Feragama Valley Notes

History With RCS: Introduction to the Silk Road: the new Silk Road, the Old Silk Road, and the ancient Silk Road             

            You have heard of the Silk Road. You may have hear of the New Silk Road, the Old Silk Road, and the ancient Silk Road. 
They are all a part of the Feragama Valley, and the Feragama Valley is part of big doings and happenings. These doings and happenings form the backstory of much of what is happening and being done beyond your National borders.

            Find out. Listen and look for: doings and happenings, personages and news in and around the Feragama Valley.  
The Silk Road which has become a tourist destination is part of it. Beginning to learn about the Feragama Valley cultures may change your vision of the present and likely futures. Understanding of this valley's cultures can help us all to a better understanding of the happenings and doings of our world today. Beginning to know the history of this area and
it's people helps us to understand the way of things more than one may believe just now.

        In Zoroastrian literature the valley is referred to as the 
Zoroastrian homeland. The history of that particular homeland goes back more than 4000 years before today and is touching us now. The cultures of people of the Valley goes back 10,000 years more.

        Russia took control of the Valley between 1855 and 1884.

The peoples of the Valley were in contact with Xi'an(China) from, at least 1100 BC through the Dark Ages of Europe, when Ai'an of present China was an important cultural and political center.

        For one who wants a quest in history, I say take hold of a thread from an early culture of the Indian sub-continent. A culture, in perhaps the north of India, had an important connection with the Valley. That thread can take you places few of today have gone; to places from which many of today can benefit.

        Thank you for the visit. Come back soon just to check things out or to make a real search of the site.

 

                             RCS

 

The City of Mounds: St Louis. Old World Images (1848-1899) Pre Reset / C...

History With RCS: St. Louis City Please add some more history to this video. Use the "comments" section below this post. I am especially interested in pre Civil War history. Also any archaeology from in or around the city would be great. 

 

The Calusa of Florida on Our minds

History With RCS archaeology: A great American Indian people who deserve more talk and understanding: the Calusa

        In the 1500s the Calusa still controlled much of  the southwest of Florida. They defended their land against the aggression  of other peoples including European explorers.  The Spaniards knew them as fierce. The Calooshahtchee River, with its mouth on the southwest of  Florida, was theirs.

        They lived mostly along the inland water ways and developed them for transportation and food production. The sea was also a source of food for them. They left middens of seashells large enough in size to compete with their great mounds and other earthworks. The fished with nets and tapped fish.

        The Calusa had a strong influence on the tribes around them. That influence may be because of their wide trading. They typically used dugouts for use at sea and along their inland waterways. They also built  and used larger vessels. They visited Cuba regularly and probably sailed much farther into the Caribbean.

        Their homes were built on platforms on pilings over the water. Their buildings had particularly handsome roofing of palmetto leaves. It is said that some of their 'houses' were large enough to easily accommodate 2000 persons!

        They were excellent wood workers and they also did some fine wood carving. They were excellent farmers, sailors, fishermen, and traders, They are probably responsible for the construction of what we have called bayous.

        The apex of their culture probably dates well before 100 BC. Their middens and and earth works have been dated to that time.

        We have much to learn from and about the Calusa. Please feel free to extend and correct our knowledge of them.

        When you want more, click on "comments" below and tell me so.



by R.C.S.

Pampas and Llanos: Grasslands of South America

History With RCS: In North America there are prairies and plains. In South America there are pampas and llanos. 

 

                There are lots of stories that come from all the American grasslands, but here is offered a taste of history.

                In the south of south America one often hears the the word pampas or la pampa. In the north of that continent, one more often hears the word llanos. These wide grasslands have their history and their prehistory.

                Only 10,000 years ago people were eating doedicurus not far from the present location of the great Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires near the edge of the pampa. In case you are not well acquainted with the doedicurus, they are a kind of glyptodont. You could call those doing that eating, American Indians.

                In the late 1500s, Spanish Americans began to settle in the pampa. By 1833 there were about 40 million head of 'wild' cattle on the Argentinian grasslands. These cattle were offspring of those brought and 'lost' by the earlier explorers and settlers. That sounds reminiscent of happenings in North America to me. During the increase in these herds on the Pampa there was a decrease in the numbers of Native Americans there. Between that increase and decrease one might imagine an interesting story or two, perhaps with mention of a gaucho or two.

                Heading to the North of the continent we could learn about the llaneros, the men and women of the llanos. Llaneros formed much of Bolivars cavalry. That cavalry di much  to overthrow Spanish rule over the continent in the 1920s. Descendants of those llaneros can still be found in the llanos of Colombia and Venezuela. A few of them now resist the dominion of "Yankee capital and imperialism." The attitude might be "Over my horse, only me, over me only my hat."

                Among the early noted horsemen to explore the llanos were German "conquistadors" were men like Nicolas Federman, Nikolaus Federmann, who's patrons had loaned vast sums of money to Spanish royalty in the early 1500s. Makes me wonder what Spanish nobility did with the wealth they gained from there "new world" colonies. Start a European Rebirth? The sponsors of the three German groups sent to South America gained little wealth from their ventures. Still, Spaniards were able to pay debts and Germans profited a bit from the starting and running the first commercial airline in South America.

                About 270 years after the first Germans were allowed to explore the llanos, the Spanish allowed another prominent foreigner into their South American llanos. That person was baron Alexander von Humboldt. I believe at the time he was not yet baron, but does deserve the title. Every educated American and European knows that name; there may be exceptions. The baron was a Prussian naturalist and much more. He became the father of modern geography and --except for Napoleon-- the best known European of his time.

                I believe that Humboldt told this story of his time in the llanos: At one camp his host was so disturbed early one night, that the baron to felt the disturbance. Unknown to either of them, in the dry packed earth directly below the hosts hamaca, a very large alligator-like animal was hibernating through the dry season. Just as his host was composed for sleep, something disturbed the crocodilian. To the surprise of all, it erupted noisily from the earth. However it soon left, with an evident air of disgust, to find a more peaceful resting place. The camp too was soon resting peacefully.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                            RCS