Ancient World Review

Tang Dynasty Noblewoman Buried With Donkeys Because She Loved Playing Donkey Polo

"A noblewoman from Imperial China enjoyed playing polo on donkeys so much she had her steeds buried with her so she could keep doing it in the afterlife, archaeologists found." Source: Science Daily.

"...The research provides the first physical evidence of donkey polo in Imperial China, which previously was only known from historical texts. It also sheds light on the role for donkeys in the lives of high status women in that period.

"Researchers found donkey bones in the tomb of Cui Shi, a noblewoman who died in 878 AD in Xi'an, China. The presence of work animals in a wealthy woman's tomb was unexpected, the researchers said."

Note: Donkey polo, known in China as Lvju, is a safer form of regular polo, which is pretty dangerous. The conclusion that the donkey remains found in Cui Shi's grave were used for polo is based on an analysis of  "the size and patterns of stresses and strains on the donkey bones from Cui Shi's tomb. Their findings suggest that these small and active donkeys were being used for Lvju."

Comment: Donkey polo may be OK for medieval Chinese noblewomen, but it's nothing compared to the great American sport of donkey basketball.

Video from 2016.

In The Footsteps Of Zuanzang In Kyrgyzstan

The rest of this 12-part series can be found here.

"At the start of the Tang dynasty, in the early 7th century, a young wandering monk embarked on a 16-year long voyage from the imperial capital Chang’an (today’s Xian) to India to collect Buddhist manuscripts. At the time Chang’an was six times bigger than Rome at its height, with a population of over one million – the epicenter of Asian civilization." Source: UNZ Review.

3D animation of ancient Chang'an.

"History ended up converting Xuanzang into a legend and a national hero in China – although in the West he would never reach Marco Polo levels of popularity.

"Xuanzang had embarked on a quest that still resonates today. He wanted to know whether all men – or just an enlightened few – could attain Buddhahood. There was only one way to find out: ride all the way to India and bring back Sanskrit texts to China, especially from the Yogacara school of Buddhism, which professed that the outside world did not exist: it was merely a projection of one’s consciousness."

Related: The China History Podcast: Buddhism Zuanzang and the Silk Road (2014).

War Of The Roses: The Battle Of Towton (Updated)

"The Battle of Towton on 29th March 1461 was possibly the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil." Source: Historic UK.

According to Wikipedia, "[the battle] was fought during the English Wars of the Roses ... near the village of Towton in Yorkshire. It brought about a change of monarchs in England, with the victor, the Yorkist Edward, Duke of York—who became King Edward IV (1461–1483) having displaced the Lancastrian King Henry VI (1422–1461) as king, and thus drove the head of the Lancastrians and his key supporters out of the country."

Fifty to sixty-five thousand men are thought to have taken part in the battle, which took place during a snow storm and was followed by a general massacre:

"The fierce fighting continued for several hours with neither side gaining the upper hand until towards the end of the day, the Lancastrian line finally crumbled. Prior to the battle, both sides had been issued with the order to give no quarter and the Yorkists were intent on following this instruction to the letter." (Historic UK)

"The fleeing Lancastrians were cut down from behind as they fled the battlefield; many were killed after they had surrendered including, according to one source, 42 knights."

"On receiving news of their army's defeat, Henry fled into exile in Scotland with his wife and son. They were later joined by Somerset, Roos, Exeter (1), and the few Lancastrian nobles who escaped from the battlefield. The Battle of Towton severely reduced the power of the House of Lancaster in England; the linchpins of their power at court ... had died or fled the country, ending the house's domination over the north of England." (Wikipedia)

(1) None of these guys came to a good end. Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, was later beheaded by the Yorkists for treason after another Lancaster defeat at the Battle of Hexham.  Thomas de Ros or Roos, 9th Baron of Helmsley, was also beheaded after the same battle. As for Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter, he fell overboard and drowned while returning to England from a later expedition (for Edward) in France. According to Wikipedia, "Some say he was in fact thrown overboard at the king's command."

"On Palm Sunday 1461, in atrocious weather – howling wind, driving sleet and snow – the armies of two disputing Kings of England fought all day on a plateau of land a dozen or so miles south-west of the great medieval city of York in the North of England. Chroniclers then and historians now dispute the numbers involved in the Battle of Towton, but it is most likely that up to seventy-five thousand fought and as many as twenty-eight thousand died in the battle itself and in the rout and massacres that followed." Source: Towton Battlefield Society. An excellent battle diagram showing how the fight developed can be found at this site.

Related: Map of battlefield and surrounding region.

Old Norse, Its Relatives And Runes

Jackson Crawford, Director of Nordic Studies, University of Colorado, Boulder. He has a great YouTube channel.

"Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlements from about the 9th to the 13th centuries." (Wikipedia)

"The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century."

The Vikings spoke Old Norse:

"Did you know that many words we use today such as 'husband,' 'happy,' and 'egg' are of Old Norse origin? No? Well, this isn’t surprising, as in the minds of many people the Vikings were nothing but a bunch of brutal savages. But they were more sophisticated than most people tend to believe. Their rich and powerful Old Norse language provides clear proof." Source: Ancient Origins.

Note: To take one example, our word husband comes from the Old English husbonda meaning "male head of a household, master of a house, householder," which in turn probably comes from the Old Norse husbondi meaning "master of the house." Source: Online Etymological Dictionary.

Old English forms the basis for modern English, but our language reflects the complex history of Europe and was also influenced by Old Norse in a lot of different ways:

"The most obvious Viking influence on modern English is the word Thursday (Þorsdagr), which you can probably guess means 'Thor’s day.'" Source: Babbel Magazine.

"'Tuesday,' 'Wednesday' and 'Friday' are sometimes also attributed to the Norse gods Tyr, Odin and Freya, respectively; but the days are actually named for the Anglo-Saxon equivalents of these gods, Tiw, Wodan and Friga. The similarity of these names points to the common ancestry of the various Germanic tribes in prehistoric northern Europe — centuries before their descendants clashed on England’s shores."

I love the sound of Old Norse. It's rich and barbaric.

Vikings (History Channel). From what I've read the actors are butchering Old Norse in these scenes, but who cares?

Scottish Storms Unearth 1500-Year-Old Viking Cemetery

Video from Jan. 2019.

"Powerful storms on the Orkney Islands in the far north of Scotland recently exposed ancient human bones in a Pictish and Viking cemetery dating to almost 1,500 years ago. Volunteers are piling sandbags and clay to protect the remains and limit the damage to the ancient Newark Bay cemetery on Orkney's largest island." Source: Live Science.

"The cemetery traces its origins to the middle of the sixth century, when the Orkney Islands were inhabited by native Pictish people, akin to the Picts who inhabited most of what is now Scotland."

Viking Stone Ships & Boat Burials

"Stone ships were a burial form used in the bronze- and –iron ages and during the Viking period. They were shaped like acute oval stone circles, and might frame a grave established within the sides of the ship, but they could also function as memorials for the deceased. It is not really known why rich Vikings were buried in this way, but it is believed that the stone ship symbolizes a boat which was to carry the deceased to the kingdom of the dead." Source: Fortidens Jelling.

"Such a stone circle has existed in Jelling [Denmark], a gigantic stone ship 354 metres long. The stone ship is the oldest of the memorials in Jelling from the Viking Age." Next video shows the remains of stone ship burials in Sweden.

"Stone ships were an early burial custom, characteristically Scandinavian but also found in Northern Germany and the Baltic states. The grave or cremation burial was surrounded by tightly or loosely fit slabs or stones in the outline of a ship. They are often found in grave fields, but are sometimes far from any other archaeological remains." (Wikipedia)

Closed-captions useful. Section on stone ships starts around 3:21.

Vikings were sometimes buried in actual boats. For instance, Ancient Origins reported back in 2019 that two of these unusual burials were found in Sweden:

"A boat burial or boat grave involved dead individuals of high standing being interred in a full-sized ship. They were typically buried with a great many valuable grave goods. Anton Seiler, part of the team who found the graves, stated that 'It is a small group of people who were buried in this way,' according to Newsweek. This means that ship burials are very rare and only ten have been found in the history of the country, although more have been found in neighboring Norway, the most recent being found near Oslo."

Outside of Scandinavia, Viking boat burials have been discovered in Britain as well as northern and eastern Europe.

Report from 2011.

Nordic Iron Age Grave Field & Hill Fort

Vallbyåsen, Uppland, Sweden. (2017) Close-captions helpful.

Note: "Uppland ... is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital." (Wikipedia) I'm not sure where this grave field is located exactly.

Broborg, the fort, is "a hillfort located around 10 km east of Knivsta [south-central Uppland]. It overlooks an ancient major waterway ... leading to the interior of Uppland, as well as a road. The location thus suggests that, in prehistoric times (and before too much elevation of the land), Broborg could have controlled access for trade as well as any military activities." Source: The Mystery Of The Vitrified Hillfort. (PDF)

Broborg was a vitrified fort, i.e., its stones were apparently cemented together by a kind of glass formed by subjecting stones to extreme heat. The article quoted above mentions that the vitrification process used at Broborg is being studied by modern scientists for its possible application in nuclear-waste disposal. The idea is to seal the waste inside a vitrified matrix to prevent it from escaping into the environment.

According to the description for the first video above, there is a legend about Grimsa, "a Viking queen who was burned alive in the fort," but I haven't been able to find any further information about her.

Video from 2013.

Pictish "Power Center" Discovered In Scotland

"A hilltop fort at King's Seat Hillfort, a legally protected site near Dunkeld [Scotland], was an important Pictish power centre, say archaeologists who found evidence of metal and textile production at the site." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Finds such as glass beads and pottery suggested the Picts who occupied the site in the 7th to 9th centuries had trade links with continental Europe. Other finds included pieces of Roman glass that were recycled and reused as gaming pieces.

"""In a new report on last year's excavations, archaeologists said the wealth of finds suggested the site had been a stronghold of the elite in the local population, with 'influence over the trade and production of high-status goods'."

More on the Picts can be found here.

Bones Found In Church Earliest Verified Remains Of An English Saint

"Archaeologists have identified the bones of one England's earliest saints. The remains were found hidden behind a church wall in the southern part of the country." Source: Live Science.

"Her name was Eanswythe (pronounced AYNS-wyth), and she wasn't just a saint; she was also a princess, the granddaughter of Ethelbert [1], the first Christian king of Kent and ruler of the east of England from A.D. 580 until his death in A.D. 616, according to the Canterbury Historical and Archaeological Society. 

Note: Princess Eanswythe supposedly founded Folkestone Priory, one of the first Christian nunneries in Britain.

Rare Gabon Burial Cave Reveals Clues To African History

"The discovery of a 14th century underground burial site deep in Gabon's tropical forest may shed light on a little known period in Africa's history." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Hundreds of mediaeval artefacts are scattered with human remains at the bottom of a cave in the southeast of the country, discovered by a French geo-archaeologist in 2018."

Note: If the dating here is correct, this find predates the first European contact in the 15th century. According to Wikipedia, "The earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. They were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated [the great Bantu expansion thought to have taken place between 3000 and 2000 years ago].

An interesting, though completely unrelated fact about Gabon is that Black Bart, a Welsh pirate, died in a sea battle off Cape Lopez in 1722. According to Wikipedia, Black Bart "raided ships off the Americas and West Africa between 1719 and 1722. He was the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy as measured by vessels captured, taking over 400 prizes in his career."