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 Deputy Editor VICTOR LLORET BLACKBURN Text Editor JULIUS PURCELL Editorial Consultants JOSEP MARIA CASALS (Managing Editor, Historia magazine), IÑAKI DE LA FUENTE (Art Director, Historia magazine) Design Editor CHRISTOPHER SEAGER Photographic Editor MERITXELL CASANOVAS Contributors MARC BRIAN DUCKETT, SARAH PRESANT-COLLINS, JULIE IBINSON, JANE SUNDERLAND VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER JOHN MACKETHAN PHOTO: TETRA IMAGES Publishing Directors senior vice president, national geographic partners YULIA P. 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PRESIDENT RICARDO RODRIGO CEO ENRIQUE IGLESIAS MANAGING DIRECTORS ANA RODRIGO, MARI CARMEN CORONAS EDITORIAL DIRECTOR AUREA DÍAZ INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR SOLEDAD LORENZO EDITORIAL COORDINATOR MONICA ARTIGAS MARKETING DIRECTOR BERTA CASTELLET CREATIVE DIRECTOR JORDINA SALVANY GENERAL DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND CONTROL IGNACIO LÓPEZ 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.