Closed Book | History

2022-04-06 07:09:50 Beauty in Chinese

Every country has its own concept of beauty. For a long time, small "lotus" feet were considered the canon of female beauty in China. Their appearance was as shocking to Europeans as the ways in which the foot was achieved.

The dressing of the feet began at about the age of five. Mothers wrapped narrow strips of cloth around their children's feet. For the next five years, girls wore the strips all day and night without taking them off. As the child grew, the shape of her feet slowly changed. In doing so, they had to endure physical, terrible pain.

This crippling tradition lasted for ten centuries, and did not disappear until the 20th century. Open / Comment

2022-03-10 19:03:48 Hobbits - a mystical artifact whose mysteries have not yet been solved

Many archaeological discoveries actually look more like fiction than truth. For example, the 2003 discovery of "hobbits" on the remote Indonesian island of Flores. And it's not that scientists unearthed the real version of the Shire from "Lord of the Rings," but rather they found miniature bones of an ancient hominin, which they named Homo floresiensis, short for "hobbit.

The first skeleton found belonged to a thirty-year-old woman who was about 1.06 meters tall. At first, scientists believed that she probably suffered from microcephaly, due to which she had a small head and a rather short, even dwarfish height. Later discoveries, however, made it clear that the hobbit was a distinct species rather than a mutation. To this day, the place of Homo floresiensis in the genealogical tree of modern man remains a mystery. Open / Comment

2022-03-03 20:01:07 These are wedding rings in Buchenwald, April 1945

A warehouse of wedding rings was discovered by American soldiers who entered the camp on April 13, 1945.

These rings, like all possessions, were confiscated by the Germans from the prisoners of the camp.

They showed the camp to the locals, who were amazed that such a hell was going on right next door to them.

Camp Buchenwald existed from 1937 to 1945. During that time, 250,000 people were its inmates, over 20% of whom died. Open / Comment

2022-03-03 15:00:05 The Nativity Scene.

In 205, an Italian archaeologist discovered strange rock drawings in the Sahara.

He kept quiet about them for 11 years, not knowing how to interpret them, and only in 2016 announced that the drawings were the nativity scene known to all Christians, with a stable and a baby in a manger.

Except that the rock fresco is at least 5,000 years old, which means that it was made three millennia before the birth of Christ.

What, then, is the rock painting depicting?

It's a mystery... Open / Comment

2022-03-03 10:00:08 The mystery of the Chicxulub crater

Chicxulub (which means "demon of ticks" in Mayan) is located on the Yucatan Peninsula and partially goes into the ocean - it was there in the 1970s that circular arcs were first discovered during the development of oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico.

Research data show that the crater really was formed 65 million years ago by the fall of an asteroid with a diameter of 10 kilometers.

It has been calculated that the impact released 100 teratons of TNT equivalent energy--two million times the yield of the largest thermonuclear device, the Soviet Tsar Bomba (58.6 megatons in TNT equivalent). Open / Comment

2022-03-02 20:00:05 The monk is 193 years old...

So says the author of the video, which was filmed in Namo Buddha.

It's very hard to believe...

What do you think? Open / Comment

2022-03-02 15:00:04 The ancient passage is only illuminated by the sun on the winter solstice

The passage is located on a French rocky island and is only illuminated by the sun on the winter solstice.

This Neolithic monument is located on the small uninhabited island of Gavrini, which can be reached from the nearby town of Llamor-Baden.

The unusual island is located in the area where the waters of the Gulf of Morbihan flow into the Atlantic.

Gavrini is a solid granite rock measuring 750 by 400 meters. Located in the stone mound, the 5,000-year-old corridor tomb is only illuminated by the sun during the winter solstice.

Decorated with a variety of patterns, the tomb has been remarkably well preserved, making it one of the main megalithic art monuments in Europe.

According to archaeologists, the corridor tomb is similar to the Breton megaliths of Locmariacer and the Karnak Stones, the Scottish Meishau and the Irish megaliths at Bru-na-Boine. Open / Comment

2022-03-02 10:00:08 The Man Who Did Not Welcome Hitler


Having joined the Nazi Party solely in the hope of finding work, German August Landmesser was eventually sentenced to two years in a labor camp for falling in love with a Jewish woman he wanted to marry.

But even before August was incarcerated, a famous photograph captured Landmesser's demonstrative public protest against the Nazi regime when he did not salute Hitler during a public rally in 1936.

And so August Landmesser is known in history as the man who did not welcome Hitler.

Love overcame the anti-Semitism that swept the country, though he was not strong enough to save his future bride Irma Eckler from Nazi persecution.

Like many others, Eckler's life ended tragically and prematurely in a death camp. Open / Comment

2022-03-01 20:00:17 Skull with ears

In the center of Naples, in a web of narrow streets, hides the basilica of Santa Lucella a Libray, built in the early 14th century by Bartolomeo of Capua, an adviser to King Charles II of Anjou of Naples.

If you go down into the basement of the church, you'll find yourself in a gloomy hypogea, where the skulls of medieval Neapolitans are arranged on shelves. One of them has ears.

This unusual skull had been prayed for centuries: that its possessor - thanks to fervent prayers - would ascend from Purgatory (where it hypothetically was) to Paradise and respond from there with grace to those who prayed for it.

Ears played a special role in this sacrament - it was believed that the soul of the skull owner could better hear believers.

Who exactly belonged to the skull with the ears is not known.

Recent research showed that he had no famous saint, and nothing remarkable resident of Naples in the middle of the XVII century, who died probably during an outbreak of plague. Open / Comment

2022-03-01 15:00:04 The boats of Abydos

The boats of Abydos were designed to carry the pharaohs to the afterlife. They were found in the sands of Egypt, their age is estimated at 3000 years.

Archaeologists found a total of 14 boats, ranging in length from 18 to 25 meters. Each could carry 30 rowers.

This giant fleet still amazes historians with its power and perfection: before the discovery of boats Abydos they thought the Egyptians were much less skilled in shipbuilding. Open / Comment