-geneticist Hannes Schroeder. 'But it is thought-provoking that it occurred 5,000 years ago, as the late Neolithic Period was transitioning into the Bronze Age. During this period, European cultures were being heavily transformed by Yamnaya cultures migrating from the east. It is easy to imagine that these changes somehow precipitated violent territorial clashes.'"

Interview below discusses the Yamnaya culture:

"The iconic sarsen stones at Stonehenge were erected some 4500 years ago. Although the monument’s original purpose is still disputed, we now know that within a few centuries it became a memorial to a vanished people. By then, almost every Briton, from the south coast of England to the north-east tip of Scotland, had been wiped out by incomers. It isn’t clear exactly why they disappeared so rapidly. But a picture of the people who replaced them is emerging." Source: New Scientist (subscription site).

"The migrants’ ultimate source was a group of livestock herders called the Yamnaya who occupied the Eurasian steppe north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains. Britain wasn’t their only destination. Between 5000 and 4000 years ago, the Yamnaya and their descendants colonised swathes of Europe, leaving a genetic legacy that persists to this day. Their arrival coincided with profound social and cultural changes. Burial practices shifted dramatically, a warrior class appeared, and there seems to have been a sharp upsurge in lethal violence."

Medieval Warrior Woman Found In Viking Grave Was No Viking

"When archaeologists discovered the remains of a woman in a Viking graveyard in Denmark, an axe near her skeleton told them that she may have been a fighter. But closer examination of both the weapon and her burial revealed something unexpected: She was no Viking." Source: Live Science.

"Rather, the woman was Slavic, and likely came from a region in Eastern Europe that is now Poland, representatives of Poland's Ministry of Science and Higher Education said in a statement."

Note: About thirty 9th - 10th century women's graves which contain weapons have been discovered in Scandinavia. According to Science In Poland, these graves "are most often equipped with axes, less frequently arrowheads or spears. In addition to real weapons, in numerous women's graves there are also miniatures of weapons in the form of, for example, small shields, axes or swords. It is a mystery for researchers whether it means that those women were warriors. The old Icelandic texts, especially the so-called legendary sagas, in addition to the warlike and beautiful Valkyries, also mention dragons, trolls and... flying carpets."

A Case Of Murder In The Paleolithic?

Whoever picked the music here should have their skull caved in with a stone axe.

"New analysis of the fossilized skull of an Upper Paleolithic man suggests that he died a violent death," according to Science Daily.

"...The fossilized skull of a Paleolithic adult man, known as the Cioclovina calvaria [skull cap], was originally uncovered in a cave [the Cioclovina cave] in South Transylvania and is thought to be around 33,000 years old. Since its discovery, this fossil has been extensively studied. Here, the authors reassessed trauma on the skull -- specifically a large fracture on the right aspect of the cranium which has been disputed in the past -- in order to evaluate whether this specific fracture occurred at the time of death or as a postmortem event."

Related: Distinguishing between ante, peri and post-mortem bone fractures.

The researchers believe that the man was murdered. According to Live Science, "the locations of the injuries also revealed clues about the murderer. It appears that the murderer was face-to-face with the victim during the assault and likely a lefty, because the injury was on the skull's right side, 'although the possibility of [the murderer] holding the object with both hands cannot be dismissed,' the researchers wrote in the study."

Tollense - A Massive Bronze Age Battle

"About 3200 years ago, two armies clashed at a river crossing near the Baltic Sea. The confrontation can’t be found in any history books—the written word didn’t become common in these parts for another 2000 years—but this was no skirmish between local clans. Thousands of warriors came together in a brutal struggle, perhaps fought on a single day, using weapons crafted from wood, flint, and bronze, a metal that was then the height of military technology." Source: Science (2016).

The battle, if it was a single battle, took place in the Tollense Valley in Germany and it must have been a bloody fight, especially if the warriors were only wearing "cloaks and other wrap-around garments fashioned like kilts, as well as leather belts" and perhaps "felted caps or bronze helmets for protection" as suggested in the Science article. I wouldn't want to face bronze swords dressed like that, never mind archers and mounted spearmen.

According to Science, "Northern Europe in the Bronze Age was long dismissed as a backwater, overshadowed by more sophisticated civilizations in the Near East and Greece. Bronze itself, created in the Near East around 3200 B.C.E., took 1000 years to arrive here. But Tollense’s scale suggests more organization—and more violence—than once thought."

Note: "Thousands of bone fragments belonging to many different people have been discovered along with further corroborative evidence of battle; current estimates indicate that perhaps 4,000 warriors fought in a battle on the site in the 13th century BC. As the population density was approximately 5 people per square kilometer, this would have been the most significant battle in Bronze Age Central Europe known so far and makes the Tollense valley currently the largest excavated and archaeologically verifiable battle site of this age in the world." (Wikipedia)

The winners in this fight probably looted the enemy's weapons, etc., so there's a good chance that the battle was even larger than suggested by the current evidence. According to Live Science, a chemical analysis of some of the skeletons shows that "there was a large, diverse group of nonlocals involved in the battle." The findings are tentative, but "the results do at least suggest that many of these nonlocals came from the south, perhaps from southern Germany and Central Europe."

Human Sacrifice In Iron Age Europe

"Around a hundred bodies have been found in ... Irish bogs to date, some male, some female, and those of children too. Some were thought to be there by accident, perhaps as a result of falling into the bog and drowning. Others were considered to be formal (and some not so formal) burials, and others appear to be rather more sinister." Source: Irish Central.

The ritual sacrifice dramatized in this video shows the execution of Old Croghnan Man, a bog body currently on display in the National Museum of Ireland, which, among other things, has an exhibit called Kingship & Sacrifice. According to the museum's website, "the exhibition is centred on a new theory that connects human sacrifice with sovereignty and kingship rituals during the Iron Age. Research has indicated that other material connected with these rituals include: items of regalia; items associated with equestrian [horse] procession; weapons; feasting utensils; boundary markers; items associated with corn and milk production, such as quern stones and butter deposits known as ‘bog butter’."

One possible human sacrifice from this period is known as Tollund Man, "a naturally mummified corpse of a man who lived during the 4th century BC, during the period characterised in Scandinavia as the Pre-Roman Iron Age. He was found in 1950, preserved as a bog body, on the Jutland peninsula. The man's physical features were so well-preserved that he was mistaken at the time of discovery for a recent murder victim. Twelve years before Tollund Man's discovery, another bog body, Elling Woman, had been found in the same bog." (Wikipedia)

I think this describes Tollund Man, but I'm not sure.

"Scholars tend to agree that Tollund Man’s killing was some kind of ritual sacrifice to the gods—perhaps a fertility offering. To the people who put him there, a bog was a special place. While most of Northern Europe lay under a thick canopy of forest, bogs did not. Half earth, half water and open to the heavens, they were borderlands to the beyond. To these people, will-o’-the-wisps—flickering ghostly lights that recede when approached—weren’t the effects of swamp gas caused by rotting vegetation. They were fairies. The thinking goes that Tollund Man’s tomb may have been meant to ensure a kind of soggy immortality for the sacrificial object." Source: Smithsonian.

"'At an appointed time all tribes meet ….. in a forest consecrated by their ancestors, surrounded by fear, sacred from the dawn of time. There, on behalf of those assembled, they celebrate the commencement of their barbaric cult with a human sacrifice.'

"This is how the Roman historian Tacitus described the situation among the Semnones, a Germanic tribe, in the 1st century AD. This could provide the explanation of what happened to the woman from Huldremose, Tollund Man and Grauballe Man. More than a hundred bog bodies have been found in Denmark, which date from the period 800 BC to 200 AD. The cause of death has only been established in a small number of cases, where people have been strangled, hung or had their throats cut. Like the woman from Huldremose, the bodies were carefully placed in a bog afterwards, which points toward a sacrifice or another ritual act rather than an attack." Source: National Museum of Denmark.

Closed captions helpful.

"For Europeans dating as far back as the Neolithic period 6,000 years ago, bogs were both resources and possibly ominous supernatural portals, according to Ulla Mannering, an expert in ancient textiles at the National Museum of Denmark." Source: National Geographic (2014).

"The bogs' peat, which could be burned for heating homes, was valuable in tree-scarce Denmark, and an ore called bog iron was made into tools and weapons.

"Among prehistoric people, 'when you take things, you also offer things,' said Mannering.

"This may be why the Danish villagers would deposit 'gifts' of clothes, old shoes, slaughtered animals, battered weapons, and, for a period of 500 years, people into the black abyss of the bogs."

Related: Medieval Christian Book Discovered in Ireland Bog.

First "Undisturbed Roman Shipwreck" Discovered Off Cyprus

"Archaeologists diving off the southeastern coast of Cyprus just discovered an ancient treasure: the first known 'undisturbed Roman shipwreck' in the country's history, according to a statement put out by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities." Source: Live Science.

"The divers found the ship's remains off the coast of Protaras, a resort town known for its beaches. Not too far from sunbathing tourists rest the remains of the ancient ship's cargo — transport amphorae, or ancient jugs that have handles and narrow necks and often held precious liquids, such as oil and wine."