People of Color in European Art History

@medievalpoc / medievalpoc.tumblr.com

Because you wouldn't want to be historically inaccurate.

[The Tabula Rogeriana, drawn by al-Idrisi for Roger II of Sicily in 1154, one of the most advanced ancient world maps. The image above is a modern consolidation, created from the 70 double-page spreads of the original atlas.]

The Book of Roger is a 12th century geographical compendium written in Arabic by Muhammad Al-Idrisi.

[BNF Arabe 2221; 82v-83r]

The author was possibly born in Morocco in 1100 and began his travels at the age of 16, visiting Asia Minor, the southern coast of France, England, Spain, and North Africa. In about 1138 he was invited by Roger II (1097-1154), the Norman king of Sicily, to his court in Palermo and it was there he composed The Book of Roger, which was completed in January 1154.

[BNF Arabe 2221; 107v-108r]

Most existing maps at this time were almost 1,000 years old, made by Roman geographers. Roger's motives were economic as well as scientific, as accurate maps helped trade.

Al-Idrisi and his team spent 15 years collecting information from travellers and merchants. The resulting Book of Roger remained the standard geographical treatise for centuries. This is one of the oldest surviving copies. In addition to the world map, the original contained 70 regional maps accompanied by descriptions of peoples and their cultures.

[via the British Museum]

[more at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France]

#cartography #the book of roger #Muhammad Al-Adrisi #medievalpoc #trade #travel #Sicily #Norman Sicily #Tabula Rogeriana #1100s

hardlystraight asked:

hello! feel free to not answer this, i'm sure you've got tonnes of asks in your inbox, but i'm writing a story and i wasn't sure what to look for for clarification on your blog? like what tags to use to search? so i figured i'd ask: do you know any times in (ancient/medieval/not modern) history when a black woman and a korean woman might meet? like a war, an invasion, just if certain ethnic groups were in the same area ... thank you in advance!

Well, your question falls outside my wheelhouse considering this blog is pretty Eurocentric. But I’ll do what I can, after pointing you towards EastIsEverywhere, whose topic is more what you’re looking for, but you haven’t even specified where exactly they’re meeting, so all I can do is show you ideas that involve people moving around (which also might not even be necessary for what you’re writing). “Korean” is more specific than “Black”, so I don’t exactly have a lot to work with on that front.

There doesn’t have to be a war or an invasion, in fact your question is so general you could pretty much make up anything you like and then research it to figure out when that would have happened, if you feel some need to justify it. There’s plenty of evidence that Korean people traveled to other regions and nations. It might also be helpful to just sort of familiarize yourself with how the Song Dynasty facilitated trade from Eastern Asia to the rest of the world.

EastIsEverywhere has a roundup of connections from various time periods involving African migration to Asia, and Asian migration to Africa here.

If you’re farming for ideas and at a loss, why not look up art objects or other luxury trade goods, and think about a story to go along with it? How about, I dunno, celadon ware or printed books that predate the European printing press?

The production of elegant green-glazed ceramic ware, highly praised by contemporaneous Chinese and later known and appreciated in the West as celadon ware, represents the outstanding achievement of Koryô potters. The invention and use of cast-metal movable type in Korea in the early thirteenth century predates by two centuries Gutenberg’s invention of metal movable type in Europe.

How did it get to where you want it to be, who made it and why, how much did it cost, what method of transportation was used to get it to where it was sold? Who bought it and why?

Or if you’re very attached to the whole invasion aspect, there’s always medieval upheaval during the Mongol Empire’s days of dominance:

[1231–1257] The Mongols, who occupy large portions of northern China and will rule all of China under the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), launch six invasions into the Korean peninsula during this period. In 1231, the Koryô court flees the capital of Songdo (modern Kaesông, North Korea) and takes refuge on nearby Kanghwa, a large island just offshore in the Yellow Sea, where it remains in exile for the next forty years.

If you want something earlier, there’s always trade (again):

By the end of the first century B.C., there was a great expansion of international trade involving five contiguous powers: the Roman empire, the Parthian empire, the Kushan empire, the nomadic confederation of the Xiongnu, and the Han empire. Although travel was arduous and knowledge of geography imperfect, numerous contacts were forged as these empires expanded—spreading ideas, beliefs, and customs among heterogeneous peoples—and as valuable goods were moved over long distances through trade, exchange, gift giving, and the payment of tribute.

Or alternately, here’s an essay on a NYPL exhibit: The African Disapora in the Indian Ocean World:

While in Macau during the early 17th century, the English traveler Peter Mundy noted two “Abbasin [Abyssinians]"—Chincheo and Antonio—both of whom had run away from the Portuguese and had since become Cantonese interpreters. These Africans, like others in the Indian Ocean world, spoke languages in addition to their own and Swahili. Swahili, with a Bantu grammar and many Arabic words, served as a lingua franca for many enslaved Africans—a kind of bridge between the various linguistic and ethnic origins among captives in East Africa as well as those who crossed the Indian Ocean.

There’s also just googling Indian Ocean Trade. Or checking out art objects from the Met’s exhibit, Kongo: Power and Majesty.

I mean, if you want a reason for two people to meet, think about what kind of people they are, what you want to happen as a result of that meeting, where they are meeting at, and why.

#angerysocialist #medievalpoc #ask #writing #resources #travel #history

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta, better known simply as Ibn Battuta (1304–circa 1377 AD) was a Muslim scholar and traveler, who was born in Tangier, Morocco. He is considered one of the greatest travelers of all time, and is well known for the account of his travels and excursions. The full title of the book of his journeys is Tuhfat al-anzar fi gharaaib al-amsar wa ajaaib al-asfar (A gift to those who contemplate the wonders of cities and the marvels of traveling), but it is commonly referred to as Ibn Battuta’s Rihla (rihla means journey). Propelled by the quest for adventure and knowledge, Ibn Battuta set out on this journey when he was just 21 years old, initially intending to go on the hajj to Mecca. The journey, however, spanned almost 30 years. In that period, he covered nearly the entirety of the known Islamic world and beyond: from North Africa, West Africa, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe in the west, to the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and China in the east, a distance greatly surpassing that covered by his predecessors or by his near-contemporary, Marco Polo. When Ibn Battuta finally returned to Morocco in the early 1350s, he was commissioned by Abu Inan Faris, the sultan of Morocco, to produce an account of his travels. Ibn Battuta then dictated his story to the poet Ibn Juzayy al-Kalbi.

Ibn Battuta’s Rihla (LoC)

#Inb Battuta #quote #medieval history #medievalpoc #Rihla #travel #early modern travel #exploration

cannibalfilmphd-deactivated2023 asked:

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but you were the first person I thought to ask. Do you know of any good translations of Rhila by Ibn Battuta? Or know anyone who I could ask? I want to read it, but I haven't been able to find one.

There’s a good chunk of one translation here for free: Medieval Sourcebook: Ibn Battuta: Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354

One of the problems from what I’ve gathered is that the most commonly used English translation is from literally the 1800s, and a lot of people say it’s not complete or is too abridged, among other inaccuracies. I’ve seen a few people recommend The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century by Ross E. Dunn instead, but I haven’t read it.

#Ibn Battuta #medieval history #medievalpoc #sewingfrommagic #ask #travel #medieval travel #exploration #translation #books #resources

The Bronze Age of Scandinavia (1750-500 BC) is characterized by the sudden appearance of bronze objects in Scandinavia, the sudden mass appearance of amber in Mycenaean graves, and the beginning of bedrock carvings of huge ships. We take this to indicate that people from the east Mediterranean arrived to Sweden on big ships over the Atlantic, carrying bronze objects from the south, which they traded for amber occurring in SE Sweden in the Ravlunda-Vitemölla–Kivik area. Those visitors left strong cultural imprints as recorded by pictures and objects found in SE Sweden. This seems to indicate that the visits had grown to the establishment of a trading centre. The Bronze Age of Österlen (the SE part of Sweden) is also characterized by a strong Sun cult recorded by stone monuments built to record the annual motions of the Sun, and rock carvings that exhibit strict alignments to the annual motions of the Sun. Ales Stones, dated at about 800 BC, is a remarkable monument in the form of a 67 m long stone-ship. It records the four main solar turning points of the year, the 12 months of the year, each month covering 30 days, except for month 7 which had 35 days (making a full year of 365 days), and the time of the day at 16 points representing 1.5 hour. Ales Stones are built after the same basic geometry as Stonehenge in England.

The Bronze Age in SE Sweden: Evidence of Long-Distance Travel and Advanced Sun Cult by Nils-Axel Mörner, Bob G. Lind

Someone brought this article to my attention on Twitter, and although it’s definitely pre-Medieval, it’s a fascinating exploration of archaeological evidence as support for early global trade/travel/economics. Also has some nice images:

#academic articles #Sweden #medievalpoc #pre-1000s #Ancient Art #Bronze age #travel #trade #intercultural interactions #early global culture #early global trade #Scandinavia #mediterranean #Sun Cult #Art Objects #trade goods #grave goods

medievalpoc reblogged

Nicholas de Larmessin I

Portrait of Emperor Yohannes

French (c. 1680s)

216 x 121 mm

Engraving; Print on paper

Portrait of an Ethiopian Emperor: Black man bust-length, turned to the right, wearing crown, pearl necklace and embroidered cape, and holding sceptre in right hand; in oval frame with ribbon tied in the upper part, and coat of arms in the lower part.

“Emperor Yohann” is probably Prester John.

[source] [source]

theonlyleftydesk

…wasn’t he fictitious…?

Well, yes and no and it doesn’t matter, in that lovely way that a lot of Medieval history and literature end up sort of overlapping and, well, causing each other. The Prester John letter(s) had a pretty big impact, and starting in the 12th century, a lot of campaigns and exploration groups were sent to try and find the kingdom of Prester John. I know there’s at least one rather dry academic collection of documents and articles on this: Prester John, The Mongols, And The Ten Lost Tribes by Bernard Hamilton and C. F Beckingham. From the description:

This study makes an important contribution to the study of the Prester John legend and will be of interest to a wide range of scholars working in the field of medieval history and literature. The principal sources relating to Prester John are reprinted here for the first time in more than a century, together with a number of key modern articles on this topic. In addition, an international group of scholars has contributed six new studies which examine the legend in the context of Mongol history, Russian literature, the medieval Jewish accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes, the crusading movement, and the Portuguese voyages of exploration.

SFF writer Robert Silverberg wrote something that I’ve gathered is a bit more accessible-The Realm of Prester John. From the description:

Robert Silverberg, whose work is well known to science fiction fans, originally published The Realm of Prester John in 1972. The first modern account of the genesis of a great medieval myth — which was perpetuated for centuries by European Christians who looked to Asia and Africa for a strong ruler out of the east — Silverberg's romantic and fabulous tale is now available in paperback for the first time.

Prester John had a massive impact and effect on Medieval European society and culture regardless of being fictitious or not, and in the end it actually doesn’t matter much (kind of like King Arthur, who first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae/History of the Kings of Britain).

As the article I originally linked above points out:

In 1177, Pope Alexander III sent his friend Master Philip to find Prester John; he never did. Despite that failed reconnaissance, countless explorations had the goal of reaching and rescuing Prester John's kingdom that had rivers filled with gold and was the home of the Fountain of Youth (his letters are the first recorded mention of such a fountain). By the fourteenth century, exploration had proved that Prester John's kingdom did not lie in Asia, so subsequent letters (published as a ten-page manuscript in several languages), wrote that the besieged kingdom was located in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia).

When the kingdom moved to Abyssinia after a 1340 edition of the letter, expeditions and voyages began to head to Africa to rescue the kingdom. Portugal sent expeditions to find Prester John throughout the fifteenth century. The legend lived on as cartographers continued to include the kingdom of Prester John on maps through the seventeenth century.

[...]

Though some scholars think that the basis for Prester John came from the great empire of Genghis Khan, others conclude it was merely a fantasy. Either way, Prester John profoundly affected the geographical knowledge of Europe by stimulating interest in foreign lands and sparking expeditions outside of Europe.

Prester John is an integral part of Medieval European history, and the influence continued well into the colonial era. For obvious reasons. And in the end, it really doesn’t matter whether or not anyone thinks he was a real person (which is perfectly likely), or whether he was an invention by someone who had financial interest in selling travel gear to Europeans.

#Prester John #Medieval History #resources #travel #sociocultural impact #fiction #history #soemtimes there isn't a difference

Tomb Effigy of Jean d'Alluye, mid–13th century French; Made in Loire Valley Limestone; 83 1/2 x 34 1/4 in. (212.1 x 87 cm) The Cloisters Collection, 1925 (25.120.201)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Photo credits:

1. Tomb Effigy of Jean d'Alluye (photograph by palindrome6996/Flickr user)

2. A closer look at the sword (photograph by Allison Meier of atlasobscura.com)

3. (photograph by Qabluna/Flickr user)

Alec submitted to medievalpoc:

Saw this in person a while back and though it was pretty interesting that this person / his family thought the sword was important enough to put on his tomb effigy.

It also is pretty clear evidence for contact, at least indirectly (not that that’s in question) between China and France.

You can read an article about this sword here.

#medievalpoc #submission #arms #armor #medieval arms #medieval armor #China #France #contact #travel #sword #trade #trade goods #tomb

The Drake Jewel, England (1586)

Gifted by Queen Elizabeth I of England to Sir Francis Drake (Drake is pictured with the jewel at his belt above)

From Uncommon Sense, Spring 2004 issue, no.118:

Elizabeth’s gift to Sir Francis Drake is similarly evocative: one side is a locket with a portrait of the Queen by Nicholas Hilliard with a cover featuring on the interior her avian emblem, the phoenix. A miniature portrait was the single most frequent gift given by Elizabeth I to persons she would reward. It projected her image as monarch, equipped with state clothes and regalia and asserting a personal connection with the recipient as well as a political relationship. On another occasion Elizabeth I gave Drake a second miniature portrait, in which she stood at the focus of a sunburst, to use as a hat badge. That Drake, a commoner who rose to the position of state champion on the raid to Cadiz and Vice-Admiral of the Armada, was so honored marked his extraordinary place in the world.

More fascinating to present admirers of the Drake Jewel is the other side with the intaglio cut cameo of sardonyx featuring an African male bust in profile superimposed over the profile of a European.

There is some debate whether the European is a regal woman or a Roman Briton of the sort William Camden was idealizing in his Britannia. It is not the face of any contemporary man—and certainly not Drake—for it is clean shaven.

The symbolism here operates in two registers: a general imperial iconics in which the global range of imperium is figured in the equivalent faces of the African Emperor and the English Empress. (Karen Dalton has discussed this symbolism in a recent piece in Early Modern Visual Culture, [Peter Erikson and Clark Hulse, eds., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000].) There is also a much more pointed symbolism meant particularly for Drake. The conjoint effort of Africa and the English will liberate the world from the power of Spain. Drake’s alliance with the Cimmarroons, runaway African slaves who intermarried with Natives, in Panama in 1576 led to his successful capture of the Spanish plate train crossing Panama. This act thrust Drake onto the world stage, secured him and the crown immense treasure, and gave the English forces in the Caribbean the character of liberators.

In the West Indian invasion of 1585–1586, he planned to resurrect his alliance, as part of his design to assert English power in the Spanish main. It survived as one of the most potent scenes in the English imperial imagination, serving as the central action of the Sir William Davenant’s opera, “The History of Sir Francis Drake,” one of only two stage works permitted during the English Commonwealth, and a piece condoned personally by Oliver Cromwell, who also sought to liberate Spanish America from “tyranny & popery.” In the Americas Drake had learned the truth that Elizabeth I understood on the eastern side of the Atlantic—the defeat of Spain required a combination, and the hatred of tyranny brought together Anglo and African.

Elizabeth’s cultivation of Mulay Ahmad al-Mansur (ruler of Morrocco from 1578–1603) in an alliance against their mutual enemy, Spain, was a diplomatic correlative to the martial alliance that Drake had forged in the jungles of the isthmus.

#art history #medievalpoc #The drake Jewel #Elizabeth I #Renaissance #1500s #travel #colonialism #England #History

alienbabez-deactivated20190312 asked:

im not the original asker but they did get me curious so: Were there white people in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa during ancient and medieval times?

Genuine questions get legitimate answers!

Yes. If you want to know about ancient times, try the Ancient Art Week tag. For early modern, try Nanban/Namban to see Japanese art featuring both Black and white Portuguese and Spanish traders:

And you can also check the tag Benin for Sapi-Portuguese Ivories and metalwork like this featuring traders from Spain and Portugal in African empires and famous courts:

*EDIT: JSYK, the answer to any question that can be rephrased as "Has anyone in human history ever _____?", the answer is going to be yes.

And that is why history is fun.

#medievalpoc #ask #answer #travel #medieval travel #ancient #early modern #early global culture #childsbeth

medievalpoc reblogged

At least we went out on a high note

So WisCon was super cool and all the two years I went and I’m super glad I went cause I got to meet lots of cool people I would’ve never met.

Big shout to jhameia for maybe being the coolest person on the planet. <3

and to beyondvictoriana and cypheroftyr and vaporware-femme and gabbysilang who are all absolutely lovely people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

This year I even got to sit beside medievalpoc at the POC dinner even though I was too shy to talk to much. But I saw a couple of panels with them and it was super cool.

and DJ Older knows who I am on some tangential level and that’s cool. And I got to actually say hello to N.K. Jemisin face to face. And really, that’s the coolest thing ever. And I got candy from karnythia multiple times, and saw her do things and they’re a supremely wonderful human being.

And all that was topped off with two speeches from Hiromi Goto and N.K. Jemisin that were super special to see in person.

Really good times all around.

The downside. My patience for white liberalism is at an all time low. It’s very not good. I am beyond tired of organizations and people patting themselves on their back for their progressive attitudes while upholding the very structures they claim to be working against. There should be zero tolerance for certain behaviors in any setting, but when you specifically brand yourself as a feminist convention I expect even more. And to not ban a man, for life, for violent behavior towards women is appalling. And this isn’t a new thing for this guy in particular. and apparently the ban isn’t even going to last the full four years because he can just say he’s changed his behavior and waltz back in to harass more people.

But this is what you get from organizations interested in looking the part from a distance. You get all that shine for being so progressive, and don’t really have to put in work, while the people you claim to rep for are stuck dealing with the sludge you let fall through the cracks.

I wasn’t going next year regardless cause I’ll be in Japan. But it’s hard to spend as much money as it costs for us to go there if the leadership can’t even figure something this simple out. Also, it’s best to end on a high note.

Just wanted to say sorry for being so quiet at the dinner! I was kind of tired because I signed on for a ridiculously full schedule, and I wish I'd left more time to just chat with people and talk about stuff. I'm so glad you enjoyed the panels, because so much of my energy did end up going into them.

I agree with you, the speeches were amazing. I was pretty much in tears the whole time!

The situation you're talking about with the harassment situation is pretty unfortunate, and I know it's been bothering a lot of people. I can't really comment on it since I only just became aware of it.

Going to the con was just an amazing experience though, and I hope to do many more in the future, because I really do love to travel and do presentations, and meet new and interesting folks (like you!).

#WisCon #travel #presentation #awesome times #and not so great times #convention #meeting readers

On Eurasia

cenosillicaphobiac replied to your post: cenosillicaphobiac asked:Hi medie...

Sorry! As some of the other notes have said, I meant this sort of thing: “Of course. Asia and Europe aren’t even a separate landmass, after all.” (on your Europe tag) -> arbitrary line down the Eurasian continent of ‘other’?

Oh! I just meant political boundaries=/=physical impediment to travel. A lot of people seem to have very strange ideas about that.

Especially when that particular political boundary didn't exist yet by a good margin. Also, the separation still doesn't actually exist in many places.

As for "arbitrary", it doesn't mean "completely random". Everything named by humans serves a purpose for humans, in this case presumably Europeans, since they were the ones who decided they were separate.

I can only speak to American ideas about this, after all. In the U.S. the idea that Europe was completely culturally and geographically isolated (and racially isolated) for pretty much the entirety of human history is very popular and widely accepted. It's also not true.

How this belief can co-exist with The Silk Road also being (fairly) common knowledge, I don't really understand. And the Crusades. And the Roman Empire. And the Mongolian, Ottoman, and Byzantine Empires. Vikings. Al-Andalus.

So, I explore that.

I mean, this is exactly how it goes: A film or show comes out cast entirely with white people, even though it's meant for a pretty diverse American audience.

Viewers and fans of color are like, "wow, why isn't anyone who looks like me on this show, or on TV/in movies, like, ever?"

White fans are like, "how dare you? It's a European [inspiration/source/book/fairy tale]. Everyone to the last person, every single last human, in Europe was white back then (pretty much no matter when. or where.)"

I'm like, "That doesn't make any sense if you think about it for two seconds, for about a million reasons (supernatural elements in the source, documented historical precedence, source being 100% fiction, historical facts, et cet)."

White viewers/fans: "I want to shoot you in the head."

Me: :(

So, anyways, that is the purpose that the boundary between Asia and Europe serves for a lot of white Americans. Who think that ideas like an Asian Robin Hood would be laughable and inaccurate, who throw hissy fits over a biracial man playing Porthos in the Three Musketeers TV show despite the fact that the book was written by a mixed race author, who can't stand Angel Coulby playing Guinevere or Sinqua Walls playing Lancelot (despite the existence of Sir Morien and several other knights of color in Arthurian canon), who are willing to become actually violent over protecting the ubiquitous whiteness of Disney films like Brave and Frozen, or video games, or really any other piece of fiction.

The supposed isolation of Europe during previous eras is used to perpetrate and excuse violence and racism in America, right now.

It shouldn't be controversial to point out that Europe and Asia are literally the same landmass:

But in this context, it becomes very relevant, and sadly, controversial. I'm pretty bad with geography, but I'm not that bad.

All I'm actually saying is, "you may notice you can get to Europe by walking there from almost anywhere in Asia."

And it's like...it's understood that there have been Europeans of color who've lived there for centuries....

but at the same time, no people of color, ever?

And this isn't even getting into the whole "people had boats since 5ever" factor. Australia has been populated for 40,000-ish years, after all.

So we come back to the question: What separates Asia and Europe? The answer is, essentially, nothing. Another answer is: human social constructs. Yet another answer is: distance. Another: a political boundary.

But maybe we get a little more mileage out of NEW questions: What purpose does this boundary serve, and whom does it serve? What ideas are attached to it? Why do we care?

As you can see, this doesn't have a ton to do with people who are Europeans, doing their thing in Europe right now...other than Europeans of color who apparently have had their histories in their nations left out or called "unimportant".

Like I've said, I'm American and I can't speak for Europeans. I've never claimed to, but I find their (your) input quite valuable.

As for "the standard argument" you refer to in your original ask, I honestly am not sure what that's referring to. This is what I mean when I talk about these things, and some practical examples of why I use these terms the way I do. I hope it helped.

#cenosillicaphobiac #continents #history #Eurasia #political boundaries #discussion #terms #vaiolence #threats #race #racism #racial boundaries #historical accuracy #travel #historical travel

blue-author reblogged your post how-much-farther-to-go asked:Do y... and added:

I just want to take a moment to specifically single out the way he says “travel was hard back then” as part of his excuse for why a people who are outside his Ye Olde Medieval Pseudo-Englande and have traveled to and from Westeros must be white.

Travel is difficult, yes, but it’s happening in the stories.

Westeros must be surrounded by the same Magic Mountain Ranges as the Scottish Highlands, which apparently makes them "inaccessible" only to people of color. :|

#blue-author #magic mountains #travel #inaccessible areas #okayyyy #ASOIAF #medieval fantasy

vampiresandwerewolves asked:

i can't seem to find many things on poc during the viking age. i also can't find much music from then, period. do you have any sources or information about this time period?

Well, here are all the posts I have tagged Vikings. A lot of people ask about people of color in Viking art, and I always have to kind of explain that there isn’t a lot of Viking art that has images of people in it. As well as overall trends in European Medieval Art. Most of your information is going to come from the well-traveled artworks that support what most of us know: the the Vikings were a very well-traveled people. There are also trade goods like beads and cloth, like Persian and Chinese silk found in grave sites.

As for music, the Wikipedia page you probably want there is Nordic Folk Music. There isn’t a lot of documentation or surviving instruments involving Viking music, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have any. Chapter 4 of A History of European Folk Music by Jan Ling covers how many of the songs and tales from Scandinavia were part of an overall oral tradition.

#Vikings #Music #Travel #Medieval #Trade #vampiresandwerewolves

att. Kano Domi

Namban Byobu (detail): Unloading of a Portuguese Carrack

Edo period, Japan (c. 1590-1600)

[source] [source] [source]

#Art #History #Nanban #Namban #Japan #Portgual #trade #travel #sea travel #maritime #carrack #1500s #1600s #trade goods #boat

Edo Period Artist

Namban Screen featuring the Portuguese on a Carrack (detail)

Japan (c. 1590s)

Paint and Gold Leaf on Paper Panels.

Namban (or nanban), which literally translates as “southern barbarians,” was a term commonly applied to the Portuguese traders who began arriving in Japan in the mid-fifteenth century.

[x] [x]

#Namban Art #Namban screens #Japan #Portugal #Southern Barbarians #carrack #travel #sea travel #1500s

anon ([email protected]) submitted to medievalpoc:

Anyway, I know before you said something about how you don’t put much stock in biological origins of race (or something along those lines), but I thought you might be interested in this anyway.

I can’t read the article myself, since it’s behind a paywall, and I don’t have the knowledge to assess the rigor of their argument anyway, but, well, to quote the some of the abstract (bolding mine):

"However, about 3% of Czech mtDNAs encompass East Eurasian lineages (A, N9a, D4, M*). A comparative analysis with published data showed that different Slavonic populations in Central and Eastern Europe contain small but marked amounts of East Eurasian mtDNAs. We suggest that the presence of East Eurasian mtDNA haplotypes is not an original feature of the gene pool of the proto-Slavs but rather may be mostly a consequence of admixture with Central Asian nomadic tribes, who migrated into Central and Eastern Europe in the early Middle Ages.”

But, y’know, the opposition would probably go “it’s only 3%!” because clearly all media should ever show is the majority.

As I've said, I am no scientist or geneticist, and I don't put stock in a lot of the funding and energy that goes toward finding biological basis for race in recent times.

It's my understanding that the way that this is done is by isolating genetics markers that seem to occur only within specific racial or racialized populations, and then look for "exceptions", resulting in papers like this one.

And to be honest with you, paywall or no, I don't think *I'd* be able to read this paper, either:

Yikes!

I don't even know what "East Eurasian mtDNA" implies or means, much less if it pertains to what we would call "race". Although maybe that's what the paper means by "Ethnic History of Slavs"?

Like...I don't know it seems to me as though it wouldn't actually be that hard to just keep walking or riding a horse or donkey until you get to Prague, considering there's no actual ocean separating the "continents" of Europe and Asia' in other words, "Eurasia". There's mountains, but they're not that challenging or complete. I could be wrong on that, considering it's geography, but...that's what seems to be true here.

That being said, North Africa is still actually closer.

#geography #science #submission #Bohemia #Medieval #maps #travel #genetics #????

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