Needlepoint kit from the Victoria and Albert Museum

YUZEN PINES 16.5” x 16.5”. 42cm x 42cm. 12 holes to the inch canvas. The kit uses Ehrman wools. $125.00

This wonderful design is adapted from a pattern found on a 19th century kimono in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity. Stitching is a great way to relax and the kit comes complete with everything you need: the 100% cotton canvas printed in full color, all the wools required (100% pure new wool), a needle and color chart along with an easy to follow guide to get you underway.

hr n Toll Free Order Line: 888 826 8600 www.ehrmantapestry.com FROM THE EDITOR

Alexander Hamilton is having a moment. He has taken center stage in the American consciousness, thanks to two men: Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and historian, and Lin- Manuel Miranda, Tony-winning playwright, composer, and performer. The two came together to create a Broadway musical about the “ten- dollar Founding Father” that brilliantly combines hip-hop with history.

At the heart of the show is the question of who tells a person’s story after death. Chernow and Miranda owe a debt of gratitude to both Alexander and Eliza Hamilton for ensuring that Hamilton’s story endures. Alexander’s prolific writings left behind a massive record of his adult life: his thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Eliza curated and preserved this material after his death, a massive undertaking that took decades.

Aaron Burr once said, “Things written remain,” but when letters are lost and writings are rare, finding the proper pieces to reconstruct a life is difficult, at best. Such was the challenge in recounting Hamilton’s Caribbean childhood. Historians must search for clues everywhere: Inventories, wills, court records, censuses, and even headstones all can provide valuable insight into a person’s life.

Everything leaves a trace. The trick is knowing where to hunt for it.

Amy Briggs, Executive Editor

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 1 EXECUTIVE EDITOR AMY E. BRIGGS

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National Geographic History (ISSN 2380-3878) is published bimonthly in January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October and November/December by National Geographic Partners, LLC, 1145 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036. Volume 2, Number 2. $29 per year for U.S. delivery. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC, and additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIBER: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within two years. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to National Geographic History, P.O. Box 62138, Tampa, FL 33662. In Canada, agreement number 40063649, return undeliverable Canadian addresses to National Geographic History, P.O. Box 4412 STA A, Toronto, Ontario M5W 3W2. We occasionally make our subscriber names available to companies whose products or services might be of interest to you. If you prefer not to be included, you may request that your name be removed from promotion lists by calling 1-800-647-5463. To prevent your name from being made available to all direct mail companies, contact: Mail Preference Service, c/o Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008. NO GOING BACK The murder of Julius Caesar in 44 b.c. was Rome’s turning point on the path from republic to empire.

VOL. 2 NO. 2

Features Departments

18 Egyptian Mathematical Mastery 4 NEWS The ascendancy of ancient Egypt depended on scribes, whose strong skills with numbers long predated those of the Greeks. 6 PROFILES Duchess Caterina Sforza 30 The Splendor of Ur used her brains, beauty, In the 1920s Leonard Woolley’s discovery of royal tombs in the ancient and brawn to navigate the political Mesopotamian city uncovered golden treasure and grisly burial practicesacctices. turmoturmoiloil of 15th-century Italy.

42 Salvation at Salamis 10 DAILY LIFE Against all odds, the Greeks routed the powerful Persian navy at Inthe Middle Ages, a Salamis in 480 b.c., marking the start of Athens’s golden age. child’sl life was not all funu and games. Disease and 52 Assassination Aftermath deaeath were grim realities.

To save the republic from tyranny, a group of senators killed 14 MILESTONES Julius Caesar, but their deed set Rome on a course to empire. “The“ Raft of the 62 Cortés’s Conquest MMedusa” combined art with politics, unleashing a storm of Mixing diplomacy with brute force, Hernán Cortés toppled thee controvversy in France in 1819. Aztec Empire in 1521, claiming Mexico for Spain.

90 DISCCOVERIES 74 The Immigrant’s Tale Foundn in 1904, a buried Before rising to greatness in America, Alexander Hamilton Vikiinng longship held the survived a calamitous childhood in the Caribbean colonies. bodies and belongings of two FULL METAL JACKET, SPANISH ARMOR FROM THE TIME OF CORTÉS womenen. Was one of them a queen? NEWS

PHOTOS: YORK ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST

MIGRATION IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE enetic Secrets of the

FOR REASONS that are unclear, nearly half of Theremainsof80soldiers—manyofwhichwereinexplicablydecapitated— the individuals had have revealed new clues about immigration during the Roman Empire. been beheaded, as the cut across the top ocuments have long belonged to people who came in 2004 and 2005, they were of this neck vertebra shownhowRomans from all over Europe. At least hardly surprised by the pres- shows (above). All were forever on the one may have come to this ence of human remains: The the bodies found were males under 45, taller move across their chilly northern outpost from site lay on a burial ground of than average, and sprawling empire 1,800 years as far away as modern-day the Roman settlement of Eb- muscular—a profile ago. Now historians have Saudi Arabia. oracum. What did surprise suggesting they were scientific proof too: Studies When archaeologists un- them was that nearly half of gladiators or soldiers. carried out on headless skel- earthed 80 bodies in the the bodies’ heads had been

YORK OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY LTD. OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY YORK etons in England reveal they northern English city of York cut off. Many of the bodies

4 MAY/JUNE 2016 FROM YORK TO CONSTANTINOPLEINOPLE

DESPITE ITS ISOLATEDD position on the storm-tossed frringes of the Roman Empire, Ebooracum (modern-day York) was a lively, cosmopolitan garrison city. Recent research suuggests that, in addition to Eurropean immigrants, some York resi- dents were also of African descent. The cityw as the setting for one of the empire’s most momen- tous events: Here, in 306, Constantine (right) was pro- claimed emperor by hisstroops. He immediately headed south to eliminate hiss rivals, a struggle concludingg with the founding of Constantinople in 330.

YORK’S IMPERIAL VISITOR, FOOURTH-CENTURY MARBLE BUST OF CONSTANTINEE THE GREAT

PRISMA/ALBUM

concluded that many of the University ofReading alsoan- soldiers originated in areas of alyzed the teeth oftheseventh eastern Europe. skull. Chemical signatures confirm the person came from Going Mobile “theNileValleyoranenviron- The results of the latest tests ment like that,” Müldner says. published in 2016 reveal even “We can’t pinpoint it exact- DOZENS OF BODIES excavated in 2004 from a more about the origins of at ly, but somewhere in the Near Roman burial ground in York, England, are laid out least some of the bodies. East.” in the city’s Guildhall (above). Although it is still not clear why some were decapitated (above, far Geneticist Dan Bradley, If the diverse origins of left), chemical and DNA analyses on bones and from Trinity College Dublin these ancient immigrants to teeth have established that the skeletons belonged in Ireland, analyzed DNA pre- York is becoming clearer, the to people from diverse genetic backgrounds. These served in the inner ear bones mystery remains as to what new findings will complement what is known from of seven of the York skulls. Of they were doing there, and historical documents about the mass movement of those, six were found to have how they met their deaths. peoples across the Roman Empire 1,800 years ago. DNA matching that of people Tooth marks made by an living in modern-day Wales. animal on one of the skeletons However, when the results couldwellhavebeensustained were found with their severed in those skeletons—chemi- for the seventh skull came in, in gladiatorial combat with a skulls resting by their sides. cal“signatures”thatrevealthe it caused a sensation in Brad- bear or lion. Eboracum was an Initial studies revealed geology, food, and climate of ley’s team: “The nearest ge- important garrison city, so it that, of 18 skeletons analyzed, earlylife.Twooftheskeletons netic matches were from Pal- is likely some of the bodies are only 5 came from York. In 2010 in the sample, it was found, estine or Saudi Arabia,” Brad- also those of soldiers. researchers at the University belonged to people who once ley explains. “He definitely But why were so many de- of Reading published the re- ate a grain called millet. Since didn’t come from Europe.” capitated? It is hoped this is sults of tests to determine the this cereal was unavailable In addition to the DNA onemoresecrettheYorkskel- levels of carbon and nitrogen within Britain, researchers tests, Gundula Müldner of the etons will yield over time.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 5 PROFILES

Caterina Sforza, Indomitable Duchess To survive turbulent 15th-century Italy, the young Duchess of Imola and Forlì relied on not only the art of intrigue but also fierce military tactics to protect and maintain her ancestral lands.

oward the end of 1499, a spirit of the age. Like other females in this woman stood atop the walls remarkable family, she trained alongside A Life of of the Rocca di Ravaldino in male children in military leadership and Love Forlì, some 185 miles north weapons usage. of Rome. The troops of the In 1473, when Caterina was 10, her and War TBorgias, a powerful rival family, were family made a political alliance and mar- 1463 holding her children hostage and threat- ried her to Girolamo Riario, 20 years her ening to kill them if she did not yield the senior and a nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. Caterina Sforza is born, fortress and her lands to them. But she Lord of Imola and Forlì—a city south of the illegitimate daughter refused, and, pointing at her womb, Milan, in Romagna—Girolamo took his of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, future Duke of Milan, and cried: “Kill them if you will, I have the child bride to live in Rome after she his lover, Lucrezia Landriani. means to make many more! You will reached age 14. The move helped consol- never make me surrender.” idate their place at the center of the papal 1484 The tale may well be apocryphal but, court. Caterina would give birth to five given what is known about the extraor- children and become a powerful inter- Caterina defends the interests of her husband dinary Caterina Sforza, it has a ring of mediary between Rome and Milan. Girolamo Riario in Rome truth about it. One of the most excep- following the death of tional figures of the Italian Renaissance, Intrigue in Rome Pope Sixtus IV. Sforza rubbed shoulders with the artistic In August 1484 Pope Sixtus IV’s death 1488 and cultural geniuses of her era. She de- caused political chaos. Italy’s families fied convention, studied alchemy, and jockeyed to put one of their own on the Girolamo is assassinated, welcomed confrontation with other Ital- throne of St. Peter. Riario’s precarious and Caterina marries again. ian families such as the Borgias. position was threatened by many factions She puts the interests of her Caterina was born in 1463 in Milan, the seeking to seize his lands. Before his un- new husband, Giacomo love child of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who, cle’s death, Riario had been away from Feo, before those of her son. later in her childhood, would become Rome, campaigning against these rival 1497-99 DDuke k of f MMilan. Despite her il- factions, but now he was prevented from legitimacy, she was brought returning to the city to shore up his po- Widowed in 1495, Caterina upatthehe center of her fa- sition. Caterina, despite being seven marries Giovanni de’ Medici ther’s household,o where she months pregnant, did it for him. in 1497. After his death, shee faces strong opposition received an education im- She commanded their forces to seize from the Borgias. buedd with the humanist Rome’s Castel Sant’Angelo. She refused 1500-1509 When she was seven months Following captivity in Rome, Caterina retires pregnant, Caterina seized control to a villa in Florence, where she dies at age 46 of Rome’s Castel Sant’ Angelo. of pneumonia. GOLD RELIQUARY FROM THE CATHEDRAL OF FORLÌ DEA/AGE FOTOSTOCK

6 MAY/JUNE 2016 MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE

RENAISSANCE ARTISTS were deeply attracted to Caterina. Sandro Botticelli is said to have depicted her as one of the mus- es in his painting “Primavera” (1477-1482). In Lorenzo di Credi’s magnificent oil painting (left) the 20-year-old Caterina is portrayed with a beauty she pre- served well into her later years. A book attributed to her, Experi- menti della excellentissima signora Caterina da Forlì, suggests beauty and learning mattered to her as much as power. Recipes for skin and hair, and general beauty tips, combine with her commentaries on botany and astrology.

CATERINA SFORZA PORTRAIT BY LORENZO DI CREDI, 1483 DEA/ALBUM

to cede it, claiming that Pope Sixtus had After her husband was murdered in 1488 with whom she had a son, Bernardino bestowed control of it to her family. She by supporters of the new pope, Innocent Carlo, a year later. The passion she felt would only hand it over to the next pope. VIII, she acted as regent until her son Ot- for the ambitious young man proved to She knew the cardinals feared her artil- taviano came of age. She shrewdly imple- be a weak spot. She went so far as to re- lery and that seizing the castle bought mented measures to win the sympathy move her eldest son, Ottaviano, from time for her family to make their next of her citizens by lowering taxes, and government to hand control of the state move. Eventually, Caterina relented, and winning over the friendship of neighbor- over to her husband. She also put Feo’s Riario agreed to leave Rome in exchange ing states by forming marriage alliances relatives in charge of the fortresses de- for recognition of his estates in Imola and through her children. She also took com- fending the city. Ottaviano’s supporters Forlì, as well as his appointment as mand of her army’s military training. did not approve and hatched a successful captain-general of the Vatican troops, plot to murder Caterina’s second hus- and 8,000 ducats in compensation. New Marriages band in 1495. Showing her ruthless Caterina had the chance to prove her A few months after her husband’s death, streak, the widow had the assassins and political skills at her new home in Forlì. Caterina secretly married Giacomo Feo their families massacred in retaliation.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 7 PROFILES

GIROLAMO RIARIO (second from left), Caterina’s first husband, stands before Pope Sixtus IV in Melozzo da Forlì’s painting (1477). ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

In 1497, at age 34, Caterina obtained gave birth to a son, Giovanni (later Braving the Borgias permission from her uncle, Duke Ludovi- known as Giovanni delle Bande Nere, a Caterina Sforza immediately began ex- co Sforza, to marry Giovanni de’ Medici, famous military commander), her hus- panding her military defenses, improving a member of the powerful Florentine band Giovanni died of pneumonia in the her weaponry, and creating large stores family. She had met him a year earlier middle of a conflict between Florence and of food and ammunition in case she was when he came to Forlì as an ambassador Venice. Shortly afterward, Pope Alex- besieged. Cesare Borgia, Duke of Valen- from Florence. Once again, her marriage ander VI, a Borgia, set out to enlarge the tinois, stood opposed to Caterina who would end in death, and she would be Papal States by absorbing cities in Ro- had taken up residency at the fortress of widowed: Barely a year after Caterina magna, including Forlì and Imola. nearby Ravaldino, the Rocca di Ravaldino. Son of the pope, Cesare Borgia was a powerfulp enemy, with major forces at his command.c After Imola and Forlì fell, Bor- LIKE MOTHER, LIKE SON giag set about besieging the Rocca di Rav- aldinoa on December 19, 1499. Caterina personallyp commanded the defense with GIOVANNI, THE SON OF CATERINA and Giovanni the aid of more than 1,000 soldiers. She de’ Medici, later became a famous military leader. refused one offer of peace after another, His nickname “Giovanni delle Bande Nere—John even—ase the legend says—at the cost of of the Black Bands” arose after the death of Pope herh children’s lives. Leo X, his protector and relative, when he added On January 12, 1500, after a hard-fought black stripes to his insignia as a sign of mourning. defense,d Borgia’s troops took Ravaldino, GIOVANNI DE’ MEDICI BY GIAN PAOLO PACE, 1545 andcaptureda Caterina. Although she asked to be placed in the custody of the King of ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

8 MAY/JUNE 2016 STANDING STRONG The Rocca di Ravaldino, the fortress where Caterina held out against the forces of Cesare Borgia, still looks formidable today.

TWO OF A KIND RICCARDO SALA/AGE FOTOSTOCK SALA/AGE RICCARDO “IF I MUST DIE, let me die like a man,” Caterina Sforza said when Cesare Borgia’s troops France, Louis XII, Borgia did not want to attempted to reclaim her lands from the besieged Ravaldino. Caterina relinquish his prisoner, because, some say, new pontiff, one of the great art patrons commanded 1,000 men and the two had become lovers. of the Renaissance, Pope Julius II. How- refused to listen to the offers It was not long, however, before Borgia ever, both the cities of Forlì and Imola of peace the pope’s son sent. sent her to Rome, where Caterina was objected to her return, and so she passed His response was to offer a re- held by Pope Alexander VI in Belvedere, into the hands of a Vatican nobleman ward of 10,000 ducats for her, a beautiful villa near the city. The Borgia called Antonio Maria Ordelaffi. dead or alive. Some accounts pope insisted on treating his prisoner as Caterina spent the last few years of her claim that the same night she an honored guest, in accordance with her life with her children, devoting herself to was capturedaptured, Caterina and rank, but all the attention he lavished on studying alchemy. In May 1509, when she Cesaare be- her failed to quash Sforza’s rebellious was just 46 years old, she died of pneu- came lovers, spirit. After an unsuccessful escape at- monia. She was buried in the Convent of recoggnizing tempt, the troublesome duchess was in- Santa Maria delle Murate, in an anony- in one another terned in Castel Sant’Angelo, the fortress mous tomb, as stipulated in her will. Her the veery same she had defended years earlier. grandson, Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tus- ruthleessnesss cany, later ordered a white marble grave- and ammbition. A Peaceful End stone be placed over her grave. In 1835 CESARE After the King of France interceded on that stone was destroyed when the con- BORGIA OIL her behalf, Caterina was released in 1501 vent’s flooring was renovated. Caterina, PAINTING BY ALTOBELLO and retired to Florence, taking refuge in it seems, would not be contradicted— MELONE, the villa that had belonged to her third even in death. CIRCA 1513 husband. It was there, following the

DEA/ALBUM death of Pope Alexander VI, that she —María Pilar Queralt

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 9 DAILY LIFE

FRENCH CHILDREN PLAY the games la grenouille and hautes coquilles in this ivory panel from the 14th century. The Hard-Knock Life: Childhood in the Middle Ages The scourge of infant mortality blighted Europe during the Middle Ages, but childhood was certainly no picnic either. Disease, famine, abandonment, and abuse were just some of the hardships faced by children who survived infancy.

rom Oliver Twist to “Little Or- whereby “the mother loves her own child, phan Annie,” the horrors and embraces and kisses it.” Historians differ hardships of childhood are as to whether such tender notions were F popular fodder for storytellers. the exception or the rule. Some question But these recent fictions have whether people in the Middle Ages un- nothing on the distant realities of children derstood the concept of “childhood” at in Europe in the late Middle Ages (1300- all. The period certainly offers startling- 1500), a period in which, even before the ly severe reflections on children, such horror of the Black Death from 1347, child- as those of the Italian scholar Philip of hood was often dangerous and brief. Novara, who saw a child’s affection for Historians struggle to build a coher- its carer as a survival tactic: “[W]ithout ent picture of childhood in Europe at this, they will be so dirty and annoying this time, in part because descriptions in infancy and so naughty and capricious of child-rearing are scarce. In his ency- that it is hardly worth nurturing them.” clopedia De proprietatibus rerum On the Properties of Things, 13th-century schol- Coming Into the World the Middle Ages, but from the begin- ar Bartholomew the Englishman endors- Regarded as a married woman’s duty, ning, children were seen as objects to es breast-feeding as a bonding exercise childbearing was highly valued during be managed. French medic Bernard de Gordon’s popular work Lilium medicinae (Lily of Medicine), a medical encyclopedia completed in 1305, detailed common in- THREE STAGES fant care practices. After cutting the um- bilical cord, the newborn’s nose, mouth, OF CHILDHOOD eyes, and anus were cleared, and the ba- by washed. A lead ball was placed on the “THE SIX AGES OF MAN” (left), a 15th- baby’s navel before swaddling, partly to century French illustration, depicts prevent crying, which was regarded as different life stages for boys unnatural and even demonic. before adulthood set in at age 14: Boys received a warmer welcome than swaddled infant, toddler with a girls: They were less often abandoned, walker, and young child at play. were entrusted to the best wet nurses, and breast-fed longer. No matter their BRIDGEMAN/ACI

10 MAY/JUNE 2016 ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

For Crying Out Loud IN THE MIDDLE AGES crying babies were corruption. To protect infants against not merely an annoyance, they were evil spirits and diseases, amulets made dangerous and linked to witchcraft. In of materials such as malachite were a theological and legal treatise from hung from their cribs. Newborns were 1486, the Malleus maleficarum (The tightly swaddled—as shown in this Hammer of Witches), the Dominican detail of a 14th-century painting by inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Giotto—in part to prevent them from Sprenger linked infant crying to black crying. In Spain, in 1482, the chronicles magic. Many other texts speak of the record the death of the son of one demonic possession of children, whom Miguel Cortés, apparently killed by his malign forces turned into monsters or wet nurse’s husband. He was driven AKG/ALBUM “BIRTH OF CHRIST” (DETAIL) BY GIOTTO DI BONDONE other devilish creatures. Unbaptized to this act, it was said, as he could put (1303), FROM A CYCLE OF SCENES OF THE LIFE OF CHRIST children ran the highest risk for up with the child’s crying no longer. AND THE VIRGIN. ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA, ITALY

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 11 DAILY LIFE

Digging Toy in the sand windmill Climbing Rattle Spinning Piñata Masks top

Fence sitting

Handstands Pretend wedding Leapfrog

Water pistol Running the gauntlet

Knights

Blowing Odds bubbles Blindman’s bluff and evens

Hoop rolling Dolls The armchair

Pretend christening Knucklebones Hobbyhorse

AKG/ALBUM gender, children were not typically records suggests that just over a quarter charity from religious institutions. In registered with the authorities as new- of children died in their first year—even 1257, when the disabled daughter of borns. Parents generally waited until they outside the period of the Black Death. A Henry III and Eleanor of Provence died were one or two years old. Since so many child who died unchristened, it was be- at age three, her mother fell ill with grief. died within a year of birth, many nev- lieved, would enter the state of limbo, a The common belief that medieval chil- er made it on to the register. Although place between heaven and hell. For this dren were less loved than those born in statistics on infant mortality are high- reason, baptism of Christian children was later eras is belied by moving accounts ly variable, recent research on English usually performed on the day of birth. of parental grief. A boy in Oxford in the Not all children were mourned or 1490s records how “a great while after missed. Infants born out of wedlock my brother died, my mother was wont or into extreme poverty ran the risk of to sit weeping every day.” abandonment. Children with deformi- ties were sometimes seen as “monsters.” Work and Play Even so, many cases reveal other, perhaps Medieval childhood could still offer its surprising, attitudes. Examples abound moments of fun. Children across the so- of poor disabled children receiving cial spectrum played with toys, including About 25 percent of babies died in their first year of life. For this reason, the rite of baptism was usually performed on the day a baby was born.

BONNE OF FRANCE, CHARLES V’ S DAUGHTER, DIED IN 1360 BEFORE SHE TURNED ONE. MUSEUM MAYER VAN DEN BERGH, ANTWERP ERICH LESSING/ALBUM Playgrounds of the Past Stilts CHILDREN OF ALL SOCIAL CLASSES PLAYED games of one kind or another. Boys and girls sometimes played together. In general, however, carefully differentiated gender roles worked themselves into playtime from an early age. Crawling under legs Girls’ play was focused more on the home. They played with ragdolls and acted out domestic roles. Boys amused

themselves with military games, example. Some of the games clay soldiers, bows and arrows, shown, such as hoop rolling and Giving someone and puppet shows. To the left is knucklebones (a precursor to the bumps a portion of “Children’s Games,” jacks) are less common today. painted by Pieter Brueghel the Elder Others, however, are still seen in 1560, a fascinating social record at parks and parties: leapfrog, of play in the Renaissance period. blindman’s bluff, balloons, and It depicts almost 100 different blowing bubbles. In general, toys Buck buck children’s amusements, all of were often made of poor-quality which would have been enjoyed or discarded materials. If families earlier during the Middle Ages. wanted to give children special Exactly as today, children copied gifts they might ask craftsmen adult rituals, playing at pretend to make them, though such play- weddings and christenings, for things were extremely expensive. Balloons

those described by medieval historian Wolsey, believed to be the son of a butch- female member of his master’s household Barbara Tuchman: “dolls and doll car- er, who rose to become lord chancellor of during his apprenticeship. riages harnessed to mice, wooden knights England in 1515. and weapons, little animals of baked clay, For the nobility, the aim of education A Kinder Way windmills, balls, battledores and shuttle- was less to enlighten through knowledge Although many aspects of medieval cocks.” The kind of books given a child and more to prepare children for their child-rearing seem cold, attitudes to- were often markedly moralist, such as adult roles. Sons received a military ward children began to soften and shift Aesop’s Fables. The dual aim of such training: archery, hand-to-hand combat, in this period. Based on the injunction books was expressed in Latin as delec- and sword fighting. Daughters of wealthy in the Epistle of James that the “vis- tare et docere—to delight while teaching. parents learned conversation, dance, iting of orphans and widows” formed Tutors taught the children of the embroidery, and fashion. Female liter- the basis of a solid faith, the church had wealthy. They learned grammar, arith- acy was also encouraged so that women long provided care for abandoned or or- metic, geometry, music, and theology. could read prayer books and administer phaned children. The late 14th century Children from the lower social classes property. saw a surge in the provision of foundling would have little or no access to educa- Sons of the less well-off might opt to hospitals in the increasingly prosperous tion, although in the later Middle Ages learn a trade through the apprenticeship cities. Barcelona’s Casa d’Infants Or- educational opportunities in England system that emerged in the late 13th cen- fes was founded in 1370, and Florence’s grew following the Black Death in the tury. A typical example recorded is that Ospedale degli Innocenti in 1419. For all mid-14th century. of one Thomas of Windsor, contracted to its disease and squalor, the late Middle The spread of such schools later en- serve a brassworker in 1396 for a period Ages also marked the origins of a welfare abled some children of humble origins of seven years. Thomas, then probably system for children. to attain high office as adults. This was age 14, agreed not to drink in taverns, hire the case of Henry VIII’s adviser Thomas prostitutes, play dice, or consort with any —Juan Pablo Sánchez

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 13 A FLOATING HELL This preliminary sketch for Théodore Géricault’s painting “The Raft of the Medusa,” depicts the moment the starving castaways spot the ship that will save them.

Louder Than Words: “The Raft of the Medusa” When Géricault’s Romantic masterpiece debuted almost 200 years ago, it caused an uproar. This harrowing depiction of shipwreck survivors, now hung in the Louvre Museum in Paris, was seen as an attack on elitism and incompetence, and a potent symbol of the human condition.

héodore Géricault was only Géricault’s work is based on true Ship of Fools 27 when he finished his events that took place in 1816, one year The French fleet’s mission was to regain monumental work, “The Raft after the final defeat of Napoleon. The control of former African territories. T of the Medusa.” The horrific empire established by Napoleon ended, The passengers included soldiers and painting provoked political and the French Bourbon dynasty had been civil servants, as well as several scien- outcry and public soul-searching after its restored under King Louis XVIII. The tists carrying observation equipment. premiere at the Louvre in August 1819. Its naval frigate Méduse set sail from near Also on board was Col. Julien Schmaltz, unflinching depiction of starvation and Bordeaux, as part of a flotilla headed for whom King Louis XVIII had just appoint- death, as well as its underlying commen- Saint-Louis in Senegal, where it was to ed as governor of Senegal. The Méduse tary on the political system that then con- carry out a vital mission for the newly was under the command of Hugues Du- trolled France, caused a scandal. restored royal government. roy de Chaumareys, a former exile and

14 MAY/JUNE 2016 MILESTONES AKG/ALBUM THE RETURN OF THE BOURBONS

DISPLAYED AT THE PARIS SALON in the fall of 1814, this allegorical oil painting by Louis-Philippe Crépin celebrates Louis XVIII’s return to France following the abdication of Emperor Napoleon I. He is surrounded by the royal family and a large number of former exiles. France is personified as a vulnerable woman, weakened by 25 years of revolution and war, who is saved by the Bourbon king, dressed in his coronation robes.

MUSÉE DU LOUVRE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS staunch monarchist. The fact that he had Nearly 400 passengers and crew aban- for the drier area in the center. Freshwa- not sailed a ship in more than 20 years doned ship, the chaos accentuated by the ter and food soon ran out. They had to mattered little. large amounts of alcohol consumed by drink seawater and even their own urine. Captain Chaumareys’s time away from captain and crew. Chaumareys and the The one box of biscuits on board was gone the sea led to a series of fatal mistakes. He officers boarded the lifeboats, leaving in a single day. By the third day, some of peeled away from the rest of the convoy 150 sailors and soldiers, including a fe- the crew were already resorting to can- and followed a solitary route. Ignoring male cook, to huddle on an improvised nibalism, the flesh from the corpses cut more experienced officers, he misread raft measuring around 50 by 25 feet. The into strips and dried in the sun before the charts and ran the ship aground on lifeboats were supposed to tow the raft to being eaten. “We saw that awful food as July 2 in shallow waters off the coast of the coast, but Chaumareys felt it was too the only way of staying alive,” a survivor modern-day Mauritania in northwestern heavy and slowing the boats’ progress. In later explained. Africa. A storm followed, cutting short yet another poor decision, he decided to According to personal accounts, the the crew’s attempts to relaunch. cut the raft loose. number of survivors was quickly whit- Abandoned to the waves, the 150 sur- tled down. Twenty people drowned on vivors faced a horrific crisis. Space was the first night. On the second, a fierce tight on the raft, with people struggling fight killed at least 65 more people. A

Written by two of the survivors, a book about the behavior of the captain and crew of the Méduse triggered a wave of revulsion across France.

LIFTING THE LID THE COVER OF CORRÉARD AND SAVIGNY’S BOOK ON THE MÉDUSE AFFAIR GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 15 MILESTONES

GÉRICAULT’S TOMB in Père-Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, is adorned with a bas- relief of the painting that shot the young artist to fame.

JORGE ROYAN/ALAMY/ACI week later only 28 survivors remained, managed to get there in a lifeboat, had terrified, drunken sailors. The book un- many of them sick, wounded, and men- sent it back to try to recover equipment. leashed a wave of revulsion across France. tally exhausted by the ordeal. To enhance In 1817 two of the expedition’s survi- Liberal opponents of the Bourbon regime their own chances of survival, a group vors, Jean-Baptiste Savigny, a surgeon, used the affair to denounce the restored decided to throw 13 more overboard. and Alexandre Corréard, an engineer monarchy’s incompetence. The naval After 13 days, the last 15 survivors on and geographer, published an account of minister was forced to resign. For his the raft at last sighted their rescue. It was what happened on the raft, The Wreck of ineptitude and indifference, Chaumar- from the flotilla that had set sail with the the Frigate Méduse. They denounced the eys was court-martialed and sentenced Méduse, and which had already reached captain’s negligence and cowardice, as to three years’ imprisonment. Saint-Louis. Chaumareys, who had also well as the atrocities committed by the Painting History Amid this indignation, a 27-year-old artist decided to immortalize the ep- DYING YOUNG isode. Théodore Géricault had already won critical acclaim, but he had just lost a fellowship that would have enabled him CRITICISM OF “THE RAFT OF THE MEDUSA” convinced to keep studying painting. He needed an Géricault his work was a failure. He left for England, eye-catching subject to relaunch his ca- where he took up equestrian painting. After his return reer, and what better than the Méduse? to France, he was commissioned by the famous psychia- Géricault set about his task method- trist Georget to make portraits of the mentally ill. The bril- ically. He met two of the castaways and liant painter died in January 1824, at the tender age of 32. based his initial sketches on their ac- counts. He transferred from his studio SELF-PORTRAIT BY GÉRICAULT. OIL ON CANVAS, 1808

16 MAY/JUNE 2016 JOSEPH MARTIN/ALBUM An African man A white History, Horror, standing on a dot on the barrel waves a horizon, the and Hope rag to attract the sails of the Argus attention of the are the survivors’ Completed in 1819, Géricault’s great approaching ship. last hope. painting perfectly blends the authentic historical events with intense emotions.

An exhausted The painting elderly man shows a total of holds the corpse 15 survivors and of a young man 5 corpses. in his lap.

JOSEPH MARTIN/ALBUM in Rue des Martyrs, Paris, to a much larger One of Géricault’s main concerns was Despite its colorless, original title, no space in Rue du Faubourg-du-Roule. The his choice of precisely the right episode viewer could fail to recognize the story of move was necessary: He was working on from the Méduse tragedy. He consid- the Méduse. Conservatives railed against a huge canvas, measuring 22 by 17 feet, ered portraying scenes of cannibalism the work’s supposed artistic errors and almost as big as the raft that inspired him. but feared that subject could result in the the “obscene” realism of the scene, far Another survivor of the shipwreck, a car- painting’s being censored. In the end he removed from the models of classical penter by trade, was commissioned by selected a moment when the survivors beauty. Liberals saw the painting as a cri- the artist to build a model of the raft ex- sighted the ship that saved them, show- tique of the high-handedness of the new actly as he remembered it during those ing hope in contrast to extreme suffering. regime, reading it as a metaphor for the infernal 13 days. For eight months, from November 1818 to great national shipwreck of France itself. The artist placed great importance on June 1819, the painter worked tirelessly. The depiction of a black sailor, featured the anatomical details of the bodies. The The only people he saw were his assis- prominently in the center of the paint- survivors, along with his disciple—the tant and his housekeeper, who brought ing, also announced the painter’s political fellow Romantic painter Eugène Dela- him food. commitment at a time when the struggle croix—and his assistant, Louis-Alexis against slavery and the black slave trade Jamar, all took part in extensive posing Succès de Scandale was intensifying. Its mix of realism, drama, sessions. Géricault made lots of sketches The canvas went on display at the Sa- and theatricality made the work a bench- in a nearby morgue to capture the precise lon in Paris, which opened on August 25, mark for Romantic painting. As the crit- color of amputated limbs and the rigid 1819. At first it was known as “Scene of a ic Count O’Mahony exclaimed on seeing quality of the corpses. He even convinced Shipwreck” (its current title, which uti- it: “What a hideous spectacle, but what a a doctor friend to lend him body parts. lizes the Anglicized Medusa rather than beautiful picture!” According to his biographer, Charles Clé- Méduse, emerged later). The painting ment, his studio smelled horribly. caused an immediate sensation. Dominique Kalifa

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 17 Mathematics in Ancient Egypt THE POWER

Egypt’s civilization rested on not only military strength but also mathematical might. Egyptian calculations and systems predated the great Greek thinkers by millennia. BALANCING THE BOOKS Scribes, like the one depicted by this seated figure from the 5th dynasty, used mathematics to calculate and record tax payments or temple offerings. Their writing instruments (opposite) were often made of reeds or wood. FRANCK RAUX/RMN-GRAND PALAIS; OPPOSITE: SCALA, FLORENCE STRENGTH IN NUMBERS Scribes, depicted on a bas-relief thought to be from the second millennium b.c. (left), were the ancient accountants who kept the wheels of state turning. SCALA, FLORENCE

ythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes— detail to the long-standing accounting tradi- to many, these Greek thinkers are tion in the land of the pharaohs.In the reign of the founding fathers of modern “King Sesostris,”for example, the country was P mathematics. But in fact, by the time “divided . . . among all the Egyptians by giving these brilliant minds were working on each an equal parcel of land [and] made this his their theorems,complex mathematical systems source of revenue, assessing the payment of a had already been well established across the yearly tax.”If the Nile burst its banks,“the king Mediterraneanformanycenturies,andcounting would send men to look into it and calculate systems for several millennia.Mathematics was the part by which the land was diminished, so an engine for progress in the ancient world. that thereafter it should pay in proportion to Without it, a society could not collect taxes, the tax originally imposed.” keep records of produce,or design architectural Historians are unsure as to the identity of marvels such as the pyramids. this king—some suggest Herodotus meant In his travels through Egypt in the fifth cen- RamsesII,whoruledEgyptsomeeightcenturies tury B.C., the great Greek historian Herodo- before his Greek visit.Herodotus had no doubts tus—known as the father of history—refers in that the Egyptian system of measurement and

COUNTING 3250 b.c. 3000 b.c. Discovered in TombU-j, A mace head belonging ON THE vessels with numbered tags to King Narmer, the very relating to the quantities first king of the 1st dynasty, ANCIENTS inside are some of the first shows hieroglyphs denoting evidence of accounting. multiples of ten.

WRITTEN IN THE STARS PAPYRUS COPY OF A CEILING AT THE TEMPLE AT DANDARAH SHOWING ASTRONOMICAL SCENES ART ARCHIVE POLYMATH’S PYRAMID The Pyramid of Djoser was designed in the third millennium b.c. by Imhotep, a minister, physician, and mathematician, whose calculation of angles and volumes was crucial in the building of this huge structure. PHILIP PLISSON

1950 b.c. 1650 b.c. 540 b.c. 225 b.c. The oldest mathematical The Rhind Papyrus is Greek thinker Pythagoras Archimedes shows the papyrus, the Reisner I, dates the most complete establishes his famous volume of a sphere is two- to the time of Sesostris I mathematical papyrus theorem, which the thirds of a cylinder’s, an idea and features practical discovered, thought to be a Egyptians had formulated recorded in the Moscow mathematical calculations. copy of an older text. 1,400 years previously. Papyrus 1,500 years earlier. FOR GOOD calculation had deep roots and that it strong- The Magic Ten MEASURE ly influenced later Greek thinking.“From this The numbering system that the Egyptians de- Taking the form of a [system], in my opinion,”he wrote,“the Greeks veloped was, like most modern systems, based cow’s head (above, learned the art of measuring land.” around the number 10. Hieroglyphs represent right), the standard The Egyptians used geometry, algebra, and a single unit, then multiples of ten, and up to a weight known as the deben sits on a scale arithmetic to measure land,to estimate harvest million: 1, a single stroke |; 10, drawn as an arch in this painting from yields, to determine taxation, and to calculate ; 100, a coil of rope ; 1,000, a lotus plant ; the 18th-dynasty the offerings at the temple. Mathematics pro- 10,000, a finger ; 100,000, drawn as a frog or tomb of Nebamun vided the foundation for Egyptian architecture. tadpole ; and 1,000,000, depicted as a deity and Ipuki in Luxor. ART ARCHIVE Calculating the dimensions of a pyramid or the with upraised arms . Writing a number in incline of a ramp used to move vast building Egyptian hieroglyphs is simple: The symbols blocksrequiredallkindsofcomplexmathemati- are ordered from the largest number to the cal operations. smallest. To express the quantity 11, one sign By the end of the fourth millennium B.C., the is used denoting tens, followed by one sign Egyptians had their own system for counting. denoting units: . For a higher number, such as Many of the oldest surviving examples of hi- 321,412, the same principle applies: first the sign eroglyphic writing are not words but numbers denoting hundreds of thousands, then the sign written on tags. These labels must once have for tens of thousands, producing the following been used to mark how much produce, such as numeral: . grain,wasstoredin acontainer.Similar tagswere Although the Egyptians could, in theory, ex- discovered in the Tomb U-j in Abydos (about press any number up to 9,999,999 using only 300 miles south of Cairo), dating to 3320-3150 seven different hieroglyphic signs, there is an B.C., the time before Egypt’s dynastic system obvious drawback to this system. Each sign may was established. Tags dating to around 3100 need to be repeated up to nine times in a single B.C. were found in the tomb of the 1st-dynasty amount. So, to express 9, the sign denoting 1 queen Neithhotep in Naqada. must be repeated nine times. To express 90, the

22 MAY/JUNE 2016 LIST OF NOMES (PROVINCES) AND THEIR CORRESPONDING STATISTICS IN THE WHITE CHAPEL OF SENUSRET I IN THE TEMPLE AT KARNAK, CIRCA EARLY 1900S B.C. Atef-Pehu, nome 21, Upper Egypt.

Atef-Khent, nome 20, Upper Egypt. Khnum, the god of nome 19

Hieroglyph representing the number 1,000

Length of nome 20: 3 iteru and 4 khar (almost 21 miles)

ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

MANAGING THE A Simpler ROYAL ACCOUNTS This mace head belonging to King Narmer dates to around Script 3000 b.c. and is the oldest object yet found to show a pre- cise numerical inventory. It is divided into three sections. Because mathematical symbols often had to The lowest of these is an inventory in hieroglyphic numerals be repeated many times in a single numeral, of the livestock and prisoners in Narmer’s possession. the hieroglyphic system could be cumbersome. In the case of 9,000, for example, the lotus symbol representing 1,000 would have to 400,000 be written out nine separate times. Around 400,000 bulls

2900 b.c., the development of hieratic script, 1,000,000 a cursive writing system, simplified record keeping and accounting. First, the design 400,000 of the signs was less complex than formal 20,000 hieroglyphics, making it easier for scribes 2,000 to write quickly. Better still, signs expressing 1,422,000 goats more numeric values were introduced. Hieratic script introduced unique symbols for units from 100,000 1 to 9, tens from 10 to 90, and 100s from 100 20,000

to 900, which cut down on all that repetition. 120,000 prisoners WERNER FORMAN/GTRES (187 feet).The iteru ( ) equaled 20,000 royal cubits, around 6.5 miles. The iteru plays a crucial role in the 4,000-year-old register carved on the walls of the White Chapel of Senusret I in Karnak . This register includes a record of all the provinces, nomes, of Egypt at that time, provid- ing valuable information about the proportions of the Nile running through each nome with measurements given in iteru.

Math and Myth Variousmeasures were used to express volume, including the hekat ( ), which equals about 1.2 gallons. A curious blend of design and mythol- ogy is associated with this unit. To express frac- tions of a hekat, the scribes employed an ancient Egyptian myth, in which the god Horus lost his eye in a battle.The Eye of Horus, , was an im- portant ancient Egyptian symbol, its constitu- ent parts (such as the pupil and the brow) were used to symbolize a fraction of the hekat. If the Eye of Horus represented a complete hekat, the six parts which joined to form it corresponded to the fractions: 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32, and 1/64. One of the most common weight measures wasthedeben, , equivalent to just over three ounces. A tenth of a deben was known as a kite, written as . Metals and jewels were weighed AN ANCIENT sign denoting 10 must be repeated nine times. on scales calibrated to the deben, the weights TEXTBOOK Although expressing 999,999 would have re- often taking the form of a cow’s head. The Rhind Papyrus, quired only six different signs,each would have Although meticulous inventories were kept now held in the been repeated nine times to create a row of so that inspectors could monitor holdings of British Museum, was copied around 54 signs. This unwieldy system was partially precious metals and goods, corruption was a 1650 b.c., and solved by the development of an alternative constant cause for concern. The Instruction features methods to hieroglyphs, known as hieratic script. Used of Amenemope, a text dating back to the tenth of calculating the by state officials, this system had more sym- century B.C. (which also has many curious paral- volumes of cylinders bols,so large numbers could be expressed with lels with the biblical Book of Proverbs), includes and pyramids. DEA/ALBUM fewer signs. detailed prohibitions for civil servants regarding the falsification of weights: “Do not tamper with Measure for Measure the scales, nor falsify the weights, nor diminish In everyday life,it was vital to be able to measure the fractions of the measure,” reads one passage. length, weight, and volume using a universal “Do not make for yourself deficient weights, system. The basic unit for measuring length in they are rich in grief.” ancient Egypt was the royal cubit (about 1.8 feet) Numerous papyri have been found crammed known as meh niswt, and written as: . with mathematical exercises and problems, The cubit was divided into seven palms, shesep, whose complexity leaves no doubt that civil written as .A palm was further divisible into servants must have been highly skilled at math. 4 fingers called djeba, written as . The problems are usually presented as a com- These units were used for measuring rela- bination of operations, but no detailed answer tively small distances, such as the proportions is given. This suggests that students explained of a building or the height of the Nile in flood. their calculations to the teacher orally. It is al- The unit of measurement of larger areas, such so possible that students memorized standard as plots of land or entire provinces was the khet, questions and their answers so that they would written as , and equivalent to 100 cubits be ready when faced with a similar problem.

24 MAY/JUNE 2016 GEOMETRY OF WONDER Giza’s Pyramid of Khafre casts its shadow toward the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the last surviving ancient wonder of the world. Khufu’s sides are precisely aligned to the cardinal points of the compass. MARCELLO BERTINETTI MATHEMATICS The Papyrus Anastasi I—a version of an origi- arranged in sections dedicated to arithmetic, OF THE SOUL nal satirical text from the beginning of the 19th algebra, and geometry. The number, and dynasty—provides examples of what a com- Of particular interest is the method proposed type, of offerings petent scribe was expected to know.One of the to calculate the area of a circle.In problem num- made to sustain this 4th-dynasty problems posed reads as follows:“You are told ber 50,the value of pi is fixed at 3.16,a value very princess’s ka (spirit) to empty a storeroom full of sand beneath your close to what is now known to be its true value in the afterlife are master’s colossus,which has been brought from (just over 3.14).Many societies of the Near East listed on the right the quarry of Gebel Ahmar.The storeroom is 30 at this same time used a value closer to 3. side of this stela in cubits long and 20 cubits wide.It consists of ten The Moscow Papyrus, which is some 200 her tomb in Giza. DEA/ALBUM compartments full of sand.The partitions of the years older than the Rhind Papyrus,is noted for compartments are 12 cubits wide and 50 cubits its tenth problem.This question appears to deal high ...Howmanymenwillbeneeded to empty with calculating the area of a hemisphere, and them in six hours ...so that the colossus can be predatesArchimedes—themathematicianusu- erected on the site?” ally credited with discovering the formula—by around 1,500 years. ForerunneroftheGreeks The 6619 Berlin Papyrus (from the Middle A series of papyri discovered in the last few Kingdom) contains just two mathematical centuries reveal the complex achievements problems but includes the oldest versions of of Egyptian math. The most complete math- what is now called the Pythagorean theorem ematical papyri containing these kinds of and quadratic equations. Herodotus was problems is the Rhind Papyrus. Measur- not exaggerating when he pointed out the ing 16 feet long, it dates to around 1650 B.C., profound influence of Egyptian mathematics. although it is believed to be a copy of a papyrus from 200 years earlier. It contains 84 problems including a diverse set of problems: division, JOSÉ LULL AN EXPERT ON ANCIENT EGYPT’S LATE DYNASTIES, LULL IS SENIOR multiplication,addition,fractions,square roots, LECTURER AT THE AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA, SPAIN.

26 MAY/JUNE 2016 A NATION OF CRAFTSMEN Excavating the Valley of the Kings required skilled technicians to make accurate calculations. These men were housed in Deir el Medina, shown here from the air. PHILIP PLISSON 4 3

2

1

The Art of Measurement

In the tomb of the scribe Menna from the time of while holding another two coils. On the other side, a Thutmose IV (circa 1400-1390 b.c.) is a painting fellow worker 5 unwinds the same rope. Following that depicts the measurement of a field. Menna 1 the first surveyor is a man 6 with two boys, members looks on while a kneeling figure 2 implores him to of the peasant family in charge of the field. A man record a favorable measurement for the tax record. holding a sheaf of wheat and a white cone-shaped Various scribes 3 accompany the surveyors. To the loaf of bread and a woman 7 with a basket on her right, a surveyor 4 pulls the end of a measuring rope head are followed by a young man 8 with a donkey. 5 A GOLDEN AGE OF PAINTING FILLED 18TH-DYNASTY TOMBS 6 WITH DETAIL AND COLOR, SUCH AS THE TOMB OF MENNA IN THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS.

78

ARALDO DE LUCA

LEARNING THE ROPES 1. The Egyptians measured IN ANCIENT EGYPT land by dividing it up into triangles. To do this, they are Egyptian surveyors were renowned for their skill at thought to have used a rope measuring areas using ropes. The great Greek with 13 equally spaced knots. mathematician and philosopher Democritus (fifth- Rope with 13 knots and a total of 12 sections fourth centuries b.c.) spent time in Egypt, where, according to Clement of Alexandria, he was particularly struck by the skills of the Egyptian rope stretchers, A right triangle, made known as harpedonaptai. “In the construction of lines up of 3 x 4 x 5 sections with proofs I am not surpassed,” he wrote, “not even by the so-called Harpedonaptai of the Egyptians.” Egyptian fields were either rectangular or trapezoidal so that, by using geometry, the harpedonaptai could 2. The surface area of get an accurate measurement for each plot. They a whole field could be calculated using geometry. would then use these measurements to calculate the productivity of each according to its quality.

RICHES OF UR

Leonard Woolley’s excavation of Ur yielded an archaeologist’s dream discovery: a series of intact tombs filled with a trove of golden treasures and untouched artifacts from one of Mesopotamia’s most important ancient cities.

he 1920s marked a golden age in high-profile archaeological discoveries. Beginning with How- ard Carter’s landmark 1922 discovery of the tomb Tof the Egyptian king Tutankhamun, the decade would end with another stunning find: Leonard Woolley’s discovery of intact Mesopotamian royal tombs dating back more than 4,000 years in the ancient city of Ur, located 140 miles southeast of Babylon in modern-day Iraq. The tombs were the work of the ancient culture of Sumer that had flourished at the dawn of civilization. The discovery of the tombs dominated headlines on both sides of the Atlantic, not only for the quantity and craftsman- ship of the objects found but also for the light they shed on the grisly nature of Sumerian burial practices. The finds included exquisitely crafted jewelry and musical instruments, as well as large numbers of bodies: servants and soldiers entombed alongside their dead sovereigns. GRAVE MUSIC Dating from 2600–2300 b.c., this decorative bull’s head of gold and lapis lazuli adorned a lyre discovered in the tomb of Queen Puabi in Ur. PENN MUSEUM LEONARD WOOLLEY CAREFULLY REMOVES THE EARTH FROM A VOTIVE FIGURINE DISCOVERED DURING THE EXCAVATIONS AT UR. BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE

A DOZEN YEARS HAMMERED GOLD HELMET OF SCEPTER OF GOLD AND KING MESKALAMDUG LAPIS LAZULI OF PATIENCE SCALA, FLORENCE ERICH LESSING/ALBUM British archaeologist Leonard Woolley was charged with excavating the Sumerian 1922–23 1925 city of Ur (in modern-day Iraq) from 1922 Leonard Woolley arrives As well as excavating the to 1934. The 12 years spent meticulously in Ur to begin excavations, ziggurat, Woolley unearths focusing on the area around the temple of the moon god digging down through the strata were the ziggurat. The remains Nanna and other structures rewarded by the discovery of a royal of streets and buildings are from the reigns of Shulgi and necropolis from the third millennium b.c. uncovered. Ur-Nammu.

Epic Exploration upon an account of a flood that was strikingly Scholarly and public fascination with the ancient similar to that of the Book of Genesis in the culture of Mesopotamia had been steadily grow- Old Testament. ing since the latter part of the 19th century. It was The Epic of Gilgamesh is thought to have been in December 1872 that an Assyriologist, George written around 2100 B.C., predating the Hebrew Smith, presented a paper to a packed session of Scriptures. Newspapers were quick to take up the Society of Biblical Archaeology, attended by the story of Smith’s work, fueling public inter- the British prime minister, William Gladstone. est in the Mesopotamian era. Museums and What he unveiled in his lecture caused an inter- universities in France, Great Britain, Germany, national sensation. and the United States launched archaeological Smith had been deciphering a series of expeditions to seek the vestiges of the civili- clay tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal zations of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia, the in Nineveh, a text today known as the Epic regions where the first cities in history devel- of Gilgamesh, regarded as the world’s oldest oped. Among the sites picked for detailed ex- known literary work. In this saga, he came ploration was Tell al Muqayyar—better known today as Ur. Ur had already been identified some years earlier, thanks to basic excavations carried out in After having led a dig in Turkey that included 1853 by the British diplomat J. E. Taylor. Nearly another 70 years passed before a major project the future Lawrence of Arabia, Woolley was launched to more fully excavate the ancient worked as a British spy in World War I. city. The Penn Museum and the British Mu- seum jointly organized an expedition and chose veteran Leonard Woolley to supervise the dig.

32 MAY/JUNE 2016 CHOKER OF GOLD, LAPIS LAZULI, AND CARNELIAN FOUND IN THE TOMB OF QUEEN PUABI BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE NECKLACE OF CARNELIAN AND LAAPIS LAZULI WITH GOLDPPENDANTS DEA/SCALA, FLORENCE

RAM FASHIONED FROM GOLDAAND LAPIS LAZULI BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE FEMALE HEAD FOUND IN THE HOUSE OF THE PRIESTS OF NANNA BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE

1926 1927927 19281928 19341934 Beyond the temple area Woolley’s team discovers 16 Leonard Woolley locates The University of the team discovers a huge royal tombs. Among them another tomb, dubbed the Pennsylvania is forced to cemetery with more than is the tomb of Queen Puabi, Great Death Pit. It contains bring the excavation to an 600 tombs. One of these is and below that, the tomb of the remains of 74 people, end, partly as a result of the believed to belong to her husband, an unidentified sacrificed to be buried next Great Depression. Woolley King Meskalamdug. king of Ur. to their monarchs. publishes a study of the site.

Having trained at the Ashmolean Museum WORSHIPPING Ur,around 2000 B.C.Archaeologists have linked in Oxford as assistant to Arthur Evans—who THE MOON this ziggurat to the ruler Ur-Nammu,who built had made his name excavating the Cretan city of This votive plaque many ziggurats at other Mesopotamian sites. Knossos—one of Woolley’s first major digs was (below) shows As the team excavated around the temple, acolytes paying in 1912 at the ancient Hittite site of Carchemish, homage to Nanna, small pieces of gold were surfacing.Even though locatedinTurkeyalongtheSyrianborder.There, the Mesopotamian Woolley realized that tombs full of more riches he was assisted by Thomas Edward Lawrence— god of the moon. must be located nearby,he refused to let the ex- later known as Lawrence of Arabia—until the Woolley’s team pedition descend into a mere treasure hunt. In discovered this outbreak of World War I stalled their work. line with good archaeological practice, he con- tablet in the giparu, During hostilities, Woolley was employed the building in Ur tinued systematically studying the different by British intelligence in the Middle East when where Nanna’s strata at the site in order to establish a defini- Turkish forces captured and held him prisoner priests lived. tive time line. for two years. After the war, he directed a dig in BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE Woolley had another reason to be circum- EgyptatTellelArmana,siteofthepharaoh spect: Since the dig had started, artifacts, Akhenaten’s capital city. It was there, in especially golden ones, were going miss- 1922, that he received the commission ing, presumably stolen by members of to direct the excavation at Ur. the team. Before any attempt to un- earth the tombs could be made, Woolley A Golden Mystery needed to be sure their contents would For the first four seasons at Ur, Wool- be safe, both from theft and inexperi- ley concentrated on the area around ence. Woolley knew his team was still the ziggurat, or temple tower. This too green to be trusted with the delicate structure was a stepped pyramid, artifacts they might find in these undis- erected during the third dynasty of turbed sites. Finally, in 1926, Woolley

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 33 a al iy D BAGHDAD Eshnunna (Tell Asmar) HIDDEN IDENTITIES Area enlarged A Tutub Sippar K Tell Agrab THE MYSTERY Akshak K MONARCHS OF UR Der A eonard Woolley excavated 16 tombs that he identified as royal because of the lavish grave D T igris goods found there as well as evidence of mass Kish human sacrifice. The exact nature of the rela- Abu Salabikh L tionship between the main occupant of the chambers Nippur and their entourage is, however, not entirely clear. Adab In most cases, the “royal” These writings identify figures have not been Ur-Pabilsag who reigned Shuruppak Umma S U Girsu (Telloh) identified. In fact, only around the period 2600– E M two royal bodies can 2450 B.C., Meskalamdug, u E Lagash ph R be identified with any his son Mesannepadda, ra tes Uruk Bad-Tibira M arsh certainty. One is Queen and his sons A’anepada Puabi in tomb PG800, and Meski’ag-Nanna, Ur who was identified by who ruled sometime be- Tell el Obeid BASRA the seal found near her tween the years 2450 Eridu body. The excavations in and 2300 B.C. During the necropolis did bring this period the city-state City mentioned in to light various inscrip- model was consolidated The Sumerian King List tions, although they in Sumer. Ur, its capi- Former coastline have not been matched tal, imposed its domi- Former river course to specific tombs. nance over the region. Present-day town

THE RISE OF believed he and his staff were ready. The excava- During the digging season of 1926–27, Wool- CITY-STATES tion could begin. ley and Mallowan had uncovered hundreds of In the third mi l- tombs from the city’s necropolis. At first only lennium b.c. clusters Stranger Than Fiction human remains and a few grave goods were un- of city-states sprung By the time the hunt for the tombs began, Wool- earthed, certainly not the riches they had been up in the river valleys of Mesopotamia. ley had been joined by the young archaeologist anticipating. But then, toward the end of the Sumer, of which Ur Max Mallowan, whose future wife—the best- season, they made a spectacular find. Hidden was the capital, later selling author Agatha Christie—met him on the among some bronze weapons was a magnificent fell under the sway of dig in Ur. Christie often traveled to the Middle gold dagger with a lapis lazuli handle. Next to it, a neighboring Akkad. EOSGIS.COM East to visit Mallowan, whom she would marry gold sack contained a set of musical instruments in 1930. In the course of these visits, she got to also made of gold. Never before had objects of know Woolley. Her exposure to archaeology in- such value and artistic quality been found at a fluenced her; several of her whodunits take place Sumerian site. on and around archaeology sites—most notably Cuneiform inscriptions found on some ar- her 1936 thriller, Murder in Mesopotamia. tifacts established that they had unearthed the tomb of one Meskalamdug, who was certain- ly a rich noble, some believe even a king. The discovery caused a frenzy among the workers, The royal tombs were all given names who seemed to dig up valuable new artifacts everywhere they excavated. To Woolley’s beginning with the letters “PG,” alarm, rumors started to circulate of fabulous which stands for “private grave.” hidden riches. In his reports, Woolley recounts how he went immediately to see the region’s tribal chief,

34 MAY/JUNE 2016 REMAINS OF THE CAPITAL The main religious buildings and the royal necropolis of the Sumerian capital, Ur, excavated Royal cemetery by Leonard Woolley, are shown in this aerial photograph.

Ehursag (temple)

Giparu, temple of Ningal Ziggurat and residence of the priests of Nanna Mausoleum of Shulgi and Amar-Sin

Ganunmah (storerooms)

Dublamah (access buildings of the ziggurat)

GEORGE GERSTER/PANOS PICTURES

Munshid ibn Hubaiyib, to ask for his word A CROWN FOR ous.Diggingintheso-calledDeathPitareaofthe that none of the workers would touch the site THE DEAD tomb, the archaeologists discovered five bodies, in Woolley’s absence. The pact seems to have Among the many adornedwithgravegoods,lyingtogetheronrush held fast during that dig. In the three seasons human remains in matting. A few yards away, they found ten more the royal cemetery, that followed, not one of the sites was entered Woolley uncovered bodies. These were women wearing ornaments without authorization from Woolley, and none the bones of a boy of gold and precious stones. of the magnificent finds were taken. at the bottom of These carefully arranged cadavers also held On finding an underground chamber made of a funerary shaft. musical instruments.Beside them were the re- This headpiece stone, expectations ran high. Woolley suspected (below), made of mains of a musician who held a stunning lyre. it could be the tomb of a royal figure. As they gold, carnelian, and The sound box of the instrument was incrust- continued to excavate, the team uncovered a lapis lazuli, was still ed with carnelian, lapis lazuli, and mother-of- tunnel dating to a later time. The tunnel ran resting on the child’s pearl.p On its wooden frontpiece was mounted almost from surface level dowwn to the ceiling. forehead. the stunning golden head of a bull with eyes and It was a sign that someone,perrhaps thieves,had beard of lapis lazuli.z entered the tomb centuriesb efore. It was a Also inthetombwere the remains of a wood- major disappointment to thee ene carriage decorated with gold, team, which had hoped to find precious stones, and mother- the grave unmolested. of-pearl, and sculpted heads of lions and bulls. Beside it were The Queen’s Grave the skeletons of two men who Work continued, and Woolley’ss had presumably accompanied efforts would be rewarded withh the vehicle and the two oxen, the discovery of PG800, a priss- whose remains lay on the floor tine burial. The discoveries cammefast andfuri- nearby.

BRIT ISH M USEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 35 STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN Built around 2000 b.c., when Ur was the capital of a Mesopotamian empire, the ziggurat housed a shrine to the moon god Nanna on its summit. A three-tier mass of mud bricks, the structure has been restored several times during its long history. STEVE MCCURRY

TENSIONS ON THE DIG A WOMAN IN A MAN’S WORLD oolley was assisted at Ur by Kath- arine Keeling, who later became his wife. Her presence at the site W was regarded as unseemly by Woolley’s superiors. In 1926 the director of the Penn Museum, C. B. Gordon, wrote to Woolley: “Tourists and others the risk of becoming the returning from Iraq and subject of inconsider- Palestine make [the ate remarks . . . Perhaps expedition at Ur] an you will wish to give the important part of their matter your best con- recollections . . . Perhaps sideration with a view the presence of a lone to removing that risk.” woman with four men in Despite this shot across camp makes a more in- the bow, Woolley en- teresting figure for some sured that Keeling con- of them than the outline tinued working at Ur. of ziggurats. In any case In the course of the I should be a little appre- project, she fulfilled an hensive that a woman in essential role as an ar- that situation might incur chaeologist and restorer.

PENN MUSEUM

FAITHFUL As the dig progressed, Woolley came upon inscription from which the archaeologists TO THE END yet more treasures in the tomb: weapons,tools, were able to identify the woman: Queen Puabi Woolley and his team numerous vessels of bronze, silver, gold, lapis (in his notes, Woolley referred to her as Shub- (above) pose in one lazuli, and alabaster—even a gaming table. In ad because of a mistranslation). The seal made of the last of the Ur the center of the space lay an enormous wooden no mention of her husband, which led some to tombs, excavated during the 1933–34 chest, several yards long, which had probably believe she could have been a queen in her own season. In just two been used to store garments and other offerings right. Alongside Puabi lay the bodies of two of months the workers that had long since rotted away. her servants. In addition to her treasures and removed some Inside the burial chamber itself lay the body servants, Puabi was interred with her makeup, 140,000 square feeet of earth anddug of a woman on top of a funeral bier. She was including a silver box that contained kohl, a black down nearly 60 feet. covered with amulets and jewelry made of gold pigment used as eyeliner. and precious stones. Her elaborate headdress When the archaeologists pulled back the was made of 20 gold leaves, lapis lazuli and heavy wooden chest inside the tomb, they carnelian beads, as well as a large golden comb. found a large hole. Amid huge anticipation they Near the body lay a cylinder seal that bore an climbed through and dropped down into a large chamber below. On excavation, the patterns of burial and ritual in this tomb appeared to be Archaeologistsr believe spears and similar to that of the queen’s above. On the ramp leading into the chamber, they axees, not daggers, were Sumerian passed the bodies of six soldiers, laid out in two soldiers’l primary weapons. rows. Inside the chamber itself were two car- riages, each pulled by three oxen, and beside GOLD DAGGER WITH LAPIS LAZULI HANDLE AND SHEATH, FOUND IN UR them the bodies of the carriage drivers. At the back of the chamber the bodies of nine women SCALA, FLORENCE BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE lay, all richly ornamented, with their heads rest- tomb of her husband. Another chamber dubbed WAR, PEACE, ing against the wall. In a gallery running parallel the Great Death Pit, tomb PG1237, contained 74 AND SACRIFICE to the burial chamber were more women, along bodies . Many theorize that these people poi- Known as the with numerous armed soldiers arranged in rows. soned themselves before burial, but some bod- Standard of Ur, this box is held at the Woolley deduced that PG800 and the tomb ies bear evidence of trauma. By the end of the British Museum. It below it, which he called PG789, housed the dig Woolley had enough evidence to describe depicts scenes of bodies of Queen Puabi and her husband, re- in some detail the macabre funeral rites of the peace on one side spectively. The man must have died first and kings and queens of ancient Ur. (above) and war been buried in the lower chamber. Then, when In addition to the 16 royal tombs, Woolley ex- on the other. It was found in a royal tomb his consort Puabi died, it seems that the work- cavated about 600 minor graves, which enabled near the body of a ers who constructed her tomb robbed the one scholars to date the tombs to as early as 2600– sacrificed man. below, concealing the hole they had made with 2300 B.C. In contrast with earlier digs in which the heavy chest. The quantity of treasure un- irreversible damage was often done to sites on covered in these tombs was so great that when the whim of the director, Woolley’s excavations Woolley informed his colleagues of the finds were meticulous. His discoveries had profound by telegram, he did so in Latin, hoping that his repercussions for the way that ancient Mesopo- erudite encryption would keep the secret safe. tamia was, and is, regarded. The complexity of the site, presence of royal figures, and evidence Gruesome Rituals of human sacrifice pointed to a complex political The archaeologists’ discoveries revealed much and religious culture, giving rise to a passionate about royal Sumerian burial rituals. There could debate about life in that remote era. be no doubt that the Sumerians practiced human sacrifice: Twenty-five sacrificed bodies were MANUEL MOLINA MARTOS AN EXPERIENCED ASSYRIOLOGIST, MOLINA IS A RESEARCH PROFESSOR AT found in the tomb of Queen Puabi and 75 in the THE COUNCIL FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH (CSIC) , MADRID, SPAIN.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 39 THE GOLDEN

TREASURES OF BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE PRINT TAKEN FROM A CYLINDER SEAL FOUND ALONGSIDE THE BODY OF QUEEN PUABI PUABI, SHOWING A BANQUET SCENE NEAR THE BODY of the queen were found a number of amulets and three cylinder seals bearing inscriptions. The queen’s tomb—a One of these, made of lapiz lazuli, carried the name rectangular chamber Puabi and her title, nin (queen), thereby allowing measuring 38 feet by 13 feet— archaeologists to identify the body. was buried 26 feet down. A diagram of it, drawn by Woolley, shows a central shaft and the funeral chamber with the body still inside. Woolley interprets the presence of human and BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE animal remains as evidence TWO RAMS CARVED ON A SHELL PLAQUE FROM QUEEN of collective sacrifice made at PUABI’S TOMB the moment of burial. With the tomb crammed with objects of enormous value and exquisite craftsmanship, Woolley and his team could count themselves extremely lucky. Unlike 2 the others at Ur, Puabi’s tomb had lain for well over 4,000 years unmolested by grave robbers.

Gold rosettes

1

Flowers made from lapis lazuli and carnelian

Gold beech and willow leaves

THE BODY OF PUABI was GOLDEN GOBLETS were covered with a cape found in the antechamber fastened over her right near a wooden chest that shoulder and lavishly may have contained the adorned with jewelry queen’s garments. Many made of gold, carnelian, other precious objects and lapiz lazuli. On her were discovered here too: head was a spectacular amulets shaped like lions’ headdress decorated heads, and goblets made with golden flowers, of silver, soapstone, and Gold hoop leaves, and rings. electrum. earrings HEADDRESS OF QUEEN PUABI GOLD GOBLET FOUND BESIDE BRIDGEMAN/ACI THE SACRIFICED BODIES B IHH EUSSCL RENCEE THE CARRIAGE in TWO LYRES DECORATED with Puabi’s tomb was elaborate bulls’ heads were discovered decorated with in the tomb of Queen Puabi. One of precious mosaic inlays the young servants sacrificed beside and adorned with the the queen still had two fingers in place golden heads of lions on one of the instruments. and bulls. It was found GOLD LYRE FROM THE TOMB OF QUEEN along with the remains PUABI IN UR of two oxen and their attendants. SILVER RINGS FROM THE REINS OF THE OXEN, FOUND WITH THE CARRIAGE OF PUABI BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE

SCALALAFA ENEN E

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8 7

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THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE 3 1 Puabi’s body rested on a bier inside the burial chamber alongside 2 the bodies of servants and an array of grave goods. 3 The exterior chamber contained a massive entourage of servants and soldiers who, Woolley theorized, had willingly poisoned themselves. 4 A team of oxen and remains E C NCE NE

of a carriage sat on the floor, while 5 their grooms RE ORE LORE LE

rest nearby. 6 A group of soldiers armed with daggers A,A F AL CA C SCAL SA A/

SOL90 IMAGES guard the tomb, and 7 ten female attendants with EA/ DEA/ DEA elaborate headdresses lay here. 8 Dominating GOLD CHALICE BELONGING the center of the room was a chest that may have TO QUEEN PUABI contained textiles and clothing. GREECE VICTORIOUS Wilhelm von Kaulbach’s 1858 painting depicts the devastation of the mighty Persian navy, as King Xerxes (upper left) helplessly watches from the Attica coast. ERICH LESSING/ALBUM SALVATION AT SAL AMIS

In 480 b.c. things looked bleak for the Greeks, whose outnumbered navy faced a Persian foe near the island of Salamis. Led by Xerxes I, the Persian fleet was poised for victory, but a clever Athenian would trap it in defeat. IN MEMORIAM In ruins today, the Temple of Aphaea on the island of Aegina was built to commemorate the participation of soldiers from the island in the Battle of Salamis in 480 b.c.

FUNKYSTOCK/AGE FOTOSTOCK What shall withstand the torrent of his sway When dreadful o’er the yielding shores, The impetuous tide of battle roars, And sweeps the weak opposing mounds away? So Persia, with resistless might, Rolls her unnumber’d hosts of heroes to the fight.

eschylus’poetic words describe a Empire then marched on into north- massive force of Persian soldiers ern Greece where they set up camp. who threaten to overrun the city- The Persian monarch’s early ef- AstatesofAncientGreece.Theverse forts met with huge success. Many comes from his play The Persians, parts of Greece had already surren- written in 472 b.c., which describes the out- dered or chosen to collaborate with come of a crucial battle in the conflict between the invaders. A few areas—Athens, Persia and Greek city-states. One of the earliest Sparta and Corinth, among others—were still THE DRAMATIST documented naval battles, the Battle of Salamis determined,however,to halt the invasion.Un- OF SALAMIS in 480 b.c. marked a crucial turning point in der the leadership of the Athenian general The- Athenian playwright the Greco-Persian Wars, where the tide literally mistocles,they concentrated their forces at two Aeschylus (above) fought at Salamis, and turned in favor of the Greeks. key points,the Thermopylae pass and the cape later drew on his own In 480 B.C. the Persian king Xerxes I em- of Artemisium. firsthand experiences barked on a mission to conquer Greek lands The relentless Persian advance broke through to write his play The and reverse the humiliating defeat at the Battle both of these points.At the Battle of Thermop- Persians in 472 b.c. of Marathon suffered ten years earlier by his fa- ylae,the Greek army,made up of mostly Spartan ORONOZ/ALBUM ther, Darius I.Since the first decade of the fifth soldiers, was killed down to the last man. After century b.c., the mighty Persian Empire looked to news of the crushing defeat reached Artemi- expand into the Hellenic world, which had been sium, the Greeks abandoned that position and able to rebuff the expansionist efforts. retreated to Salamis, an island off the Greek In the latest Persian campaign, Xerxes mainland near Athens, to regroup. The Persians amassed a tremendous military force and had scored two important victories and were marched it into Europe in mid-480. Aeschy- confident that they could secure another. lus’ description, “unnumber’d hosts of heroes,” Attack on Athens was not an exaggeration: According to the Greek historian Herodotus, some 300,000 Persian sol- The way into central Greece now lay wide open diers crossed the Hellespont, a narrow strait in to Xerxes, who immediately set his sights on modern-day Turkey now called the Dardanelles. Athens. Faced with imminent attack, the city After using an ingenious system of pontoons to was evacuated, leaving only a small contingent cross the strait, the vast armies of the Persian to defend Athens and its temple complex on

480 B.C. June August September October Persia’s King Xerxes I At the end of the month Athens is evacuated as The Persians withdraw to A VERY crosses the Dardanelles, the Persian forces score the Persians advance. Asia. The Greek general BIG YEAR leading his army in a two major victories: one At the end of the month Themistocles is unable rapid advance west into at the Thermopylae Xerxes is lured into the to convince the Spartans the lands of the Greek pass and the other at Salamis Strait, where he to fight on and attempt city-states. Artemisium. suffers a crushing defeat. to block Xerxes’ retreat.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 45 V ATTICA 2 Mount Area enlarged Aegaleo Eleusis Mégara 1 3 Athens ATHENIANS Piraeus ISLAND OF SALAMIS

Salamis 4 Piraeus SPARTANS Kinosoúra Peninsula

ISLAND OF PSYTTALEIA SALAMIS IONIANS s a PHOENICIANS r o n Persian fleet i c approaches from g Phaleron Bay u l f THE TIDE TURNS AT SALAMIS The overconfident Persians believed their superior numbers would easily destroy the smaller Greek fleet. Never suspecting a trap, the Persian navy was devastated by the smaller, faster Greek ships, which struck without mercy. By battle’s end, the shores were strewn with the bodies of Xerxes’ men.

1 A GREAT SHAFT OF LIGHT over Eleusis as day breaks is 3 PHOENICIAN SHIPS, the vanguard of the Persian navy, lack the interpreted by the Greek camp as a divine sign to go into space to maneuver and are affected by the heavy swell caused battle. They chant a hymn of thanksgiving, board their boats, by the winds through the strait. The Greek triremes force them and prepare to repel the attacking Persian fleet. to retreat, which panics the rest of the Persian fleet. ILLUSTRATIONS: SANTI PÉREZ SANTI ILLUSTRATIONS: 2 XERXES LOOKS ON from the foot of Mount Aegaleo as the battle 4 FOLLOWING THE ROUT, a final humiliation is dealt by the Greeks rages. Some Phoenician captains who fled the scene blame the and their allies, who, after destroying Xerxes’ fleet, surround Ionian ships within the Persian fleet. But Xerxes accuses them the tiny island of Psyttaleia to finish off the Persian soldiers of cowardice and orders their decapitation. encamped there. the Acropolis. When the Persian forces arrived, allies would not commit to fighting at Salamis, however, the garrison was powerless to stop Themistocles would convince his fellow Athe- them. Xerxes quickly took control of the city, nians to abandon Greece and settle in southern sacking it completely. Those who had stayed Italy instead, leaving the remaining Greeks to behind were massacred, and the temples of the face the Persian invaders alone. Eurybiades fi- Acropolis were burned to the ground. nally agreed to stay and fight. It was a desperate moment. Athens and the Meanwhile, the Persian fleet had already surrounding area of Attica were occupied by the taken the coast of Attica and was now pre- invaders. Many Greek cities were already coop- paring to bring its campaign to a victori- erating with the Persians in order to save them- ous conclusion. Xerxes’ admirals had every selves. The Greek alliance had just one last hope cause to feel huge optimism: They knew of salvation: its naval fleet at Salamis. that their own fleet was vastly bigger than that of the Greeks, and that their enemy Decisions, Decisions was demoralized and weakened by inter- Salamis is an island to the southwest of Ath- nal disputes. ens. On its eastern side, the island forms a nar- row strait with the Attica shoreline, providing a Setting the Trap natural haven for the Greek vessels. After evac- On the Persian side, however, there were uation from Athens, most Athenians had de- also arguments over strategy. Herodo- camped to this island too. It was a perfect spot tus reports that Queen Artemisia I of Caria (in A CUNNING for the Greeks to plan their next move. modern -day western Turkey) commanded ships WARRIOR Representatives of the 20 or so city-states in the Persian fleet and proposed blockading the The strategic committed to resist the Persians, however, did Greeks at Salamis. She suggested occupying the planning and astute not agree on which strategy to follow. The Spar- narrow exits into the open sea to the east and decision-making of the Athenian tans argued for retreating immediately, in or- west of the strait. The Persians would lie in wait general Themistocles der to focus on defending the Corinth isthmus. while the Greeks’ desperation and lack of provi- (above) were key This was the thin bridge of land linking mainland sions drove them to surrender. factors in the Greeks’ Greece with the Peloponnesus peninsula to the It was a sound idea, but Xerxes was eager to unexpected naval victory. south, the only part of Greek territory which wage battle immediately. Herodotus relates that ORONOZ/ALBUM had not yet succumbed to the relentless Persian Xerxes’ impatience was the result of a clever advance. Anticipating this threat, the Spartans trap laid for him by Themistocles. The astute had already begun to construct a five-mile-long Athenian general allegedly sent a false traitor defensive wall there. to Xerxes with a message that the Greeks were The delegates from Athens, Aegina, and getting ready to flee at first light the next day. Megarus, however, argued for staying to face It is uncertain if Herodotus’s story of the false the Persians at Salamis. Familiar with its waters, messenger is true or invented, but Xerxes did they considered the strait would be the ideal site order a contingent of ground troops, some 400 for a naval battle. Their strategy was based partly men, to disembark for the deserted, tiny island on subterfuge. In the narrow waters of the strait, of Psyttaleia at the entrance to the Salamis Strait. and unlike on the open sea, the Greeks could They were to finish off any Greek survivors of disguise the fact that they were vastly outnum- the impending battle who might try to seek ref- bered. According to Aeschylus, the Greeks had uge there. Xerxes also commanded part of his only 310 vessels while the Persians had 1,207 fleet to maneuver into position at the mouth ships, which included Ionian, Phoenician, and of the narrow western strait to block passage to Cypriot vessels, as well as some originating from open waters. The bulk of the fleet was stationed the coasts of Asia Minor. opposite on the wider eastern side. The Greeks The Athenian leader Themistocles was clear found themselves surrounded by Persian vessels in his support for the plan to stay and fight. Faced and with their only escape route barred. When with opposition from the Spartan commander Themistocles was informed of these move- Eurybiades, he laid down an ultimatum: If their ments, he couldn’t contain his delight.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 47 DIRE STRAIT In 480 b.c. the Greeks trapped Persia’s navy in the narrow waterway between Salamis and the mainland. Streaming to and from the port of Piraeus (bottom), container ships still navigate a part of the Aegean that has bustled with trade since antiquity. MICHAL KRAKOWIAK/GETTY IMAGES

A NEW HIGH The Persians destroyed many temples when they sacked Athens. Forty years later, an enduring symbol of Athenian greatness, the Parthenon, would rise to crown the Acropolis. FUNKYSTOCK/AGE FOTOSTOCK Themistocles’ tactics were astute. He want- Sources say that the Greeks sank ed to make the Persians believe that their im- about 300 Persian vessels while posing armada had thrown the Greeks into a losing only about 40 of their own. panic. This misperception would lure Xerxes’ King Xerxes, meanwhile, fleet into the narrow strait. And this plan worked. looked on from a promontory at As the Persians sailed forward, the Greeks rowed the foot of Mount Aegaleo near back deeper into the strait, creating an illusion of the Attica coast as the battle raged. retreat. The heavy Persian vessels followed until From there he had a panoramic view they found themselves well within the narrow of the disaster unfolding in the strait. confines of the strait. Then the trap was sprung. Aeschylus described Xerxes’ reaction to the devastation of his fleet: A Dramatic Battle LIVELY AND No known Persian accounts of the battle have Deep were the groans of Xerxes when he saw QUICK survived, so reports all come from the Greek This havoc; for his seat, a lofty mound This fifth-century side. When the Persian ships were in place, the Commanding the wide sea, o’erlook’d his hosts. b.c. brooch depicts Greeks gave a great battle cry. Aeschylus, who With rueful cries he rent his royal robes, a trireme, a light, nimble ship used himself had fought at Salamis, re-creates this And through his troops embattled on the shore by the Greeks. Its first moment of the battle in The Persians: Gave signal of retreat maneuverability gave Athens a huge At once from ev’ry Greek with glad acclaim The outcome of this brief, confused naval advantage over the heavier, slower Burst forth the song of war, whose lofty notes battle would have a massive impact on both the Persian ships. The echo of the island rocks return’d, winners and losers. Greece would begin to re- AKG/ALBUM Spreading dismay through Persia’s hosts build and soon would enter a golden age after the Hellenic lands had been protected. In just Aeschylus continues his description of the battle 40 years, the Parthenon would be built atop as it descended into chaos: the Acropolis, becoming a marvel for the ages. Although the Greco-Persian Wars rumbled on But their throng’d numbers, in the narrow seas for many years afterward, the Persians never Confined, want room for action; and, deprived again presented a serious threat to Athens. Of mutual aid, beaks clash with beaks, and each Xerxes’ future would not be as bright. With Breaks all the other’s oars no navy to support them, his forces retreated back into Asia. Aeschylus’ dramatization of the The Persians had committed a fatal error by impact is bleak, at best: fighting in a space chosen by the enemy. The strait was much too narrow for them to deploy Woe to the towns through Asia’s peopled realms! their vessels properly. The wind, blowing from Woe to the land of Persia, once the port the south, created a swell that surged into the Of boundless wealth, how is thy glorious state strait and further complicated their attempts to Vanish’d at once, and all thy spreading honors maneuver. The Greeks, familiar with the condi- Fall’n, lost! tions and with the waters, took advantage of the Persians’ disorientation, and went for the kill: After the defeat at Salamis, Xerxes’s empire be- gan to decline. The demands of war as well as The Grecian navy circled them around massive building projects at home caused too With fierce assault; and rushing from its much financial strain for the Persians to endure. height The army and navy could not be rebuilt. Xerxes The inverted vessel sinks: the sea no more withdrew to Persia,ruling for 15 more years until Wears its accustomed aspect, with foul his assassination in 465 b.c. wrecks And blood disfigured; floating carcasses FRANCISCO JAVIER GÓMEZ ESPELOSÍN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALCALÁ, SPAIN, GÓMEZ IS THE Roll on the rocky shores AUTHOR OF NUMEROUS BOOKS ON ANCIENT GREECE AND ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 51 THEN FALL, CAESAR! Daggers aloft, the conspirators proclaim their bloody deed, leaving Caesar’s dead body sprawled in the foreground. Oil painting by Jean-Léon Gerôme, 1867 BRIDGEMAN/ACI DEATH OF THE REPUBLIC ROME AF TER CAESAR

Julius Caesar’s assassins sought to save the republic from tyranny, but achieved the opposite: the rapid centralization of power and Rome’s transformation into empire. Romans Play for Power January 14, 44 b.c. Emerging as the victor in the civil war against Pompey and his sons, Julius Caesar is appointed consul and dictator for the fifth time. February 14, 44 b.c. Caesar is appointed perpetual dictator by the Senate, a decision that confirms fears among his enemies that Caesar has tyrannical aspirations. March 15, 44 b.c. Caesar attends a meeting in the Theater of Pompey where he is stabbed to death by a group of senators led by Cassius and Brutus. March 17, 44 b.c. All of Caesar’s actions while in government are approved by JULIUS REX? he Ides of March, March 15, is per- the Senate, and Mark Antony A 17th-century haps the most infamous date on the persuades Brutus to give statue of Julius Roman calendar. On that day, in 44 Caesar a state funeral. Caesar appears B.C., the Roman Senate was set to regal (below), but T meet at the curia in the Theater of b.c. in life he did not March 20, 44 Pompey in the presence of Julius Caesar, the re- Julius Caesar’s body is carried want to be called a monarch: “My cently appointed perpetual dictator of Rome. It to the Forum, where Mark name is Caesar, not Antony gives a speech that was the moment Marcus Brutus, Gaius Cas- King.” Nonetheless, sius, and a large group of other senators and inflames the passions of the his thirst for power people against the assa alarmedldt senators. ppatricians were waiting for. The great general, wwho had expanded Roman rule and crushed his November 27, 433 b.c. enemies at home, had become, in their view, a Caesar’s great-nephew tyyrant. That morning, on the pretense of greet- Octavian, Mark Antony, inng him, the conspirators surrounded the seated Lepidus establish the Se fiigure of their leader, and when the signal was Triumvirate, dividing con given, started to stab him. Caesar, realizing it was Rome between them. fuutile to resist, covered his head with his toga. October 23, 42 b.c. AccordingA to his later biographer, Suetonius, he died without uttering a single cry. Cassius and Brutus are d and killed by Octavian an Rarely, if ever, has the death of one man affect- Antony’s army at the Ba tl ed the course of history as much as the violent of Philippi. Octavian carr end of Gaius Julius Caesar. The power struggle Brutus’s head back to Ro . thhat followed would, over time, lead to the very outcome that the conspirators had sought to WHITE IMAGES/SCALA, FLORENCE

54 MAY/JUNE 2016 THE POWER OF SPEECH Staging Caesar’s funeral in the Forum, Mark Antony channeled the mourning ritual into a political event. The ceremony was held near the Arch of Septimius Severus (left). In the foreground are the ruins of the Temple of Caesar, later built by Emperor Augustus. RICCARDO AUCI/VISIVALAB

avoid: a concentration of power in the hands decisiveness would return Rome to greatness. of Caesar’s descendants, and the transition of CONSPIRATOR But to avowed republicans, such as Brutus and COIN Rome from a republic to an empire, whose ad- the other conspirators,this goal smacked of tyr- ministration, culture, and language left a lasting Brutus had coins anny and dangerous ambition. b.c. impact on the modern world. minted in 42 Historians rely on several sources for the as- to commemorate the assassination sassination and its aftermath. These include Strongman or Savior of Caesar. One side the Roman historian Plutarch, whose account Long before that fateful March day, the old Ro- shows a freedman’s inspired William Shakespeare’s play Julius Cae- man system of government had been under cap flanked by two sar.Plutarchreportsthat,followingthestabbing, daggers. The words mounting strain. Rejecting monarchy, and gov- below, EID MAR, Brutus went through the curia trying to whip up erned by its aristocracy since the sixth century are Latin for “Ides of support from among the other senators there. B.C., the Roman Republic was already dominat- March,” the date of But they had all fled in terror, fearing—under- ing the Mediterranean world 200 yearss before CaesarCaesar’s s death. standstandably—they were also about to be killed. Caesar’s birth. Ever more powerful,itsge g nerals Thhe “liberators,”as they called themselves, began to fight one another for political suuprem- then went to the Capitol, shaking their fists acy, culminating in the destructive civill wars as theyt walked, urging the citizens of Rome between Caesar himself and Pompeyth t e “to embrace their freedom.”The populace, Great. Riven by military and aristocratiic however,gripped by fear,had deserted the infighting, slave revolts and piracy, thee streets. Some senators joined the con- republic, in Caesar’s lifetime, had be-- spirators at the Capitol and urged them to come increasingly unstable. go to the Forum to try and impose some Having emerged as Rome’s strongmann control over the city. Brutus did just that. in 45 B.C., Caesar was determined to use Speaking from the Rostra, he tried to con- his power to impose order. To some, thhis viince the people that his actions had been

BR ITI NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 55 SH M CE USEUM/SCALA, FLOREN SCENE OF THE CRIME Rome’s modern-day square of Largo di Torre Argentina contains the ruins of several ancient monuments, including the Theater of Pompey, where Caesar was stabbed to death in 44 b.c. MANUEL COHEN/ART ARCHIVE

A FAILED CONSPIRACY

CICERO REFLECTS justified. The crowd, subdued at first, listened calmly. But when another conspirator began n a letter he wrote to his friend Atticus just two months leveling accusations against the dead Caesar, after Caesar’s death, the lawyer and politician Marcus the massed crowd started to seethe with anger. Tullius Cicero condemned the disastrous Ides of March Fearing a violent reaction by the people, the con- I conspiracy. The “liberators,” he wrote, acted “with the spirators thought it more prudent to withdraw courage of true men but the brains of children.” Not only to Capitoline Hill, where they remained hidden was it poorly planned, but the assassination had probably throughout the night. been unnecessary: After all, it was unlikely Caesar would Meanwhile, Caesar’s followers were taking have returned from his next of the republic, what Brutus up positions. As the supreme commander of ambitious campaign in the and his friends were actually the cavalry, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus imposed eastern Mediterranean. All proposing was a political a military occupation of the Forum, at the foot Brutus and his band had to do system that preserved the of the hill where Caesar’s killers had retreated. was let him die abroad. Cicero privileges of a few families of He was joined by a young soldier who would also took aim at the rebels’ ancient lineage. In contrast, prove to be a key player in the political endgame lack of political realism. It was Caesar had used his personal that unfolded: Mark Antony, Caesar’s faithful only once they had killed the power to bring about reforms companion during the civil war against Pompey. dictator that they discovered that benefited the lower that Rome’s people were classes, believing that the The Man of the Moment not behind them. That lack advantages of his autocratic On hearing of Caesar’s death, Mark Antony had of public enthusiasm was government would matter disguised himself as a slave and taken refuge in unsurprising. For all their talk more than the nostalgic ideals the home of friends. But when he saw the con- of freedom and restoration of Rome’s republican past. spirators hesitate, he realized there was still a good deal at stake. He knew he lacked Caesar’s

56 MAY/JUNE 2016 BLOODY SPECTACLE AT THE PUBLIC FUNERAL, MARK ANTONY DISPLAYS CAESAR’S TORN, BLOODSTAINED TOGA TO THE MOURNERS. OIL PAINTING BY JOSEPH COURT, 1827 WHITE IMAGES/SCALA, FLORENCE WHITE IMAGES/SCALA, prestige and commanded no personal military wheretheirpersonalsafetywouldbeguaranteed. power. He could, however, set himself up as the “A SHREWD On the surface, all was conciliatory. Mark CONTRIVER” guarantor of civil peace in a city that had been Antony and Lepidus even sent their children rocked by internal conflict for decades. He had Shakespeare’s to the Capitol as hostages, and invited Cassius description of Mark youth on his side, too, and most important of Antony, depicted and Brutus to dinner. All this was, however, a all, a strong financial motive: His role as politi- on this coin from cunning diversionary tactic, as Mark Antony cal leader could fund his extravagant lifestyle. the British Museum, was determined to eliminate the conspirators. On March 17 Mark Antony called together the reflects his mastery He had an ace up his sleeve,a way of winning the of duplicity. Having Senate to discuss what to do next. The senators won the assassins’ peopleoverto his side that wouldprove decisive. were deeply divided. Many sympathized with trust, he turned the And he played it at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus’s aversion to dictatorship and welcomed populace against a return to constitutional government. At the them, and seized The Body and the Speech same time, however, they realized that labeling power for himself. During the edgy, confused days following the Caesar a tyrant could result in the negation of assassination,Caesar’s remains took on unan- everything positive he had done while in power, ticipated political significance.Had the con- further destabilizing Rome’s huge territorial spirators thrown the dictator’s body into possessions. Of more immediate, personal theTiberRiveraftertheymurderedhim— concern: Revoking all Caesar had done as they had planned—events might have could undermine their own positions ended differently.They had left it,how- and incomes. ever, in the atrium of the curia, at the Mark Antony brokered a compro- foot of Pompey’s statue. Once three of mise. The conspirators would not be the dead man’s slaves had come to re- prosecuted. In fact, some of them would trieve it,the prospect of a funeral became be appointed governors of eastern provinces, inevitable. Caesar’s father-in-law, Lucius

BR ITI SH M CE USEUM/SCALA, FLOREN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 57 ENDGAME AT PHILIPPI This 16th-century tapestry depicts two battles, fought one after the other, near the Thracian city of Philippi in October 42 b.c., when Cassius and Brutus were defeated by Mark Antony and Octavian. ORONOZ/ALBUM

THE END OF BRUTUS

AFATALFALL Calpurnius Piso, demanded that full honors should be afforded the dead ruler, in keeping hree years after the plot, nearly all of Caesar’s with his position as Pontifex Maximus. The assassins were dead. Accused of treason, all died conspirators, however, wanted him buried in T in exile, some in battle and others as victims of the secret without honors, as befitted a tyrant. proscriptions ordered by the second triumvirate It was at this critical moment that Mark Anto- of Mark Antony, Octavian, and Lepidus. The most famous ny’s persuasive gifts came into play. Arguing that member of the conspiracy, Marcus Brutus, had been educated a low-key ceremony could provoke the people according to the most demanding of republican virtues, and to anger, the ambitious soldier managed to per- claimed he had risen up did, such as the Roman suade Brutus to hold a public funeral. It was a against Caesar because he statesman and scholar Cicero. mistake for which the chief of the conspirators loved Rome more than the “Our ancestors did not accept would pay dearly. dictator, whose enterprises even their own fathers as their The funeral Mark Antony set about arrang- and plans would, he masters,” he wrote. He set ing was spectacular. The dictator’s body was declared, end up sail for Greece, continuing placed in a marble casket covered in purple and ruining his homeland. to resist until the Battle of gold, which was displayed for several days in the He fled from Rome Philippi in 42 b.c. When he Campus Martius on a sumptuous marble and after Caesar’s saw he had been defeated gold bier. Theatrical and music events were held funeral and refused by the forces of Mark Antony around it to commemorate the deceased’s epic to compromise with and Octavian, he fell on his achievements. Rome’s new rulers. sword, committing suicide On March 20 Caesar’s casket was carried to He criticized in a way he deemed worthy the Forum on the shoulders of a large group of those who of his ideals of Roman valor. magistrates. They placed it in front of the Ros- tra where Mark Antony gave the eulogy. Mark MARCUS BRUTUS BUST BY MICHELANGELO ART ARCHIVE LUIS PADILLA/VISIVALAB

Antony first ordered a herald to shout out the Later, on the lighting of the pyre, the people FROM GENERAL honors that the senators had granted Caesar, as tore down the magistrates’ benches and used TO A GOD well as the oath they had all made to protect his them as firewood. The collective sorrow soon Dedicated by life. He then gave a speech designed as much to turned to blind anger.The mob marched on the Octavian in 29 b.c. on the site of move his listeners to sympathy for Caesar and conspirators’homes,crying“Kill the murderers,” Caesar’s cremation to stir up feelings against the murderers. Picking bearing brands taken from the funeral pyre itself, in the Forum, the up the cloth covering the casket, he revealed it as and forcing the killers to flee Rome. Temple of Caesar the toga Caesar had been wearing when he was The conspiracy against Caesar had not further consolidated struck down. The garment was ripped where the only failed but spectacularly backfired. Mark Octavian’s image as a ruler from a powerful, killers’ knives had pierced it and stained with Antony’s ambitions would ultimately compel now divine, dynasty. blood. “Fellow citizens have brought death to a him toward a devastating conflict with Octavian, man no outside enemy could kill,” he cried to the Caesar’s heir and great-nephew who would now restive crowd. defeat Antony and go on to establish the Roman Empire. Caesar’s power and system of Inciting the Masses government lived on in Octavian, known after Julius Caesar had written his will just six months 27 B.C. as the emperor Augustus. Through a earlier. In an act of shrewd demagoguery, Mark mixture of statesmanship, ruthlessness, and Antony revealed its contents as part of his ora- politicalgenius,Augustuswouldbuildanempire tion: The dictator had left the city his splendid stretching from Portugal to Babylon and usher in gardens on the banks of the Tiber and gave every the Pax Romana, an era of peace and prosperity citizen a gift of 300 sesterces. Sorrow swept the lasting for almost two centuries. crowd, followed by indignation when they heard that the heirs named in Caesar’s will included JUAN PABLO SÁNCHEZ AN EXPERT ON GREECE IN THE ROMAN PERIOD, SÁNCHEZ IS VISITING PROFESSOR AT one of the conspirators. THE NORTHEAST NORMAL UNIVERSITY, CHANGCHUN, CHINA.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 59 FUNERAL IN THE FORUM: ROME

CASTOR AND POLLUX BASILICA JULIA This temple to the divine Built on the site of the twins was originally built Basilica Sempronia, in the sixth century b.c., Caesar started and later restored in the construction in 54 b.c. first century b.c. It was completed by Augustus.

FUNERAL PYRE On the spot where Julius Caesar was cremated, his heir Octavian, later Emperor Augustus, had the Temple of Caesar built in 29 b.c. MOURNS FOR CAESAR

ROSTRA Orators addressed the people from here, named for the prows (rostra) taken from enemy ships, and which decorated the front of the stage.

LACUS CURTIUS A mysterious pit at the center of the Forum, and the source of many Roman legends.

BASILICA AEMILIA Built in 179 b.c. and restored several times by the Aemilia family, it was used to house money changers’ offices. CURIA JULIA Construction of this new Senate House was started by Caesar to replace the former Curia Cornelia. Augustus completed it in 29 b.c. JEAN-CLAUDE GOLVIN. MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL ARLES ANTIQUE. © ÉDITIONS ERRANCE MUSÉE DÉPARTEMENTAL GOLVIN. JEAN-CLAUDE THE SPANISH SIEGE This 18th-century oil painting, part of the Conquest of Mexico series at the Library of Congress, shows Hernán Cortés poised at the gates of the capital of the Aztec Empire. EILEEN TWEEDY/ART ARCHIVE In 1521 Hernán Cortés attacked the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, to seize Mexico for Spain. The Aztec had superior numbers, but inferior technology and vulnerability to foreign diseases doomed their empire. HERNÁN CORTÉS reaches Veracruz, where he scuttles he first reference to the New his ships. He that broke out among the Spaniards, for- World was made in 1503 by the crosses Mexico ever vying to enlarge their estates or snag Italian explorer and financier and enters lucrative administrative positions. Amerigo Vespucci—for whom Tenochtitlan for In 1518 Velázquez appointed his secretary T the first time. the entire continent of America to lead an expedition to Mexico. Cortés—as was later named.The sheer scale of the“new” Velázquez was to discover to his cost—was landmass became further apparent to Euro- FACING an Aztec set on becoming a leader rather than a loy- peans in the course of the expedition led by revolt, the Spanish al follower. He set off for the coast of the flee Tenochtitlan Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who in 1513 crossed during the Night Yucatán Peninsula in February 1519 with 11 Central America to reach the Pacific. of Sorrows. They ships,about100sailors,500soldiers, and 16 Atfirst,colonizationbytheburgeoningnew regroup to defeat horses. Over the following months Cortés world power, Spain, was centered on the is- the Aztec at the would take matters into his own hands, dis- landsoftheCaribbean,withlittlecontactwith Battle of Otumba. obey the governor’s orders, and turn what the complex, indigenous civilizations on the hadbeenintendedtobeanexploratory mis- mainland.It was not long,however,before the HAVING LAID siege sion into a historic military conquest. lure of wealth spurred Spain’s adventurers be- to Tenochtitlan, yond exploration and into a phase of conquest the city falls A World Ends that would lay the foundations of the modern to Cortés at To the Aztec, 1519 was a year that began world.Whole swaths of the Americas rapidly last. He takes with their empire as the uncontested power Aztec emperor fell to the Spanish crown, a transformation in the region. Its capital city, Tenochtitlan, Cuauhtémoc begun by the ruthless conqueror of the Aztec as his prisoner. ruled 400 to 500 small states with a total Empire, Hernán Cortés. population of five to six million. The for- Like other conquistadores of the early 16th tunes of the kingdom of Moctezuma, how- FACING charges century,Cortés had already gained consider- ever,weredoomedtoaswiftand spectacular of negligence, able experience by living in the New World Cortés travels to decline once Cortés and his men disem- before embarking on his exploits. Born to Spain. After being barked on the Mexican coast. modest lower nobility in the Spanish city of appointed marquis Having rapidly imposed control over Medellín in 1485,Cortés stood out at an early by the king, he the indigenous population in the coastal age for his intelligence and his restless spirit returns to the New region, Cortés was given 20 slaves by a lo- World in 1530. of adventure inspired by the recent voyages cal chieftain.One of them,a young woman, of Christopher Columbus. couldspeakseverallocallanguages and soon BACK IN Spain, In 1504—as Vespucci’s New World pam- Cortés tries to learned Spanish too. Her linguistic skills phletwascirculatingthroughEurope—Cortés return to the would prove crucial to Cortés’s invasion left Spain for the island of Hispaniola (today, Indies one last plans, and she became his interpreter as home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti), time. Suffering well as his concubine. She soon came to be where he rose through the ranks of the fledg- 1540–47from poor health, 1528 known as Malinche, 1521 or Doña Marina. 1520 The 1519 he dies in 1547. ling colonial administration.In 1511 he joined conquistador had a son with her, Martín, an expedition to conquer Cuba,where he was ERICH LESSING/ALBUM whoisoftenregardedasthefirst ever mesti- appointed secretary to the island's first co- zo—apersonofmixedEuropean and Amer- lonial governor, Diego Velázquez. ican Indian ancestry. During these years, Cortés developed The news of the foreigners’ arrival soon the skills that would stand him in good reached the Aztec emperor,Moctezuma, in stead in his short, turbulent career as Tenochtitlan. To appease the Spaniards, he sent aconquistador.Hegainedvaluablein- envoys and gifts to Cortés, but he only succeed- sights into the organization of the is- ed in inflaming Cortés’s desires for more Aztec lands’ indigenous peoples and proved riches. Cortés MOSAIC MASK OF TURQUOISE an adept arbiter in the AND LIGNITE COVERS A HUMAN once described continual squabbles SKULL AND REPRESENTS AN the land near AZTEC GOD, TEZCATLIPOCA.

64 MAY/JUNE 2016 The Women in Cortés’s Life

Veracruz, the city he founded on the coast of the According to the chronicler Francisco López de Gulf of Mexico, as rich as the mythical land where Gómara, Cortés had a fondness for the ladies; he was “very King Solomon obtained his gold. As a mark of his given to women and always gave into temptation.” His biogra- ruthlessness, and to quash any misgivings his crew phy abounds in romantic entanglements. In 1504, for instance, may have had in disobeying the orders of Governor he was unable to leave for the Indies because of the injuries he Velázquez, Cortés ordered the destruction of the suffered after falling off a wall during a romantic tryst. Through- fleet he had sailed with from Cuba. There was now out his career, Cortés's eventful and colorful personal life no turning back. revealed a manipulative other infidelities, but her death Cortés had a talent for observing and manip- streak. In 1514 he wooed a ended the marriage. She was ulating local political rivalries. On the way to young Spanish woman named found dead in her own bed un- Tenochtitlan, the Spaniards gained the support Catalina Suárez, a relative of der mysterious circumstances of the Totonac peoples from the city of Cempo- Governor Diego Velázquez. in 1522. Cortés was suspected ala, who hoped to be freed from the Aztec yoke. Cortés might have been more of her murder, but the charges Following a military victory over another native interested in her family's con- against him were dropped. people, the Tlaxcaltec, Cortés incorporated more nections and power than in her Cortés then took as a consort warriors into his army. Knowledge of the divisions heart. After a prolonged court- Princess Isabel Moctezuma, among different native peoples, and an unerring ship, the two married, and the Aztec emperor's daughter. ability to exploit them, was central to Cortés’s Cortés received a promotion. She and Cortés had a daugh- strategy. But Cortés would not prove ter, but he later abandoned The Aztec had allies too, however, and Cortés faithful, especially after the them. In 1529 Cortés took a was especially belligerent toward them. The holy conquest of Mexico. Malinche, Spanish noblewoman, Juana city of Cholula, which joined with Moctezuma in an Aztec woman who served de Zúñiga, as his bride and be- an attempt to stall the Spaniards, was sacked for as his interpreter, also became came a marquis, securing both two days at Cortés’s command. After a grueling his lover. She bore him a son. a high social status and a battle lasting more than five hours, as many as Catalina endured this and rather lecherous reputation. 6,000 of its people were killed. Cortés’s forces seemed invincible. In the face of their unstoppable advance, Moctezuma stalled for time, allowing the Spaniards and their allies to enter Tenochtitlan unopposed in November 1519.

Fighting on Two Fronts Fear gripped the huge Aztec capital on Cortés’s entry, the chroniclers wrote: Its 250,000 inhabi- tants put up no resistance to Cortés’s small force of a few hundred men and 1,000 Tlaxcaltec allies. At first Moctezuma formally received Cortés. Seeing the value of the emperor as a captive, Cortés seized him and guaranteed his power over the city. Establishing a pattern that would recur through- out his career, Cortés soon found himself as much at threat from his own compatriots as from the peoples he was trying to subdue. At the beginning of 1520 he was forced to leave Tenochtitlan to deal MALINCHE AND CORTÉS IN with a punitive expedition sent from Cuba by the MURALS DEPICTING MEXICAN HISTORY PAINTED BY DIEGO enraged Diego Velázquez. In his absence, Cortés RIVERA, IN PALACIO NACIONAL, left Tenochtitlan under the command of Pedro de MEXICO CITY Alvarado and a garrison of 80 Spaniards. ORONOZ/ALBUM A smallpox epidemic prevented the Aztec from finishing off the THE PATH defeated Spanish army. It gave Cortés enough time to regroup. In 1519 Hernán Cortés’s forces struck

ICHIMEGA CH

Lake The hotheaded Alvarado lacked Cortes’s skill Coyotepec Zumpango and diplomacy. During Cortes’s absence, Alvara- Teoloyucan Lake do’s execution of many Aztec chiefs enraged the Xaltocan Otumba people. After defeating Velázquez’s forces, Cortés Cuautitlán Teotihuacan ME returned to Tenochtitlan on June 24, 1520, to find XICA the city in revolt against his proxy. For several days, Tlalnepantla the Spaniards vainly used Moctezuma in an at- 3 Lake Texcoco 4 Texcoco O F tempt to calm tempers, but his people pelted the Tlacopan TENOCHTITLAN puppet king with stones. Moctezuma died a few Popotla M days later, but his successors would fare no better Xoloc than he did. Chapultepec Iztapalapa On June 30, 1520, the Spanish fled the city un- Coyoacán der fire, suffering hundreds of casualties. Some Lake Lake Xochimilco Spaniards died by drowning in the surrounding Chalco marshes, weighed down by the vast amounts of Iztaccíhuatl treasure they were trying to carry off. The event Ayotzingo Passof Cortés would come to be known as the Night of Sorrows. Amecameca Ixcalpan A smallpox epidemic prevented the Aztec forces Popocatépetl from finishing off Cortés’s defeated and demor- alized army. The outbreak weakened the Aztec while giving Cortés time to regroup. Spain would 1 win the Battle of Otumba a few days later. Skillful deployment of cavalry against the elite Aztec jag- THE TLAXCALA uar and eagle warriors carried the day for the Eu- ALLIANCE ropeans and their allies. “Our only security, apart Marching toward Tenochtitlan,Cortés as- from God,” Cortés wrote, “is our horses.” sumed he had an alliance with the people of Victory allowed the Spaniards to rejoin with Tlaxcala, who were an enemy of the Aztec. their Tlaxcaltec allies and launch the recapture However, the Tlaxcaltec fought the Span- of Tenochtitlan. Waves of attacks were launched EmperorE ish forces in a fierce, three-day battle after on settlements near the Aztec capital. Any resis- Moctezuma which the Tlaxcaltec decided to negotiate tance was brutally crushed: Many indigenous en- Hernán Cortés took him with Cortés. Xicoténcatl, Lord of Tlaxcala, emies were captured as slaves and some were even prisoner when he entered agreed to deal with him, as branded following their capture. The sacking also Tenochtitlan.In June 1520 his god had prophesied that Cortés forced Moctezuma “men would come from far- allowed the Spaniards to build up their large per- to speak to his subjects but sonal retinues, taking captives to use as servants they stoned him. He died off lands from the direction and slaves, and kidnapping others for exchanges e days later, in which the sun rises to rule and ransoms. Growing in number to roughly 3,000 t paniards fl . over them.” He offered the people, this group of captives vastly outnumbered Spaniards 300 women, and the fighting Spaniards. Cortés gave them textiles and salt. Later, the Tlax- Complete Devastation caltec military assistance ultimately helped Cortés top- For an assault on a city the size of Tenochtitlan, ple the Aztec Empire in 1521. the number of Spanish troops seemed paltry—just CORTÉS AND MALINCHE PARLEY WITH A under 1,000 soldiers, including harquebusiers, TLAXCALTEC. ILLUSTRATION FROM HISTORY infantry, and cavalry. However, Cortés knew that OF TLAXCALA CODEX

66 MAY/JUNE 2016 TO TENOCHTITLAN into the Mexican interior seeking pture Tenochtitlan, capital of the empire.

Area enlarged GULF Havana OF MEXICO Mexico City (Tenochtitlan) N COZUMEL ISLAND SULA

CARIBBEAN SEA

P A C Present-day names shown (Original location of I F I C O C E A N “Villa Rica de la Zautla VeraCruz” Ixtacamaxtitlan in 1519)

Xalapa GULF uhcammppatépetl OF Cempoala MEXICO Tzompantzinco Tecoac Xico Veracruz (relocated here ) xhuacu án in 1599 Tlaxcala 1 e losReyyes rst route to Tenochtitlan pril to November 1519) A panish retreat following Night TLAXCALTEC f Sorrows (Summer 1520) econd route to Tenochtitlan Late 1520 to August 1521) Cholula 2 MAP: EOSGIS.COM

234 THE CHOLULA THE NIGHT THE FALL OF MASSACRE OF SORROWS TENOCHTITLAN On leaving Tlaxcala, Cortés wanted to take In June 1520 Cortés and his men (includ- Having regrouped, Cortés planned to cap- Cholula, a city allied with Tenochtitlan. The ing the Tlaxcaltec) were besieged by the ture Tenochtitlan. Two months into the Cholulteca let the Spaniards stay in their Aztec in their barracks in Tenochtitlan. siege, hunger ravaged the city's defend- city but secretly planned to attack them. On the night of June 30, they retreated in ers while Spanish cavalry and Tlaxcaltec When Cortés discovered the plot, he sum- heavy rain, using a mobile bridge to cross warriors killed hundreds of enemies every moned the city nobles to the courtyard of the canals that cut across the road—but day. Cortés later wrote, on entering the the Temple of Quetzalcoátl and warned they were spotted, reportedly by a wom- city: "We found many piles of bodies in them that in Spain the pun- an, who cried: “Captains, Mexicans, our the streets; one could not help ishment for traitors enemies are leaving! Go and chase them.” but step on them.” was death. Then his Hundreds of canoes came after them. Cuauhtémoc, the soldiers fired their Many Spaniards drowned young Aztec em- harquebuses at the in the canal and oth- peror, was unable to assembled nobles. ers were captured mount an effective From there, the vio- to be sacrificed. Up defense, and was lence spiraled. Some to 600 Spaniards captured. At first sources speak of as died in what was Cortés spared many as two, four, the worst Spanish his life, but he or even six thousand disaster in the con- had him killed dead in total. quest of Mexico. three years later. SPANISH SOLDIERS ATTACKING AZTEC CAPTURE A SPANIARD THE SURRENDER OF THE NOBLES IN CHOLULA ON THE NIGHT OF SORROWS. CUAUHTÉMOC TO CORTÉS (HISTORY OF TLAXCALA) (HISTORY OF TLAXCALA) (HISTORY OF TLAXCALA)

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: ART ARCHIVE; AKG/ALBUM; PRISMA; AKG/ALBUM; AKG/ALBUM PUTTING ON A SHOW Part of the Conquest of Mexico series at the Library of Congress, this painting depicts Aztec ambassadors observing maneuvers by Cortés’s troops at Veracruz, a gesture combining diplomacy with an intimidating display of strength. ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

The siege of Tenochtitlan was not a given. During fighting in July 1521, the Aztec even managed to capture Cortés himself.

his superior weaponry, coupled with the addition- al 50,000 warriors provided by his indigenous allies, would conquer the city, which was already weakened from starvation and thirst. In May 1521 the Spaniards had cut off the city’s water supply by taking control of the Chapultepec aqueduct. Even so, the siege of Tenochtitlan was not a given. During fighting in July 1521, the Aztec held strong, even capturing Cortés himself. Wound- ed in one leg, the Spanish leader was ultimately rescued by his captains. During this setback for the conquistador, the Aztec warriors managed to regain lost ground and rebuild the city’s fortifica- tions, pushing the Spanish onto the defensive for nearly three weeks. Cortés ordered the marshland to be filled with rubble for a final assault. Finally, on August 13, 1521, the city fell. “Not a single stone remained left to burn and destroy,” one witness wrote. The loss of human life was staggering, both in absolute figures and in its disproportionality. During the siege, around 100 Spaniards lost their lives compared to as many as 100,000 Aztec. The conquest of Tenochtitlan and the subse- quent consolidation of Spanish domination over the former Aztec Empire was the first major pos- session in what became the Spanish Empire. This vast territory would reach its greatest extent in the 18th century, with territory throughout North and South America. Cortés’s triumph would be short-lived. In just a few years, he would lose many of his lands in the New World. Despite being made a marquis years later, the Conqueror of Mexico did not have a glo- rious end. In 1547, at the age of 62, he died in a vil- lage near Sevilla, Spain, embroiled in lawsuits and his health broken by a series of disastrous expedi- tions. Decades of rapid expansion in the Americas seemed to have eclipsed his own exploits, and few bells tolled for the man whose ruthlessness and cunning transformed the Americas.

BERNAT HERNÁNDEZ A SPECIALIST IN THE SPANISH EMPIRE, HERNÁNDEZ IS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY AT THE AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA, SPAIN.

70 MAY/JUNE 2016 RISE AND SET Near Mexico City, the Pyramid of the Sun looms over Teotihuacan, a city that flourished in the third century a.d. Its culture was later imitated by the Aztec, who believed it was where the sun god was born. DAVID R. FRAZIER/AGE FOTOSTOCK TECHNOLOGY TRIUMPHS

Although the Aztec had the superior numbers, advanced Spanish weaponry ultimately gave them the upper hand. With firearms and steel blades at his disposal, just one Spaniard might annihilate dozens or even hundreds of opponents: “On a sudden, they speared and thrust people into shreds,” wrote one indigenous chronicler, having witnessed the terrifying impact of European arms. “Others were beheaded in one swipe...Others tried to run in vain from the butchery, their innards falling from them and entangling their very feet.”

Crossbow Made of two lengths THE SPANISH of metal, it shot projectiles more than IRONIRO AND STEEL AKG/ALBUM 1,000 feet.

Armor Harquebus Cannon Linked steel Also called a plates offered Made of cast hackbut, this bronze and iron, its almost complete early gun had protection from range was more a firing range of than a mile. Aztec weapons. less than 650 feet.

ERICH LESSING/ALBUM Gauntlet

ORONOZ/ALBUM Sword Its long steel blade was sharp, light, and easy to handle. Powder flask This was used to carry gunpowder for Cuisse the harquebuses.

Halberd A deadly combination: a six-foot-long spear and ax Greave ORONOZ/ALBUM Superior Strategy Aztec military tactics also put them at a disadvantage, even in situations where they seemed to have the advantage—such as in this engraving, where Aztec are besieging Spaniards in Moctezuma's palace. Unlike the Spanish, Aztec soldiers did not march in columns, nor did they charge or retreat in unison, making it hard for them

AGE FOTOSTOCK AGE to fight as one.

Eagle-shaped helmet THE AZTEC STONE AND WOOD ART ARCHIVE ART

Eagle warrior Elite Aztec soldiers wielded spears or

AGE FOTOSTOCK wooden clubs with Flint tip obsidian tips. Some spears had flint tips—no Light cuirass match for Spanish suits of armor.

Atlatl A weapon like this could launch spears ART ARCHIVE ART and darts at speeds up to 93 miles an hour. Crown ARCHIVE ART Made of quetzal Eagle-talon feathers, gold, and adornment precious stones, it is a royal headdress.

Breastplate Cotton-lined, it provided poor Shield protection against Made of wood, leather, and feathers, it could not ART ARCHIVE ART Spanish weapons. stand up to iron and steel.

ART ARCHIVE AMERICA’S FIRST SELF-MADE MAN HAMILTON

Before becoming an American war hero, statesman, and financial genius, Alexander Hamilton was an immigrant. The story of his horrific youth and the obstacles he overcame reads like fiction—except it’s all true.

ew figures in American history have aroused such visceral feelings as Alexander Hamilton. In his day, Hamilton’s vision of American nationalism, with states subordinate to a strong central govern- ment and led by a vigorous executive branch, aroused fears of a reversion to royal British ways. For another group of naysay- ers, Hamilton’s unswerving faith in a professional military converted him into a potential despot. Even some Hamilton admirers have been unsettled by a faint tincture of something foreign in this West Indian transplant. In all probability, Alexander Hamilton is the foremost political figure in American history who never attained the presidency, yet he probably had a much deeper and more lasting impact than many who did. One of the prime mov- ers behind the Constitutional Convention, main author of The Federalist Papers, and the first treasury secretary, Ham- ilton was a principal architect of the new government. PORTRAIT OF A STATESMAN John Trumbull painted Hamilton’s likeness several times over the course of his life, but he painted this one shortly after Hamilton’s death in 1804. Today it hangs in the New-York Historical Society. BRIDGEMAN/ACI Hamilton’s Troubled Heritage Circa 1718 The fourth son of 11 children, James Hamilton is born in Scotland. To find his own fortune, he leaves Scotland for St. Kitts in 1741. Circa 1729 Rachel Faucette is born on the island of Nevis in the British West Indies. After her parents’ formal separation, Rachel and her mother move to St. Croix. 1745 After her father’s death, Rachel marries Johann Michael Lavien and has a son. Unable to endure a miserable marriage, in 1750 she abandons them for St. Kitts. 1750s Rachel and James Hamilton meet and become romantically TWO ISLANDS, In contriving the smoothly running machinery involved. They move to Nevis ONE NATION of a modern nation-state—including a budget and have two sons together, James Jr. and Alexander. Hamilton’s system, a funded debt, a tax system, a central birthplace, Nevis bank, a customs service, and a coast guard, he rises beyond the set a high-water mark for administrative com- 1759 shores of St. Kitts Johann Michael Lavien files (above). These tiny petence that has never been equaled. No other a formal petition to divorce Caribbean islands founder articulated such a clear and prescient Rachel. After the divorce, he compose one nation, vision of America’s future political, military, and may marry, but Rachel is legally which declared its economic strength or crafted such ingenious prohibited from doing so. independence from Britain in 1983 but mechanisms to bind the nation together. To- remains a member of day, we are indisputably the heirs to Hamilton’s 1760s the Commonwealth. America, and to repudiate his legacy is, in many The Hamilton family M. RUNKEL/CORBIS/CORDON PRESS ways, to repudiate the modern world. relocates to St. Croix. James Hamilton’s accomplishments are well docu- Hamilton abandons his family. Alexander never sees his mented, but his origins are not as well known. father again. Hamilton was famously reticent about his pri- vate life, especially his squalid Caribbean boy- 1768 hood. Taunted as a bastard throughout his life, Rachel Lavien dies Hamilton was understandably reluctant to chat unexpectedly from a fever, about his childhood—“my birth is the subject effectively orphaning James of the most humiliating criticism,” he wrote in Jr. and Alexander, who inherit one pained confession—and he turned his early nothing from her estate. family history into a taboo topic, alluded to in only a couple of cryptic letters.

76 MAY/JUNE 2016 GRANGER/CORDON PRESS GRANGER/CORDON

THE TRIANGLE TRADE CARIBBEAN COLONIES held by Spain, France, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Denmark in the 1700s were at the center of the transatlantic slave trade. European ships traveled to Africa to ex- change goods for slaves, who were taken to the colonies to be sold. Then slave traders returned to Europe with raw materials pro- duced by the slaves. This inhumane system lasted for nearly 400 years and resulted in the largest forced migration in human history.

TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN EUROPE, THE COLONIES, AND AFRICA IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES

Seen from a distance, his life embodies an en- roads where European powers vied for mastery NOT GETTING during archetype: the obscure immigrant who of the lucrative sugar trade. The small, scattered ANY YOUNGER comes to America, re-creates himself, and suc- islands of the Caribbean generated more wealth Alexander Hamilton ceeds despite a lack of proper birth and breed- for Britain than all of her North American colo- told people he was born in 1757, ing. No other founder had to grapple with such nies combined. but historians shame and misery, and his early years have re- The sudden popularity of sugar, dubbed have found some mained wrapped in more mystery than those “white gold,” engendered a brutal world of over- evidence that he of any other major American statesman. Yet it night fortunes in which slavery proved indis- was two years older than he claimed. is these early years where the forces that most pensable. Thousands of blacks were shipped shaped Hamilton can be found. The hardships he from slave-trading forts in West Africa endured and the horrors he faced sculpted this to cultivate Nevis and the neighbor- man into one of the foremost Founding Fathers. ing islands. British authorities also colonized Nevis with vagabonds, Island Life criminals, and other riffraff swept Alexander Hamilton claimed Nevis in the Brit- from the London streets to work as ish West Indies as his birthplace, although no indentured servants or overseers. surviving records substantiate this. For a long While other Founding Fathers time, historians accepted 1757 as the date of were reared in tidy New England

Hamilton’s birth; it was the year used by Ham- villages or cosseted on baronial PRESS GRANGER/CORDON ilton himself and his family. Yet several cogent Virginia estates, Hamilton grew pieces of evidence have caused many recent his- up in a tropical hellhole of dissi- torians to opt for 1755. To modern eyes, Nevis pated whites and fractious slaves, all may seem like a sleepy backwater, but in the 18th framed by a backdrop of luxuriant century, this West Indian setting was the cross- natural beauty.

YOUNG ALEXANDER? A PORTRAIT IDENTIFIED AS HAMILTON A MOTHER’S Unhappy Unions Michael Lavien, a peddler who aspired to planter PRISON Alexander Hamilton’s maternal grandparents, status. Rachel Faucette’s inheritance must have Overlooking Gallows John Faucette and Mary Uppington, married attracted Lavien, who saw it as a fresh source of Bay, St. Croix, Fort on August 21, 1718. The family owned a small ready cash. For Alexander Hamilton, Lavien was Christiansvaern sugar plantation in Nevis and had at least seven the certified ogre of his family saga. “In com- (above) was a miserable place to slaves. They produced seven children, but only pliance with the wishes of her mother . . . but live for Rachel Lavien. two survived to adulthood, Rachel, Hamilton’s against her own inclination,” Hamilton stated, Hamilton’s mother mother born circa 1729, and her much older sis- the 16-year-old Rachel agreed to marry the old- spent months inside ter, Ann. The Faucettes’ marriage didn’t last, er Lavien, her senior by at least a dozen years. while imprisoned for adultery. however, and they separated in 1740. In their In Hamilton’s blunt estimation, it was “a hated MICHELE FALZONE/AWL IMAGES settlement, they agreed to “live separately and marriage,” as the daughter of one unhappy union apart for the rest of their lives,” and Mary re- was rushed straight into another. nounced all rights to her husband’s property In 1745 the newlyweds set up house on a mod- in exchange for an inadequate annuity of 53 est plantation. The following year the teenage pounds. Because her mother had surrendered bride gave birth to a son, Peter. In 1748 Lavien all claims to John Faucette’s money, 16-year-old bought a half share in another small sugar plan- Rachel Faucette achieved the sudden glow of a tation, enlarging his debt, frittering away Ra- minor heiress in 1745 when her father died and chel’s fast-dwindling inheritance, and strain- left her all his property. ing the union. The marriage deteriorated to the Rachel and her mother relocated to St. Croix, point where the headstrong wife simply aban- where her sister Ann and her husband James doned the house around 1750. Enraged, Lavien Lytton lived outside the capital, Christiansted. sought to humiliate his unruly bride. Seizing on The Lyttons likely introduced them to another a Danish law that allowed a husband to jail his newcomer from Nevis, a Dane named Johann wife if she was twice found guilty of adultery

78 MAY/JUNE 2016 SEAN PAVONE/ALAMY/ACI

POTENTIALLY EXPLOSIVE THE SMALL CARIBBEAN island of Nevis, the location that Alex- ander Hamilton claimed as his birthplace, is dominated by Nevis Peak, a stratovolcano looming more than 3,000 feet above the island’s tranquil beaches. The volcano has not erupted for millennia, but it isn’t entirely dormant. Bubbling hot springs and steaming fumaroles around the island indi- cate that volcanic activity still persists beneath the ground. OBSCURED BY CLOUDS THE TOP OF NEVIS PEAK IS OFTEN HIDDEN FROM SIGHT.

and no longer resided with him, he had Rachel had little chance of becoming laird of Grange SWEET CROP, clapped into the town jail where she spent sev- and was expected to fend for himself. His el- BITTER LEGACY eral months in a dank, cramped cell. dest brother, John, laird of Grange, was an ac- Europe’s sweet Lavien must have imagined that when Rachel tive,enterprising man intensely involved in the tooth made sugarcane one of was released that she would now tamely submit banking, shipping, and textile business revo- the most lucrative to his autocratic rule, but he failed to reckon on lutionizing Glasgow. In November 1737 John exports from the her invincible spirit. Solitude had only stiffened Hamilton took the affable but feckless James, Caribbean colonies, her resolve. After Rachel left the jail, she fled to then 19, and steered him into a four-year ap- which relied on the labor of enslaved St. Kitts, abandoning her husband and son. In prenticeship in the textile trade. Despite being people to grow and doing so, she relinquished the future benefits of part of a promising,yet challenging,new indus- harvest the crop. a legal separation and inadvertently doomed the try, James did not stick with the business. STOCKFOOD/ALAMY/ACI unborn Alexander to illegitimacy. When the agreement expired in 1741, James Hamilton decided to test his The Scottish Side luck in St. Kitts. Hamilton’s other star-crossed parent, James Trading sugar or plantation sup- Hamilton, was born around 1718, to the 14th laird plies in the West Indies was haz- in the so-called Cambuskeith line of Hamil- ardous to those with skimpy tons. As Alexander must have heard ad nau- capital. The slightest error seam in his boyhood, the Cambuskeith Hamil- in calculation or payment de- tons possessed a coat of arms and for centuries lay could swamp a trader in cata- had owned a castle near Kilmarnock called the strophic losses. Some such fate Grange in Stevenston Parish in Ayrshire, Scot- probably overtook James Hamil- land, southwest of Glasgow. ton, who faltered quickly and had to be As the fourth son of 11 children, James Hamilton rescued repeatedly by his brother John

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 79 HAMILTON and his Glasgow friends. “In capacity of a mer- deprived James and Rachel of any chance to le- IN NEVIS chant he went to St. Kitts, where from too gener- gitimize their match. Putting the best face on This dwelling (above) ous and too easy a temper he failed in business the embarrassing situation, Alexander some- near the harbor in and at length fell into indigent circumstances,” times pretended that his parents had married. Charlestown, Nevis, his son Alexander wrote in tactful tones. He Since the relationship may have lasted 15 years, may—or may not— sit on Hamilton’s spoke of his father in a forgiving style and saw it presumably took on the trappings of a mar- birthplace. Today him as amiable but lazily inept. riage, enabling Alexander to maintain that his it houses a history illegitimacy was a mere legal technicality. In- museum on the first Family Affairs deed, Hamilton’s parents, though a common- floor and the Nevis House of Assembly By the time Rachel met James Hamilton in St. law couple, presented themselves as James and on the second. Kitts in the early 1750s, a certain symmetry had Rachel Hamilton. They had two sons: James Jr., ANDREW WOODLEY/ALAMY/ACI shaped their lives. They were both scarred by and, two years later, Alexander. early setbacks, had suffered a vertiginous de- From her father, Rachel had inherited a wa- scent in social standing, and had grappled with terfront property on the main street in Charles- the terrors of downward economic mobility. town, the Nevis capital, where legend proclaims Each would have been excluded from the more that Alexander was born and lived as a boy. Ap- rarefied society of the British West Indies and propriately enough, this boy destined to be tempted to choose a mate from the limited pop- America’s foremost Anglophile entered the ulation of working whites. Their liaison was the world as a British subject. He was slight and thin sort of match that could easily produce a son hy- shouldered and distinctly Scottish in appear- persensitive about class and status and painfully ance, with a florid complexion, reddish brown conscious that social hierarchies ruled the world. hair, and sparkling violet-blue eyes. Hamilton To obtain a divorce in the crown colonies was probably did not have formal schooling on Nev- an expensive, tortuous affair, and this reality is—his illegitimate birth may well have barred

80 MAY/JUNE 2016 BUDDY MAYS/ALAMY/ACI BUDDY

ALL ABOUT THE HAMILTONS ALEXANDER HAMILTON always had a special relationship with money. His face has graced U.S. paper currency since the 1860s, but in 2015, the U.S. Treasury announced plans to redesign the ten-dollar bill, where Hamilton currently appears. One of the pos- sible new design ideas is to feature an important American woman on the bill in addition to Hamilton’s portrait. Hamilton fans can look forward to the new ten-dollar look when it debuts in 2020. THE CLASSIC TEN-DOLLAR BILL WILL GET A NEW FACE IN 2020.

him from Anglican instruction—but he seems administered 365 lashes to a male slave and 292 BARBARIC to have had individual tutoring. to a female. Evidently unfazed by this sadism, a TACTICS Like everyone in the West Indies, Hamilton local jury acquitted him of all wrongdoing. Island In the West Indies had extensive early exposure to blacks. In this life contained enough bloodcurdling scenes to European settlers lived in fear of slave highly stratified society, with its many grada- darken Hamilton’s vision for life, instilling an revolts and relied tions of caste and color, even poor whites owned ineradicable pessimism about human nature on sadistic physical slaves and hired them out for extra income. that infused all his writing. punishments, such Young Hamilton would regularly have passed as flogging (below), Abandoned and Alone to subdue male and the slave-auction blocks at Market Shop and female slaves. Crosses Alley and beheld barbarous whippings Nine years after Rachel had fled St. Croix, Lavien GRANGER/CORDON PRESS in the public square. The 8,000 captive blacks resurfaced in 1759. Looking to take a new wife, easily dwarfed in number the 1,000 whites, “a Lavien needed to obtain an official divorce sum- disproportion,” remarked one visitor, “which mons from Rachel. He noted bitterly that necessarily converts all such white men as are he “had taken care of Rachel’s legitimate not exempted by age and decrepitude into a well- child from what little he has been ablee regulated militia.” to earn,” whereas she had “completely Violence was commonplace in Nevis, as in forgotten her duty and let husband and all the slave-ridden sugar islands. The Carib- child alone and instead given herself bean sugar economy was a system of inimitable up to whoring with everyone.” After savagery. The mortality rate of slaves hacking this vicious indictment, Lavien de- away at sugarcane under a pitiless tropical sun manded that Rachel be denied all legal was simply staggering: Three out of five died rights to his property, which would be within five years of arrival. One Nevis planter, preserved for their son, 13-year-old Peteer. Edward Huggins, set a sinister record when he Summoned to appear in court in St.Crroix,

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 81 SOLID Rachel did not show up or refute the allegations. the first of several crushing blows when their REMINDERS On June 25, Lavien received a divorce that per- father deserted his family forever. Alexander In the 18th century mitted him to remarry, while Rachel was strictly offered a forgiving but plausible reason for his St. Croix had more prohibited from doing so. In one swiftly effec- father’s desertion: he could no longer afford to than 200 sugar tive stroke, Lavien had safeguarded his son’s support his family. Because James Jr., 12, and plantations, many with their own mills inheritance and made it impossible for Rachel Alexander, 10, had attained an age where they to crush the cane to remove the stigma of illegitimacy from her could assist Rachel, James Sr. may have believed after harvesting. other sons. that he could wash his hands of paternal du- Most plantations are In 1765 the Hamilton family moved back to St. ties without undue pangs of guilt. Alexander gone, but ruins of the mills (above) remain. Croix after James Hamilton received a business probably never set eyes again on his vagabond LEON WERDINGER/ALAMY/ACI assignment in Christiansted in April. Stripped father, who stayed in the Caribbean. Father and of whatever cover of legitimacy had sheltered son never entirely lost touch with each other, them, it would have become glaringly evident but a curious psychological and geographical to Alexander and James Jr. for the first time that distance separated them. their mother had been a notorious woman. Soon Rachel’s return to St. Croix had probably been after the move, the Hamilton boys were dealt premised on support from her sister Ann and brother-in-law, a hope that never quite panned out. As prominent sugar planters, the Lyttons had enjoyed success at first, but a business Soon after the move, the Hamilton boys were scandal forced them to move back to Nevis in dealt the first of several crushing blows when late 1765, just months after Rachel and her two their father deserted his family forever. boys arrived in St. Croix. Within one year, Ann Lytton was dead, leaving Rachel as the last sur- viving Faucette.

82 MAY/JUNE 2016 GRANGER/CORDON PRESS GRANGER/CORDON PROLIFIC POLITICIAN AND POET

TO SAY ALEXANDER HAMILTON had a way with words would be a gross understate- ment. He was a prolific writer, gifted with an almost unmatched ability to commu- nicate by putting a pen to paper. Famous for his political writings, few know that Hamilton was also a poet. As a young man in St. Croix, he published his poetry in the local paper, the Royal Danish American Ga- zette. In 1771 he published a pair of love poems in the paper, one devoted to pure, idealized love and the other to lust. After he moved to the colonies, Hamilton used poetry to woo his wife, Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler. She loved these poems so much that she kept one in a little bag she wore around her neck until her death at age 97.

ROYAL DANISH AMERICAN GAZETTE, ST. CROIX’S LOCAL NEWSPAPER, IN WHICH HAMILTON PUBLISHED HIS POETRY

Rachel soldiered on in the face of hardship. that it had to consider three possible heirs: Peter A WELL-USED WRITING DESK She took a two-story house on 34 Company and the Hamilton brothers. The whole marital Street where she and her two boys lived upstairs. scandal was dredged up again, only now at an Hamilton may have done much of his The living quarters held 34 books—the first un- age when Alexander and his brother could fully writing on a portable mistakable sign of Hamilton’s omnivorous,self- fathom its meaning.At a probate hearing,Lavien desk (below). Over directed reading. On the first floor, Rachel ran a lambastedAlexanderandJamesaschildrenborn the course of his store stocked with merchandise purchased from in“whoredom,”insisting that his son merited life, Hamilton’s twoyoungNewYorkmerchants,DavidBeekman the entire estate, even though Peter hadn’t set written output was tremendous: His and Nicholas Cruger, who had just inaugurated eyes on his mother for 18 years.The court sided collected papers a trading firm that was to transform Hamilton’s with Lavien, and the whole estate was awarded take up 27 volumes, insecure, claustrophobic boyhood. Because her to Peter. more than 16,000 mother had died, Rachel now owned five adult The Hamilton brothers were then placed un- pages total. female slaves and further supplemented her in- der the legal guardianship of their 32-year-old GRANGER/CORDON PRESS come by hiring them out. firstcousinPeterLytton,buttheirtimewithhim In early 1768 tragedy struck again. Rachel, 38, would be short. On July 16, 1769, Peter Lytton succumbed to a raging fever, and Alexander, too, committed suicide. His will contracted the unspecified disease. Mother and left nothing to Al- son must have been joined in a horrid scene as exander or James. they lay side by side in a feverish state in the When James Lytton single upstairs bed. The delirious Alexander appeared to was probably writhing inches from his mother claim his son’s when she expired. Soon after her death, agents estate, he tried from the probate court hastened to the scene to aid the boys and sequestered the property. The court decided but was stymied CUTTING THE CANE The sugarcane harvest is under way in this 1823 British print. Enslaved workers used curved machetes to chop the ripened cane by hand. The cut stalks were loaded on carts to be hauled away for processing. BRITISH LIBRARY/BRIDGEMAN/ACI

by legal obstacles resulting from the suicide.On THE COST universe, or that he could ever count on help August12,1769,lessthanonemonthafterPeter’s OF ESCAPE from anyone. That this abominable childhood death,theheartbrokenJamesLyttondiedaswell. Runaway slaves produced such a strong, productive, self-reliant Five days earlier,he had drafted a new will,which faced severe human being—that this fatherless adolescent penalties if they also made no provision for his nephews. were caught. could have ended up a founding father of a coun- Let us pause briefly to tally the catalog of Repeat offenders try he had not yet even seen—seems little short disasters that had befallen these two boys might have to of miraculous. between 1765 and 1769: Their father vanished, wear metal neck shackles (below) as Business School their mother died, their cousin and supposed punishment. protector committed suicide, and their aunt, After Peter Lytton’s death, James was apprenticed uncle, and grandmother all died. James, 16, and M. GRAHAM-STEWART/BRIDGEMAN/ACI to a carpenter, while Alexander went to live with Alexander,14,were now left alone.At every step awell-respected merchant and his family. Before in their rootless, topsy-turvyexistence,theyhad Peter Lytton’s death, Alexander had begun to been surrounded by failed, broken, embit- clerk for the mercantile house of Beekman and tered people. Their short liveshadbeen Cruger, the New York traders who had supplied shadowed by a stupefying his mother with provisions. sequence of bankruptcies, Beekman and Cruger ran an export-im- marital separations, port business, a perfect place for Hamilton to deaths, scandals, and experience the fast-paced world of trading. disinheritance. His first job afforded him valuable insights Such repeated shocks into global commerce and the mercantilist must have stripped policies that governed European Alexander Hamilton of any economies. Hamilton had to monitor sense that life was fair, that heexistedinabenign inventory, mind money, chart courses

84 MAY/JUNE 2016 GEORGIOS KOLLIDAS/ALAMY/ACI GEORGIOS

FIGHT FOR FREEDOM THE SECOND COUNTRY IN THE AMERICAS to overthrow colonial rule, Haiti established its independence from France in 1804 after more than a decade of conflict. A series of slave revolts in 1791 sparked the revolution, during which rebel leader Toussaint Louverture ap- pealed to the United States for support. In 1799 Secretary of State Timothy Pickering worked closely with Alexander Hamilton on a governing plan that would deeply influence Haiti’s constitution.

TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE HAMILTON ADMIRED TOUSSAINT, A FORMER SLAVE AND REVOLUTIONARY.

for ships, keep track of freight, and compute milieu.Onthemostobviouslevel,theslavetrade HUMAN CARGO prices in an exotic blend of currencies, includ- generated a permanent detestation of the sys- This Royal African ing Portuguese coins, Spanish pieces of eight, tem and resulted in his later abolitionist efforts. Company ledger British pounds, Danish ducats, and Dutch stivers. But something deeper may have seeped into his (below) records the number of enslaved Through his internship, Hamilton saw that consciousness.Inthishierarchicalworld,skittish Africans transported business was often obstructed by scarce cash or planters lived in constant dread of slave revolts to the West Indies credit and learned the value of a uniform currency and fortified their garrison state to avert them. from 1680 to 1688. in stimulating trade. Finally, he was forced to Even when he left for America, Hamilton car- Only about 47,000 ponder the paradox that the West Indian islands, ried a heavy dread of anarchy and disorder that survived out of the 60,000 taken. with all their fertile soil, traded at a disadvantage always struggled with his no less active with the rest of the world because of their love of liberty. Perhaps the true legacy reliance on only the sugar crop. It may be that ofhisboyhoodwasanequivocalone:He Hamilton’s preference for a diversified economy came to detest the tyranny embodied of manufacturing and agriculture originated in by the planters and their authoritarian his youthful reflections on the avoidable poverty rule while also fearing the potential he had witnessed in the Caribbean. uprisings of the disaffected slaves.The FLORENCE EVANS/SCALA, MARY At least once a year the firm handled a large twin specters of despotism and anarchy shipment of slaves. On January 23, 1771, during were to haunt him for the rest of his life. Hamilton’s tenure, it imported 300 slaves from Africa. The following year, Cruger imported 250 The Hurricane more. It is hard to grasp Hamilton’s later politics Hamilton then had the good fortune without contemplating the raw cruelty that he to meet a Presbyterian minister witnessed as a boy that later deprived him of named Hugh Knox. We do not know the hopefulness so contagious in the American exactly how they met, but Knox threw BANK open his library to this prodigious youth and self-educated clerk could write with verve and MANAGER prodded him toward scholarship. Knox had gusto. Clearly, Hamilton was highly literate and Alexander an accurate intuition that this adolescent was already had a considerable fund of verbal riches: Hamilton’s bronze statue stands fated to accomplish great deeds, although he “It seemed as if a total dissolution of nature was outside the U.S. later confessed that Alexander Hamilton had taking place. The roaring of the sea and wind, Treasury Building outstripped even his loftiest expectations. fiery meteors flying about it [sic] in the air, the in Washington, Knox also occasionally filled in for the editor prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, D.C. James Earle of the Royal Danish American Gazette, the local the crash of the falling houses, and the ear- Fraser sculpted the likeness, which was newspaper launched in 1770. Knox’s side job piercing shrieks of the distressed, were sufficient dedicated in 1923 to proved highly consequential for Hamilton after to strike astonishment into angels.” honor the first U.S. amassivehurricanetorethroughSt.Croixonthe His hurricane letter generated such a treasury secretary. nightofAugust 31,1772,and carvedawide swath sensation—even the island’s governor HISHAM IBRAHIM/AGE FOTOSTOCK ofdestructionthroughnearbyislands.Hamilton inquired after the young author’s identity— composed a long, feverish letter to that a subscription fund was taken up by local his father, trying to convey the businessmen to send this promising youth to hurricane’shorror.Hemusthave North America to be educated. shown the letter to Knox, who persuaded him to publish it in Setting Sail the Gazette,where it appeared In the standard telling of his life, Hamilton onOctober3.Hamiltondidnot boards a ship in October 1772 and sails off for- know it,but he had just written ever. Yet a close study of the Royal Danish Ameri- his way out of poverty. can Gazette and other documents bolsters the For all its bombastic excesses, supposition that Hamilton spent the winter of the letter shows how a 17-year-old 1772-73 in St. Croix before departing.

BRIDGEMAN/ACI SILVER COOLER A GIFT TO HAMILTON FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON GRANGER/CORDON PRESS GRANGER/CORDON

MRS. HAMILTON, I PRESUME THE DAUGHTER OF a prominent wealthy New York family, Elizabeth Schuyler captured the heart of Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton wed “Eliza” in 1780, and they had eight children together. After Hamil- ton’s untimely death at age 49, Eliza became the protector of his legacy and aimed to produce a biography to secure his place in his- tory. Her son John Church Hamilton took on the project and carried it to completion, finishing it seven years after Eliza’s death in 1854.

ELIZABETH SCHUYLER HAMILTON ARTIST RALPH EARL PAINTED ELIZA’S PORTRAIT IN 1787.

Alexander Hamilton bore a world of scarred emotion and secret grief with him About the Author on the boat to Boston. He took his unhappy boyhood, tucked it away in a mental closet, ron chernow is the Pulitzer and never opened the door again. He chose Prize–winning author of five a psychological strategy adopted by many previous books. His first, The orphans and immigrants: He cut himself off House of Morgan, won the from his past and forged a new identity. He National Book Award. His would find a home where he would be accepted ooks Alexander Hamilton for what he did, not for who he was, and where nd Titan: The Life of John he would no longer labor in the shadow of . Rockefeller, Sr., were both illegitimacy.His relentless drive, his wretched ominated for the National feelings of shame and degradation, and his ook Critics Circle Award precocious self-sufficiency combined to n biography. Washington: produce a young man with an insatiable Life received the 2011 craving for success. As much as Hamilton ulitzer Prize for biography. sought to forget his childhood, he could not is best-selling biography deny its influence on his life. Shaped by the f Alexander Hamilton, from harsh circumstances of his youth, he came to hich portions of this article Ron Chernow the colonies well prepared to fight, to endure, ere excerpted, inspired the ALEXANDER HAMILTON and to design a new nation. mash Broadway musical Penguin, 2004 amilton. Chernow lives in 832 pp FROM ALEXANDER HAMILTON BY RON CHERNOW, PUBLISHED BY PENGUIN PRESS, AN IMPRINT OF PENGUIN PUBLISHING GROUP, A DIVISION OF PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE LLC. Brooklyn, New York. COPYRIGHT © 2004 BY RON CHERNOW

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 87 RAISING CANE

hen Alexander Hamilton was growing up W in Nevis and St. Croix, sugar was the most popular agricultural export from the Caribbean colonies. European planters built fortunes from the hard work of thousands of enslaved Africans who planted, grew, harvested, and processed the sugarcane. A typical estate consisted of numerous buildings, some of which housed residents and workers, whereas others were for storage and refining.

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CRUELTY IN PARADISE 19TH- CENTURY COLOR ENGRAVING OF A SUGAR PLANTATION IN THE ANTILLES, BY PAOLO FUMAGALLI INTHECARIBBEAN 1 block out the hot sun. block outthehotsun. for ventilation andshutters to cool, there were many windows and theupperofwood. To keep stories, thelower madeofstone thesehomeshadtwo Often in acentrally locatedhouse. Planters andtheirfamilies lived

The Great House 3 2 to prevent runaways. and theoverseer’s quarters, buildings, suchasthemills, the fieldsandotherworking were cabinslocatedcloseto estate. Typically theirquarters lived andworked onthe The plantation’s laborforce

The Slave Village 3 cutting orelseitwould rot. to themillwithin36hours of The canehadtobetransported sugarcane withmachetes. workers harvested theripened aside for cultivation. Enslaved swaths oflandwere set To maximize output,large

The Fields 4 produced sugar and molasses. produced sugar andmolasses. in aprocess thateventually at theboilingandcuringhouse, Next, thecanejuice was refined crushed andjuice extracted. at themillcanewould be processing facilities onsite.First, Many plantationshadsugar- 4

The Works

THE STAPLETON COLLECTION/BRIDGEMAN/ACI DISCOVERIES

The Oseberg Ship: A Wooden Tomb For a Viking Queen? In 1904 a Viking ship covered with carvings was found buried on a Norwegian farm. On board were the bodies of two richly clad wom- en, surrounded by household goods. Were these women royalty, priestesses, servants, or sacrificial victims?

uring the late there might be important 19th century, archaeological sites in the a young Nor- NORWAY area. In 1879 two teenag- wegian farmer, ers in Gokstad, a town in Oseberg Johannes Han- OSL BLTBALTIB C the same region of Vest- Dsen, arrived in the Unit- SSE fold as Oseberg, discovered NORTH ed States where—like SASEA the burial place of a many Scandinavians of ninth-centuryVikingprince. the period—he had high The mysterious mound had hopes of starting a new life. also yielded a fantastic dis- However, an encounter with covery:anentirewoodenVi- SLOW REVEAL a fortune-teller there made intrigue and legends that king ship encased in the dirt. Professor Gustafson him change his plans. He surroundoneofthemostex- and his team carefully learned that he need not citing discoveries from the An Expert Arrives excavated the ship suffer hardships in Ameri- Viking age. In 1903 Knut Rom, one of from the Oseberg ca to get rich because hidden Hansen returned to Ose- Hansen’s neighbors, bought burial mound in 1904. on his farm back home was berg. He started to excavate the Oseberg farm. Rom con- a great treasure. a curious mound on his land tinued to search the property This fateful encounter, but found nothing. He halted and soon did find something. described in a 1930 compi- his dig, believing the mound A wooden fragment measur- lation of local history of Os- to be the burial site of Black ing only eight inches, it was Rom approached Profes- eberg in southern Norway, Death victims from the 1349 a small find that heralded sor Gabriel Gustafson of may be nothing more than epidemic. something much bigger. the University Museum of a yarn. But it reveals the Hansen and his neighbors Sixty miles away, in the National Antiquities, who had good reason to suspect Norwegian capital, Oslo, had a reputation for being

Late 1800s 1903 1904-07 1926-27 Johannes Hansen, Knut Rom buys the Gabriel Gustafson The Viking Ship a tenant farmer, carries Oseberg farm. He excavates a funerary Museum is built in out some amateur recovers a fragment of ship, uncovering the Oslo. The Oseberg ship excavations on the the ship’s prow during remains of two high- is exhibited there, along Oseberg farm. his excavations. ranking women. with the Gokstad ship.

NORWEGIAN WOOD A CARVED HEAD ON THE FUNERARY CART FOUND AT OSEBERG OVE HOLST/UNIVERSITY OF OSLO DEATH SPIRAL

THE OSEBERG SHIP is on display in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. Built of oak around a.d. 820, the IMAGE COLLECTION craft is especially noteworthy for its spiral-shaped prow, carved in the form of a serpent’s head. somewhat haughty. At first 1903, he informed the Nor- There are no signs that the vessel ever went to it seemed the veteran ar- wegian press that a signifi- sea, so it is believed that its sole use was funereal. chaeologist might dismiss cant, new Viking burial ship this farmer out of hand— had been found. Despite the but after Rom presented fortune-teller’s predictions, the wooden fragment, Gus- Knut Rom, not Han- tafson marveled at the rich, sen, turned out to be the intricate carving. He had no beneficiary of the trea- doubt about the fragment’s sure hunt: Rom received Viking origins. 12,000 Norwegian kroner The very next day the pro- ($1,400) for the land—a fessor went to Oseberg and considerable sum of money explored the mound to eval- at the time. UNIVERSITY OF OSLO uate the site. On August 10, (continued on page 94)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 91 DISCOVERIES

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1 Hull Sporting a keel of 2 Oars A set of oars ran 3 Mast Some 32 feet 4 Sail Measuring more 70 feet, the light, narrow along each side. The high, the mast rose from than 900 square feet, boat was only 16 feet wide. steering oar was always on the center of the vessel, the sail could be quickly The planks were fixed into the right, the “steerboard,” where it was mounted on stowed to allow for rapid place over oak ribs. or starboard, side. sturdy oak blocks. deployment of the oars. NAVISTORY Puzzle of the Primary Purpose IT IS NOT KNOWN for sure why the Oseberg ship was first built. Was it originally intended to be a lavish burial chamber or a working ship? According to the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway, where it is now on display, schol- ars believe that the Oseberg ship may have been built somewhere in western Norway, around 820. However, the Oseberg ship’s design yields no clues to its intended function. The design closely resembles that of a typical working Viking ship

(above), which could be powered by PETER BARRITT/ALAMY/ACI either sails or oars, but no solid proof Alerted to the presence of Viking remains at Oseberg in exists to show the boat ever went to sea. summer 1903, Professor Gustafson (center) traveled from Oslo to the site, where a preliminary dig suggested a major SNAKE HEAD THE RESTORED PROW OF THE OSEBERG SHIP ENDS IN A STYLIZED SERPENT’S HEAD, AND IS RICHLY find. Poor weather forced Gustafson and his team to wait CARVED WITH INTRICATE, INTERLINKING VIKING MOTIFS. until the following May to get back to work. PHOTOAISA

92 MAY/JUNE 2016 CUSTOM FEATURE

What connects a Welsh cathedral with the Zulu heartland of Durban?

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This feature is brought to you by Durban Tourism. To start planning your visit to Durban and this fascinating historical region visit KWWSZZZGXUEDQVDFRP

The lion-shaped hill of Isandlwana still dominates WKHEDWWOHÀHOGWRGD\ DISCOVERIES

Everyday Luxuries for Beyond the Grave THE TWO WOMEN were buried in the ship along with a vast number of personal objects, ranging from shoes and combs to beds, sleighs, and sculptures. The objects show the high levels of artistic refinement and practical comfort in the daily life of the Viking elite, who were determined to maintain their status even after death. Wooden bed, just over One of four finely five feet long, with carved sleighs used bedposts in the form of for land travel and stylized animal heads camping

Wooden carving of a Dragon-shaped mythological scene post with floral featuring Loki, the god and animal of trickery and chaos decorations WERNER FORMAN/GTRES (CARVING); EIRIK IRGENS JOHNSEN/UNIVERSITY OF OSLO (SLEIGH); ALBUM (BED); OVE HOLST/UNIVERSITY OF OSLO (POST) OF OSLO HOLST/UNIVERSITY OVE (BED); ALBUM (SLEIGH); JOHNSEN/UNIVERSITY OF OSLO EIRIK IRGENS (CARVING); WERNER FORMAN/GTRES

Digging in the Dirt After excavation, the belonged to two women: accompany the higher rank- The excavation began the ship measured 70 feet long one around 70 years old ing person in her long jour- following spring. The burial and 16 feet wide. It had and the other much youn- ney beyond the grave. mound, 130 feet wide and 19 been placed with the prow ger, about 50. There was Apart from the ship it- feet high, had been built with facing the sea. The funer- immediate speculation self, the grave goods that blue clay and stones cov- al chamber itself was in the about their identity: Some had been left undisturbed ered with turf found in stern, constructed from believed one of the wom- included objects for every- local marshlands. This wood that has been dated en could be Queen Åsa, the day use: beds, tapestries, protective layer had pro- to a.d. 834. Gustafson re- grandmother of Harald I clothes, combs, farming vided the ideal conditions alized the tomb had been (a.d 860-940), the first tools, and tents. There to preserve wood, which looted, probably soon af- king of a united Norway. was also a cart, along with explains why the Oseberg ter the burial. The thieves Others believed one of the the remains of 15 horses, 6 ship’s condition was bet- entered through the prow, women was a high priest- dogs, and 2 cows. The tomb ter than the vessel found broke into the tomb, and ess. Whoever they were, was furnished with every- in Gokstad. The weight stole what is thought now their rich attire indicated thing the deceased might of the earth, however, to have been the most valu- that they held an important need as they boarded their had crushed the struc- able grave goods, scattering position in Viking society. richly carved vessel for its ture and its contents. the bones in the process. It is believed that one— last, mysterious voyage in- Experts took years to put all The most recent studies it is not known whom— to the world of the dead. the parts back together. indicate that these bones was probably sacrificed to —Verónica Walker

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Luxurious gold-finished case with sapphire-colored crown - Crocodile-embossed leather strap - Band fits wrists 6 ¼"–8 ¾" - Water-resistant to 3 ATM THE OLYMPICS: A PROFESSIONAL HISTORY

TODAY THE OLYMPICS represents the pinnacle of amateur athletic competition, but the event has an ancient tradition of allowing professional athletes to compete for prizes. Many of the participants at the games in Olympia in the fifth century b.c. were rewarded by their city-states, which paid handsomely for victories. Whether wrestlers (like those depicted here on a relief from 510 b.c.) or runners, ancient athletes could expect more than glory for their triumphs. ERICH LESSING/ALBUM

The Royal Wedding of Ramses II KING LOUIS XVI Ramses’ sumptuous wedding in 1245 b.c. was a canny MEETS move: His bride was a princess of the Hittite Empire, with LA GUILLOTINE which Egypt had just signed a highly beneficial peace treaty. EVEN AFTER the storming of the David and Goliath Bastille in 1789, few suspected that France’s revolutionaries To defeat the Philistines in the famous biblical tale, the would go so far as to execute the shepherd David topples the giant Goliath, a story that has king. Following his failed attempt come to symbolize the Israelites’ unification under one king. to escape France, however, the captured Louis XVI—now Rome’s Unlikeliest Emperor known as plain Louis Capet— Derided for his physical defects, the studious Claudius lay was put on trial. The great GTRES low to survive the carnage of Caligula, dramatically emerging spectacle began in 1792, and from the shadows as Rome’s all-powerful ruler. Louis’s fate at the guillotine was sealed by a majority vote. France’s neighboring Power Struggle powers trembled, and In the late 19th century two brilliant inventors, Thomas European history was Edison and Nikola Tesla, battled over the best electric system never the same again. to light up the future: direct current or alternating current.

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