Ancient World Review

Is It Possible To Live An Iron Age Life In The Modern World?

Comment: Many groups including experimental archaeologists have tried to replicate the lifestyles of prehistoric and medieval cultures. Some of these groups, like the one in the 1978 BBC documentary, Living In The Past, have spent various lengths of time living under past conditions, but they always ended up returning to the modern world with its undeniable conveniences and labor-saving devices. And who can blame them? After all, these were just temporary experiments. But what if a group of modern "neopagans" actually tried to do this for real? What would happen?

Most people living in the modern West would die like flies if they were suddenly transported back to the Iron Age and couldn't return after a few weeks or months. Just staying alive back then was a full-time job in itself, at least for most of the population, and it must have been precarious, but despite all the hardships life couldn't have been too harsh, at least not all the time, or no one would have survived.

Let's say that a group of modern "pagans" decided to start living like this full-time. They could band together, form an agricultural co-op or something, buy some land and return to an Iron Age way of life, building their own shelters, making their own clothes and tools, growing and hunting their own food. To be truly authentic, their community should be based on solid archaeological evidence, which means, for one thing, that they would have to dispense with their idiotic and ahistorical New Age "religions." 

Real pagans were agrarian and they practiced blood sacrifice. They didn't live in cities and drive out to Stonehenge a couple times a year to get loaded and dance around like Hollywood Apaches to the beat of drum circles while the cops kept an eye out for drunks and dope dealers. I've written several posts on this site mocking the "pagans, Druids and pantheists" who swarm over Stonehenge for every solstice and equinox, but I can understand their alienation from Christianity and the modern world.

Modern pagans have a serious problem. There's very little evidence about how people lived back then and what they believed, so the modern pagan has to make it all up and the result is usually ludicrous. This got me thinking about what an authentic neopagan movement would look like and two basic requirements came to mind. First of all, as I've already said, real neopagans should toss out everything that isn't backed by solid archaeological evidence. Second, they should drop out of the modern world and go back to living in the Iron Age like the people in this video did. Note: They couldn't recreate a Stone Age hunting and gathering existence for obvious reasons.

They would have to live like this all the time, though. There would be no going back. They would essentially have to live like Iron Age farmers and, given enough time, some of them might actually figure out how to survive as clans, living in many ways like the modern Amish. Even if they did, though, they would still be surrounded by the modern world and there would be no way to escape it entirely. They would have to pay taxes on their land, for instance, so they would need to set up small businesses or something.

And that's the catch. There's no way to escape the overpoliced total state in the modern world. Not completely. These neopagans would be anachronisms, psychologically modern humans living an Iron Age life in the center of a decaying, post-industrial civilization. Keeping their communities going at that point would probably be even harder than learning how to feed themselves and stay warm in the winter.

It could be done, but the first generations would be in for a shock and a lot of them would drop out very quickly. Living without electricity is one thing, raising your own food another, but to be truly authentic, they couldn't use modern medicines or hospitals and the women would have to give birth naturally out there in the woods. There would be sickness, malnutrition, deaths. Their children couldn't go to modern schools. The dead would have to be buried right there on the land--something that could be done here in the States as recently as the the middle of the 20th Century, but which is probably illegal now. The list of problems goes on and on, but this biggest problem is this:

The modern state would never allow people to live like this. An authentic Iron Age life is impossible in the modern world because we have lost too much freedom.

Note: The rest of this documentary can be found here.

Medieval Woman With Lapis Lazuli In Her Teeth May Have Illustrated Manuscripts

"Traces of ultramarine — a vivid blue pigment ground from the mineral lapis lazuli, mined only in Afghanistan and once as prized as gold — were detected in plaque coating the teeth of a woman who died in western Germany about 1,000 years ago." Source: Live Science.

"Blue pigments were rare in medieval Europe, and ultramarine was the rarest and the most costly of them all, scientists wrote in a new study. This pigment was therefore used to illustrate only the most elaborate and expensive sacred manuscripts of the day."

According to The Atlantic, "...the teeth that were embedded with this blue likely belonged to a scribe or painter of medieval manuscripts."

"...But art experts were still skeptical. Some dismissed the idea that a woman could have been a painter skilled enough to work with ultramarine. One suggested ... that this woman came into contact with ultramarine because she was simply the cleaning lady."

Note: "In the early Middle Ages, most books were produced in monasteries, whether for their own use, for presentation, or for a commission. However, commercial scriptoria grew up in large cities, especially Paris, and in Italy and the Netherlands, and by the late 14th century there was a significant industry producing manuscripts, including agents who would take long-distance commissions, with details of the heraldry of the buyer and the saints of personal interest to him (for the calendar of a Book of hours). By the end of the period, many of the painters were women, perhaps especially in Paris." Source: Wikipedia.

According to Live Science, the woman in this story "was buried in an unmarked cemetery near a monastery complex that stood from the ninth century through the 14th century," and "radiocarbon dating indicated that she lived around 997 to 1162." Considering the monastic setting and time period, it seems unlikely that she would have been directly involved in manuscript illumination, but at the same time it's hard to see how a cleaning lady could have come into contact with enough lapis lazuli to leave these stains on her teeth.

It's possible, I suppose, that she wasn't a painter herself but was involved with the preparation of the paints used by the manuscript illustrators. This is pure speculation (by me), but work like this would have brought her into close contact with lapis lazuli on a fairly regular basis.

Closed captions helpful.

Ancient DNA From VIking Graves Proves Warriors Rode Male Horses

Video from 2017. A horse buried in this grave is described at 2:18.

"Vikings who settled in Iceland more than 1,000 years ago valued their horses so much that the men were buried with their trusty steeds. And DNA analysis of these treasured animals recently proved that the horses consigned to the grave with their manly owners were males, too." Source: Live Science.

"Iceland is home to 355 known Viking graves dating from the late ninth century to the early 11th century A.D., and the occupants are mostly middle-age men, researchers reported in a new study. Horses are common in these graves — more than 175 horses appear in 148 graves. The majority of the animals were clearly associated with the human skeletons, and they appeared to have been slaughtered 'specifically for burial,' the scientists reported."

Medieval Vampire Graves In Europe

Several discoveries of vampire graves have been announced recently. For instance, "[i]n a 7,000-year-old town in Bulgaria, over 100 graves have been uncovered, revealing skeletons with stakes through their hearts and mutilated bones," according to The Daily Beast (2014)

The latest (?) discovery in Bulgaria dates back to the 13th century. According to the Daily Beast, the medieval graves were uncovered in "an ancient city called Thracian," but that's a mistake. There are a lot of Thracian and Dacian sites in the region and the writer probably got confused. According to the Smithsonian, "archaeologists in Bulgaria have uncovered a 13th century staked 'vampire' at Perperikon, an ancient Thracian site in the south of the country ..."

Vampire graves have been found all over Europe. See "8 Recently Discovered Medieval Vampire Burials (2013)" for more details.

Video from 2012.

The Ishibutai Kofun Tomb In Japan

Note: "Ishibutai Kofun is the largest rectangular tomb in Japan. This tomb, which is famous for its form created by piling up huge stones, is about 55m from east to west and about 52 m from north to south. It takes us back to Asuka Period (592-710 AD). According to the widely-accepted theory, the tomb was built in the 6th century for Soga no Umako, who was the most powerful person in the region." Source: Japan: The Official Guide.

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This is another incredible monolithic structure. The ceiling stone, for instance, weighs around 140 tons and once again no one has any idea how it was moved into position.

Saint Olga The Viking Queen Of The Rus

"Saint Olga [aka Helga] ... was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Svyatoslav from 945 until 960. She is known for her obliteration of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor of Kiev. Even though it would be her grandson Vladimir that would convert the entire nation to Christianity, for her efforts to spread Christianity through the Rus' Olga is venerated as a saint. While her birthdate is unknown, it could be as early as AD 890 and as late as 5 June 925." Source: Wikipedia. She is thought to have died in 969 AD.

Olga, a sinister beauty if I ever saw one -- assuming that her portraits are accurate -- was a probably a Varangian. She turned to Christianity after her husband was killed and is "sometimes credited as founding, with her grandson Vladimir, what has come to be known as Russian Christianity (the Moscow Patriarchate within Eastern Orthodoxy). She was the ruler of Kiev as regent for her son, and she was the grandmother of St. Vladimir, great-grandmother of Saint Boris and Saint Gleb." Source: Thought Company.

Orthodox Easter Liturgy Mass, Moscow, 2016.

I'm not sure who Saint Boris and Saint Gleb were, but it looks like Olga whelped a whole family of saints. She was a kind, compassionate and gentle Viking matriarch who displayed her Christian qualities of mercy and forgiveness when she dealt with the Drevlians, the Eastern Slavs who killed her husband:

"Igor's widow Olga avenged her husband's death in an extremely harsh manner, killing Drevlian ambassadors and nobility, burning their capital of Iskorosten to the ground and leveling other towns." (Wikipedia)

Her treatment of the Drevlian ambassadors is particularly memorable. According to Russia Insider, "Olga pretended to accept the ambassadors with honors. She invited them to the court on the next day. They were to be carried in boats by her own warriors as a special honor. But instead, she had a ditch dug near her own palace, and when the ambassadors, filled with their own significance, were carried in on longboats, she ordered them thrown into the ditch and buried alive."

I'm no Christian, but I've always liked the Russian Orthodox church. Persecuted by the Communists, criticized by modern liberals, the church is a force for tradition during a time of widespread social collapse in the West and any religion that has saints like Olga can't be all bad.

Image: Saint Olga by Mikhail Nesterov.

What Lies Beneath The Castle Where Dracula Was Imprisoned?

Castelul Corvinilor, aka Corvin Castle in Romania, once central Transylvania.

"A historic Transylvanian castle that may have once imprisoned Vlad the Impaler — likely inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula [1] — still stands today. But what lies beneath it?" Source: Live Science.

"Because of centuries of rebuilding and additions, archaeologists weren't sure where the castle's original foundation lay ... However, new research using radar scans of the ground beneath the structure is revealing what's going on below the building's imposing facade."

[1] It's probably incorrect to say that Bram Stoker was inspired by stories about the real Dracula. According to Wikipedia, "[s]ome historians are convinced that a historic figure, Vlad III Dracula, often called Vlad the Impaler, was the model for Stoker's Count although there is no supporting evidence. Stoker borrowed only 'scraps of miscellaneous information', according to one expert, about this bloodthirsty tyrant of Wallachia and there are no comments about him in Stoker's working notes. Dracula scholar Elizabeth Miller has remarked that aside from the name and some mention of Romanian history, the background of Stoker's Count bears no resemblance to that of Vlad III Dracula."

Comment: From what I can tell, the connection between Vlad and Castelul Corvinilor is tenuous as best. The story that he was imprisoned in this impressive castle may be purely legendary. The radar scans should reveal the history of the castle's development, though, and if the Dracula stuff attracts public interest and, hopefully, more funding for the project, so much the better. As for Vlad himself most sources describe him as some kind of sadistic, blood-crazed monster, but the truth is far more complex and interesting. Modern Romanians consider him, with good reason, to be one of their country's greatest heroes.

Lost Languages Discovered At Egyptian Monastery

"Ancient works not read by humans since the Dark Ages have been found at an Egyptian monastery, using a technique that allows researchers to reconstruct documents long ago scrubbed off parchment." Source: The Sunday Times, Aug. 2017 (registration required for full article).

"The finds at Saint Catherine’s monastery [see video above] on the Sinai peninsula hailed a 'new golden age of discovery', according to the scientists behind the research, who believe that the methods could reveal many other lost texts."

Note: "Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world The site contains the world's oldest continually operating library, possessing many unique books including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus." (Wikipedia)

"The monastery can be thought of as a veritable Ark for its spiritual treasures. These include the manuscripts and early printed books preserved in the Sinai library, which is celebrated throughout the world for the antiquity and importance of its volumes. It also includes the monastery icons, which include the most important collection of pre-iconoclastic panel icons, and icons of the greatest beauty and significance dating from the time of the Comnene dynasty (rulers of the Byzantine Empire from 1081 to 1185)." Source: Official Website of the Mt. Sinai Monastery.

Next video has some views of the monastery library.

The technique used in this study (apparently a new kind of image analysis) revealed writing which the monks had erased so they could reuse the parchment.

"Back in antiquity, the parchment on which texts were written was highly valued. As such, it would often reach a point where the material was worth more to the author than the text that was on it, and as such, they would wash the parchments clean before penning something else over the top." Source: IFLScience.

"This practice frequently occurred when monks copied out the early Bible, frequently scrubbing out original Greek manuscripts to make way for the word of Christ. With the monastery at Saint Catherine’s dating back over 1,500 years, it is thought that many ancient texts were literally rubbed out as the monks scribed away, so that while the monastery has been invaluable as a place that stored ancient knowledge, it is also responsible in part for erasing other aspects."

Related: The icons of St. Catherine Monastery.

Bacteria Causing Medieval Black Death Extinct? (2011)

"The bacteria that caused the Black Death, which wiped out millions in mid-14th century Europe, may be extinct, according to a new study." Source: Live Science (2011).

"Hoping to resolve some controversy regarding the cause of the Black Death, researchers examined more than 100 samples taken from bodies buried in London during that time.

"'The Black Death was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis — the one responsible for current plague outbreaks. This settles the controversy surrounding the causative agent. Although we cannot rule out, at this stage, that there was another co-circulating strain,' said study author Hendrik Poinar, a biological anthropologist at McMaster University in Ontario.

"However, the genetic sequence of the bacteria in the London bodies differed from the sequences of modern versions of Y. pestis, suggesting that the strain responsible for the Black Death is likely extinct, the researchers said."

Black-Death Survey Reveals Incredible Devastation Wrought By Plague (2016)

Video from 2015.

"The devastation wrought by the Black Death plague pandemic in medieval England has been revealed in a uniquely detailed archaeological study carried out for more than a decade with the help of thousands of village volunteers." Source: Live Science (2016).

The scale of the death and suffering caused by the most well-known outbreak of the Black Death is almost impossible to conceive, but there were earlier outbreaks which were just as deadly. According to Live Science (2014), "[m]any centuries before the Black Death wiped out a third to half of Europe, an equally virulent pandemic called the Plague of Justinian killed upwards of 100 million people in just two short years between 541 and 543 A.D."

The Plague of Justinian spread incredibly quickly and it was just the beginning. Transmitted by rats that accompanied grain shipments from Egypt, "[t]he plague arrived in Constantinople in 542 CE, almost a year after the disease first made its appearance in the outer provinces of the[Byzantine empire]. The outbreak continued to sweep throughout the Mediterranean world for another 225 years, finally disappearing in 750 CE."