History Archives - Page 51 of 73

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 6

History, Travel / 2 minutes of reading / August 2, 2020 / By HDclump

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 6: Bettany travels through the Corinth Canal – a feat of engineering that required the removal of 12 million cubic metres of earth – before heading for her penultimate stop of Corfu, where Count Flamburiari reveals the island’s close connections to Britain. From there, Bettany sails to Ithaca, Odysseus’s home island, finally completing her 1,700-mile voyage across the Greek Islands. However, there’s a startling surprise in store when she is awoken in the night by an earthquake measuring 4.9 on the Richter scale. Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode […]

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Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 5

History, Travel / 3 minutes of reading / July 29, 2020 / By HDclump

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 5: Bettany arrives in the Peloponnese, a peninsula regarded as home to some of ancient Greece’s most legendary kings and vicious warriors. To understand the violent world in which the myths and legends are set, Bettany visits the bones of a 19-year-old-warrior who died more than 3,500 years ago. Healed sword marks and a large hole in his skull are a testament to his environment. In Sparta, the home town of Helen of Troy, Bettany discovers what made the region’s warriors so feared, before heading to Mycenae, likely home to the

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Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 4

History, Travel / 3 minutes of reading / July 28, 2020 / By HDclump

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 4: Arriving in Crete just as a storm hits, the historian is lucky to reach `the big island” before the seas become impassable and the annual Christian Epiphany festivities are hampered. She travels to the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos, synonymous with English archaeologist Arthur Evans who unearthed much of its palace over 100 years ago, beneath which the legendary King Minos is said to have kept a crazed half-man, half-bull – the Minotaur. Bettany meets Professor Stampolidis, whose ground-breaking archaeological discoveries prove links between ancient legend and historical

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Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 3

History / 2 minutes of reading / July 26, 2020 / By HDclump

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 3: In Santorini, she visits a Minoan city preserved in time by one of the most violent volcanic eruptions in history. Bettany’s next port of call is Naxos, where in an abandoned marble quarry, she finds a genuinely monumental statue of the god that has lain there for thousands of years, before heading to a taverna to take part in some local festivities. The presenter later arrives in Sifnos, where long-distance communications were mastered millennia before telegrams or telephones. The historian and classicist goes Greek island-hopping to explore their history from

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Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 2

History, Travel / 3 minutes of reading / July 24, 2020 / By HDclump

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 2: Bettany visits the sacred isle of Delos, where it has been forbidden for anyone to permanently reside since ancient times. Wandering the ruins, Bettany discovers a dark history to this incredible site as she explores how the Romans turned Delos into a marketplace for their slave trade. She then moves on to Ikaria, an island famous for its long-lived population, and gets a lesson in wine-making. As she moves on to Mykonos, Bettany’s boat is caught in a storm reaching a 10 on the Beaufort scale. The historian and classicist

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Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 1

History, Travel / 3 minutes of reading / July 23, 2020 / By HDclump

Greek Island Odyssey with Bettany Hughes episode 1: The historian and classicist explore Greece from the time of the Ancients up to the present day. She begins by exploring a graveyard of ancient shipwrecks in the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, then enjoys the tradition of a warm welcome on the island of Chios. Next, Bettany heads to the island of Lesbos, visiting the ancient Greek Theatre of Mytilene and taking a dip in the island’s thermal waters. Finally, Bettany stops on Samos, an island known for both its ancient naval power and its famous sixth-century BC resident,

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Medieval Lives – Birth, Marriage, Death episode 3 – A Good Death

History / 2 minutes of reading / July 22, 2020 / By HDclump

Medieval Lives – Birth, Marriage, Death episode 3 – A Good Death: Most of the time we try not to think about death, but the people of the Middle Ages didn’t have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor – even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months. However, for the people of the Middle Ages death wasn’t an end but a doorway to everlasting life. The Church taught that an eternity spent in heaven or hell was much more important than

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Medieval Lives – Birth, Marriage, Death episode 2 – A Good Marriage

History / 2 minutes of reading / July 21, 2020 / By HDclump

Medieval Lives – Birth, Marriage, Death episode 2 – A Good Marriage: Unlike birth and death, which are inescapable facts of life, marriage is rite of passage made by choice and in the Middle Ages it wasn’t just a choice made by bride and groom – they were often the last pieces in a puzzle, put together by their parents, with help from their family and friends, according to rules laid down by the church. Helen Castor reveals how in the Middle Ages marriage was actually much easier to get into than today – you could get married

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Medieval Lives – Birth, Marriage, Death episode 1 – A Good Birth

History / 2 minutes of reading / July 19, 2020 / By HDclump

Medieval Lives – Birth, Marriage, Death episode 1 – A Good Birth: For a medieval woman approaching the moment of labour and birth, there were no antiseptics to ward off infection or anaesthetics to deal with pain. Historian Helen Castor reveals how this was one of the most dangerous moments a medieval woman would ever encounter, with some aristocratic and royal women giving birth as young as 13. Birth took place in an all-female environment and the male world of medicine was little help to a woman in confinement. It was believed that the pains of labour were

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24 Hours after Hiroshima

History / 3 minutes of reading / July 17, 2020 / By HDclump

24 Hours after Hiroshima: The atomic bombing of Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945, was a moment that changed the world. Power that fueled the stars had been unleashed and turned into a lethal technology. Now learn the second-by-second story of that defining moment through those hit hardest by that weapon, the survivors. On August 6th, 1945 a weapon unlike any other before was unleashed on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Four days later, the Japanese surrendered having been subjected to horrors and devastation previously unknown and unimaginable. But beyond the horror and human toll, real scientific questions remained

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Art of Persia episode 3

History, Art / 3 minutes of reading / July 15, 2020 / By HDclump

Art of Persia episode 3: In the last episode, Samira Ahmed travels to the crumbling ruins of an ancient walled city and goes back to when Persia faced her gravest threat – Genghis Khan. But from the death and destruction there emerged a golden age of Persian poetry and art. In the fabled city of Isfahan, Samira encounters the dynasty of shahs that succeeded the Mongols – the Safavids, who gave Iran a powerful new identity through Shia Islam and carved its message in stone, brick and tile. Finally, Samira travels to Persepolis to tell the story of

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Art of Persia episode 2

History, Art / 2 minutes of reading / July 14, 2020 / By HDclump

Art of Persia episode 2: Broadcaster and journalist Samira Ahmed takes viewers on a remarkable journey to places rarely seen, as she travels through Iran, telling the story of a complex and fascinating people, their culture and their history. Samira gives a remarkable account of the clash between two powerful civilisations and explains how Iran preserved its distinctive language and culture despite the Arab conquest of Persia in AD651. From Zoroastrian fire temples to the fabled bazaars of Aladdin and an ancient magical storybook that became Iran’s national myth, this second episode in the series reveals how the

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