Caligula ’s Nemi ships are my Roman Empire , so to speak .
I’m a huge history buff, and I’m learning newfun factsall the time. I mean,allthe time. I find that history is the best place to learn interesting facts…and also where you find the best gossip. Without further ado, here are 10 facts I’ve learned that I absolutely had to share.
1.Apparently,sharks are olderthan Polaris, aka the North Star, whichis about 70 million years old. Sharks, on the other hand, go back to about450 million years ago(althoughanimalsthat we would look at and think “that’s a shark” only evolved about 380 million years ago. Youthful!).
2.For centuries, Lake Nemi in rural Italy has been subject to rumors thatit is home to the bones of an infamous ancient shipwreck. Although the rumors were investigated and even backed up by the fact thatfishermen kept reeling in timber, they were always assumed to be unlikely or exaggerated, especially considering that Nemi is a freshwater lake far from any larger body of water and unlikely to have been the home of any ships. But that assumption was proven false in 1928, whenarchaeologists under Benito Mussolini actually recovered the almost 2,000-year-old ships. Who did they belong to, you ask? None other than the Roman emperor Caligula.
3.I was alerted bythis tweetto the fact that the earliest-known museum dates to 530 BC and was founded by a Neo-Babylonian princess,Ennigaldi-Nanna. Ennigaldi was an influential priestess and princess, and her museumheld artifacts from across the past 1,500 years of Mesopotamian history.
it ’s punishing to truly find how deeply honest-to-goodness civilization really is but a fact that pull up stakes me breathless is princess ennigaldi - nanna of the neo - babylonian empire was an archaeologist who founded a musuem 2500 years ago and most of the artifacts in it were 1500 year one-time than that
4.In 897, Pope Stephen VI ordered that the body of the last pope, Pope Formosus, be exhumed and hiscorpse put on trialin what became known as the Cadaver Synod. Formosus was Stephen’s “hated enemy,” and when his body was exhumed, it was dressed in his full pontifical vestments and stood trial forperjury and for being pope illegally,among other things.
5.In the late 17th century, the Qing dynastyissued edicts to entirely ban human settlementin swathes of coastal areas of eastern China. This became known as the Great Clearance (an absolutelywildname), and its purpose was tolessen the power of Ming dynasty loyalistsin Taiwan.
6.You might know Hedy Lamarr from movies she starred in during the Hollywood Golden Age, but she invented something that’s part of your life every day: Wi-Fi. According to theSmithsonian, she revolutionized radio technology helping the Allies in World War II: The Smithsoniansays thatHedy did this by “[theorizing] that varying radio frequencies at irregular intervals would prevent interception or jamming of transmissions.” She’s responsible for the technology behind almost all the wireless communication we use today, including, yes,Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.Incredible.
7.The (potential) reason the US doesn’t use the metric system is because of pirates. In the late 1700s, the young USAconsidered adopting the metric system, because we didn’t actually have a standard unit of measurement yet!
You guys know aboutmy fondness for Napoleon. “Yes, Julia!” you’re doubtlessly saying. “Tell us more obscure Napoleon facts!” Okay, fine! I acquiesce!
8.In 1807, after the war between France and Russia had been ended, Napoleon’s chief of staffordered a celebratory rabbit hunt. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you are a rabbit), these were not wild rabbits, but domestic. When the cages of the thousand-odd rabbits were opened, instead of running, the rabbits apparentlyswarmed Napoleon and his party, forcing him to retreat to his carriage. Iconic.
9.Vikings are the reason we have cats…kind of. At least, they’re a big reason that they’re so widespread. Apparently,Vikings would take cats aboard ships, presumably as rodent control; the DNA of an Egyptian cat was even found to be the same as that of aViking cat found in Germany. In theProse Edda, it’s told that the goddessFreyja’s chariot is pulled by two cats, and she has a special connection with the animal. Vikings famously got around, and presumably spread cats everywhere they went!
10.And, finally… The oldest Egyptian pyramid, the Djoser pyramid,is about 4,700 years old.It was built for King Djoser, who ruled for 19 years, but was builtby architect Imhotep.The Djoser pyramid, a step pyramid, looks a little different than the pyramids at Giza; the Egyptians hadn’t quite figured out the smooth sides yet. Without Imhotep, the first steps (haha) toward the iconic pyramids we know today might never have been taken.
