tag > History
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One of the largest known of the giant crocodilians, perhaps even surpassing Sarcosuchus in size. It reigned supreme in central South America in the Miocene period, 8 million years ago.
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Before the Fall of the Roman Republic, Income Inequality and Xenophobia Threatened Its Foundations (smithsonianmag)
"At the same time, these wars of conquest were making the poor quite a bit poorer. Roman citizens were being hauled off to Spain or Greece, leaving for tours that would go on for three to five years a stretch. While they were gone, their farms in Italy would fall into disrepair. The rich started buying up big plots of land. In the 130s and 140s you have this process of dispossession, where the poorer Romans are being bought out and are no longer small citizen owners. They’re going to be tenant owners or sharecroppers and it has a really corrosive effect on the traditional ways of economic life and political life. As a result, you see this skyrocketing economic inequality. "
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World's 'oldest known cave painting' found in Indonesia
Archaeologists say they have discovered the world’s oldest known cave painting: a life-sized picture of a wild pig that was made at least 45,500 years ago in Indonesia. The finding, described in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, provides the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.
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Inside the U.S. Army’s Warehouse Full of Nazi Art (newyorker)
One of the world’s largest collections of Nazi propaganda sits in a climate-controlled warehouse at Fort Belvoir, in northern Virginia. Much of it is virulent; most of it is never seen by the public.
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Here are things they want you to forget today: Practically the entire western establishment and media (English, American, etc.) was adamantly pro Hitler, Mussolini and Fascism - right up to WW2.
via https://twitter.com/historic_ly/status/1256050642608631813
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9,000-Year-Old Stonehenge-Like Structure Found Under Lake Michigan (archaeology-world)
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Wu Zetian (624 - 705)
The Wu Dynasty ruled by emperor Wu Zetian (pronounced “woo zai-chen”) was the only female to ever rule China in her own right. Wu clawed her way to the top of China’s political ladder, challenging the male dominated patriarchy of the Chinese government and the traditional Confucianism teachings by introducing Buddhism.
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Zhang Sanfeng (張三丰) - Legendary Chinese Taoist who invented T'ai chi ch'üan
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Before 2020 comes to a close, Jupiter and Saturn will be so close that they will appear to form a "double planet." The great conjunction, as the planetary alignment has come to be known, hasn't occurred in nearly 800 years. When their orbits align every 20 years, Jupiter and Saturn get extremely close to one another. This occurs because Jupiter orbits the sun every 12 years, while Saturn's orbit takes 30 years — every couple of decades, Jupiter laps Saturn, according to NASA. However, 2020's conjunction is especially rare — the planets haven't been observed this close together since medieval times, in 1226.
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A 1798 view of The Great Pagoda at Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, South India - by Thomas Daniell, (1798)
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'Sistine Chapel of the ancients' rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest (Guardian)
Tens of thousands of ice age paintings across a cliff face shed light on people and animals from 12,500 years ago
Speculating on whether the paintings had a sacred or other purpose, he said: “It’s interesting to see that many of these large animals appear surrounded by small men with their arms raised, almost worshipping these animals.” Observing that the imagery includes trees and hallucinogenic plants, he added: “For Amazonian people, non-humans like animals and plants have souls, and they communicate and engage with people in cooperative or hostile ways through the rituals and shamanic practices that we see depicted in the rock art.”
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Researchers Uncover 2,000-Year-Old Maya Water Filtration System (smithsonianmag)
The city of Tikal purified one of its reservoirs with technology comparable to modern systems
