National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

‘Chewing Gum’ Holds Ancient Genetic Secrets • A piece of birch pitch chewed by a Stone Age woman in Denmark opens exciting new vistas for genetic archaeology.

THE BIRCH: A TREE WITH THE GIFT OF GUM

Fall of the Reich: The Red Army Takes Berlin • At the end of a brutal campaign in spring 1945, the Soviet Union’s forces barreled into Berlin, the last refuge of Nazi Germany. Taking this city would be the final step for securing victory for the Allied powers and ending World War II in Europe.

THE YALTA CONFERENCE

Battle of Berlin

DEATH IN THE BUNKER

Junípero Serra: California’s Founding Father • To convert native peoples and secure lands for Spain in the 18th century, Spanish priest Junípero Serra founded a chain of missions from which many of California’s cities grew.

DIVISIVE LEGACY

NINE MISSIONS

CALIFORNIA’S FIRST MISSION

THE PHARAOH’S PAINTED TOMB • Discovered in 1817, the burial chambers of Seti I are adorned from beginning to end with some of the finest funerary art of all time, a New Kingdom masterpiece that set a standard for the great royal tombs that followed.

SETI’S VIBRANT TOMB

THE LONGEST TOMB

1 THE FIRST STEPS

2 PILLARS OF THE GODS

3 CLOSER TO THE AFTERLIFE

4 THE BURIAL CHAMBERS

5 STOREHOUSES OF THE DEAD

THE REAL AMAZONS • Tales of fierce women who lived and fought like men thrilled ancient Greek audiences. Today, archaeological evidence proves that Amazons were real and based on the Greeks’ encounters with Scythian women, mounted warriors of the steppes.

TALES OF VALOR

AMAZON ARCHAEOLOGY

WOUNDED WARRIORS

FROM THE BATTLE TO THE GRAVE

BRAVE WOMEN OF ARGOS

TALES OF WARRIOR QUEENS • The Amazons appeared with Greek heroes in a multitude of classical Greek stories, legends, and founding myths. Their interactions became popular motifs painted on ceramics.

STRONGHOLD ON THE DANUBE • A string of bases, forts, and towers stretched along the banks of the Danube, forming a powerful military barrier to protect the Roman Empire from assaults coming from the barbarian world.

Barbarians at the Border

A ROMAN’S-EYE VIEW

ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

PATROLLING THE DANUBE

UNITED EFFORTS

TRAJAN’S DACIAN WARS

FIRST CROSSING

ROME’S FRONTIER COLONY

FROM FORTRESS TO CITY • In Petronell, Austria, stand the remains of Carnuntum, Rome’s most important defensive position on the upper Danube.

THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE Mission of the Masses • In 1212 thousands of European youths banded together to try to take back the Holy Land from Muslim control. Unsanctioned by the church, their holy heroism left a deep mark on the popular imagination and fascinated historians.

QUESTIONS OF AGE

GREGORY’S INNOCENTS

ROMANTIC LEGENDS • Accounts of the 1212 Children’s Crusade featured dramatic events, some that are now regarded as apocryphal. For centuries, romanticized retellings included these episodes, such as The Story of the Crusades, an English children’s book from 1910:

DARWIN VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE • In 1831 a young Charles Darwin embarked on a voyage to South America and then around the world. The astonishing variety of specimens he collected, and his profound reflections on the natural world, later crystallized into his revolutionary ideas about evolution.

LIFE ABOARD THE...