Category: history

three great pyramid under the blue sky
Blog, books, history

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Christina Hollis

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are a great source of pub quiz questions. How many can you name? They are: the Colossus of Rhodes; the Great Pyramid of Giza; the Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia; the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus; and Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Book cover, Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Bettany Hughes.

Before watching Bettany Hughes’s TV series The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World I could only remember two. They were the hanging gardens and the library, but then I love both gardening, and books.

Our local independent bookshop, Rossiter, arranged for Bettany Hughes to appear in Monmouth and talk about her latest book, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. DD got tickets for us. She did well to buy them early. The event was a sell out.

Bettany Hughes is an English historian and broadcaster, specialising in classical history. The author of five books about ancient history, she is a founding patron of the UK based charity Classics For All. This promotes Classics in state (that is, non-fee-paying) schools, and areas of the country such as inner cities where the Classics aren’t well known .
What use are dead languages and ancient history in the twenty-first century? Bettany has the perfect answer.

Veni, Vedi, Captus Sum

That’s the nearest my feeble Latin can get to I came, I saw, I was arrested. In her early twenties, Bettany travelled to Romania to study ancient feminine figurines such as these:

Photo of tattooed female figures by Marius Amarie See https://archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2013/collection/cucuteni-figurine-romania-neolithic/ The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Blog by Christina Hollis June 2024
Tattooed Figures by Marius Amarie

While she was there, the Romanian Revolution broke out. She rushed back to England and safety, but then had second thoughts. There’s only one sure way to know exactly what is going on in a foreign country. That’s to be on the spot, so she went straight back to Romania. The authorities took a dim view about the swift return of an attractive young woman who spoke no Romanian. They arrested her, and things might have turned nasty. Luckily, the modern Romanian language developed from Latin. Bettany managed to use her knowledge of Latin to create a kind of Pidgin Romanian. She talked her way out of trouble. It goes to show that even today, Classics can get you out of a tight spot…

…Or Help You When You Are In One…

Bettany’s tutor at university, Robin Lane Fox, told his students they should go to the places where history happened. They shouldn’t become armchair historians. She took that to heart. Despite having a life-long horror of small spaces, Bettany often explores them for the sake of her TV programmes.

Claustrophobia is a fear many of us can relate to, but Bettany manages to overcome it. Greek myths help her, especially the story of Perseus. He was the half-man, half god who killed the snake headed monster Medusa. Perseus used Medusa’s severed head to turn the evil giant Titan to stone. Then like all true heroes Perseus got the girl, Andromeda, by killing the sea monster Cetus.

Perseus had to confront not just monsters, but the fear of fear itself. Bettany finds it useful to remember that everyone feels afraid sometimes. That’s not a cure, but it helps to keep her calm.

Inspiration

In 1972 the Treasures of Tutankhamun visited the British Museum London. It still ranks as the most popular exhibition in the museum’s history. Bettany saw it, and developed a life-long passion for ancient Egypt. At the time, she recorded in her school project, Bettany’s Busy Book, that “sum (sic) mosquitoes…” that were “…a bit germy bit Tutankhamun, and he died”.

When Bettany was older, one of her teachers showed her class a picture of a mysterious Minoan snake goddess. This puzzle inspired Bettany to study history at university.

Photo of two Minoan Snake Goddesses Via Wikipedia, ΘεέςτωνΌφεων_6391. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World Blog, Christina Hollis
Minoan Snake Goddesses Via Wikipedia, ΘεέςτωνΌφεων_6391

After graduating from St Hilda’s College, Oxford, she got a shock when applying to the BBC in the 1990s. A producer told her that nobody was interested in history anymore, nobody watched history programs on TV, and nobody wanted to be lectured at by a woman. Bettany saw that as a challenge, and has spent the past three decades proving him wrong.

The Seven Wonders of The Ancient World

Antonis Chaliakopoulous (MSc Museum Studies, BA History & Archaeology), has written a great piece for The Collector about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Wonders are all situated around the Mediterranean and Near East. Bettany Hughes started visiting Türkiye and Greece in her teens. Then family life intervened, and she didn’t reach Egypt until she was in her thirties. The pyramids still overawe her, although she has visited them many times. At 4,600 years old they are the oldest buildings ever made by human hands, and the heaviest. The precision of their construction is awesome.

Why Seven?

The number seven has long been seen as a lucky number in many countries. “Seven Top Tips” is a popular blog offering even today.
People in ancient times loved a list as much as we do. Lists bring order to chaos, and structure to our lives. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are actually part of a much bigger list of ancient lists. These include the Seven Best Mountains, the Seven Most Beautiful Springs, and the Seven Finest Generals.

The Power of Wonder

Bettany says The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World should remind us of the power of wonder. If we wonder, then we connect. If we connect, then we understand. If we understand we care–even if we’re separated from these ancient civilisations by millennia.
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are positive examples of human endeavour in its broadest sense, even though some were built by slave labour. They are proof that collaboration can achieve so much more than the work of an individual, no matter how talented they might be.
We all need wonder in our lives, especially these days when the internet has the power to drown out optimism and achievement by amplifying everything that is bad in the world.

If you get the chance, go and see Bettany Hughes speak. She’s great fun, and wears her immense knowledge lightly. In real life, she is every bit as lively and engaging as she appears on TV. I loved her gold sneakers. Professor Mary Beard also has a pair. They must be the perfect combination of comfort and fashion!

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Blog, history

Women’s History Month

Christina Hollis

March 1st marks the beginning of Women’s History Month in the USA. This began life in 1978 as a local celebration in Santa Rosa, California. It was originally only Women’s History Week, but was so popular it was copied by towns and cities across the country. In 1987, Congress designated March each year as Women’s History Month.

According to the National Women’s History Museum the theme this year is “Visionary Women: Champions of Peace & Nonviolence.”  All over the USA events will honour “women who have led efforts to end war, violence, and injustice and pioneered the use of nonviolence to change society.”

Image via Pixabay

One group of women from San Mateo, California did a lot to raise the spirits of their sisters during the bleakest days of the Second World War. The Daughters of St George sent Christmas parcels to the Bedminster Emergency Station, Bristol. Packed with rare treats like candy , American comics and magazines these were distributed at New Year 1941 among those who had been bombed out of their homes.

You can find out more about city life during the Second World War in my new book, Struggle and Suffrage in Bristol which is available direct from the publisher, Pen and Sword Books, and from Amazon.

Blog, Bristol, history

Struggle and Suffrage—The Movie…

Christina Hollis

Well, all right, not so much a movie as a promotional video! I’ve been experimenting with Animoto, and here’s the result…

Animoto are working on the reason for the pale cover, by the way!



Animoto gave me a Promo code to share—you can get a free month if you copy and paste this code  https://animoto.com/ref/Pip-693f6dd5b into your application when you subscribe.

Bristol, history, Reference, Struggle and Suffrage: Women's Lives In Bristol 1850-1950

Review: Women and The City: Bristol 1373-2000, Edited by Dr Madge Dresser

Christina Hollis

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-City-1373-2000-Madge-Dresser/dp/190832631X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514970849&sr=8-1&keywords=madge+dresser
Find out more at http://amzn.to/2Cgv5r0
Women and the City: Bristol 1373-2000 is a collection of essays by respected academics. It’s a lively, absorbing read. A good balance has been struck between well-written prose and contemporary illustrations. The book and its content is presented in a way that invites even a casual reader to keep turning the pages. There’s a handy list of abbreviations right at the front, which is much easier than having to flick through to the index, or notes, each time a set of initials pops up in the text. Other academic works would do well to follow this example.
 
I bought Women and the City: Bristol 1373-2000 to help with research for my own book, Struggle and Suffrage: Women’s Lives in Bristol 1850-1950, but after studying the sections relevant to my own work I went straight back to the beginning of the book and read it all. It’s a mine of information for anyone with an enquiring mind. I’d particularly recommend it to aspiring historical novelists in search of inspiration. The fact that a woman (Ann Barry) held the lease of that stronghold of “Enlightened” masculinity, the Exchange Coffee House in Corn Street offers all sorts of dramatic possibilities, for example. It’s often forgotten that Bristol women struck a significant blow in the fight against slavery. The formation of the Bristol and Clifton Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society is never as widely reported as Bristol’s part in that terrible trade. This book helps to put that right. 
 
Women and the City: Bristol 1373-2000 is curated by Associate Professor of History at the University of the West of England and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Dr Madge Dresser. The breadth of its content and unique style of each contributor makes for a fascinating read. It offers great insight into the history of Bristol and its people. Anyone who knows the city will look at local landmarks with new eyes after reading it.  
 

 

To sum up, this is an invaluable collection for historians, and anyone interested in women’s studies. It’s also an inspiring read for the rest of us.
Barnardos, Docklands, history, My Dream Guy, Pokemon Go, Thames

Time, Tide And Technology…

Christina Hollis

This is Canary Wharf, in London’s Docklands development. OH took this photo from the balcony of our hotel the last time we stayed there. We had a beautiful suite, with the Thames running below our windows, and a perfect view of the city. At low tide the shore was exposed, along with all sorts of flotsam and jetsam.

It was on that mud, just over a hundred years ago, that my grandfather’s family scraped a living. In the early twentieth-century version of repair, re-use and recycle, they salvaged everything they could to sell on, or use themselves. They went everywhere on foot, and lived in conditions you only see in the film Oliver! nowadays. As a child, my grandfather was saved from his awful hand-to-mouth existence by the charity Barnardos, and later by signing up with the Royal Corps of Signals in the British Army.

Grandad wouldn’t recognise the old place now. These days, Docklands is a place of high finance and expense-account lunches. Planes skim over the sight of his miserable early life every few minutes, on their way into London City airport. Nobody walks anywhere, unless they are so hard-up they can’t afford public transport.  The National Health Service, together with networks of rules, regulations and safeguards should mean no family struggles as my grandfather’s did.

http://mybook.to/MyDreamGuy
Find out more at myBook.to/MyDreamGuy

That’s a relief, but with big gains has come at least one loss.  The only thing Grandad liked to remember about this early life was the community spirit. Everyone struggled to survive, but they did it together. There was always time to talk with your neighbours—if only to tell them the bailiffs were coming!

They used to say it takes a whole village (or in Grandad’s case, warren) to raise a child. These days we have electronic babysitters, with screens instead of faces. With sipper bottles, onesies, adult colouring books and Haribo adverts, nobody has to grow up if they don’t want to. There’s no time to talk to anyone, and no need, either—if you’re glued to Pokemon Go, nobody’s going to disturb you.

It’s a form of escapism. I’d rather lose myself in a book!

What do you think is the best thing about life today, and what’s the worst? There’s a copy of my feel good, light-as-a-summer breeze romance, My Dream Guy, for a comment pulled out of my beekeeping hat by midnight on 8th August. If you can’t comment, email me instead! christinahollis(at)hotmail.co.uk