This newsletter presents a small collection of geographic, historical, archaeological, cultural and/or artistic articles that have caught my attention. As a fantasy writer, I am fascinated by the nooks and corners of our real world and constantly find inspiration for my own world building and storytelling — it’s my hope that these newsletters are an inspirational resource for other writers, too, or for anyone who wants to learn more about our world.
As a Californian, I’m used to the earth shifting under my feet — earthquakes, of course, and the threat of mudslides in the rainy season. The thought of it being cold enough to crack the earth, though? Terrifying! I have been saving articles about interesting things for over a decade — a fact that made my recent transition from Evernote to Notion somewhat harrowing — and one of the oldest notes I have in there is about frost quakes. Given the cold weather afflicting much of the U.S. right now, I thought it was a timely topic for this week’s newsletter. Unfortunately, the link I had saved is now defunct, so I had to look up another source for you, and, as it turns out, there have been actually quite a lot of frost quakes reported in the last week or two, so this is very timely indeed.
The possibility of ancient politicians editing several hundred years into the historical record is also slightly terrifying. While I know the invented Middle Ages theory has been debunked, it still fascinates — I mean, how do we know, really? What if all the historians working on debunking it are part of the conspiracy, too? Unlikely, I know, but it seems like a rich playground for fiction, and I’m all about that.
And, for a non-terrifying interlude, please enjoy the chorus of coyotes from the hills of Southern California below!
Time Bandits
The phantom time hypothesis is the brainchild of Heribert Illig, a German publisher and amateur historian who gained attention following the publication of his controversial 1996 bestseller Das erfundene Mittelalter: Die grösste Zeitfälschung der Geschichte, which translates to The Invented Middle Ages: The Greatest Time-Falsification in History.
During his investigation, Illig compared the dating of the Julian calendar (implemented by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C.) to that of the currently used Gregorian calendar (introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 A.D.). He claims that, by his calculations, some 297 years appear to be missing.
But Illig doesn’t stop there. He then argues that these missing years were secretly added as part of a plot hatched by Pope Sylvester II and Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. Living during the 8th century A.D., these medieval elites allegedly wanted to speed up time so that their respective reigns would correspond with the year 1000: exactly one millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ.
Read more: “Phantom time hypothesis”: Did a power-hungry pope fabricate centuries of history?
Let the Wild Rumpus Start
We are collecting the sounds of woodlands and forests from all around the world, creating a growing soundmap bringing together aural tones and textures from the world’s woodlands.
The sounds form an open source library, to be used by anyone to listen to and create from.
Hear more: Sounds of the Forest
The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway
Frost quakes (or "cryoseisms," if you want to get technical), are seismic events that typically occur in Earth’s boreal or cold, temperate regions. But don't be fooled by the name—although they exhibit rumbles and booms like earthquakes and can crack soil, building foundations, and roads, they're driven by weather rather than the motion of tectonic plates. They occur whenever water-saturated soil rapidly freezes, then expands, leading to the fracturing of underground soil and rock.
Another significant difference between these two events is that frost quakes are typically small-magnitude events and may not register on seismographs at all. Frost quakes are also highly localized and, in some cases, don't travel more than a few hundred yards away from the point of origin. They generally occur between midnight and dawn, the coldest part of the night, so it's no wonder why some people aren't familiar with them. However, if you've ever been awaken on a winter's night by what sounds like a fist banging against a wall, or the firing of a shotgun, it's possible you might have witnessed a frost quake and not even known it.
Read more: What Is a Frost Quake, and How Does One Occur?
Featured Artist
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