Some History

I like 'history' so much that I intend to put some talk of it on this blog. The problem is I don't know much. I don't know much history, I don't know many of its details or its lessons. I don't know what part of the subject you might find attractive. I do know a bit about some of the ways historical information has been organized and ways it has been presented.

I also have some idea about what I like. For example, I like it in the form of a good story, even accurate historical fiction. I even enjoy looking at a timeline. I also know that I tend to like he older stuff better. But the fact is I don't know much.

So, when someone says to me, "What about those Iranians!" I have grin to say "Yeah, how about those guys.!" I'd like to know more.

My hope is that you will tell me some bits of history here. Please don't wait for me to get you started. Just say what you know or what you'd like to know or what you have begun to find out or .... If you really know something you'd like to get across, you may find us surprisingly teachable.

To try to do my part to get started, I'll make a few comments and then ask some questions. If my efforts are laughable or a crying shame, please be kind, generous, and gentle. Feel free to nurture me into better ways.

Archaeologists have done a lot to help us fill in the historical record. I imagine them enjoying that work right now. I am grateful to those archaeologists who make the effort to help us understand their findings. The way they tell their story changes from person to person and from time to time. One telling might be stiff and unimaginative in an attempt at scientific honesty. Another might, in an attempt to breathe life into the story and give it heart, might let his (or her) effort at synthesis and interpretation wander into fantasy. A third telling might be just right. Archaeologists are human and a lot like historians.

Sociologists have helped in the interpretation of history, We may not yet have a clear language for describing human societies or for making statements concerning their cohesion. A sociologist might be working on stuff like that at this moment.

Here is a kind of bare bones beginning. Iranians moved out of a homeland north and east of the Black Sea about 2500 BC. It was a tow pronged movement. One prong headed into the Central Asia steppe. The other moved into the Indus an Ganges valleys of India. I believe that they were master horsemen.

When I think Danubians, I think Indo-Europeans. On linguistic grounds the Danubian culture represents the arrival and establishment of the Indo-Europeans in Central Europe.

Often a study of Western history is begun in classical Greece. The geographical area of those Greeks was the Greek Peninsula, the Aegean Islands, and Ionia. During the Greek colonization period the Carthaginians were the dominant sea power of their world. Guess they are closely related to the Phoenicians, pioneer seafarers of the Med. Phoenicians where very much like the inhabitants of the Syria and Lebanon of those days.

Appears we could use the help of persons who know something of linguistics and geography as well as about sociology and archaeology.

Here are questions which occur to me:
What's interesting about the "Iranian Plateau?"
What is a good story that features the Black Sea?
Did the Iranians have anything to do with the Helen whose face launched a thousand ships?
Who has dealt with the history of horsemanship in a fun way?
What wee the Danubians like?
What even remotely related to this stuff interests you?
What's the deal with Indo-Europeans?
What did the Carthaginians have to do with what is now Spain?
Who will tell us something about Ionia?

It's the Desert

There are jack rabbits stretched out around by cooler water like they were at the beach.

Could She EVER be a Bitch

My brother Gary and his wife Bev have

a new little Puppy.

Her name is Annie.

The Illusionist

Check comments in earlier posts.

Rented the DVD and liked the film, The Illusionist, very well.

I liked it not only because it reminded me of my work with a magician, but also because it showed no open-mouth kissing before a proper level of passion was demonstrated.

It is a simple and neat story well called a romantic thriller.

Cooler Water

There are three Jack rabbits, a Cotton tail, and eight quail at my cooler water right now.

The sun is still high.

Comment

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Awareness

Whitebark pines once thrived in Yellowstone's higher elevations. Now they are dying because mountain pine Beatles live through milder winters in greater numbers to attack the pines more aggressively and in greater numbers. As the white pines die there are fewer white pine nuts produced. The grizzly bears of Yellowstone fatten for hibernation on white pine nuts. With fewer nuts available the bears are less able to survive in good health through the winter. Grizzles are capable animals, they may well learn to fatten on other nuts. If present tends continue you there will probably be no White pines in Yellowstone within less than a decade.

I am pleased to be aware that the climate in California is tending to be warmer in these decades.
Plants are moving higher to find more congenial temperature. Animals follow the food chain.

Climates change. The world and the Universe are in constant flux. That flux is not a reason for guilt or blame; not even when that flux may be driven by human activity.

I don't mind taking some responsibility about that which is happening around me. I find it good to be aware of what is happening. Thus I learn the laws of cause and effect. Knowledge of those laws may save me some grief. Meanwhile I find getting understanding fun.

Check: Yellowstoneassociation.org

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