Baltic Sea: People, Geography, and Prehistory

    The People, The Land, and the Sea

 Toward an Exploration of Baltic pre-History

 A bit of geography. 

                    The Baltic Sea has been a tremendously important feature on the face of the Earth and on the course of our history. It has been called a brackish  inland sea the geological history of which is unclear. The surrounding territory has been said to have been populated Scythian and Slave and an indefinite people called Celts. Their cultures are said to have been influenced by their geography a lot of human migration, and by Amber. I am about to write just a bit about the geography of the area. I haven't chosen a map, but you may find any map of the Sea which includes some of the surroundings land could be useful and even interesting to you as we begin to explore the area.

                    This inland sea is marginal to the Atlantic Ocean at its northeast margin. It might be said to face west. This Baltic Sea drains into the Atlantic  through the Danish Straights by way of the Kattegat, Great belt and the Little Belt. The Sea includes geographic features such as the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the gulf of Riga and the Bay of Gdansk.

                    Kattegat is a area of shallow sea bounded by the the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish straights and the Baltic sea to the south, and the shore of Sweden to the east. Bothnia seems to have begun as an adjective referring to lowland shores. Even so, the Gulf of Bothnia is not shallow, but the land beneath it is rising from the release of its Ice Age burden of ice. It can still freeze over in the winter.

                    If you are dizzy from all the geographic references, take a look at the maps above. No need to worry as we go on our geographic orientation will improve. Take a breath there are more such references to come, but now with admixture of history and pre-history.

                    I still have more to learn geography to learn of the Bothnia Gulf, the gulf of Finland. If you know anything relating to the gulf of Bothnia, please tell us about it. I am fairly sure that it is important in the stories and histories of both Finland and Sweden.  A 15th century navigator may have referred to it as he Mare Gotticus. Ottar, a Viking age adventurer, in the 9th century may have referred to it as the Kven Sea.

 

                    Bothnia Bay may be though of as a northern extension of the gulf of Bothnia. Both Bay and Gulf still freeze over in the winter. 

Finland

                    The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost branch of the the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland on the north, Estonia on the south, and to Saint Petersburg, Russia in the east where the river Neva drains into it. Other major cities on the present day gulf are Helsinki and Tallinn.

                    I am checking facts in Wikipedia here, but you can be fairly sure that errors are mine. Please note and/or correct them in the "comments" app below. You can make comments about content there too. 

                    In the post Ice Age of Finland the Gulf was preceded by the Littorina Sea. the level, of that sea was about 30 feet above present sea level. By some 4,000 years ago the Littorina sea had receded. 

Prehistory People                    

                    Archaeologist have found the lands along the Gulf of Finland began to be settled by about 9,000 BC, just after the last Ice Age. Coming back toward our days, as early as 1905, eleven Neolithic settlements had been found along the this gulf. Those settler have been referred to as survivors. Early culture on the lands around this gulf include: Finnic, Eesti, Votes/Chud, Izorians, and Korela.

                    We have begun to consider people! prehistoric people!

                    We have a lot to learn about people and little time to do it. There is considerable evidence that between about 700 AD to about 900 AD, East Slavs, Ilman Slavs, and Krivichs lived along the Neva river and the Gulf of Finland. The people of these cultures practiced agriculture and animal husbandry. Between about 700 Ad and 1,200 AD the river Neva and the Gulf of Finland were an import part of the inland water way between Scandinavia and the Byzantine empire. From early times Norsemen practiced viking on these waterways.

                    From 850 AD when the Gulf was held by Russians and to 1229 when the Danes took control we begin to have much historic information available. during this period the city of Reval was established on what has become the area of Tallinn. There is a lot to find about this Baltic area.  Historic finds of the times after about 750 become more abundant. 

                    Tell me of your interests in the area and I will try to publish about them. Search History With RCS and it is possible you will find that I have already published something of interest.

Gulf of Riga

                    The gulf of Riga lies between Latvia and Estonia. We can learn more of this Gulf through a study of the histories and pre-histories of these two countries. A look at the histories of the cities of Riga, Parnu, Jumala, and Kuressaare could help too. If you would like me to publish a work of yours on these cities or counties tell me so and maybe we can work something out. I could live long enough to learn enough about their earliest days to write something, but probably won't.

            

Bay of Gdansk

                    Just now the Bay of Gdansk is taking my interest. It's history may include some of the histories of my Prussian , Polish and German ancestors. The  Vistula river flows into it. Some consider the Bay as widening to include Russia Kaliningrad and the coast of Lithuania. 

                    There be Kursenieki on this bay. They have been there long.. They call their language Curonian. Some see the language as related to Latvian. They have been called Prussian Latvians. They are a mystery to which their language may be a clue. They are certainly not a geographically isolated people. They are on a well visited sea coast and near the mouth of a long navigated river and so have seen much trade and commerce.

Geography

                    I am including a lot of geography in this little essay. As geography does affect culture, I am introducing the Baltic Sea ant its surroundings as a backdrop and the grounding for the people who have lived there. I also want you to know a local for the people and places I speak of.

Denmark and Jutes

                    Let me take you back to where Baltic waters meet the Atlantic waters near Denmark. Kattegat, the name of the little sea area near the Baltic entrance to the Atlantic, may be of Swedish origin, so we are near Sweden too. I seem to remember a queen Kattegat, This sea is certainly a place to be Scandinavian. The Jutlandic Peninsula juts out here. It is part of Jutland. Long ago this same peninsula was called the Cimbric or Cimbrian peninsula. Now it is part of Denmark; Jutes a and Cimbri used to live there.

                    Jutes have been named among powerful Germanic invaders of England. I might call them Scandinavians, or something else, but I have a lot to learn. It does seem that others have some confusion about the area, but there is a reason the peninsula is called Jute. There was much trade and commerce in the area before and after the Roman Empire. Anyway there that peninsula is, at the Kattegat Sea not very far from Denmark.

Cimbrian, Cimbri

                    Wait a minute, the Cimbri, an ancient people were also said to have lived on this peninsula. We humans do get around and it has been said that which  gets around goes around. What we have called the Jute peninsula has been called the Cimbrian peninsula. The Cimbri have been thought to be Gaulish or Celtic. Celtic to me has come to be much like German was to the Romans. Romans called everyone to the far west of them German. I of have yet to see good archaeological evidence or historical documentation of who the earlier inhabitants of the peninsula were.

                    It does seem that there is evidence of there being a long period of annual migrations from the Baltic area and England and Ireland to the Iberian peninsula and back with the seasons. That stirs the pot. It sounds right and amazing at the same time. There was even a  Cimbrian military expedition against 1st century Rome. Who were those Cimbrians? Could they have been some early Norsemen doing some large scale viking?

                    Some say that there were Belgians of Cimbrian origin, but I see no evidence for them being called Germans other than the Romans calling almost every one in the area German.

                    Did Cimbrians reach Ireland? How can we recognize or identify Cimbrians? I am not certain  what Celts were, but people whom seem a bit like Cimbrians, but were called Irish Celts, Joined Phoenicians to resist Rome.

                    Scythian has been called Cimerian. Are Cimerians, Cimbrians? I believe that Cimbrian were trading people and Scythians were great traders from before their Hellenization. Who can help me to get any of this straightened out?

                   The End. The end of this essay. I hope to learn more and to write more on these topics before I die. Please use the "comments'' section below to participate in the learning or writing. Blogs are useful for their interactivity.

                    On this same blog site check these posts:

                               

           

                   Thank you for reading.

                                                                                 rcs

                                                  

               

 

                 

Watson Break Mound Builders

A Vantage Point From  Which to Begin to View North American Pre-History

                I am using the Watson Break archaeological site as a beginning point to look at the prehistory of North America and at the people of that time. There is a lot to learn from what we learn about the pre-Columbian people of North America. This essay is a very brief  introduction to that which we are learning of these people.

History Can Provide Some Useful View Points

                With a bit of research we have learned from post-Columbian persons such as Hernando de Soto and his 1540 to 1542 travers of what is now the U.S. southeast and from other early Spanish visitors and colonists. They saw earthworks, many of which have been called mounds. We have also learn from the later French voyageurs and from men like the French artist wo saw Indian activity with an artistic eye, with perhaps, a view to later sales. A caption on a 1590 of his in what is now northeast Florida read, "Sometimes the deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it." His painting may have been exact, but his caption is likely to have been written with more humor than understanding. He saw mounds as did voyageurs and as did Spanish explorers, colonists and others.

                    The early Spanish and French who traveled up and down the Mississippi river and its large tributaries like the Missouri and Ohio rivers, one hundred and 200 years before the English, were privileged to see many mounds and other earth works still in use and cared for.

                    After about 1670 priests and others traveling the rivers were finding that most of the mounds were were becoming grown over with grass and some brush. However, some sites, like those at what was to become the present site of the U.S. city of saint Louis were still able to impress them. A very few, like those at Natchez were still occupied. So occupied that French colonists found it necessary to remove Indians by force.

                    Other information on Mound Builders may be gathered from writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Haven, and John Wesley Powell. 

                    Archaeology has become an Important source of Information. Today archaeological sites, interpretation, and speculation is hot.

                    These days there is a great deal of fresh new archaeological information available. There is also more ethnological information available. You can find more interesting historical, archaeological, and pre-historic information here on this blogsite.

Watson Break Site

                    Some of the newer archaeological information deals with the Watson Break site. This site is in present da Ouachita Parish, Louisiana. It dates from what has been called the North American Archaic Period. What is now Ouachita Parish has been home to many succeeding Native American groups in the thousands of years before Europeans began to settle there. People of the Marksville culture, Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, and Plaquemine culture built villages and earthwork mounds throughout the area. A notable example is the Filhiol Mound site located on a "natural" levee of the Ouachita river.

                    The name Ouachita is the Spanish version of the Indian people who lived in northeastern Louisiana along the Ouachita river and were known in the Ouachita mountains of the State of  Arkansas.

                    Watson Break earthworks date to about 5,400 BP, which is about 3,500 BC. The site seems to have been abandoned around 2,800 BC.

A Little About the People of Watson Break 

                    The arrangement of mounds at WB was constructed over centuries by what is thought to be a hunter harvester society. It is located near Watson Bayou.

in the flood plain of the Ouachita river. By the way, bayous might be constructs of Native Americans. The Break site consists of of eleven mounds connected by ridges and causeways to form a large oval, nearly 900 feet across. Researchers believe that it is older than the Poverty Point site. Poverty point is worth writing about. We can write about Poverty Point when you comment.

                    Watson Break people seems to have planned and organized work forces to accomplish their earthworks.

                    You can find more about  Native Americas on this blog and hope to publish more from time to time. You can tell me about content you would like to see here in "comments." I really like it when you offer help and suggestions. Have in mind that when you have corrections, additions, questions, or feel like making a comment, there is a ''comments'' app just below.

                    Thank you for reading!

                                                                                                rcs  

Rio Before 1900: A Pictorial History

It's all part of history: Informed speculation, peeks into the past, paintings, drawings, photographs, and history talk all centered on Rio before 1900.

Enjoy

                                                                                                                        rcs

Europeans, Vampires, Republicans, and Democrats.

                     Perhaps we are at the point of losing our right to take care of ourselves, which is our right to self-governance, because we do not know who we are. We do not know each other because we do not practice good organization and communication. While we do not talk among our selves well a co-operate well, how are we to know who we are? While we did not do well together that which we were doing together 40 years ago, and do not remember much of what we were doing 300 years ago, and practically less what was happening to us only 2,000 years ago, and are not even sure how we nearly lost it all, what Have we decided to do to take care of ourselves tomorrow? How do we intend to send to participate in our governance to give our next generation a good chance of surviving and thriving? Are we acting like we don't care or pleading ignorance?  I think that most of us do care most of the time. Ignorance is not an excuse. We mostly learn by doing and paying attention to that which we do. Let's do something now. We can attend to or doing and to the results and then use our observations to make our doings good. You and I do not have too much to do because their are millions to help us. We are the people. Even just you and I personally co-operating with 30 or 40 need not have much to do.

                    The more we are careless of ourselves the more we are likely to become slaves of a new kind. The kind that are not valued, even as slaves, because most no longer have any use for slaves. They become almost at type of sub-human who have not practiced self-governance and cannot even imagine self-governance, much less than practice it. I am talking about us. I still have some memory of an us which practiced much more civic organization and who, at least practiced local self governance, and some organization to protect ourselves from some of the natural depredations from farther afield. 

                    When we care so little for ourselves that we seem careless of ourselves, might not others finally take advantage of us, or just push aside from the goods of this world and Earth. We remembered ideas of fairness and justice and concepts of governance to support fairness and justice among us. We called those ideas republicanism and democracy and loved them enough to pay dearly for them. Many of us did much toward the development of democratic republics.

                    We had a good game going. It has a kind of great rally. Then, often real reasons, we dropped the ball, then lost it, and then forgot it. Some of our great grandfathers did not learn about about self-governance well. A look at history can tell you why.  Our grandfathers learned a bit about it, but began to see it as something in the hands of others and did not support their schools in teaching its nature and practice. Our parents scarcely imagined supporting our schools in teaching us our history or that which once seemed to be our birth rights. Some us are learning some of our history now, and perhaps a few more are remembering that we are collectively responsible for taking care of ourselves. Some say it is never to late to learn and never to late to value our responsibly. I wonder if one dinosaur ever told another dinosaur that they would never lose their position and perhaps their very being. 

                    Some learned that Vlad was bad vampire. It seems that the truth of the matter is, he represents an example of the best of many of, perhaps all, of us of European extraction. He did much to save Europeans from invasions from the East. But more importantly he represented those Europeans who were not crushed by Greco-Roman culture of classical times after the fall of the Late Bronze Age, but learned from it and learned to adapt it to their own benefit. A part of that new culture to which they adapted seemed congenial to many of them. It came with the name "democracy." "Democracy" gathered and named a whole little bundle of ideas and values they already had, and clarified them. Vlad may have never been a republican or democrat, but he was one of those who adapted Greco-Roman culture to greater Europe. He even came to speak a Latinized language.

                The classical culture of the longish Greco-Roman have been heading toward Vlad by 2,000 BC or not long after the fall of the Late Bronze Age cultures. It continued to reach him and beyond to as recently as the recent 1400s! That culture touches us less, but still with some meaning to this very day. It seems we have had to reclarify the meaning of democracy a couple of time since Vlad's time. Maybe we can revivify it again today. We need to take up our responsibility in some way soon, or it is likely that we will believe that we no longer deserve the power of responsibility and freedom. Our continued loss of the "weness," which we have called unity, will, for a time, be more unpleasant than that we have already begun to experience.

                When we fail to enjoy our responsibility we lose our civic strength, energy, and power and finally our being. We could lose our all, even with good use of our power of responsibility, but with responsibility our power to survive and thrive is strongly supported. 

                Please help me to proof read this piece.

               Let hear from you. I love to hear comments on content.

               Thank you for reading!

                                                                                                                            rcs

            

Indians, Native Americans, Archaic Mound-Builders

                     We can gain much curious knowledge by beginning to explore the archaic mound-building tradition of North America. You are beginning to do so by way of a normal every day exploration right now. 

                    Archaeologists and others continue to do much fruitful field work and contemplation around our world at an accelerating rate. That activity includes the work around the Mound-Builder Tradition sites of North America. Their understanding of  who we are grows, and they are sharing that understanding more widely than ever. They continue to make fine, well organize information available to you and I.

                    A significant portion of that opening, meaning, and understanding deals with North American prehistory and history. I believe that you are capable of considering a broad sweep of time and of bringing more meaning into your life by doing so. Here, in this essay, I hope to begin an exploration of human being in North America from about 5,000 BC up to about 300 AD. Almost six thousand  years of human doings and happenings may seem a lot to consider, but those doings and happenings have be going on for over 60,000 years. I fact, many of a scientific bent, have come to agree that our goings on may have begun more than 200,000 years ago; which may make 5,000 or 6,000 years not seem an enormous stretch of time.

                But, then a close consideration of just a week of your life could make a lot of history. Then again the consideration of a certain day of your life can make a lot of history. Than again, such consideration might make one more of a psychologist than a historian. Then again, (again,) we don't have to be pigeon-holed to put more meaning and understanding into our life.

                Okay lets get on to some details and examples. We can go on with our exploration, hoping and aiming to get closer to reality, while probably we don't know anyone who has been there. Still. I believe that we can experience, think that experience over a bit, and become better human beings for doing so.

                Not just piles of dirt: The archaeologist Dr. Sanders has led some humans to look more closely into the the evidence of the Mound Building tradition. There is more to learn about the "nature of evidence" and even about the word "tradition'' as used by archaeologists, but who can learn about everything in one paragraph? 

                In this case Sanders looked at the evidence in the Mississippi River drainage area which included, for him, the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers and beyond. Sanders hasn't told me so but to me he seems to be one of the conservative and careful experts pointing us to times beyond Noah. But that will concern us little here.

                Here begins our little dip into our past. We start with the careful work of Joe sanders and his work in the lower Mississippi River area where he has done much original work on know sites there. His work has validated and extended previous work which you could check out and tell us about.

                I have written a bit more about his related work and posted that writing on this blogsite. Three related archaeological sites are at Hedgpeth, Frenchman's Bend, and Watson Break. My notes tell me that Sanders obtained calibrated radio carbon dating human activity there back as far as 3,700 BC and 3000 BC. Adding 2000 AD to 3700 BC gives us a time of 5,700 years ago. That's getting close to the time of 6,000 years ago that I mentioned not far above. So that time is a sort of limit to this excursion into the past. However, from this point of view looking back one can glimpse evidence of long distance trade and commerce and man hunting giant animals we have called mega-fauna and mega-mammals.

                There is much more information available than the tiny examples I am sketching in here and we are finding more,  including world wide connections. So one might say, " The best is yet to come."  I am able to offer a few tasty morsels at a time in which I hope you will find some satisfaction and perhaps even seek more.

                The sites I have mentioned here are providing, through Dr. Sanders and others, to be representative of widespread construction of similar mounds and earthworks in what are now the 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 1,000 years longer than the United States has lasted. Sander's dating is sound. Others have dated this group of sites to from about 4,500 BC to 3,400 BC.

                You might want to keep in mind that there are also similar sites along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers drainage area all along the rivers north to the Great Lakes and beyond. The mounds were being looted by French, Spanish, and others for about 200 years before the existence of the U.S. and has continued until recent times. Among that which impressed looters were metals, the remains of men over seven feet tall, and other things.

                It is remarkable that a name can often tell us more about the namer than about the named. To me, the name "Mound Builders" less about the culture named and more about the knowledge of the namer. It now seems certain that the people in North America co-operated to build impressive earthworks as early as 4,000 BC. This began while they were hunter harvesters of the lands around them and were practicing very limited agriculture.

                These Mound Builders are said to have chiefdoms and well organized, They had no pottery, but did have backed clay objects. They were largely woods dwellers and worked, bone, antler, and stone. They imported a lot including shell, a little bit of copper and perhaps gold, and also some specialized stone. They also had stone receptacles which may have been use for cooking. Some cooking may have been done in basketry and even bark receptacles. This cooking was done by adding heated stones to water. They were excellent hunters, fishermen, and harvesters of nature. Sometimes that nature may have been groomed a bit by men nd women. They also traveled river and stream and perhaps beyond in dugout or birchbark canoes. As I have suggested they have left some clues that probable they practiced the beginnings of horticulture.

                Most sites of this tradition were on, or very near, wet lands. The climate dryer warming 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 part of the menu. The bones of deer, opossum, squirrels, turkey, and racoon were common. Could these have been leavings of later visitors? These Mound Builders did take fresh water fish, probably with hook, net, and trap. They seem to have avoided crawfish! There is evidence that they processed and ate hickory nuts, black walnuts, and hazelnuts. We continue to learn more about these people who lived 6,000 years ago.

                Found in these specific mounds which include Watson Break were vessels of soft stone, such as soapstone, which may have been used for cooking. However, ground roasting and steaming were probably more common. Domesticated cultigens may have been eaten. That which they may have cultivate included squash, maygrass, sunflower, sumo-weed, and more. The repetition of that which was cultivated at this time, may be due to the fact many people, including professional people in areas related to this topic, believed that such cultivation was extremely rare. This belief was not so rear not so many years ago.

                The many cracked rocks found at the sites suggests that they may have been heated and used for cooking. I believe that Stone Age people of this time were capable of finding and using stone rather resistant to such cracking. But then one cannot find stone which is not  there. There is much evidence that early native Americans used this stone cookery with water in tightly woven baskets. It seems that so far there is no evidence that these "mound people" were not using baskets. How many thousands  of years might a discarded basket remain in recognizable sight? I have heard of ancient Europeans(perhaps mega-mammal hunters?)cooking large animals in excavated, earthen, wood-lined hole filled with water. Well heated stone were added over time to do the cooking. Eating is a big deal, cooking to!

                Let's look some more about what seem to be true of these Watson Break people and their neighbors. At the W.B. site a very large number of unbroken snail shells were found suggesting that they had been steamed and the flesh removed without breaking the shell. Similar shells were used to make necklaces. We know of some early people who used such shell as a sort of money or in long distant trade.

                Around "our" three sites and other earthworks of similar tradition, artifacts such as small stone tools for cutting, drilling, and Middle Archaic points were also found.

                At the WB site, fired earthen ware objects were found, as well as bifaced stone of local materials. No burials were found at  the site. It is significant that some mounds were not meant to be places for burial.

                The micro-drill found at the WM site is considered as defining the tradition of that site. The many found were small, with tapered ends; showing rotary ware markings. A quantity of them were found associated with chert beads. Red ocher was also found associated with the drills! Also those with sanders found 30 kilograms of fired earth objects shaped as cubes, spheres, tablets and cylinders. Were these fired earth objects used in game and used as items of trade?

                I am a bit surprised that no good evidence of fairly large scale trade or exchange has been found at these sites. At other sites, I have been told, much evidence of trade before and after 4,000 BC has been found. I admit that I am not sure of the nature of that evidence. If you are privy to information about the exchange of goods at the approximate time we speak of along the Mississippi, please let us know.

                Other of information about the sites we are using as examples is that the people of WB appeared to have kept a specific area clear of debris. That area was enclosed by mounds. That they built in spurts over a long period time may give us some hints about their thinking. It seems that the timing of their building spurts coincided with El Nino happenings. El Nino and La Nina are climate patterns which cause changes in rainfall and temperature, sometimes lasting more than a year and causing other environmental changes. These pattern changes seem to have their start in the Pacific Ocean. There is plenty which we can learn.

                When I say that I see a cultural continuance back to the last Ice Age and suggestions of advanced cultures in those times, and that I see Watson Break people as decedents from this latest Ice Age you deserve some convincing evidence. That evidence is developing now. Not by me, but I intend to keep alert to its discovery and development. I hope to share my findings with you. Help me find developments. There is a lot being published on the internet.

                So evidence is beginning to be gathered, let's try to get some of it. Our interpretation of the evidence may be as good as or better than that of many others. There is lot to learn, but new information is being found, interpreted, and shared in ways people can understand. We are free to participate in that process. Believing that a seeker may find and an asker may be answered does not seem overly optimistic.

                Active amateurs can still bring tentative new archaeological sits to the attention of experts. Thoughtful and practiced experts can share useful interpretations of the available evidence with. We can get valuable information about who we are. We can learn about the movements of our Earth and our world and have better chance of surviving and thriving in the coming changes. We can practice doing so together.

                Thank you for reading. And thank you to those who are organizing the available information in increasingly useful ways, and sharing with us in meaningful ways.

                                                                                        Richard

         

                                      

  

Search This Blogsite for Better Results

               History With RCS now has well over one hundred essays on its first page

            For readers who are not familiar with the many search options available to them here, I will begin to to review some of them.

            It seems that blogs are so out of fashion that few remember how they may be fashioned. For example this blog is of three columns. I have used the central column as the place up to 400 essays or posts.

                An important function of the columns to the left and right of the central column is to offer you apps to help you find the essays which interest you. They are largely made up of search apps. However, they also contain other helpful apps.

             Let me begin with the column to your left on the main view of the page. On all of my blogs the this left hand column begins with the app which allows you to select the language in which to choose to read the post you select.

                Other apps you will find in this column may have a different order on each of the associated blogs. For example the next app might be "Associated Blog Sites to visit." To be transported to the one which interests you and be transported to it. The next app may be "Popular Posts." There you can find the names of up to four posts others have been finding interesting. Each name will be follow by a few words about it. click on that name and that post will appear. Next you may come to a title that reads "Pages." Click on one of the listings there and be taken to another page where you can find posts much like this one or different.

                The last listing in this column will usually be "Blog Archive." This can be a very useful blog for you. Use it to become familiar with the essays and other posts available on this blog site. You will see a list of years and months. Click on one and you will taken to all of the posts published in that period. All are interesting and usually contain some hard to find YouTube videos which YouTube allows me to show.

                The right hand column usually begins with a search app, perhaps with the  title "Search This Site." There is a little window in which you may enter a word or phrase and then click on the word "Search." Try it and see what happens.

                I will leave this little post here for a few weeks and then move it to "Pages." You are now on the home page.

                This is a good place from which to comment.

                                                                                            rcs

 

Well over 100 Essays Here

                        

                    How many essays, videos, and posts are there on this blogsite? How many of them have you explored or checked out? By the time you read this there is likely to be more. Also you may note that from time to time I add something, not by adding a new essay, video, or post. Rather I do as I just did today: add a few paragraphs to an older post. 

                    Also note that on one of our supplementary pages here There are six posts introducing these histories and one post on the nature of history itself.

                    I believe I will begin another introductory right here on the principle page of this site.

                    Take some time to explore this history site and some of the more than another dozen associated blogsites.

                    Really, check things out here; do some real exploration. My idea is to better our lives. It is possible to find  that which is pleasantly meaningful and satisfying. A few readers even find an occasional sort of humor here from time to time. 

                    Don't stop here. Take some time to look around.

                    Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                rcs

History Is You and Us Too

                     Your history is you.

                Our history is us.

                                We constantly move into the present to make more history.

              We are all history.

                History is all we are.

            All we know is history.

            All we understand is history.

            The way we interpret our experience is history.

                An important way we communicate our history to others is by making it a story.

            Most of our history is lost to us.

                Much of our history is encoded in our culture, in our language, in our actions.

                The way we interpret and understand is history.

                The way we learn and teach history is history.

                The way we understand history is mostly a matter of consciousness and there is much of which we are not conscious.

All that we know is history.

Without out history we would be less than many animals.

The King Arthur Legend and Evidence

 

                Myth, legend, evidence, lies, conspiracy, some great history; we are getting to the true story and a great story it is.

Not About Where Atlas Lived

                    The Atlas mountains are in north-west Africa not far from the Atlantic ocean. It now seems very likely that this area is the location of Atlantis. For now I accept that is best to take as the location of this capital city of seafarers. We are learn more about ourselves more rapidly then ever these days! 

The Incredible Journey of Moncacht Apé Across North America

If I had more time and energy I would like to get more information about all the native people mentioned. Travelers tales are interesting a do provide interesting clues to historians.

                                                                                                                rcs

The Ohlone

                            The Ohlone are from California. They have lived on the California coast from San Fransico bay to south of Santa Cruz. They have had a lot of relatives along the coast too, some called Lisan. They remember the earthquake which formed San Francisco Bay. That was bigger than the quake which caused San Fancisco to burn down. They and their relatives have lived in the area for a long time. Their ancesters passed down memories of being there since before "The Flood!"

                        While looking at old issue of the California magazine noted that University of California at Berkeley have been looking around the site of Quiroste, which was a large influencial Ohlone village at the time of discovery by Gaspar Portola. I understand that the Portola was more or less lost and unwell at the time. I also understand that the Oholone more or less saved their "discoverers."

                         Archaeological evidence shows that the area of Quiroste was successfuy inhabited from before 6,000 BC. So, it seems the Ohlone have been in what is now California for more than 8,000 years.

                        The Spaniards and early Californios called the Ohlne Costenyos. Oral histories and accounts from the early Mission Period seem to establish thatthe Quiroste site was widely known at that period as being an influential village rich in resources at that time.   

                        The Berkeley project aroud Quiroste has been in collaboration with modern tribes such as the Muwekma, Native land management practices are at thecore of the research project. The plan for 2011 was to restore the flora of the area to the conditions found in 1769. I wonder why and how.

                        Native land management practices are becoming more appreciated as a source of information that is looking to be more and more valuable to our agricultural and land management in general. This appreciation has been true not only to Berkeley, but to all of the Americas and to much of the world in general. We do not see much about it on TV nor have we demanded it their. There is a lot about it online and at our universities.

                    That which we learn from native peoples, history, and prehistory may help us to more sucessfully adapt to changes on and to our Earth. As those changes have become more rapid than we have been accustomed to, the quality of our adaptive skills become more important.

                    It looks like we can learn significant skills from tribal people from tribal people from around the word as well as from our ancient and not so anchient ancesters.

                    It is widely known, among those interested, that Native Americans encouraged a great number of natural plants for harvest. Perhaps hunter-harvesters can prove a more useful term than hunter-gatherers. As a small example, Native Americans of California, not far from Quiroste site, practiced techniques for encouraging the growth of deer grass and sedges forharvest. And Hazelnut trees were protected and nourished by American Indians over a wide area of North America, including California.

                   The spellcheck app has disappeared and I have been unable to get it back. Please feel free to use the "comments" application below to correct our spelling. I can use all the help I can get. There are still some interesting apps available here to aid your exploration of this history blog.

                    Thank you for reading. There are also some videos here to view.

                                                                                                      rcs 

King Arthur II and I, One of the videos.

 King Arthur II & Prince Madoc's voyage to America in AD 562. This You Tube video includes: 562 AD, Irish, Iceland, Vikings, and a trip. Where there is a II  there is likely to be an interesting I.                                                          

     

               Let's find the history in them both.  Some newly presented evidence about Irish presence in North America. Historians in Iceland have already told us that when "Vikings" arrived in Iceland that they found Irish there when they arrived. Now a powerful Welsh investigator is telling us much more. We have a lot to learn. Just learning to spell Arthur was not easy for me.

                                                                                                rcs