Waltz with Bashir and the 1982 Lebanon War

by Kathryn Hadley

Ari Folman’s latest film has brought to the big screen a relatively ignored chapter of middle-eastern history. Waltz with Bashir is the story of the director’s personal journey in an attempt to recover his lost memories of his participation in the 1982 Lebanon War, or Operation Peace of the Galilee as it was called by Israel, when he was barely twenty. His memory is jogged when a friend and ex-fighting companion complains of his recurring nightmare about the war. Unable to recall anything of the war, Folman sets out to interview various participants who he met at the time, in an attempt to retrace his own involvement. His powerful film highlights important questions about the war itself, in particular the Sabra and Shatila massacres which he has particular trouble remembering, and how different participants dealt with their consequent trauma as a result of the war. It also addresses the issue of responsibility in war crimes. One of the interviewees claims that he believed that the massacre was being dealt with by the Israeli Defense Forces; Ron Ben-Yeshai recalls how the Minister of Defense, Arik Sharon, refused to intervene when he informed him of the massacre at the refugee camps.

Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, at the beginning of June 1982, took place in the midst of ongoing and rising tension between the two countries. There had been outbreaks of violence during the summer of 1981 and the considerable number of Palestinian refugees in Southern Lebanon was a cause for concern. Following repeated bombings on towns in the North of Israel by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) from Southern Lebanon, the initial Israeli plan was to occupy a 40km security zone in Lebanon. The unofficial plan, however, notably drawn up by Arik Sharon, was to occupy Lebanon as far as Beirut (including Beirut) and to appoint his Christian ally, Bashir Gemayel, as President. The threat from the North would thus be eradicated and a sympathetic Lebanon under Gemayel would provide a front against Syria.

On April 21st, 1982, an Israeli officer on a visit to a South Lebanon Army gun emplacement was killed by a land mine and the Israeli Defense Forces attacked the Palestinian controlled town of Damour. On June 6th, the Israeli Defense Forces invaded Southern Lebanon in response to an assassination attempt against Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov by the Abu Nidal Organisation. A week later, the Israeli forces had reached the outskirts of Beirut. In August, however, they were still waiting for orders to enter the city.

Bashir Gemayel was elected president on August 23rd, 1982. He was, however, assassinated on September 14th, whilst giving a speech at the Phalangist headquarters, the Lebanese Christian Militia which allied with Israel. The following day, Israeli Defense Forces moved in to occupy Western Beirut. Shortly after, the first unit of Phalangists entered the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in the southern outskirts of West Beirut. The Israeli command had allegedly allowed the Phalangists to enter the camps and supervised the entrances and exits by the means of checkpoints, whilst the Christian militia massacred their inhabitants.

In September 1982, the PLO withdrew most of its forces from Lebanon; Israeli troops were not withdrawn, however, until January 1985 when a buffer zone was created to protect the North of the country. The Israeli government subsequently investigated the massacre in the refugee camps and Arik Sharon was found guilty of being personally responsible. He was dismissed and removed of his functions as Minister of Defense. On December 16th 1982, the massacre was condemned by the United Nations General Assembly and declared it to be an act of genocide. Sharon was elected Prime Minister in February 2001.

For more information on the history of Lebanon and Hezbollah, which was formed in response to the war, read our article Lebanon’s Shi’as: A Long March out of the Shadows.

Body of Poland’s Second World War Prime Minister exhumed

by Kathryn Hadley

The body of Wladyslaw Sikorski, the Prime Minister of the Polish government in exile in London during the Second World War, was exhumed yesterday, Tuesday 25th November, in the hope to solve the mystery of his death in a plane crash in 1943. His marble tomb in Krakow cathedral was opened up and his body was transferred to Krakow’s Institute of Forensic Research and Jagiellonian University to undergo DNA and pathological tests. The prosecutors, who are specifically investigating a communist crime sponsored by the former Soviet Union, have the backing of the Poland’s President and Prime Minister.

During the Second World War, Sikorski took command of the Polish army in France and thereafter became the head of the Polish government in exile. At the time of his death, on July 4th 1943, he was returning to London from the Middle East where he had been inspecting Polish troops which were about to join the allies. He was notably accompanied by two British MPs, his chief of staff and his daughter. His plane crashed into the sea just a few seconds after take-off from Gibraltar, allegedly due to a technical failure. Apart from the Czech pilot, all the passengers on board were killed. British investigations in the aftermath of his death concluded that it was an accident.

New investigations in 1992 revealed, however, that, at the height and speed at which it was travelling, the plane could technically not have crashed. Some claimed that the pilot had deliberately brought the plane down. The mystery of Sikorski’s death remains and has since been subject to various theories: a murder planned by the Soviet Union or by the British government.

Ewa Koj, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation claimed that:

“Given Sikorski’s important role in Poland’s history – and having the tools and know-how that we have now – we cannot let this remain a historical mystery”.

One theory is that the murder was ordered by Churchill in an effort to maintain good relations with Stalin, at a time of increasing tension between Poland and the Soviet Union. But crumbling diplomatic relations between Poland and the Soviet Union also point towards the possibility of a Soviet sponsored murder. Just before his death, Sikorski had called for an investigation into the massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest and the finger was increasingly being pointed towards the NKVD. A further cause for tension was the Soviet Union’s moves towards the creation of a communist sponsored Polish government for the postwar period.

Dariusz Baliszewski is a Polish historian and has spent fifteen years researching the crash. For him, there is little doubt that Sikorski was assassinated.

“The British were at least passive witnesses because nothing could take place at Gibraltar without them knowing”.

Sikorski’s body will be reinterred next Wednesday following a Catholic mass. The results of tests will take time and may not prove to solve the mystery of his death. The investigation may, however, shed new light by putting pressure on the British government to open up secret documents of the time.

(the above image shows Sikorski in Gibraltar just before his death)

For more information on Anglo-Polish relations on the eve of the Second World War read our article A Fatal Guarantee: Poland, 1939

Greenland independent?

by Kathryn Hadley

Greenland’s 39,000 voters are participating, today, in a referendum on a proposal for the expansion of self-rule. According to recent polls, it is expected that 61% of voters will answer in favour of the proposal. The plan provides for the expansion of home rule to 30 new areas, including the police, courts of law and maritime environment, and includes guidelines for the division of Greenland’s potential revenue from oil and mineral resources between Denmark and Greenland. If it is approved, self-rule would be introduced as of June 19th 2009, the thirtieth anniversary of the current home rule government.

Greenland’s colonial history began in 1721 when Denmark-Norway claimed the territory and launched a missionary expedition to convert Greenland’s allegedly pagan population. It became a specifically Danish colony when Denmark was separated from Norway in 1814, following the Napoleonic Wars. In 1953, Greenland’s colonial status was lifted and became similar to that of the members of the British Commonwealth. Greenland became part of the Danish Kingdom and was granted representation in the Danish parliament, the Folketing. Moves towards independence began in the early 1970s following Greenland’s joining of the European Union, alongside Denmark. Greenland’s membership sparked opposition and local parties promoting independence emerged. Greenland’s position vis à vis Europe has historically been unclear and it has often tended to be drawn towards North America rather than Europe. Links with the United States and Canada notably developed during the Second World War when a treaty was signed granting the US the right to establish airbases in Greenland. Following the voting of the Home Rule law, in May 1979, Greenland became a special community within the Kingdom of Denmark. In 1985 it left the European Union. It adopted its own flag and Danish town names were replaced.

The recent discovery of oil and mineral resources as a result of global warming has rekindled hopes of independence. If Greenland can successfully exploit these resources, it may be able to become self-sufficient and put an end to its current economic dependence on Danish subsidies. 85% of the country, which is six times the size of Germany, is iced over and fishing is the main source of revenue. Danish subsidies currently represent 60% of Greenland’s GDP.

Recreation of medieval tapestry unveiled at Stirling Castle

by Kathryn Hadley

The tapestry entitled The Unicorn is Found was unveiled in Stirling Castle on Friday November 21st. It is the largest of a series of seven tapestries, which are being hand woven as part of project undertaken by Historic Scotland to recreate one of the world’s finest set of medieval tapestries.
Inventories from 1539 have revealed that the Scottish Royal Collection in the sixteenth century included a set of tapestries entitled ‘the historie of the unicorne’. The tapestries are being copied from a similar set from the Lower Countries which date from 1495 to 1505 on display in the Cloisters Museum at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The total of seven tapestries in the series entitled The Hunt of the Unicorn depict the hunt, killing and return to life of a unicorn to in order to obtain its horn which allegedly had magical powers of purification. The Unicorn is Found depicts the crucial moment when the hunters discovered their prey.

The tapestries each measure 3.3m by up to 3.8m and take between two and a half to four and a half years to make. The first tapestry was begun in 2001 and it is expected that the last will be completed in 2013. The series will thereafter be displayed on the walls of the Queens’ Inner Hall in Stirling Castle where Marie de Guise, the second wife of James V of Scotland and mother of Mary Queen of Scots, held court.

Fly through Ancient Rome

by Derry Nairn

Google have implemented an exciting version of their Google Earth software that allows users to explore a virtual version of Ancient Rome in three dimensions. Other 'virtual maps' exist but this is the most thorough and usable version we at History Today have come across.

The following video offers a brief glimpse of what is possible using the application. A quick tour of three sites - the Colusseum, the Basillica Julia and the Temple of Vesta - demonstrate that users can not only see the physical, external landscape of the city, but details such as stucco and marbling of interiors as well.



The project was co-ordinated with the team behind the Rome Reborn 3d model, created at the University of Virginia in the United States. They backed up Google technology with archaeological and contextual data, which is accessible from within the map application.

For more information on using Google Earth, please click here.

International Court of Justice to hear Croatia’s genocide claim against Serbia

by Kathryn Hadley

On November 18th, the United Nations’ International Court of Justice in La Hague ruled that it would hear Croatia’s complaint filed against Serbia for genocide during the early 1990s. The Court rejected Serbia’s argument that it lacked the jurisdiction to hear Croatia’s complaint and the presiding judge, Higgins, concluded that:

“The court… by ten votes to seven finds that… the court has the jurisdiction to entertain the application by the Republic of Croatia”.

Croatia first filed its complaint on July 2nd, 1999, against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia accusing Serbia of having violated the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. According to Croatian sources 20,000 died and Croatia has demanded the punishment of those responsible, reparations and the recovery of the cultural treasures that were allegedly pillaged during the war.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia existed from 1992 to 2003 and consisted of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, following the dissolution of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 2003, it was reconstituted as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. On June 3rd, 2006, the republic of Montenegro declared its independence. Serbia formally declared its independence two days later. The Republic of Serbia consequently accepted continuity between the State of Serbia and Montenegro and the Republic of Serbia; Montenegro, however, is a new State and does not continue the international legal personality of the State union of Serbia and Montenegro.
Serbia had argued that the International Court of Justice lacked the jurisdiction to hear Croatia’s complaint because Serbia was not a member of the United Nations when the complaint was filed and was therefore not party to the Statute of the Court. The legal status of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was indeed unclear following the dissolution of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. It was admitted to the United Nations on November 1st 2000 when it consequently became party to the Statute of the Court. The date when the complaint will be heard has yet to be fixed and the procedures will take many years.

The leading Croatian lawyer explained that Croatia did not wish to dwell on its past, but that the hearing was necessary for its future development:

“We are not launching these proceedings to live in the past but to build healthy foundations for the sustainable future of the region”

First Part of State Papers Online project now live

by Kathryn Hadley

The first part of the State Papers Online project has now been completed and 200 volumes of the papers are available online. The aim of the project is to create an online database of the State Papers Domestic and Foreign, the Registers of the Privy Council and the State Papers in the British Library from 1509 to 1714, making them accessible to academics and the general public and providing a new resource for the study of early modern Britain and Europe.
Part I of the project contains a complete collection of the Calendars of the Domestic State Papers from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I from 1509 to 1603, which details every facet of government as well as social and economic issues. It brings together 380,000 facsimile manuscript documents linked to fully-searchable calendar entries, the translations and summaries which were compiled in the nineteenth century. The documents notably refer to the Reformation, the Dissolution of the monasteries, Henry VIII’s relations with Europe, the marriage and the succession of Elizabeth I, the voyages of discovery of Drake, Gilbert, Hawkins and Frobisher, the relations between the crown and the nobility and the rise and fall of the Earl of Essex.
The papers are available on the British History Online website
www.british-history.ac.uk.
Part II includes Foreign, Scotland, Borders and Ireland papers for the sixteenth century as well as the Registers of the Privy Council for the whole of the Tudor period and is due to be released in the coming year.
Parts III and IV are similarly divided into Domestic and Foreign papers and cover the reigns of the Stuarts from King James I to Queen Anne, from 1603 to 1714.

Neolithic Nuclear Family Discovered

by Derry Nairn

The discovery of a number of neolithic graves in Germany have suggested the earliest evidence of nuclear families. Four 4,600 year old graves have been excavated in Germany, and the remains of their 14 occupants analysed. Using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA techniques, and the patterns of burial, experts then concluded the relations between the buried.

One grave contained an adult man, an adult woman and two boys, all in close proximity. Another contained an adult female with three children. The first was reckoned to contain closely related individuals, and the second a group of siblings buried with their aunt or guardian. Wolfgang Haak, a geneticist at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA in Adelaide, claims these finds have "established the presence of the classic nuclear family in a prehistoric context."

The people were members of the Corded Ware culture, named after their practice of decorating pots using twisted cord. Unhealed injuries on the skeletons suggest they died in violent circumstances. Other evidence from the individuals' dental strontium isotope content suggest the men originated in the same area as they were buried, but the women came from afar.

Others hold doubts about the evidence. Marek Zvelebil, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield observed that the genetic markers the Adelaide team used are "very widespread in Europe." The orientation of older graves, some dating back 9,500 years, have suggested nuclear family relations. However these are less easily established without DNA evidence.

Read more on prehistory & archaeology....

Where to find the best history videos on the web

by Derry Nairn

History Today has always worked on the assumption that the study of the past is an extremely relevant activity. Being passionate about history doesn't necessarily mean you also enjoy elbow patches on tweed jackets and complex debates in stuffy university corridors. History people can be technology and internet people too. In recent weeks this has been proved by the amount of excellent multimedia content we have come across on the web. Here's a small selection:

FORA TV is a web portal for streaming video of intellectual discussion. It draws its content from the many hundreds of debates, lectures, interviews and speeches happening around the world every day. Notable content includes a broadcast of 2007's centenary Creighton Lecture (this year's lecture happens tonight) and a recent interview with Whoopi Goldberg on the evolving status of the US constitution. It has several dedicated channels, including one for history. The others are categorised according to discipline, topic and region. Commenting on each video is possible after registration. FORA TV makes a welcome change to the 'Lowest Common Denominator' factor of similar video sites like YouTube.

The Guardian's literary festival seems to be mutate further beyond the borders of provinical Hay-on-Wye each year, with associated events happening in Spain and Columbia over the winter. The website, however, is top-notch, with a massive video and audio archive. Full-length interviews and debates can be downloaded and, once again, there is a dedicated history section. Lots of heavy-hitters here too: Niall Ferguson, Gore Vidal and Orlando Figes are only a few of the many famous historical thinkers featured. Small fees apply.

Worth a look too is the podcast series of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). Choose from over fifty individuals whose story is told in professionally-produced and easily-digested 10-15 minute snippets. The selection is not merely restricted to the GCSE curriculum either. Notable biographees include the Busby Babes, Springheel Jack, Jimi Hendrix and Friar Tuck. A nice touch is the ability to subscribe via feed reader so each new podcast is delivered straight into your inbox each fortnight. The DNB's online version is also highly recommended.

Middle-class Londoners who bought into slavery

by Derry Nairn

New research by University College London has revealed that massive amounts of government compensation were paid out to investors when slavery was abolished in the 19th century. Dr Nick Draper has discovered that £20 million worth of payments were made, a figure that equates to a staggering 40% of government expenditure of the day.

Even more surprising are the backgrounds to the recipients. The image many today would hold of slave owners may involve upper class affectations and West Indian sugar plantations. The truth however, is that many ordinary middle-class Londoners invested in the slave trade just like it was any other industry. Some of the 'slavers' revealed by Draper's research include poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, MP George Watson Taylor, Lord Mayor John Atkins and lawyer J W Freshfield.
Dr Draper commented:

‘It's important that we recognise the ways in which slavery permeates London's history, not only through direct slave-ownership by Londoners but also through more complex financial and commercial ties between the slave-system and people living and working in London. Slavery was not the only influence on London's development, but it was an important one, especially in areas such as Marylebone, and is too often overlooked.'

Much of the research is on view at the exhibition Slavers of Harley Street which runs from 14 November 2008 to 31 March 2009 at Museum of London Docklands.

Read here about some of our articles on slavery and abolition:

• Slavery & the British - James Walvin reviews current ideas about the vast network of slavery that shaped British and world history for more than two centuries.
  
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• Frederick Douglass: A Black Abolitionist in Ireland - Bill Rolston describes the impact of an erstwhile slave, who toured the Emerald Isle speaking out against slavery in 1845.
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• Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology - M. I. Finley discusses debates over how different eras have treated the subject.
  

Launch of the British Cartoon Archive

by Derry Nairn

This week saw the launch of the British Cartoon Archive, an online repository detailing political and social commentary through cartoons. The archive contains well-known artists such as Martin Rowson, Steve Bell, Carl Giles and Reg Smythe, creator of Andy Capp.

There are over 85,000 images in the archive, a project made possible through a grant from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and other support from the University of Kent. Handy tools include the chance for teachers to save preferred images in folders according to subjects.

Access to search the archive is completely free but some copyrighted images may incur charges in their high-resolution versions. The BCA maintains a blog of reflections and upcoming exhibitions.

The lost Scots of Kolkata

by Kathryn Hadley

On November 8th, a team of archaeologists, architects and members of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and the Scottish Highlands Council travelled to Kolkata to survey its Scottish cemetery and to begin a restoration project.

The cemetery is dependant on St Andrew’s Church, which was the first Church of Scotland to be built in Kolkata. The cemetery has become derelict, overgrown and snake-infested and many of the tomb stones are damaged.

The headquarters of the East India Company were based in Calcutta in the eighteenth century and the city was the capital of India until 1911. Many Scots played a prominent part in the work of the company and in the administration of British India. It is estimated that over 80% of the headstones in the cemetery mark the graves of Scots who worked in Kolkata as tea planters, sea captains, jute traders, missionaries and civil servants, for example. Studies of the Register of Interments reveal a majority of recognisably Scottish names such as Anderson, Campbell and Ross. Many other graves belong to Christian Bengalis. James Wilson, who introduced paper money in India and founded The Economist magazine is also believed to be buried in the cemetery.

The principle aims of the project are to restore the cemetery buildings and tombstones, establish a computerised record of those buried there, to maintain the site as a green area for the benefit of the local residents of Kolkata and to found a local centre for building skills necessary for the future maintenance of the site.

For more information on the British in Calcutta, read our The Ghosts of Calcutta

90th Anniversary Armistice Commemorations in the Champagne Region

by Kathryn Hadley

Yesterday, November 11th 2008, the ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice was celebrated across the world. Alongside the official British and French ceremonies at the cenotaph in London and in Verdun, the victims of the First World War were also remembered in some of the more unknown towns and forgotten battlefields of the Champagne region in France.

In London, the three surviving veterans in England, Henry Allingham, Harry Patch and Bill Stone, each laid a wreath at the cenotaph. In Verdun, President Sarkozy, Prince Charles, Quentin Bryce, the Governor general of Australia, and Peter Mueller, the President of the upper house of the German parliament, attended the official French ceremony at the Douaumont Ossuary in Verdun.

Local commemorative ceremonies and events were also organised in towns across France. Both the municipal celebrations in Epernay, a town of 26,000 inhabitants 30 kilometres to the South of Reims, and the open day at the military camp of Suippes reached record attendance numbers.
Celebrations began at 10.30 in Epernay and were led by the local mayor and deputies, French veterans, local school children and an association of First World War re-enactors. The parade around the town centre was followed by the laying of wreaths at the monument to the victims of the Second World War and in front of the town hall and by a minute of silence.

There was, however, seemingly little need for the mayor and sub-prefect’s insistence on the ‘devoir de mémoire’, the duty to remember the victims of the war. The military authorities at Suippes fell short of buses to escort visitors from one village to another and many visitors were turned away. The military camp was last opened in September 2005 and the memory of the villages and of their families had largely been pushed aside. The area (larger than Paris) surrounding the five villages of Tahure, Ripont, Hurlus, Perthes-les-Hurlus and le Mesnil-les-Hurlus and the two farms of Navarin and Ripont was on the frontline during the war and was converted into a military camp in 1923, allegedly because it was too dangerous to be replanted and built upon.

According to one of the military commanders, the villages' inhabitants came back in 1919, but were expropriated from their lands. Ninety years later, their grandchildren are returning to see for themselves what is left of their lost family heritage: a couple of tombstones in le Mesnil-les-Hurlus and Hurlus and the church altar in Tahure. Others returned to witness the place where their grandfathers died in battle. Leon Carpentier had always wanted to go to the farm of Beauséjour to pay homage to his grandfather, a history teacher from the Pas-de-Calais, who was killed there on June 15th, 1915, aged 35.

For more on the lost villages in the camp of Suippes read Lost Villages of Champagne

Black Death treasures of a Jewish community go on show

by Derry Nairn

The Wallace Collection is to put on show the first British exhibition of jewellery hidden by German Jews before 17th century pogroms. The collection, to go on show in February, includes the first two examples of Jewish wedding rings.

Here's an extract from the press release

As the Black Death laid waste to vast swathes of Europe, wiping out a third of the population, terrified local people, unable to find a cause for the suffering, searched for a scapegoat. Suspicion and fear immediately fell upon the Jewish population, who were accused of poisoning the wells. Many Jews buried their most precious belongings, hoping to return later, but as a result of ensuing large-scale pogroms throughout Europe, never returned to reclaim them. 1000 people were killed on a single day in Erfurt - 2 March 1349.

As well as shedding new light on another dark chapter in Europe’s history, the objects illuminate both the lives of the Jewish communities who buried them and the wider picture of medieval fashion and craftsmanship. Many pieces are very intimate and extremely personal. As well as the wedding rings, the exhibition will include ‘double cups’ used in the wedding ceremony and betrothal gifts. These add an even more poignant and tragic perspective to the story.

Unearthing the mysteries of Eaglesfield Park

by Derry Nairn

A-level students from Plumstead Manor School in Greenwich surveyed the lay of the land at Eaglesfield Park this week when they joined an archaeological dig at the historic site.

Working with students from Birkbeck, University of London, they used a variety of surveying techniques to try and detect any prehistoric features that might be buried beneath the surface.

Local archaeologist Andy Brockman said

This is the first time the London Borough of Greenwich and Birkbeck has co-operated on such a piece of public archaeology and education with the aim of involving the local community, amenity groups, and local history societies.

The students were instructed by a leading survey company with help from Birkbeck students and graduates. They used the latest technology, including electrical resistance surveying, magnetic surveying and Ground Penetrating Radar, to unravel some of the mysteries of Eaglesfield.

Birkbeck course organiser Harvey Sheldon said

Eaglesfield Park is on the highest ground in South London near the Thames and was a key strategic point. Channel 4’s Time Team located an Iron Age ditch here, and we’re looking for features and activity that might indicate such an ancient settlement. The day was a great way for the students to learn by doing hands-on research in the field.

Read a full-length History Today article about the world of the capital city in prehistoric times London before London

Drug use in ancient civilisations

by Derry Nairn

Two recent archaeological stories show that humanity has been using drugs on opposite ends of the earth for thousands of years.

In Chile, new tests on members of an ancient pre-Hispanic civilisation are showing clear signs of drug use. Graves of the Tiwanaku are often found to contain equipment for using hallucinogens, such as pipes. Recent experiments by the University of Tarapaca on the remains of an adult male buried with an elaborate snuffing kit have shown that his body contained significant samples of a hallucinogenic plant.

Professor Ogalde who led the project said that:

The presence of harmine suggests the Tiwanaku travelled in search of exotic hallucinogens, and brought the Banisteriopsis vine from as far as the Amazon rainforest, some 300 miles away

An answer to the question of why the drugs were used is more complex. Prof Ogalde suggested a therapeutic use. However traces of the chemical were also found in the body of an infant, clouding any clearly-defined explanation.

In a seperate discovery, as reported in the Sunday Times, bowls and pipes for mixing and inhaling hallucinogens were uncovered in a Stone Age grave on the Carribbean island of Carriacou. The North Carolina State University researchers who happened upon the equipment came to the conclusion that it originated in South America, over 400 miles away.

Richard Davenport-Hines is quoted in the newspaper report as saying

Drug use became widespread in many early agriculture-based societies simply because it was the only way people could cope with spending long hours working in the fields, often in horrible conditions like baking sun

Here are some related articles from recent History Today issues:

• Why Alcohol is Legal and Other Drugs are Not Virginia Berridge examines the relevance of past experiences to current policy-making.
• A Hundred-Year Habit Ian Scott traces the hundred-year history of heroin, from cough medicine to underworld narcotic.
• Narcotic Culture Rana Mitter evaluates a new study of the use of opium in China in the modern era.

First World War Veteran Dies

by Kathryn Hadley

Just a week before the ninetieth anniversary of the Armistice, First World War veteran Sydney Maurice Lucas died in Australia, on Tuesday November 4th, aged 108. Lucas was born in Leicester on September 21st, 1900. He was among the last group of conscripts to be called up and was just 17 when he joined the Sherwood Foresters in August 1918. The armistice was signed, however, whilst he was still in training in England and he never saw the French trenches. He moved to Australia in 1928.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he volunteered for the Australian army and was posted to a machine gun company. He travelled to Palestine where Australian troops were preparing to sail to Greece following the German invasion in April 1941. He developed appendicitis, however, and was unable to leave with his battalion. Sydney Lucas returned to Australia on board the Queen Mary and was discharged from the army in November 1941.

Speaking about his experiences, in 2005, he described how:

"We trained with a mix of fear and excitement, so when the war ended before we'd completed our training it almost felt like an anticlimax […] We wanted to fight for our country, but I think that was more to do with boyish immaturity […] My enduring memories are of being constantly cold, dirty, exhausted, homesick and lonely."

Lucas was one of the five surviving First World War veterans, one of whom, Claude Choules, 111, also lives in Australia. On November 11th, as part of the Armistice celebrations, the further three surviving veterans in Britain, Henry Allingham, 112, Harry Patch, 110, and Bill Stone, 108, are expected to lead a two-minute silence at the Cenotaph in London.

Read about those who did fight or see our First World War section

Three mind-boggling historical databases launched

by Derry Nairn

It can be somewhat difficult to comprehend the amount of current information out there on the web. One good metaphor goes something like this:

if you can imagine the contents of the US Library of Congress multiplied by ten thousand, this figure would roughly represent what data presently exists on the internet. New data is delivered in the form of a large dump truck reversing into the main hall every two seconds, and dumping a pile of new books on the floor.

Suffice to say there is a lot out there. Well to add to this, three massive historical archives have been launched in recent times whose own size alone is pretty staggering.

The first is the UK Incoming Passengers List, from ancestry.co.uk and the National Archives, a record of the passenger lists from inbound ships to UK ports, in the period 1878 until 1960. Users can find out about their relatives, famous people, or even themselves. The period saw massive influxes of newcomers to Britain from across the empire and beyond, as shown by the most popular surnames within the records: Wong, Singh, Brown and Patel.

For 23 years Tony Patel has been an employee of the project’s partners, the National Archives. He was born in Pakistan and, when his own name was entered in the database, was astounded to discover both himself and his parents were listed among passengers arriving on a ship from Karachi in 1955. Mr Patel was only 6 months old at the time.

Even if you don’t hold any personal connections with the names on the list, a search for famous names such as Winston Churchill or Roger Moore should uncover equally intriguing data. When Elizabeth Taylor arrived back in London from New York in 1958 aboard a Cunard cruiser, for example, the records state her next port of call as, naturally enough, the luxurious Dorchester Hotel.

The second archive is Gale Cengage's Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). This is an ambitious project aiming to collect every significant 18^th Century English and foreign language title printed in Great Britain and thousands of important works from the Americas. When complete (this is the second stage) ECCO will be the world’s largest digital library of the printed book, delivering access to 200,000 volumes of key 18^th Century works.

ECCO joins Gale Cengage's other archives, including 19^th Century UK Periodicals, which includes more than 600 magazines, journals and newspapers, sourced from the British Library and the National Library of Scotland. Selected by leading academics, these resources offer a full picture of English life in the 19^th Century. So whether you are in need of the Bristol Daily Record sports pages from 1878 or the Women's Temperance Journal from the early 1920s - look no further!

The last is not so much a historical database in itself, but a useful link to a myriad of local archives. The Archive Awareness Campaign plans to highlight the wealth of relevant historical information which is easily accessible for most people around the UK. The campaign, which launches today, is very definitely focused on local history research, and will show how different groups and individuals have worked to bring about change and raise awareness of social issues among decision makers and opinion informers.

The campaign will shine regular spotlights on major historical themes such as feminism, human rights and the slave trade. A couple of interesting upcoming shows include:

How Many Miles to Market?

7th Nov 2008: Norfolk Record Office, Kings Lynn

Illustrated talk about food supplies to the people of medieval Lynn

Slavery & Banana Cake

14 November 2008

Northampton Archives will highlight the issue of slavery and its impact locally

Take Your Place In History: An exhibition on the First World War

1st of November, 2008 - 30th of November, 2008
Cumbria Archive Service looks at the different ways in which Cumbria was affected by the war.

Again, the Archive Awareness Campaign as a whole is backed by the National Archives, who themselves have a huge amount of fascinating material to share.

90th anniversary of the Armistice - events

by Kathryn Hadley

To mark the 90th anniversary of the Armistice, a series of ceremonies, remembrance days, exhibitions and film festivals are being held in France, Spain and the UK. Here is just a small selection…

• In Memoriam at the Imperial War Museum based on the personal stories of 90 individuals who fought or were involved in the war.
• Remembered, in Shrewsbury, a photographic exhibition of some of the memorials and cemeteries in the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
• Last Post at the Churchill Museum is about the role of the Post office during the war.
• A World War One Day is being organized at the National Museum of Ireland on November 8th
• The Imperial War Museum is hosting an evening dedicated to poetry and to the memory of war on November 11th.

In France, numerous ceremonies will be held on November 11th, including a ceremony at the British Thiepval Memorial.

• Photographies de l’enfer et du chaos: a display of photographs taken by the French, British, Canadian, Australian and German armies during the war.
• Two exhibitions at the Historial de la Grande Guerre at Péronne about the depiction of the war by German artists and the commemoration of the war today.
• Orages de papier 1914-1918, in Strasbourg, about the role of the media during the war.
• The 19th edition of the Festival International du Film d’Histoire at Pessac is devoted to the First World War and the Invalides is organizing a screening of European and American films about the war.
• In Madrid, the exhibition 1914! The Avant-Garde and the Great War considers the influence of the First World War on the development of early avant-garde international art movements.

For a full list, visit our First World War events page.

Or for background information, visit our new First World War page, which includes a selection of related articles

Chinese Guangxu Emperor poisoned with arsenic

by Kathryn Hadley

Following five years of research, a team including administrators of the Western Qing Tombs, the China atomic energy academy and forensic scientists from the Beijing city police has recently concluded that the second-to-last Chinese emperor Guangxu was poisoned with arsenic. Prior to his death the emperor had allegedly complained of stomach pains.

Close examination of remnants of hair and clothing from his burial chamber has revealed that his remains contained 201 milligrammes of arsenic, which is 2,000 times higher than the rate in a healthy person. A dose of between just 60 and 200 miligrammes is considered fatal. The revelations have been made almost exactly a century after the emperor’s death, aged 38, on November 14th 1908. His death was followed a day later by that of his aunt, the Empress Dowager, just a couple of weeks before her 74th birthday.

In the words of Lei Yi, a prominent Chinese historian:

This has been a mystery for 100 years and everyone wanted to crack this puzzle

Emperor Guangxu, known as the “Son of Heaven”, was placed on the throne, aged three, by his aunt, following the death of her own son. Empress Dowager continued to rule China as regent. He became increasingly eager, however, to assert his independence and ambitious to reform and revive the declining Qing dynasty. In 1898, he notably sought to introduce a constitutional monarchy and democracy, to found a modern university in Beijing, to replace Confucian studies with mathematics and to reform the army.

His attempts at reform lasted, however, a mere hundred days, until the empress organised a coup. His advisers were arrested and executed and he was imprisoned for a decade on an island in the gardens of the Forbidden City. The Qing dynasty ended three years after his death and was replaced by a republic in 1912.

The culprit, however, remains unknown. The three main suspects include the dying Empress Dowager, her loyal courtier, Li Lianying, and the military commander ,Yuan Shikai. Sensing the approaching death of Empress Dowager, Li Lianying may have feared reprisal following his betrayal during the coup to end the emperor’s programme of reform. Her courtier, Li Lianying, allegedly found out that Guangxu had written in his dairy that he would seek revenge against the Empress Dowager’s favourite and may thus have similarly feared the consequences of her demise.

The debate thus continues and remains considerably political. The popular view that Empress Dowager was a cruel and tyrannical leader who ultimately weakened China and caused it to fall under the influence of western powers is still part of communist propaganda. Jin Yuzhang, the nephew of the last emperor claimed that

I think the downfall of the Qing dynasty was a historical inevitability. But the Dowager Empress cannot escape responsibility for some of these events. It was during her period in power that China's decline happened

With the anniversaries of both deaths occurring soon, here's Richard Cavendish from our print edition on the death of the dowager Empress.

Best of the other history blogs...

by Derry Nairn

As an adjunct to our recent pieces on Churchill and the alleged bribes to Franco, there are some interesting cartoon images over at the German Propaganda blog, entitled Winston Churchill in Nazi Propaganda.

Not a new post, but a relevant one - Old World Meets New on Google Earth - as several antique maps were launched on Google Earth by the company's David Rumsey back in 2006. I say relevant because History Today has a special maps page in the pipeline too.

More history maps! This time, from a historical literature blog, but on the topic of satirical cartoon maps of the first world war. Also there are lots of amazing pictures on a variety of subjects, with regular posts. Excellent stuff!

Japanese military chief dismissed following denial of Japanese aggression in WW2

The chief of staff for Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force, Toshio Tamogami, has been dismissed following his publication, on October 31st, of an essay in which he denied Japanese aggression before and during the Second World War. The essay won first prize in a competition called “True Perspective of Modern and Contemporary History”.

Tamogami claimed that:

"Even now, there are many people who think that our country's 'aggression' caused unbearable suffering to the countries of Asia during the Greater East Asia War. But we need to realise that many Asian countries take a positive view of the Greater East Asia War. It is certainly a false accusation to say that our country was an aggressor nation."

His allegations caused controversy both in China and in South Korea.

The generally accepted version of events is that Japan invaded China in 1937, where the military were carried out various acts of aggression and even war crimes. The rape of tens of thousands of women and the killing of several thousand others later became known as the 'Rape of Nanking'. Japanese forces also occupied South Korea from 1910 to 1945. In both countries the Japanese military forced girls and women to serve as sex slaves or, as they were known in Japan, 'comfort women'.

Two former Japanese Prime Ministers have apologised for Japanese aggression before and during WWII. In 1995, on the fiftieth anniversary of the war’s end, Tomiichi Murayama recognised and apologised for the damage and suffering Japan inflicted on its Asian neighbours. Ten years later, on the sixtieth anniversary, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated the official apology and, in 2001, he issued a specific apology for the treatment of Koreans during the Japanese occupation.

Toshio Tamogami’s dismissal was announced by Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada who commented that:

"I think it is improper as the air force chief of staff to publicly state a view clearly different from that of the government's […]. Therefore, it is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him."

In the exhibition Disposable People', on display at the Southbank Centre until November 9th, one series of photographs is dedicated to the 'sex slaves' of the Japanese troops in South Korea. Through the testimonies of some of the victims of the Japanese forces, it provides a particularly vivid and moving insight into some of the horrors of the Japanese occupation.

The exhibition will be on tour throughout 2009 at the University of Plymouth, in Newcastle, Nottingham, Carlisle and Aberystwyth.