National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

Colorful Signs of a Lost Culture of Hunter-Artists • Art adorning rock-shelters in a remote zone of Venezuela was created millennia ago by artists whose designs spread across the region.

GOING THE DISTANCE

THE WORK OF ANCIENT HANDS

The Lifelong Battle for Peace

Jean-Henri Dunant: Peacemaker and Activist • A Swiss businessman co-founded the Red Cross after witnessing the carnage of a battlefield. Warning of worse wars to come, he cajoled countries to join the First Geneva Convention.

PROPHETIC WORDS

ARMBAND AGAINST ARMS

The First Missions of the Red Cross • From 1864, the International Committee of the Red Cross sent orderlies to battlefields across Europe. The movement inspired Red Crescent associations in Muslim-majority countries. The Red Cross was established in Japan in the 1870s.

CAP AND GOWN

Pajamas: From Street Wear to Sleepwear • The British adopted the loose pants they saw men in India wearing as outerwear. Rapidly changing social trends made pjs acceptable as unisex sleepwear, and cinema turned them into fashion essentials.

Lost Gold-Leaf Paintings Proclaim a Glittering Past • Hidden for centuries in a Spanish church, the rediscovered frescoes of Llerena speak of a small town’s 16th-century heyday.

THE TWILIGHT OF THE NEANDERTHALS THE EXTINCTION OF A HUMAN SPECIES • The Neanderthals’ extinction has been attributed to the arrival of our species, Homo sapiens. But their decline cannot be traced to a single cause. Changes in the climate and the structure of their society may have been decisive.

A GRADUAL DECLINE

A SYMBOLIC CULTURE OF THEIR OWN

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

TRACING DENNY’S NEANDERTHAL ROOTS

PART OF THE SIXTH EXTINCTION?

TRACES OF A TRANSITION

CARING AND SHARING IN SMALL COMMUNITIES

NUBIA AND EGYPT THE NUBIAN PHARAOHS • Once vassals to Egyptian pharaohs, the Kushite kings of Nubia took control of Egypt circa 750 b.c. and ruled for almost a century. Embracing Egyptian rituals, they created a syncretic culture that influenced both civilizations.

A TALE OF TWO POWERS: NUBIA AND EGYPT

The Shabaka Stone

In Honor of Amun

Miraculous Deeds

NUBIA’S SACRED MOUNTAIN

APHRODITE GODDESS OF DESIRE • A mix of ancient fertility goddesses and eastern divinities, Aphrodite was particularly venerated by the Greeks. From the main sanctuary in Cyprus, her cult spread around the Mediterranean.

APHRODITE, ALWAYS ADORED

Cyprus, Land of Fertility Figurines

APHRODITE, THE GODDESS WHO LATER REVEALED ALL • In the Greek art of the sixth and fifth centuries b.c., Aphrodite was depicted as a fully clothed, majestic goddess. From the fourth century b.c., she started to appear as the now iconic image of a voluptuous naked woman.

APHRODITE IN APHRODISIAS

VENUS PATRONESS OF POMPEII • Venus-Aphrodite became the most venerated deity in the Roman city of Pompeii. Archaeologists have found murals featuring Venus in many of the houses that have been excavated.

TRIUMPHAL ARCHES ROME COMMEMORATES ITS VICTORIES • Once temporary backdrops for celebrations, these monuments evolved into enduring icons of Rome’s power.

ART FOR A PEOPLE AT ARMS

ANATOMY OF THE ARTWORKS

The First Supercomputers • In the 1940s and ‘50s, programmable machines capable of performing calculations and operations on a scale never...