National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

Oldest Written Sentence Tells of Lice and Men • Inscribed in Canaanite on an ancient comb, history’s earliest written statement expresses a timeless desire: getting rid of head lice.

GOOD GROOMING THROUGH THE AGES

From Celebrity to Pauper

Antonio Vivaldi, Composer for All Seasons • The composer of The Four Seasons was a sensation in his native Venice, until his star waned. He died in poverty, and his glittering baroque masterpieces lay forgotten for 200 years.

In Ancient Egypt, Dreams Were Sweet and Scary • The Egyptians had a deep connection to the dreamworld as a bridge to the gods and the dead in the afterlife.

1647 The Bayonet: The Sharp End of a Gun • Meeting the business end of a bayonet was a soldier’s worst nightmare. By the end of the 17th century, military use of the weapon was common across Europe and spreading around the world.

GETTING THE POINT

SUMER CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION • Five thousand years ago, an innovative people settled between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where they devised some of humanity’s firsts—cities, writing, and a code of laws.

Sumer’s Ancient Heritage

THE GLORIOUS RICHES OF UR

THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA GUARDIAN OF THE PHARAOHS • For millennia, this massive icon has reclined before the great pyramids as its place in ancient Egyptian cosmology has shifted with the sands of time.

WHO BUILT THE SPHINX?

TEMPLE OF THE SPHINX

THE PRINCE’S DREAM

WEAR AND TEAR

RESURFACING

THE LAST KINGS OF ROME ETRUSCANS ON THE THRONE • Rome’s last three kings were outsiders who ruled the Eternal City when it began to change from kingdom into republic.

MASTERS OF THE LAND

OVER HIS DEAD BODY

THE KING AND THE SIBYL

FROM GRIEF TO OUTRAGE

THE MAYA COLLAPSE A MYSTERIOUS END • Massive temples and grand cities across Mesoamerica were abandoned between the ninth and tenth centuries. Built by the Maya, their walls held the secrets behind this glorious civilization’s decline.

FATE OF THE DEFEATED

THE MURALS OF BONAMPAK • A building from the end of the eighth century in Bonampak, in southern Chiapas, Mexico, houses exquisite Maya murals. The structure’s three rooms are covered with art that tells the story of Bonampak’s last ruling family, headed by King Chan Muwan. Calendar inscriptions date the painted scenes at the years 790 to 792. The city was later abandoned.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG • The Civil War reached a turning point on the green fields of southeastern Pennsylvania. The area’s distinctive topography would shape the fate of three bloody days in July 1863.

BUILDUP TO BATTLE

THE BATTLE ERUPTS

LITTLE ROUND TOP

WAR IN THE WHEAT FIELD

PICKETT’S CHARGE

THE LAST FULL MEASURE

The Treasures of Antikythera • In 1901 sponge divers salvaged a cargo of ancient statues from the seabed, along with the metal pieces of a mysterious mechanism.

Sunken Bounty • The cargo ship that sank off Antikythera in the first century b.c. was carrying dozens of statues destined for the luxury Roman art market. Many, including the four here, can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.