Past obsessions.

You may describe history as your passion, or an obsession. Either one, its time consuming. Its also very expensive. You may travel 100 miles to visit a castle. So that's petrol money, entrance fees, lunch and if your anything like me, a large some spent in the gift shop at the end. Then their are the countless books you have bought, yes, the costs soon add up.

For me history is a passion and its certainly an obsession, but its much more than that, its a job. I work in archaeology and also teach history. One day I might be teaching a class of 7 year olds. The next day it will be university students. Its important that I don't become stale in a certain period of time. So not only do I visit our incredible monuments and attractions like all history lovers, I am often up late into the night reading. My librarian knows me by name and looks at me suspiciously if I borrow any book other than history.

Its also important for history lovers to do a lot of reading online. in fact its necessary. History is constantly being re-written. New theories come along almost weekly, some are very good, whilst others will never be proven. You want to stay up-to-date on the latest views. Books are great but they often become out of date very quickly.

well its late so I'm going to keep this post short.   

Romanisation.

We have read the books, watched the films and seen the documentaries. Everyone knows at least one fact about the Romans. They have captured the imagination. The Romans define superiority. The results of their construction projects amaze us to this day. They created a perpetual legacy and our football stadiums are based on their amphitheatres. To this day we cant come up with a better, more efficient design for large scale crowd control.

Researching the Romans can be fraught with difficulties. You can spend hours searching the internet or sat in a library, and find nothing past the basics. The main problem is that Roman writers tended to be mendacious by nature. They wanted history to remember them in a certain way and had no problem with bending the truth to achieve that. Of course their are many good sources, and from those sources you can piece together a picture.

The Romans had a genius strategy that hasn't been written about enough... Romanisation. What is it?

In layman's terms, they made enemies want to become Roman. Its easy to picture the Romans as brutal oppressors, pillaging and plundering and murdering their way to domination. They were brutal, no doubt. But once they had conquered a country, they were relatively fair, unlike the Normans and their brutally punitive ways. No, the Romans didn't like rebellion and would avoid it at great expense. They didn't conquer to rule, they conquered for resources. The more they conquered, the bigger the army they needed to defend their new lands, the more food they needed and so on. The empire needed gold, stone, wood, tin and food... Desperately. 

imagine living in Iron age Britain. You are a Rich and powerful leader. You live in a Big, dark, smoky roundhouse. The romans come and are building lavish villas and bathhouses. You bath in a lake. They bath in warm water. You sample their wine and like it more than your ale. You start to see that the Romans live better than you. The Romans make you an offer. They say, "You're a leader and have land. Keep your land. Remain the leader of your people. We aren't interested in all of that. The only person you need answer to is the Emperor. Pay him taxes and you will gain his support. Other British tribes have agreed. They have the backing of our military and so will you. You're enemies will be dealt with". That's an appealing offer don't you think?

 

It didn't take long for the Britons to start dressing, talking and acting like Romans. Fishbourne Roman Palace is believed to have been owned by a native Briton. He could have been living in a roundhouse like above, instead he lived in one of the most spectacular Roman Palaces ever found, picture below. That's Romanisation.

Evolution of Man

We all know about Darwin and his theories on evolution. Yet there is still so much we don't know. As a child I was amazed to learn that the earth was once inhabited by various species of man. Like most, I had been taught that Homo Sapiens (modern Humans) had left Africa 60,000 yeas ago and migrated into Europe. Once there, they came across Neanderthals. The conclusion was that Neanderthals were wiped out. The reason for their demise was our intelligence. We outcompeted them in hunting.

I remember being a young boy and picturing a scene. A group of Homo Sapiens are exploring their new land, they stumble across a Neanderthal family huddled around a fire, they stare at each other in curious amazement.

I have spent years researching Neanderthals and what happened to them. I had a theory and it starts with that look of curious amazement. I never believed that they saw each other as different species. Modern humans look different depending on where they are from. I felt a similar view was taken back then. I'm not saying they were always friends. I'm sure an ancient form of racism surfaced its head. But I felt sure that they believed they were the same species.

I also didn't believe that the Neanderthals were wiped out. Bones don't indicate war on a large scale. I didn't feel that they were outcompeted for food. There were animals around to be hunted. The world wasn't as heavily populated back then. Homo Sapiens were in most countries but didn't fill each country. You could have walked days without seeing a single person up until Medieval times. My theory was that they were bred out. I wasn't the only one, however it was a contentious opinion. People laughed at me, so I needed to prove it. I never did prove it, someone else did.

A team of scientists comparing the full genomes of the two species concluded that anyone living outside of Africa has between 1-4 % Neanderthal DNA. Indigenous sub-Saharan Africans have no Neanderthal DNA since their ancestors never migrated.

What does it all mean? Homo Sapiens weren't at war with Neanderthals, nor were they taking all of their food. Instead, they mated with them. Neanderthals as a species were literally sucked into a much larger gene pool. We all have a Neanderthal ancestor. Science and Archaeology still have a long way to go in answering all questions but every year we know more than we ever have.

So what happened to the Neanderthals? They are still here, they just look different. They look like you and me.

Welcome

My interests in history have a very broad range. I like all periods, but some more than others.
The main focus of this blog is to discuss from Palaeolithic right through to the end of the middle ages. Yes, a massive time frame!
I also teach about the Tudors, so no doubt there will be a few posts out of the timeframe stated.

 

Why history?
History is relevant in every aspect of our lives. Every tradition we have has deep set roots in the past. Our towns have Roman, Saxon and Norman names. My love for history started as a child. I would watch films with amazement. Often those films were historically flawed, but it didn't matter. the clothes, the houses, the food, the transport, the lack of hygiene. I was amazed at how different my life was. 

Thanks for reading