There Is A Lot We Can Learn

Our History contains valuable information about us

We profit by careful updating of our knowledge. We can benefit by being open to learning about our early doings and the early happenings around us. We are very capable of improving our judgements. There is that to be learned from our pre-history which can contribute to our survival and wellbeing

History: An Intro

An Introduction to this growing history site

                As of  Saturday July 7th of 2023 there are 150 posts for you here. Check out a few of them and tell what you would like to see more. There is a comments app just below each post. I enjoy reading comments on the content of a post and really like hearing from you.

                I intend to make time to add some history and prehistory timeline items on the independent pages of this site. You can find the list of Pages in the left hand column.

                 

                 These history essays deal with history of a variety of sorts. Can geological time be history? I may call it so here. I may call some archaeological work history to. I am now doing so.

                Examples of history you may find include: World History. Ancient History, Pre-History,  Irish History,  U.S. History, Volcanism and comet History, the nature of history, and like that.            

                There are those who deprecate history itself. So common is this deprecation that the expression "That's history." has become deprecatory. Those who do deprecate it, often have very good reasons for doing so.

                That which happened this morning is history. That is, it is history when someone can tell me about it, or when I witness it and tell you about it. Basically, it seems that history is that told about what has happened. I suspect that there are historians who would not find this simplification agreeable. 

                By attending to a history, one may not only learn what happened, but also how it happened and other potentially useful information. History can be felt as the pleasure of a good story. Even a history, badly told can contain useful info. Many are finding a lot of history enjoyable and interesting.

                Some say that experience is the best teacher and that history is a accounting of our experience

                This history business is not always easy. For example, many would agree that a history not told be a historian is just a story. Then again a true story might be thought a history. But then again there are historians who are falsifiers. Not easy.

                A lot more can be said and is said about history. As an example it is said that historians record and present history in accord with their own worldviews and perspectives. Some record it as the see it. More try to make sense of histories told by others. A great many historians embrace truth and reality, in accord with how they have seen it and understood it. I believe that their interest in reality is great. 

                I believe that you could be a historian. When you value evidence, know a true story, and have a realistic imagination, you may be a pretty good one. However, many will call you a story teller, unless you have documents as your principle source of evidence. 

                Many professional historians tend to examine the nature of changes as an important part of their work. The examine all sorts of changes: cultural, economic, technological and many more.

                History is not a science. It has an immense number of variables, yet has no laboratory. Historians do have the advantage of hindsight and they use that advantage. They also find help in the questions they entertain. Such as: "How did we get into this mess?" and "Why did that happen?" At other times they test their ability to suspend judgement and try to place themselves in the context of the moment.

                As I think about it, there seems to be a very great deal to learn about the doing of history. I may write more as I begin to learn more. In the meantime I will try to share a good story or two and a few of the curiosities of the past. Historians have been called antiquarians; doesn't that have a romantic ring.                                                                                                                     

                                                                
 Mago Bill Keeps Me Seeing History in a Slightly Different Way  

 

                Mago Bill is a nickname which I choose to give my paternal great grandfather. I have used the name Mago Bill on several blogs because it names a source of inspiration for me. It has inspired me to write a variety of history posts for you. Nearly all of these inspired post are of history, prehistory, and a bit more.

                This blog is new and does not have a Mago Bill title. However, because Mago inspires: this history blog, a number history and prehistory timelines, because my vision of him inspires many of my thoughts on history, and much of my historic and prehistoric research, it seems appropriate to mention him here.

                My sister, the family genealogist, discovered ample documentation of his existence and that the name he most often used in the United States was M. William Sheehan. Soon we discovered evidence that the "M" was for Mago; a name even more unusually in the US then than it is now.

                In Ireland Mago, as a given name, has had several periods of some popularity. For me, William became Bill. Thus the name Mago Bill came to personify my inspiration for several blogs and much research.

                Spanish speaking friends of mine told me that the Spanish word "mago" means magician in English. Some of the same friends tell me that the Three Kings or Three Wise Men, we are told brought gifts to the baby Jesus, were called magos and that each one may be called mago.

                I have learned that the name Mago was an important family name among Carthaginian Phoenicians while Rome was young. Later some of the family Mago were close to Hannibal, a name you may recognize. 

                Carthaginian traders and navigators came to Ireland to trade for tin and other goods. They they brought so much knowledge and talk of the name Mago with them that it so impressed some individuals, that they named their male offspring Mago.

                "Mago" has more history to be told and I may very well tell some of it here on this history blog. You may have already found that this blog contains prehistory, archaeology, geological history, and a bit more, in addition to my idea of normal history.

                 Thank you for your visit and for reading this Page. For your pleasure, make some time to review the Posts on this blog.

                There is still much more about Mago Bill on the Mago Bill  web site.

                

More Jottings About History on This Blog

 

                      History With RCS: deals with history of a variety of sorts. Can geological time be history? I may call it so here.

                    American History, which will mostly deal with the history of the United States of America.

                    World history, beginning about 4000 BC and continuing to about 2000 AD.

                    Pre-History beginning about 4000 BC and ending, some say, where no more evidence of humans is found.

    

An Introduction to These History posts

                The following is a sort of history you might find on this page in the future. I have my biases. For example, Irish history seems so important to me I may put it on a completely different Page which I may call Ireland and Irish.

                There are those who deprecate history itself. So common is this deprecation that the expression "That's history." has become deprecatory.

                That which happened this morning is history. That is, it is history when someone can tell me about it, or when I witness it and tell you about it. Basically, it seems that history is that told about what has happened. I suspect that there are historians who would not find this simplification agreeable. 

                By attending to a history, one may not only learn what happened, but also how it happened and other potentially useful information. History can be felt as the pleasure of a good story. Even a history, badly told can contain useful info. Many are finding a lot of history enjoyable and interesting.

                Some say that experience is the best teacher and that history is a accounting of our experience

                This history business is not always easy. For example, many would agree that a history not told be a historian is just a story. Then again a true story might be thought a history. But then again there are historians who are falsifiers. Not easy.

                A lot more can be said and is said about history. As an example it is said that historians record and present history in accord with their own worldviews and perspectives. Some record it as the see it. More try to make sense of histories told by others. A great many historians embrace truth and reality, in accord with how they have seen it and understood it. I believe that their interest in reality is great. 

                I believe that you could be a historian. When you value evidence, know a true story, and have a realistic imagination, you may be a pretty good one. However, many will call you a story teller, unless you have documents as your principle source of evidence. 

                Many professional historians tend to examine the nature of changes as an important part of their work. The examine all sorts of changes: cultural, economic, technological and many more.

                History is not a science. It has an immense number of variables, yet has no laboratory. Historians do have the advantage of hindsight and they use that advantage. They also find help in the questions they entertain. Such as: "How did we get into this mess?" and "Why did that happen?" At other times they test their ability to suspend judgement and try to place themselves in the context of the moment.

                As I think about it, there seems to be a very great deal to learn about the doing of history. I may write more as I begin to learn more. In the meantime I will try to share a good story or two and a few of the curiosities of the past. Historians have been called antiquarians; doesn't that have a romantic ring.

                This seems more than enough of a ramble for now, almost. Remember the "comments" app is available for your additions, corrections, praise, and comments.

                Thank you for your visit. Return and see if you can find some peculiar prehistory.

                                                                           

    

 Ireland and the Irish have history with far reaching connections. Don't we all? Yes, we probably do.

               Mago Bill is a nickname which I choose to give my paternal great grand father. I have used the name Mago Bill on several blogs because it names a source of inspiration for me. It has inspired me to write a variety of history posts for you; most recently and on the Mago Bill site. Nearly all of these inspired post are of history, prehistory, and a bit more.

                This blog is new and does not have a Mago Bill title. However, because Mago inspires: this history blog, a number history and prehistory timelines, because my vision of him inspires many of my thoughts on history, and much of my historic and prehistoric research, it seems appropriate to mention him here.

                My sister, the family genealogist, discovered ample documentation of his existence and that the name he most often used in the United States was M.William Sheehan. Soon we discovered evidence that the "M" was for Mago; a name even more unusually in the US then than it is now.

                In Ireland Mago, as a given name, has had several periods of some popularity. For me, William became Bill. Thus the name Mago Bill came to personify my inspiration for several blogs and much research.

                Spanish speaking friends of mine told me that the Spanish word "mago" means magician in English. Some of the same friends tell me that the Three Kings or Three Wise Men, we are told brought gifts to the baby Jesus, were called magos and that each one may be called mago.

                I have learned that the name Mago was an important family name among Carthaginian Phoenicians while Rome was young. Later some of the family Mago were close to Hannibal, a name you may recognize. 

                Carthaginian traders and navigators came to Ireland to trade for tin and other goods. They they brought so much knowledge and talk of the name Mago with them that it so impressed some individuals, that they named their male offspring Mago.

                "Mago" has more history to be told and I may very well tell some of it here on this history blog. You may have already found that this blog contains prehistory, archaeology, geological history, and a bit more, in addition to my idea of normal history.

                 Thank you for your visit and for reading this Page. For your pleasure, make some time to review the Posts on this blog.

                For now, bye.

 

 

                                            RCS

 

 

 

The Real Mago Bill and other Old Stuff leading to History With RCS                                       

                    My sister Gerry, the family genealogist, discovered ample documentary evidence of his existence after the death of our parents. As I remember she first discovered his name as M. William Sheehan. However, we discovered evidence that the "M" was for Mago. He seemed to have found it too unusual to use comfortably in the US, but did not want to give it up.

                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   RCS

 

 

 

 

                 

 RCS

Archaic Mound-Building Tradition: Beginning in the midst of what there is to know of Indians

 History With RCS, archaeology: Dig into Mississippi, USA

                Archaeologists are doing fruitful fieldwork around the world and that includes the Mound Builder Tradition sites of North America. These field workers continue to bring us fine, well organized information about North American prehistory from 1492 AD to about 5,000 BC, with glimpses into the more distant past. 

                An Archaeologist by the name of Dr. Joe Sanders ("Call me Joe") is one who has led us to look more closely at the evidence of a key part of the Mound Building  tradition in the lower Mississippi River drainage area. A productive focus while leaving out much of the area and time of ancient North American earthwork cultures. I hope to post about them.

                This post will reach toward 6,000 years ago. Here we start with the careful work of Sanders. He was reviewed work on the lower Mississippi and done much original work on known sites there. His work has validated and extended earlier work. 

                I'll start by saying that he obtained calibrated radio carbon datings of 3,700 BC and 3,000 BC at Hedgpeth and Frenchman's Bend as well as at Watson Break sites, according with my notes. That takes us back to more than 5,700 years ago. Pretty good, but that limits our excursion into the past. However, from this point looking into the past some of us can catch a glimpse of long distant commerce and of men hunting giant animals some call mega fauna or mega mammals.

                The sites I have mentioned are proving, through Sanders and others, to be representative of widespread construction of similar mounds and other earthworks in what are now the U.S. states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida. The main site at Watson Break was begun about 4,000 BC and abandoned about 2,800 BC. That is, it appears to be a culture which lasted about 1,000 years longer than has the United States. Sanders dating seems sound. Others have dated this group of sites to about between 4,500 BC to 2,400 BC. 

 

About the nature of these "Mound Builders"                

                Some have said that they were well organized chiefdoms. They had no pottery, but did have baked clay objects. They also had stone receptacles which may have been used for cooking. They were excellent hunters, fishermen, and harvesters of nature. They also left some clues that they may have practiced the beginnings of horticulture. These are kinds of information that are gathered  by archaeologists.

                Most of the sites of this tradition were on, or very near wetlands. The warmer dryer interval from about 7,000 BC to 2,500 BC may well have resulted in population concentrating in wet lands. Bones at Watson Break showed signs of butchering and cooking, so meat seems to have been on the menu. The bones of deer, opossum, squirrels, turkey, and raccoon were common. Could these have been leavings of later visitors?  

                These Mound Builders did take fresh water fish, probably with net and hook. They seem to have avoided crawfish! There is evidence that the processed an ate hickory nuts, black walnuts, and hazelnuts. We are learning more about these people who lived as much as 6,000 years ago. 

                Found in these specific mounds were vessels of soft stone, such as soap stone, which may have been used for cooking. However, ground roasting and steaming were probably more common. Domesticated cultigens may have been eaten. The cultivated may have included squash, maygrass, sunflower, sump-weed, and more.   

                The many fire cracked rocks found at the sites suggest that they may have been heated and used for cooking. I have heard of early native Americans using this rock cookery with water in tightly woven baskets. We no not have evidence of our mound people using woven basketry. I have head of ancient Europeans cooking a large animal in a sort of wood lined earthen bath filled with water. Well heated rocks were added over time to do the cooking.

                At the Watson Break site a very large number of unbroken snail shells were found, suggesting that they hand been steamed and the flesh removed without breaking the shell. Similar shells were used to make necklaces. Not Sanders nor anyone I know of was shown evidence of trade from these specific sites, but other mound sites in the area have. Shells and shell jewelry were often a trade item, so we may yet find evidence of trade, even long range trade from the Watson Break sites.  

                Around "our" three sites and other similar earthworks sites, articles such as small stone tools for cutting, drilling, scraping, as well as Middle Archaic points were also found. The points were probably used for hunting and possibly for weapons.

                At WB site, fired earthen objects were found, as well as bifaced stone of local materials. "Bifaced" usually refers knives or points sharpened from both sides. "Points" usually refers to arrow heads and spear points.Now burials  were found at the sites. It is significant that many mounds were not originally meant to be places for burial.

                An article found at the WB site which has been considered as defining of the tradition. That article is a micro-drill. They were small, with tapered ends; many showing rotary ware markings. Drilled chert beads were found. Red Ocher was present. Also 30 kilograms of fired earth objects were found shaped as cubes, spheres, tablets, and cylinders; game markers? Some of the info here leads me to suspect that these were trading people, but no evidence of goods traded from far has been found to impress anyone that I have heard of.

                    When you consider what you have read so far, I believe that you are likely to have learned  things new to you about archaeology.

                I am a bit surprised that no good evidence of trade or exchange has been yet found. At some other mound sites I believe there is much much evidence of trade before and after 4,000 BC has been found. But I am willing to be corrected.

                These Watson break people, still mostly unknown to us, appear to have kept the area enclosed by the mounds clear of debris. That they built in spurts gives us some hints about their thinking. It seems that the timing of their building spurts coincided with El Nino happenings. "El Nino happenings" are a certain repeated climate effect. El Nino and La Nina are climate patterns which cause changes in rainfall and temperature sometimes lasting for more than a year and causing other environmental changes. They seem to have their start in the Pacific ocean. 

                When we begin to say that we see a cultural continuance back to the last Ice Age and suggestions of advanced culture flourishing in those times, that we see Watson Break people as descendants of Ice Age people and even of a pre-Ice-Age culture! our listeners deserve to see very convincing evidence! Some such evidence is beginning to gather, but not enough to convince many. There is a lot to learn, believing that a seeker may find and ab asker may be answered keeps us searching.

                Amateurs can still bring tentatively productive sites to the attention of experts. Intelligent and practiced experts bring us useful interpretations of the available facts and evidence. There is a lot to learn and there are many will to do so. There are many who believe that the better we understand our past the better our chances of thriving in the future.

                Thank you for reading and many thanks to those who are organizing and interpreting the available information in useful ways.

                                                                            RCS