Recent comments in /f/history

IslandChillin OP t1_ixofot9 wrote

Reply to Emperor Charles V's secret code cracked after five centuries by IslandChillin

"Whole words are encrypted with a single symbol and the emperor replaced vowels coming after consonants with marks, she said, an inspiration probably coming from Arabic.

In another obstacle, he also used symbols that mean nothing to mislead any adversary trying to decipher the message.

The breakthrough came in June, when Pierrot managed to make out a phrase in the letter, and the team then cracked the code with the help of historian Camille Desenclos."

"It was painstaking and long work but there was really a breakthrough that happened in one day, where all of a sudden we had the right hypothesis," she said.

"Another letter from Jean de Saint-Mauris, where the receiver had doodled a form of transcription code in the margin, also helped."

1,470

Scalpaldr t1_ixodnla wrote

Reply to comment by Octavian1453 in Medieval shipwreck discovered in Norway during hunt for WWII ammunitions - could be one of Norway's oldest shipwrecks has been found on the bottom of a lake near Oslo. by ArtOak

Not only was it okay, it was standard practice around the world. That's why you should never put a piece of amber in your pocket if you find it on some German or Danish beach. There were tons of white phosphorus dumbed into the sea after WWII because they needed to get rid of it and it looks kind of like amber when it washes ashore. Then it dries out in your pocket and sets you on fire, giving awful burns. Always store any found amber in fireproof containers until you can make sure it's the real deal.

9

themagpie36 t1_ixobnhu wrote

Reply to Animal bones, ancient Romans’ snack food found in Colosseum by marketrent

>Seeds from fruits such as figs, grapes and melons as well as traces of olives and nuts — thought to indicate what spectators snacked on during shows — were also recovered from the 2,000-year-old stone amphitheatre.

The bones were from bears/big cats and other animals used for fighting, not for snacking on as I thought at first.

34

marketrent OP t1_ixobj4j wrote

Reply to An extensive cache of Aztec ritual offerings provides new insight into pre-Hispanic religious rites and political propaganda — excavations continue in downtown Mexico City, where the empire's holiest shrine was historically situated by marketrent

David Alire Garcia, updated November 25, 2022 00:00 UTC.

Excerpt:

>Sealed in stone boxes five centuries ago at the foot of the temple, the contents of one box found in the exact center of what was a ceremonial circular stage has shattered records for the number of sea offerings from both the Pacific Ocean and off Mexico's Gulf Coast, including more than 165 once-bright-red starfish and upwards of 180 complete coral branches.

>Archeologists believe Aztec priests carefully layered these offerings in the box within the elevated platform for a ceremony likely attended by thousands of rapt spectators amid the thunder-clap of drums.

> 

>"Pure imperial propaganda," Leonardo Lopez Lujan, lead archeologist at the Proyecto Templo Mayor of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which is overseeing the dig, said of the likely spectacle.

>In the same box, archeologists previously found a sacrificed jaguar dressed like a warrior associated with the Aztec patron Huitzilopochtli, the war and sun god, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a more than two-year pause on excavations.

> 

>Previously unreported details include last month's discovery of a sacrificed eagle held in the clutches of the jaguar, along with miniature wooden spears and a reed shield found next to the west-facing feline, which had copper bells tied around its ankles.

>The half-excavated rectangular box, dating to the reign of the Aztec's greatest emperor Ahuitzotl who ruled from 1486 to 1502, now shows a mysterious bulge in the middle under the jaguar's skeleton, indicating something solid below.

>Besides the central offering containing the jaguar, two additional boxes were recently identified adjacent to it, with both set to be opened in the next few weeks.

Reuters

37