Buried in Time (and Sand): Uncovering Something Old and Something Older
Forest of Distraction #9
Though I majored in medieval studies as an undergrad, the older I get the more fascinated I grow with things that came before the middle ages — not Greek and Roman and Egyptian history so much as the parts of history that have been forgotten, or remembered only through the barest fragments of memory. A tower poking up from the sand. An unfamiliar name in an ancient ledger. A legend about a place that maybe never existed … except maybe it did?
I think it’s because I’m a fantasy writer and I can take scraps of forgotten culture and blend them together with my own imaginings without worrying so much about accuracy or appropriation. A lot of my invented worlds have forgotten civilizations lurking beneath the surface, too, cities and kingdoms obliterated by disaster, with only the occasional metaphorical bone rising to the surface to indicate there used to be something else here, someone else. The past stays in the past, though, my own little discourse about the rush of time, the impermanence of people, places and things, but the permanence of People, Places and Things. The more things change … you know the rest.
Uncovering the Black City
“Under the Mongols, the Tangut people were able to enjoy peaceful existence for nearly 150 years, until the Ming dynasty laid siege to the city in 1372. No one knows exactly how Khara-Khoto fell, but local legend states that the cunning Ming rulers diverted the Ejin River, the city's only water source, that flowed just outside the fortress thus denying the city’s troops and inhabitants of the life-giving elixir. As the Ming troops choked the city without ever needing to set foot inside of its walls, the people of Khara-Khoto realized that they must make a terrible choice: die of thirst, or face the Ming soldiers in combat.
“A Mongol military general named Khara Bator supposedly became so crazed by this plight that he murdered his wife and children before committing suicide. There is another version of the rumor that holds that Khara Bator made a breach in the northwestern corner of the city wall and escaped through it. When the Ming soldiers finally attacked, they slaughtered not only the remaining population but all the cattle and horses. After this defeat, Khara-Khoto was abandoned and fell into ruins.”
Read more: The Ruins of Khara-Khoto in the Middle of the Gobi Desrt
An Ancient Stroll on the Beach
“Roberts and Berger said the prints were made by a relatively short person walking downhill through wet sand toward the water.
“Once the prints were made they were covered very quickly with windblown sand on a slope that eventually turned to sandstone after being buried under pressure for scores of thousands of years, Roberts said.
"‘They had to be buried for a very long time to turn to rock,’ he said.
“Roberts said the footprints were dated as 117,000 years old using an array of scientific and high-tech methods.
“Berger said that although ancient footprints have been found that are as old as 5 million years, they belong to distant ancestors on the human family tree, not to modern homo sapiens.
"‘It's given us a look at the early ancestors of humans — where we came from, how we evolved,’ said Berger, who writes about the find in the September issue of National Geographic.
“Berger displayed a fiberglass cast of the prints, saying it provides a graphic record of an ancient stroll on the beach.
Read more: Did Ancient Eve Leave Footprints in the Sand?
You Want Fries With That?
“Between 1985 and 1996, archaeologists recovered 3,122 elephant remains at Neumark-Nord 1, a site near the present-day city of Halle in central Germany. The trove included entire skeletons, stomach contents and random bones from more than 70 individual straight-tusked elephants. This now-extinct species stood more than 13 feet tall and weighed between 6 and 13 tons—roughly the same as eight mid-sized cars. Straight-tusked elephants were the largest land mammals of the Pleistocene.
“Recently, researchers decided to give those remains a closer look. They found a series of strategic, repetitive cut marks on the bones’ surface, suggesting that Neanderthals carefully butchered the enormous mammals for their fat, meat and even their brains. This behavior likely persisted at the site for more than 2,000 years over dozens of generations, per the researchers.
“The dismembering process would’ve taken between 200 and 600 hours if done by one person, and it yielded a massive amount of meat: more than 2,500 daily portions of 4,000 calories each, the researchers calculate. That would’ve been enough to feed 25 Neanderthals for three months, 100 for a month and 350 for a week.”
Read more: Neanderthals Hunted and Butchered Massive Elephants 125,000 Years Ago