National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

Big Claim for a Small Brain: H. naledi BuriedItsDead • Research from a South African cave says that Homo naledi interred its dead many millennia before the earliest known human burials.

FACE-TO-FACE WITH AN ENIGMA

TIGHT SQUEEZE

HOW TO SPOT AN ANCIENT GRAVE SITE

Long Voyage to Freedom

Olaudah Equiano: Scribe Against Slavery • Describing the atrocities he witnessed while enslaved, Equiano’s 1789 autobiography played a crucial role in turning public opinion against the transatlantic slave trade.

‘WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF COLOR OF SKIN’

MARKETING GENIUS

THE ZONG ATROCITY

FROM HEAD TO TOE

Louis XIV’s Big Hair Revolution • Europe wigged out over the 17th-century French king’s fashions, including his love for long curls.

Royal Wigmakers of Versailles

CUTTING COMMENTARY

MIGHTY ZEUS AT OLYMPIA THE STATUE THAT BECAME A WONDER • In the fifth century b.c. an enormous gold-and-ivory sculpture of the ruler of the Olympian gods captured the imagination of early Greeks and never let go. Its size and splendor made it one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

LIFE AND DEATH OF A STATUE

SANCTUARY OF OLYMPIA

HOUSE OF THUNDER

THE GLORY OF GOLD AND IVORY

The Olympian Family Tree

SCULPTOR’S WORKSHOP

THE GOD’S GOLDEN CHAIR

THE SEAT OF POWER

MARCUS AURELIUS PHILOSOPHY OF AN EMPEROR • In the midst of brutal campaigns against the Germanic peoples of the Danube, Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote a series of reflections that placed him among the most influential thinkers of antiquity.

STYLUS AND THE SWORD

REFLECTIONS FROM THE DANUBE

AFFAIRS, RUMORS, AND SCANDALS

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS • Of the nearly 100 Roman emperors who reigned between 27 b.c. and a.d. 476, Marcus Aurelius is the only one who has been considered a true philosopher. Maxims from his work commonly known as Meditations remain popular with modern audiences.

QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL FROM HOLY RELIC TO HERO’S JOURNEY • The chalice held by Jesus at the Last Supper became one of the most sought-after objects in Christendom at the same time it was taking center stage in the medieval legends and epic poems of the noble kings and brave knights who pursued it.

SEEKING THE GRAIL

THE SOUTHERN ROOTS OF THE GRAIL TALE

A SEAT AT THE ROUND TABLE

PERCEVAL PREVAILS • Around 1180, Chrétien de Troyes wrote Perceval, the Story of the Grail, about the knight protagonist. The unfinished work became the seed of Arthurian mythology.

THE MYSTERIOUS CHALICE OF VALENCIA

Harald Bluetooth UNITING THE VIKINGS • Bold and ruthless, King Harald Gormsson, better known today as Bluetooth, fought his neighbors and introduced Christianity to Scandinavia.

ONE GREAT DANE

CONNECTING TO BLUETOOTH

The Viking Treasure of Hiddensee

Jelling: Mounds, Burials, Runic Stones, and a Giant Longship

THE THRONE AND THE CROSS

Bluetooth’s Royal Baptism

The King’s Fortress at Trelleborg

THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE OF 1914 • When World War I broke out in July 1914, many Europeans thought the fighting would be over by Christmas. It wasn’t, and nearly six months after the war began, hundreds of thousands of soldiers celebrated the holiday as best they could in the freezing trenches of western Europe.

TURKISH DELIGHTS

Sebasteion Surprise: Honoring...