Can there be such a thing as a dog suicide bridge? Many Scots believe that just such a span exists on the driveway leading to Overtoun House in the Glasgow suburb of Dumbarton. It is the Overtoun Bridge and the site of many “doggy suicides.”

Exactly how many dogs jumped to their death and crash into the ravine below varies according to local sources. Some put the figure at around 600, others at 300, but the actual total seems to be something like 50 dogs. Even a modest number of canine deaths is sufficient to warrant a warning to pet walkers to beware.

Dog Behavior at Overtoun Bridge

Completed in 1895 to the design of landscape architect, Henry Milner, the bridge, is an ornate structure. It is flanked by retaining walls topped by a slightly beveled broad banister. Reports by owners of dogs who have traversed the bridge include stories of the strange behavior of their pets on approaching the structure. When on the bridge itself, it is reported, some dogs suddenly and for no apparent reason leap over the retaining wall, to crash into the trees, shrubs, and rocks some 50 feet below. Other dog owners have said that their pets jump up onto the retaining wall and run along it before bounding to their deaths. Some dogs do survive the experience. A few incautious pet owners have told reporters that when back on the bridge, their unleashed pets exhibit the same behavior. They make a second attempt at “suicide.”

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From observers’ statements, it is not clear whether those dogs running along the parapet spring off it or lose their footing and fall. The latter is entirely possible as the camber of the banister on the wall, particularly when wet, makes sure footing difficult.

The statements of two dog owners serve as examples of strange dog behavior on the Overtoun Bridge:

“Something overcame Bonnie as soon as we approached the bridge.” Bonnie froze then, “became possessed by a strange energy and ran and jumped right off the parapet.”

Another dog owner reported:

“It happened instantly; my dog cleared the parapet wall without even touching it . . . something went through it like a poltergeist.”

With so many stories of strange dog behavior on the Overtoun Bridge? The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sent investigators to the site to unravel the mystery. A rational explanation for the dog “suicides” eluded them.

Paranormal Phenomenon and Lady Overtoun

In place of a scientific explanation, many locals believe the odd behavior of dogs crossing the bridge is a response to the paranormal phenomena that abound the area. Several people visiting Overtoun described the apparition of the white ghost of Lady Overtoun. She, it is said, wandered the estate as a grieving widow after the passing of her husband and builder of the bridge in 1908.

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The Nose Knows

What exactly drives dogs to jump to their death is a matter of conjecture. For example, perhaps it is something in the air compelling them to override visual clues as to the depth below. Dogs, according to canine cognition scientist Alexandra Horowitz have a complex and specialized nose. They have a sense of smell estimated to be between 10,000 and 100,000 times more acute than humans. If dogs follow their noses, what is the smell emanating from the ravine below that they cannot resist to the extent of leaping to their deaths? Some suggest rodents, in particular, mink, an animal known for its pungent odor.

Dog Behavior and Suicide

The notion that dogs can commit suicide is fanciful. Suicide, as we understand it, requires self-awareness or self-consciousness. Animal behaviorists have mulled over the thorny question of whether dog behavior is entirely instinctual or involves some inscrutable aspect of reasoning and consciousness. However much humans wish it not to be so; there is insufficient scientific evidence suggesting dogs are rational or irrational enough to end their lives intentionally. This means applying the word “suicide” to dog behavior is unwarranted.

A Localized Anomaly?

Why is the Overtoun Bridge a notorious venue for odd behavior among canines? A contributing factor is the sheer number of unleashed dogs frequenting the driveway of Overtoun House. Whether similar behavior occurs elsewhere is not known. For instance, the number of “suicidal” dogs saved by alarmed and protective owners tugging on a leash in other dangerous places is unknown. Undoubtedly, dogs do engage in reckless behavior, as every pet owner knows. Dogs may or may not assess a situation and register danger. They are social creatures whose ancestors adapted to the hunting of game. Social interaction and the hunt for food may trump other goals—even the avoidance of injury or death.

The rash behavior of dogs on the Overtoun Bridge may be a result of stimulating scents of other dogs. Some leap up onto the parapets and run along following their noses sniffing where other dogs have trotted. They are so focussed on nasal stimuli that additional sensory information is hardly processed.

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Here are some of the facts:

• Long-nosed dogs jump to their death the most.

• Long-nosed breeds are bred for tracking or retrieving prey

• The weather is typically clear and dry when a dog jumps

• The bulk of the dogs jump from the same side of the bridge

The Rainbow Bridge

Unfortunate and careless dog owners who lose their companions on the bridge will, according to the poem The Rainbow Bridge, reunite with their deceased pets. According to this heartwarming verse, loved pets who have passed, await their owners in a utopian limbo where they frolic carefree. They forgive their human loved ones for permitting them to run freely despite the danger to dogs.

By Alan McNairn

Further Reading:
Alexandra Horowitz, Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know, (New York, London: Scibner, 2010).

Andrew Crosse was a 19th-century man with enough monetary means to afford to spend time at his hobby of dabbling in scientific experimentation involving electricity. Actually, it was more of an obsession than a hobby.

He built a state-of-the-art laboratory at his English countryside house and read up on similar research going on around the world.

Results Were Not What Andrew Crosse Expected

In 1836, Crosse began an experiment to see if he could grow crystals via a weak electric current. He set up his experiment, which consisted of lava stone, a chemical mixture, and an electrical source, and prepared to wait. Days went by without results and Crosse was starting to become discouraged. However, 28 days after the experiment began, he noticed something unexpected. In the liquid of the experiment, instead of crystals, were numerous insects, all resembling some kind of mite or tiny flea.

He naturally presumed that the stone or liquid utilized in the experiment had been the home of microscopic insect eggs. The electrical stimulation must have caused the eggs to hatch. Oddly, though, no eggs had been seen originally, and no shells were to be seen after the insects appeared. Containers of the same chemical liquid source showed neither insects nor eggs.

Curious, Andrew Crosse replicated the experiment using sealed containers to prevent contamination from the outside. And he was rewarded with the same result: insects easily discernable in the experiment’s containers.

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The human race has always been obsessed with the afterlife and the concept of rebirth. Humans possess a fear of death, but also possess a fascination that revolves around death. A person sacrificing his life to save others is not unheard of. It might be rare to see such selflessness today, but people dying such noble deaths were more prevalent in previous eras.

The tale of the Mellified Man is closely linked with choosing death for the betterment of others. Put simply, a “Mellified Man” was a human mummy made into confections. Although in modern times, we do not believe that the human flesh has medicinal properties, some ancient medicinal traditions believed that human corpses or mummies could be used as medicine.

“Mellification” is an ancient word meaning to introduce honey into some other substance, and the first look one might think of a human fossil that has been discovered. Alternatively, one might think of a tragic story of a man getting trapped in sugar or honey by accident. However, a Mellified Man is closer to the concept of body donation and organ donation than an accident that left us with a mellified mummy.

This article will take you through the outlandish ideas of ancient medicine that normalized the eating of preserved human flesh to cure many diseases. You might be disgusted by the concept of eating sweetened mummified flesh, but this is part of our weird history, and is worth knowing about.

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Any visitor to southern Spain will quickly notice that the architecture is different to the rest of Europe. Large palaces such as the Alcazar and Alhambra dot the landscape, designed and decorated in a decidedly Islamic fashion.

For although most of western Europe remained unconquered by Islamic attacks through the Middle Ages and the era of crusades, the south of Spain was the exception. Muslims gained a foothold in western Europe by getting there early, and the Battle of Guadalete, fought in 711 AD between the Christian Visigoths and the invading Muslims which comprised of Berbers and Arabs, was how they got in.

It is considered to be one of the most significant battles of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The outcome of the battle shows the aggressive, expansionist nature that the Muslims adopted, for which the Spanish defenders were ill-prepared.

The battle is of historic importance since it led to the Muslim reign in Spain and several other regions for many centuries. The period when the battle was fought is believed to be one of the most unstable time periods for Europe. The instability was mainly due to the fall of the Romans.

It had caused a major vacuum in terms of leadership, and many new kingdoms were coming into existence. The vulnerability of Spain was exploited by the Muslims, which helped them to expand their dominance in the region.

The Umayyad Conquest of Spain

The Umayyad conquest of Spain which led to Muslim domination of the region for centuries was directly due to this power vacuum caused by the fall of the Romans. The conquest began with the Umayyad Caliphate, encompassing mostly Berbers and some Arabs, crossing the Mediterranean and invading the Christian Visigothic kingdom that was situated in Hispania from the south.

The Muslims campaigned their way towards the north and brought the captured regions under Muslim occupation. The conquest of Spain is regarded to be the start of a new era in world history where the Muslims had a role to play in Europe. The Umayyad conquest of Spain led to the very first engagement between the Latin west and the Islamic civilizations.

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During the conquest, the Muslims were facing Christian Visigoths. However, the Visigothic army was no match for the well-organized Muslim army, led by Tariq ibn Ziyad. The attack by the Muslims was severe and many of the leaders of the Visigoth army were killed alongside their soldiers.

Due to the swift and strategic move by the Muslims, the Visigoths stood no chance. When the defeated Visigoths retreated towards the ancient capital of Spain, Toledo, Tariq himself moved towards the region. This led to the surrender of Toledo without a fight. The event brought an end to the Visigoth rule in Spain, and it was a new beginning for the Muslims in the nation.

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Frustratingly for such a pivotal battle, we have very limited information about the engagement itself. We do not even know for sure that it was fought in 711 AD, and although the surviving sources for the battle are written decades rather than centuries later, there is still a large gap and the accounts are likely to contain errors.

We do not know where the battle was fought either, but the key problem is in estimating the size of the army. We are told that the Visigoth king Roderic brought 100,000 men with him to face to 190,000 warriors the Umayyads had brought into Spain, but these numbers are impossibly high. It is in fact likely that there were in fact more Visigoths than Muslims at the battle.

Stories about the battle itself are also unreliable. We are told that Roderic’s right flank betrayed him and fled the fight, but this is likely a later invention. We do know that, likely due to a series of withering charges on the massed Visigoth troop formations by the maneuverable Muslim Berber cavalry, the Visigoths were defeated and the course of history was rewritten.

Roderic died on the battlefield and much of his army died with him, but casualties were high on the Muslim side as well. With the loss of their king and the Muslim force still in fighting shape, the Visigoths retreated in disorder to their capital, and once the Umayyads followed up it was inevitable that Toldeo, and Spain, would fall.

After expanding the Umayyad presence in the Hispania region, it came to be known as one of the most prominent Muslim civilizations. The battle was a decisive moment that paved the end for the Visigothic forces by the invading Muslims. One of the main reasons for the success of the Muslims in the battle was the high instability of the Visigothic monarchy.

Furthermore, Roderic, the Visigoth King, received the news about the impending attack quite late. The late news is believed to be a major disadvantage as the Visigothic forces were not prepared to face the aggressive and swift move by the Muslim invaders.

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The victory of the Muslims in the Battle of Guadalete had a major impact on Spain. After the conquest, the nation came under Muslim control. After the conquest, for several hundreds of years, the identity of the Iberian Peninsula changed since it came to be known as Al-Andalus.

Muslim rulers played a dominant role in the region, and they impacted how the region was governed and administered. The lives of the common people also underwent a major change after the Muslims emerged victorious in the Battle of Guadalete.

Only a small handful of Christian states succeeded in surviving in the mountainous northern region of the Spanish peninsula. Due to the change in power that was the result of the battle, the population started to accept and embrace Islam. However, in spite of the fact that Muslims ruled the newly acquired region, most of the population continued to be Christians themselves.

The successful invasion of Spain reshaped the trajectory of the nation that previously had a major Christian influence. After the Muslims established their foothold in the Hispanic region, they succeeded in adopting Islamic practices. it would be the 13th century before the Muslims were driven out of Spain, and by that time they had changed the country forever.

Top Image: King Roderic of Spain, surrounded by Berber cavalry, fears the Battle of Guadalete may be lost. Source: Marcelino de Unceta / Public Domain.

By Bipin Dimri

References

Chakra, H, 2020. Muslim conquest of Spain – Battle of Guadalete. Available at: https://about-history.com/muslim-conquest-of-spain/

Ahmed, N, 2022. The Conquest of Spain. Available at https://historyofislam.com/contents/the-age-of-faith/the-conquest-of-spain/

Thomas Lyon-Bowes was born as the heir to one of the noblest titles of Scotland, the first-born child of the 11th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. But he would never inherit, and legend tells how he was cruelly locked up in a secret chamber. Named the “Monster of Glamis” because of his serious deformity, some say that he haunts the ancient Scottish castle to this day.

Thomas came into this world on 21st October 1821, at Glamis Castle, near Angus in Scotland. The official records stated that the newborn baby boy died on the same day as he was born. But rumors persisted that he had survived.

The rumors started when local people noticed there was no gravestone of the young boy Thomas. Stories started to circulate of chance meetings with a strange creature in and around the grounds of the castle, hushed up by the family.

Were these just rumors, or was the child hidden away by his family? Who what might the monster of Glamis Castle really be?

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As much as anything else, to study human development as a species one must understand human interactions with the world around them, and the animals and plants in it. From food to medicines to decoration, plants in particular have been used by humans since the dawn of time.

Indeed, many of the plants around us have been changed by this interaction, customized and adapted to suit human needs, tracing back millennia to when we first found a use for them.

And as a species, we certainly have a long-standing relationship with weed. Cannabis, in the form of hemp, was a robust and fast-growing source of fibers for making rope, as well as oil. Whether used this way or for other, more recreational purposes, it has been a part of human history for a very long time.

In fact, cannabis appears to have been first domesticated and used as far back as 12,000 years ago, and there is even proof of marijuana use in prehistoric societies. It was also not linked to a single society, as it is mentioned in the history of different regions across China, Eurasia, and the Middle East.

Buried With Your Stash

In a tomb discovered in 2016 in the Turpan Basin in China, archaeologists uncovered cannabis plants along with other funerary items. This marks the first time that full-sized cannabis plants have been found in a burial site.

While different cultures have widely differing burial customs, many are elaborate and many include things thought to hold significance with the dead. The Egyptians were famous for their elaborate, beautiful, and mysterious burial sites. And so it was with the ancient Chinese. Although these were different cultures, they shared a belief in some form of afterlife, and grave goods were provided for the dead to use in the next world.

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However, the burial of cannabis plant, in fact 13 cannabis plants, found with the remains of a Caucasian male, is something unusual. The grave was of a man about 35 years of age. These plants were arranged across his chest in a diagonal position, and the man’s head was placed on a red pillow.

So, what significance did cannabis hold for the man, and the society that buried him? Why were the plants placed in that way? Researchers are not yet sure, but there are plenty of theories.

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Can one single plant spice up your meals, cure what ails you? Drive your libido to new heights, and prevent pregnancies? The ancient Greeks and Romans had a plant that did all that and more.

This plant, a mystery to modern researchers, was so popular that Roman Emperors kept several tons in the treasury. In fact there was so much demand that it was harvested to extinction. This plant, that everyone could not get enough of, was silphium.

What Was Silphium?

Silphium was a plant native to Cyrene in Northern Africa, now known as Shahhat, Libya. It is generally thought to be a species from the taxonomic genus Ferula, or the “giant fennels.” The Silphium plant was described as having thick roots with black bark on them, a hollow stalk (like fennel) and yellow-green leaves that were similar in appearance to celery.

The Greeks attempted to grow silphium in Greece, but it would not flower there and was considered infertile. The only place it grew naturally was in Cyrene, where it became a significant part of the economy as it was shipped to Greece and Rome due to high demand. Coins from Cyrene often depict silphium or one of its seeds, and everyone who could afford to buy some did.

This demand led to a high price, and it was said that silphium was worth its weight in silver. The Roman Emperor Augustus sought to control the distribution of the plant, demanding that all harvests of silphium and its juices be sent to him as a tribute to Rome.

A Cook’s Special Ingredient

Silphium was eaten and used as a seasoning for many different dishes in ancient Greece and Rome. The stalks and leaves were chopped or grated over food like parmesan, and it was said to be very good mixed in sauces and salts. For a healthy option, the leaves were added to salads. The crunchy stalks were often roasted, boiled, or sautéed.

Every part of the plant was consumed, including the roots, which were dipped in vinegar before eating. The Roman cookbook from the 5th century, De Re Coquinaria written by Apicius, includes a recipe for “oxygarum sauce” (a popular fish and vinegar sauce). Take pepper, cumin, cardamom, mint, and silphium and crush the ingredients. Mix with honey to make a paste, and add broth and vinegar to taste.

Pine kernels were immersed in silphium and could be used to add some flavor to any dish. The kernels were crushed and sprinkled over the food, and it was said to pair nicely when dining on parrot or flamingo. Silphium wasn’t only for human consumption either. It was a perfect food to fatten up cattle and sheep and was said to make the meat tasty once slaughtered.

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The Roman author Pliny the Elder’s encyclopedia, Naturalis Historia, frequently mentions silphium. In one of the books, Pliny recounts how the last stalk of silphium was given as a gift to Roman Emperor Nero. According to Pliny, upon receiving the gift, Nero immediately ate it.

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A Medical Panacea

In antiquity, the start of early modern medicine was being developed and recorded. Pliny the Elder wrote in great detail about medicine and how to use it in his Naturalis Historia. The Roman physician Galen and Greek physician Hippocrates also wrote about their practice of medicine.

In their books, they included how to use silphium in the treatment of ill patients. Cure-alls were very popular in antiquity. Silphium was one of these cure-all ingredients prescribed as medicine for almost anything.

This wonder herb was good for coughs, sore throats, headaches, fevers, epilepsy, goiters, warts, hernias, and “growths of the anus.” A poultice of silphium could supposedly cure tumors, heart inflammation, and toothaches, as well as bruises, hair removal, and tuberculosis.

Silphium could help more specific purposes like preventing tetanus and rabies from feral dog bites. Growing hair for those with alopecia (historians find this detail odd, because it was also used for hair removal) and to induce labor in expectant mothers.

Silphium wasn’t just suitable for cooking and medical needs. It was also known for being an aphrodisiac, and was also described as “the world’s most effective birth control at the time”. The heart-shaped seeds of the plant had alkaloid properties that were said to increase libido in men as well as cause an erection, and its use as a contraceptive and abortifacient has been written about immensely.

For women, silphium was used for hormonal issues and to start menstruation. Wine mixed with pepper, myrrh, and silphium was known to “move menstruation.” Pliny the Elder wrote about this as well, noting that “women drink it with wine and apply it to their genital organs with a piece of soft wool to start their menstruation.”

To start their periods, women were told to mix a chick-pea-sized amount with water or wine once a month. This recipe also served as an abortifacient, to cause a miscarriage or abort a fetus. Silphium was said to destroy any “already existing pregnancies.”

Triggering menstruation while pregnant causes the uterine lining to shed. This prevents the fetus from growing and living so it can be removed from the body. Women in Rome were known to consume silphium following sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancies, making silphium one of the first effective contraceptives.

Silphium’s well-known use for sexual purposes may have been the source of a familiar image of love to us today. The seeds were heart-shaped, and some historians believe that the traditional love heart image we use today could have come from the seeds of the silphium plant.

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Overharvested?

There are many possibilities of what led to the extinction of Silphium. Overharvesting could have resulted in the loss of this species. Silphium was only able to be grown successfully in the wild in Cyrene, and the farmers may have overworked the land due to years of harvesting the crop.

There is the belief that the men who rented the land on which the silphium grew let their sheep graze on the plants, and that this destroyed the naturally growing plants. Climate change and desertification may have also contributed to making the environment and soil unsuitable for the silphium to grow.

While much has been written about silphium, it is still an “unknown plant.” It is unknown because nobody has seen it or found it since early antiquity. We roughly know what it looked like from coins and descriptions by ancient authors. Silphium may just be unrecognizable to us today.

Are there fields in Northern Africa where the silphium still blooms, unrecognized?

Top Image: Ornamental dish depicting the loading of Silphium at Cyrene, and a coin depicting the plant. Source: Wellcome Trust / CC BY 4.0; ArchaiOptix / CC BY-SA 4.0.

By Lauren Dillon

References

Pliny, 77AD. Rackham, H, 1938. Pliny Natural History With An English Translation In Ten Volumes. Harvard University Press. Vol V Book XiX. Available at: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674994096

Minski, M, 2021. Next Chapter in the Legend of Silphium: Preliminary Morphological, Chemical, Biological, and Pharmacological Evaluations, Initial Conservation Studies, and Reassessment of the Regional Extinction Event. Plants(Basel). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7825337/

Keller, V, 2014. Nero and the Last Stalk of Silphion: Collecting Extinct Nature in Early Modern Europe. Science. Vol 19. Available at: https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/3/3809/files/2013/08/Keller-on-Silphion-tj76v3.pdf

Briggs, L; Jakobsson, J, 2022. Searching for Silphium: An Updated Review. Heritage 5, No 2. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-9408/5/2/51/htm

If you were asked to recall an English poet famed for his excesses and his bad behavior, you would probably think of Byron. A few might instead choose Coleridge and his opium, drunk by the pint. Both artists survive for posterity on the strength of their poetry, as much as their reputation.

But there is a story of another English poet who was certainly too much into women, wine, and drugs. He was debauched enough to earn a bad reputation, and he lived and died a hundred years before Byron or Coleridge were born. He was, perhaps, the great libertine of the age.

John Wilmot, or Lord Rochester, was a popular English poet and the courtier of the restoration court of King Charles II. The king, returned to rule in 1660 after the execution of his father in 1649 (hence “restoration”) was in something of a party mood.

Charles led the country in embracing a new freedom, reacting against the Puritanical restrictions which had corseted the country for decades. Rochester was only too happy to join his king in this new wave of excess, earning himself a name for his rakish lifestyle, and his poetry, in that order.

He burned through his life at a rapid pace, dying at only 33 due to some venereal disease. But the impression that he built over these 33 years of his life shines brightly to this day. Was he truly as bad as everyone said he was?

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The proposition of cloning extinct species is a romantic one. The animals lost to the abuses of humanity could return. We could see for ourselves what the giants of the past looked like. We could study the clones produced and learn more about natural history. However, there are other ways of looking at it and it is still uncertain whether healthy individuals can ever come of such a creation.

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In 711 AD Tariq ibn Ziyad, the celebrated and loyal general of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I, crossed into Europe from North Africa with a force of 6,000 troops and Europe was changed forever. The Muslim presence in the Iberian peninsula would persist for the next 800 years.

Only the combined efforts of the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile in the 15th century, united by marriage and with support from everyone from the Pope to the Holy Roman Empire, would finally remove Moorish rule from Spain. But the legacy of those centuries as a Caliphate remains to this day.

Southern Spain was transformed by Islamic art, culture and architecture. The undisputed crown jewel of Islamic Spain, built over hundreds of years at huge expense, is the fabulous palace-fortress known as The Alhambra.

The Alhambra Palace, famed for its stunning architecture and intricate details, holds within its walls a marvel of engineering prowess: the Alhambra Hydraulic System. This system, a network of water management and distribution, highlights the advanced knowledge and innovation of the Nasrid dynasty that ruled over the region from 1232 to 1492 AD.

The system is so sophisticated that visiting dignitaries believed the Emir of Granada had found a way to make water flow uphill. How was this achieved, and what is it that makes the Alhambra Hydraulic System so special?

A Medieval Masterpiece

You would be forgiven for thinking the Alhambra Hydraulic Network does not sound terribly exciting, but it’s deeply impressive. The network is an elaborate system of water management and distribution integrated within the palace proper and its surrounding gardens.

The problem comes from the location of the Alhambra, high on a plateau above the surrounding countryside. Such a site has enormous defensive advantages, but as with so many of such strongholds there is one key problem: water.

The solution is intricate, exacting, and ingenious. A network made up of a series of channels, aqueducts, reservoirs, and pipes transports water from Point A (Spain’s Sierra Nevada mountain range) to Point B (the palace).

This brilliant system was vital for those who lived in and around the palace. It served multiple functions, including supplying water for domestic use, irrigating the lush gardens which would be otherwise dry and dead, and sustaining the ornate fountains and pools that adorn the palace grounds.

Its intricate layout reflects a harmonious blend of functionality and aesthetic appeal, embodying the architectural brilliance of Islamic civilization in medieval Spain. It allowed water to climb to the top of the plateau on which the Alhambra is built, life-giving irrigation in the dust.

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Building the Alhambra Hydraulic System was no small engineering feat. Taking place during the Nasrid Dynasty of the 14th century, the systems’ construction was a monumental undertaking that showcased the best of the era’s engineering expertise.

It took several decades to complete, with work beginning in the early 1300s (under the reign of Sultan Muhammad III) and continuing well into the reigns of several of his successors. And in facing the task of bringing water to the palace, the engineers turned to the surrounding geography.

The engineers involved utilized the region’s natural topography, including the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains, to their advantage. They ingeniously designed a network of channels, aqueducts, and reservoirs to harness water from the mountain streams and transport it to the palace complex, which was at a relatively lower point.

The system’s construction involved a combination of skilled labor and advanced engineering techniques. Skilled artisans carefully laid clay and lead pipes (not so great in hindsight, granted) to distribute water throughout the complex, while stonemasons crafted aqueducts and reservoirs with precision.

The result was a feat of medieval engineering that not only provided essential water resources but also showcased the artistic and technical prowess of the Nasrid craftsmen as well as the wealth of the Nasrid themselves. Here was water where once was none, a seeming impossibility.

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A Worthwhile Investment?

So why did they go to all this effort? The Alhambra Hydraulic System took decades to complete and would have been enormously expensive.

Well, once completed, the network proved to be the lifeblood of the Alhambra Palace and its surrounding gardens. At its core, the system was engineered to ensure a reliable supply of water in abundance for various essential functions within the palace complex.

One of its primary purposes was to provide for the domestic needs of the palace residents and visitors. Water transported through the network was utilized for drinking, cooking, and bathing, essential for sustaining life within the palace walls. This aspect of the system ensured the comfort and well-being of the inhabitants, contributing to the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by the Nasrid rulers and their court.

Moreover, the hydraulic network played a crucial role in irrigating the extensive gardens that adorned the Alhambra, transforming the arid landscape into a lush oasis of greenery. Channels and pipes distributed water to nourish a diverse array of plant species, including citrus trees, aromatic herbs, and vibrant flowers.

The meticulously manicured gardens not only provided aesthetic pleasure but also served practical purposes. They ensured a continuous and independent supply of fresh produce and creating a microclimate that mitigated the intense heat of the Andalusian summers.

Furthermore, the network facilitated the operation of the numerous fountains, pools, and water features that embellished the palace complex. These ornate elements served as focal points of beauty and serenity, reflecting the Islamic principles of symmetry, geometry, and harmony with nature. The soothing sound of flowing water and the sight of shimmering pools added to the enchanting ambiance of the Alhambra, captivating visitors and evoking a sense of tranquility and wonder.

So, the Alhambra Hydraulic System served a range of crucial purposes. Perhaps its most important, however, was to show off.

It served as a symbol of power, prestige, and cultural sophistication for the Nasrid rulers. Its construction represented not only a feat of engineering prowess but also a demonstration of the dynasty’s wealth, influence, and commitment to creating a luxurious oasis amidst the arid landscape of southern Spain. A monarch lives or dies on their reputation, and the quickest route to reputation is through grandeur, after all.

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An Eternal Work of Genius

It’s fair to say the network is not just impressive by 14th-century standards but by today’s too. The Alhambra Hydraulic System is considered a feat of engineering genius for several reasons.

For a start, the design itself reflects a deep understanding of both hydraulics and water management principles. As already mentioned, the system’s engineers employed sophisticated techniques to harness the natural topography of the region, utilizing gravity-fed channels, aqueducts, and reservoirs to efficiently transport water from the mountains to the palace complex below.

This innovative approach demonstrated a mastery of engineering principles far ahead of its time. It also, perhaps, offers a tantalizing hint as to a far older (and lost) wonder, perhaps sharing construction secrets with the ancient Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It certainly drew such comparisons in centuries past.

Secondly, the Alhambra Hydraulic Network seamlessly integrated functionality with aesthetic beauty. The network not only provided essential water resources for domestic use and irrigation but also facilitated the operation of ornate fountains, pools, and water features that adorned the palace gardens. This harmonious fusion of form and function exemplifies the Islamic architectural principle of unity in design, elevating the system from mere utility to a work of art.

Moreover, the system’s longevity is deeply impressive. Moving water is immensely destructive but despite centuries of use and the passage of time, much of the infrastructure remains intact, attesting to the quality of craftsmanship and materials employed in its construction.

This is all even more impressive when you consider the fact that the builders and engineers involved didn’t have access to modern tools or materials. If only modern infrastructure was so reliable.

But it is not just a work of practical engineering, its designers seamlessly integrated function and aesthetic beauty, providing essential water resources for domestic use, irrigation, and ornamental purposes within the palace and its surrounding gardens.

Beyond this it served as a symbol of power, prestige, and cultural sophistication for the Nasrid rulers, reflecting their wealth and influence. It was a statement of permanence, a commitment to creating a luxurious oasis amidst the arid landscape of southern Spain.

Top Image: The lush gardens of the Alhambra palace could not exist without the ingenious hydraulic system bringing water from the Sierra Nevada mountains. Source: Stefanotermanini / Adobe Stock.

By Robbie Mitchell

References

Editor. 2024. Alhambra. Encyclopedia Britannica. Available here: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Alhambra-fortress-Granada-Spain

Fox. E. 2022. The Spanish city where water defies gravity. BBC Travel. Available here: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220428-the-spanish-city-where-water-defies-gravity

Malpica. A. 2024. Alhambra’s Irrigation System. Landuum. Available here: https://www.landuum.com/en/history-and-culture/alhambras-irrigation-system/

Mount Tarawera is neither the largest nor the most famous volcano in New Zealand, but on the night of 10 June 1886 it became the deadliest. The mountain tore itself open along a 17-kilometer rift, raining fire and ash on the villages at its feet, killing around 150 people — nearly all of them Māori — and destroying the Pink and White Terraces, the natural wonder that had drawn visitors from across the world. What keeps the disaster alive in memory, though, is what was seen eleven days earlier: a ghostly canoe gliding silently across Lake Tarawera. Local Māori read it as a warning. The tourists who had come for the hot springs and the terraces read it as a curiosity. If local legend is to be believed, it was manned by the spirits of the dead may have tried to warn people of the impending disaster.

Mount Tarawera is a volcano found on the North Island of New Zealand. It is located in the volcanically active Okataina caldera.

It is a series of lava domes that today lie in ruins, huge fissures gaping down the slopes. This was due to a singular and catastrophic event: a huge eruption in 1886. It was one of New Zealand’s largest eruptions and killed around 150 people.

The fissures run from Northeast-Southwest for around 17 kilometers (11 miles). The main component domes include the named domes of Ruawahia, Tarawera, and Wahanga.

There are several lakes including Tarawera that were all drastically changed, along with the entire landscape, by the eruption in 1886. The Tarawera River runs northeast around the Northern flank of the mountain. There have been many eruptions of this restless giant but none so devastating as 1886.

A History of Volcanic Eruptions

Tarawera and her sister volcanoes had been erupting for thousands of years, albeit with long periods where the violent peak slumbered. One of the first eruptions from this region was the eruption of Okareka, dated to around 21,900 years ago.

It has been suspected that it created a cloud of ash and debris as big as 12 cubic kilometers (3 cubic miles) carpeting the landscape as far as the eye could see. It is thought that it generated clouds for days to weeks.

Five thousand years later came the Rerewhakaaitu eruption, with the most recent estimates dating it to around 17,700 years ago during the last glacial termination. It was just over half the size of the Okareka eruption. It created multiple domes that can still be seen today. The lava spewing from the volcano is estimated to have been as much as 2 cubic kilometers (0.5 cubic miles).

After another 4,000 years came the Waiohau eruption around 13,800 years ago and with roughly the same amount of lava as Rerewhakaaitu. Again the volcano left a mark on the landscape, creating the Kanakana and Eastern domes.

By this point however the mountain range had become too weak from the damage caused by the multiple eruptions. There is evidence of a structural collapse of the mountains surrounding these volcanoes, although some of what these eruptions caused is lost because of what was to come.

Finally, there was the Kaharoa eruption. This eruption has been dated to around 1314 BC, just a few years before any Maori people would have settled there in 1280 BC. There were multiple stages to this eruption with perhaps as many as 11 different phases to it.

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This eruption was huge, the largest that is known about to date, spewing as much as 15 cubic kilometers of debris. It is perhaps the largest eruption to have happened in the New Zealand area.

These eruptions were spectacular and would have caused huge damage, but all seem to have been when there were no people settled in the area. This was until the 1886 eruption.

1886

In 1886, Lake Tarawera was abuzz with tourist activity from around the world. Tourists would come from all across the globe to spend time at the beautiful shores and to experience the geothermic wonders of the Pink and White Terraces.

The area was very rich in volcanic and geothermal beauty and dotted with the volcanic cones created from previous eruptions. The geothermal and volcanic landscape played a significant part in the story of this eruption. There was a record of many portents and omens revealing the tragedy that would unveil. One of these was the phantom canoe story.

The story often begins with a shadow on Mount Tarawera displaying a burnt peak. The mountain cast a shadow on the sun. An ominous sign perhaps, and to the trained eye of a modern vulcanologist a clear sign of danger, but despite this, eyewitnesses would later say that the tourists still flocked to the area in their droves.

The next sign was perhaps less scientific. Many claimed that they saw a phantom craft out on the lake with a double row of passengers. One row was paddling whilst the others were standing over them in flax robes with their heads bowed.

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Eyewitnesses claim that their hair was plumed (a Maori custom when there has been a death) and had been decorated with the huia and white heron feathers. Maori tradition dictates that these were the souls of those who had passed being transferred to the mountain of the dead.

However, those who were on the lake and approached found that there was no canoe on the lake at all. It would seem like a flight of fancy, except for the descriptions provided by people who would never have seen a boat like it before.

This story would have stayed legend but for the sheer amount of people that claimed to have seen the ghostly canoe, a tale that has persisted to today. A woman named “Mrs. Sise”, a tourist aboard another boat on the lake claimed in a letter to her son that all the native Maori people on the boat and those who lived in the area permanently had never seen such a boat, and there was definitely not meant to be one on the lake on that day.

Many of the eyewitness accounts corroborate the boat and many of them are not superstitious, or so they claim. What followed next would lead people to believe that this was an omen.

The first sign that something was not right was that the water in the lake began to rise quickly, before disappearing away even more rapidly. Next, a white steam cloud above the volcanic peak was seen and many of the guides believed that this was not a good sign.

This coupled with the phantom canoe led people to great panic. Fortunately, nothing happened on the day. The disaster would not strike for another 11 days. But then Tarawera erupted.

On the night of the eruption, the mountain sent forth fire fountains that shot up into the sky and rained ash down on nearby settlements. Three villages suffered complete obliteration and approximately 150 people lost their life.

The eruption was preceded by more than 30 earthquakes, increasing in intensity before the mountain herself finally erupted at 2:45 am. The largest explosion came at 3:30 am, destroying villages within a 6-kilometer (4 mile) radius, along with the Pink and White Terraces. These terraces were famous New Zealand natural landmarks but were obliterated by the explosion.

Fortunately, after nearly 125 years after the eruption, a small portion of the Pink terraces have been rediscovered under Lake Rotomahana. They had been known about in 1859 when Ferdinand Von Hochstetter discovered them, but this research had been lost and only was translated between 2016 and 2019.

This research has revealed that the lake is home to Pink, Black, and White terraces across the lake shores meaning that not everything was destroyed by this tragic eruption.

Many skeptics claim that the phantom canoe was just a freak reflection of the mist on the lake but to those who saw it and the local Maori, it will always be known as the Waka Wairua, the spirit canoe that warned those who saw it of the eruption, if only they had the wit to understand.

Top Image: The White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana, lost in the Lake Tarawera eruption of 1886. Did a phantom canoe warn tourists of the disaster? Source: Unknown Author / Public Domain.

By Kurt Readman

References

New Zealand History. 2020. The eruption of Mt Tarawera – roadside stories. Available at: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/video/eruption-mt-tarawera-roadside-stories

THE BURIED VILLAGE OF TE WAIROA BLOG. 2015. Was the Lake Tarawera Phantom Canoe a supernatural sign? Available at: https://www.buriedvillage.co.nz/lake-tarawera-phantom-canoe

Waimangu Volcanic Valley. 2023. Mount Tarawera. Available at: https://www.waimangu.co.nz/history/tarawera

Watkins, K. 1888. The Phantom Canoe: A Legend of Lake Tarawera. Available at: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-phantom-canoe-a-legend-of-lake-tarawera-kennett-watkins/OgEHovdh5GkcEQ?hl=en

Yarwood, V. 2003. THE NIGHT TARAWERA AWOKE. Available at: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-night-tarawera-awoke/

The Ancient Egyptians held a deep-seated belief in the afterlife, and their spirituality and mythology were intricately linked to cosmology and the stars they saw in the sky. At the very heart of their belief system were the impressively named “Indestructibles” – two stars that remained perpetually visible in the night sky like two guiding lights. These stars, symbols of eternity and immortality, were believed to be the location of the afterlife and the ultimate celestial destination for the Pharaohs after death. Understanding the concept of the Indestructibles and their role in the Egyptian afterlife offers a fascinating insight into how the Egyptians envisioned the journey to eternal life among the stars, and explains some of the architectural quirks of their most impressive monuments.

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Rodney Alcala is a convicted rapist and serial killer who is also known as “The Dating Game Killer.” He was born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala Buquor in San Antonio, Texas, in 1943. Although in 2010 he was convicted of murdering five people during the late 70s, some homicide investigators believe that has killed many more. At least one estimate indicates that during the 1960s and 1970s Alcala killed as many as 130 people.

Early life of Rodney Alcala

Alcala’s parents were Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez. After Buquor abandoned them, his mother moved him and his sisters to Los Angeles. Alcala was 12 years old at the time. In 1960, he joined the Army. Four years later, he suffered a nervous breakdown. A military psychiatrist diagnosed him as having an antisocial personality disorder, and Alcala received a medical discharge. Alcala then studied at and graduated from the UCLA School of Fine Arts. He later studied film at New York University under the tutelage of Roman Polanski.

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Some of the most intriguing archaeological discoveries are the so-called “out of place artifacts”. These strange finds, as unexpected as they are inexplicable, are highly valued for what they might be able to tell us about our history.

For, in theory, they are “out of place” not to those who used them, but to us. We are the ones who did not expect to see them, and the most exciting is that we are mistaken about our past. Indeed, out-of-place artifacts tend to be magnets for pseudo-historical theorists searching for evidence for their claims.

Items such as the Antikythera Mechanism, which reveals a level of Ancient Greek navigational and computational sophistication few suspected, or the Maine Penny, once dismissed as a fake is now seen as tentative proof of Vikings in North America centuries before Columbus.

They are often highly controversial and artifacts such as the Baghdad Battery or the London Hammer are often dismissed as modern misunderstandings, if not outright fakes.

And then there are the artifacts on which we can only theorize. Such is the Tamil Bell.

A Cooking Pot, No Less

The Tamil Bell was discovered in the 1830s by Cornish missionary William Colenso, who had travelled to New Zealand. The bell was discovered near Whangarei, where it was supposedly being used by Maori women to boil potatoes in.

The bell is actually only the crown of the bell — the original swell is gone. It measures 13 cm long and 9 cm deep, fits comfortably in cupped hands, and weighs about as much as a brick. This raises an obvious question: was it ever big enough to boil potatoes in? Curator Grace Gassin's tongue in cheek answer is "Maybe potatoes were smaller back then," and Gopal's adds, "Maybe baby potatoes."

Colenso claims he swapped an iron pot for the bell, which would have allowed the Mauri women to boil a few more potatoes, if this was indeed the case.

Colenso relates another detail of the circumstances of the discovery, relating that the Māori women told him it had been found in the roots of a tree felled by a storm, and that the iwi believed it had been in their possession for several generations.

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Clues Around the Rim

The bell was made of bronze and had been broken at some point, which is probably why it was discarded and pressed into service as a cooking pot. But what was most intriguing about the bell was the inscription which ran around the outside.

The inscription read “Mukaiyyatīṉ vakkucu uṭaiya kappal uṭaiya maṇi” which would have been as baffling to the Maori as to you or me.

Something about the inscription also seemed to argue for great age - some of the characters used in the inscription were not used in current Tamil script, and it appeared that the bell may have been centuries old at the time of its discovery. Due to this, early scholars read the script as archaic Tamil and dated the casting to around 1450.

That reading held until 2019, when Nalina Gopal, a curator at Singapore's Indian Heritage Centre, was able to read the bell at a glance. Modern Tamil speakers should struggle with genuinely ancient script, so with the help of an archaeologist she pushed the date forward to the 17th or 18th century, and with it the puzzle of how the bell reached New Zealand.

The inscription has been translated as “Mohoyiden Buks ship’s bell” and this seemed to have solved part of the problem, at least, perhaps providing the name of the ship’s owner. But Gopal and Tamil researcher J. Raja Mohamad established that Mohoyiden Buks (various translated spellings include Mohideen Bux or Mohaideen Bakhsh) was not a ship's owner. He was a Muslim saint revered by merchant communities in Southeast Asia. The name was actually a common name for ships sailing out of Tamil Nadu, chosen so the vessel would come under the saint's protection.

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Theories on the Bell’s Extraordinary Journey

Is it possible that the Tamils had made it as far as New Zealand and left the bell? This would suggest contact between the two peoples earlier than had previously thought.

Tamil traders are known to have sailed along the east coast of Africa as far as the southern tip of Madagascar, and to have reached Lombok in present-day Indonesia — but there is no record of them reaching New Zealand. It is this which makes out-of-place artifacts so valued, as they can often make us question, and in some cases correct our understanding of history in this way.

V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar (1947, The Origin and Spread of the Tamils) posited that ancient Tamil seafarers may have known Australia and Polynesia, and sailors from Trincomalee may have reached New Zealand during the period of increased trade between the Vanni country and Southeast Asia.

New Zealand scientist William Maskell suggested as early as 1882 that a well-travelled sailor kept it as a keepsake from a South Asian port and lost it on the North Island.

A similar proposal is that it could have been dropped off or discarded by a Portuguese trader who had visited both the Tamils and the Maori.

Robert Langdon, a Pacific historian, proposed in his 1975 book The Lost Caravel that descendants of Spanish sailors marooned in French Polynesia in the 1500s brought the bell to New Zealand, although Hilder called this "utterly farfetched".

Robyn Gosset in New Zealand Mysteries (1996) posited that a derelict vessel or ‘Ghost Ship’ whose crew had died or abandoned her could have drifted thousands of miles and wrecked on the New Zealand coast. This requires a mounting stack of coincidences and stretches credulity.

Writing to the Hawke’s Bay Times in 1865, the finder, Colenso said:

“It is believed that this ancient relic may yet prove to be an important witness… Its tale has yet to be told.”

160 years later, it seems the Tamil Bell of New Zealand retains the secret of its journey.

It should be noted that the bell is not proof of early Tamil contact with New Zealand. Kerry R. Howe makes this point directly in The Quest for Origins (2003), and Te Papa's own curator notes the museum "does not subscribe to any particular theory".

The Tamil Bell has been held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and is one of the most popular items in the collection. It has become a touchstone for New Zealand's Tamil community. Raveen Annamalai, president of the Aotearoa New Zealand Federation of Tamil Sangam, says the bell gives his people and language roots here, and it has inspired members to take te reo (language) lessons and sparked six Māori–Tamil hui (gatherings) around the country.

Top Image: The Tamil Bell and its inscription. Source: John Turnbull Thomson / Public Domain.

By Joseph Green

References

Darrah, P, 2023. The Mystery of New Zealand’s Tamil Bell, an Archaeological ‘UFO’. Available at: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/tamil-bell-mystery-new-zealand

Te Ara, 2023. The Tamil Bell. Available at: https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/1135/the-tamil-bell

Map Academy, 2023. Tamil Bell. Available at: https://mapacademy.io/article/tamil-bell/

The “perfect nun” is supposed to be devoted to God, pious, sing in choirs, and teach students. Then there are the other kinds of nuns, the antithesis of what nuns should be, those that have become popular in the horror genre. They are evil, possessed, and demonic, terrifying anyone who encounters them.

There was even a nun whom the Devil himself possessed. Historians and linguists have studied this nun from Italy, and the strange letter she wrote for over 400 years. In 2017 we finally learned what Maria Crocifissa wrote, and it is frightening.

Who was Isabella Tomasi?

Maria was born Isabella Tomasi was born somewhere in Italy in 1645. She was the daughter of Prince Giuilo Tomasi di Lampedusa. The Tomasi family were the ancestors of author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, known for his book “The Leopard.” When Isabella was 15 years old, she became a nun, a sister at the Benediction convent in Palme di Mantechiaro in Sicily, Italy.

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Isabell Tomasi was then baptized and renamed Maria Crocifissa della Concezione. It was and still is a practice for many newly baptized nuns to choose or be assigned a religious name. This new religious name symbolized the person’s new relationship with Christianity and God.

By shedding their old names, they put the past and any sins behind them. Isabella Tomasi became Sister Maria Crocifissa and embraced her role as a nun.

Maria was a bit different than the other nuns. She was said to have told her sisters in the convent that the Devil possessed her. Maria fully believed that Satan was constantly trying to make her turn her back to God. Satan was trying to lead her down the path of evil. She feared that the Devil would force her to sin against her will.

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Reputedly, America’s first serial killer is H.H. Holmes. Born as Herman Webster Mudgett in 1860, this depraved man was also intelligent, debonair, charming, and funny. He made a fortune scamming and murdering people and even built a “murder castle” in Englewood, Chicago where he killed his victims and processed their bodies. Although he confessed to 27 murders, experts estimate it may have been in the hundreds. This would make Holmes one of the worst serial killers in the U.S.

But to think that I committed this and other crimes for the pleasure of killing my fellow beings, to hear their cries for mercy and pleas to be allowed even sufficient time to pray and prepare for death—all this is now too horrible for even me […]. H. H. Holmes

Mug sketch at the final arrest of Henry Howard Holmes. 1996. Image: Library of Congress.

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What is “aether”? Well, that is simple: aether (also spelled as ether, aither, or æther) is the “material that fills the region of the universe of the terrestrial sphere” or at least it was according to ancient science.

Aether was also known as “The Fifth Element” or quintessence, and the concept of aether was used in multiple theories scientists postulated to explain natural phenomena such as gravity and light. The origins of aether can be traced back to ancient Greece.

According to Greek Mythology, aether was thought to be the “pure essence” that the gods breathed, which filled the space in the heavens where they lived. It was a heavenly form of air that was only created in the heavens, mortals breathe oxygen, and gods breathe aether.

The mythological personification of Aether is the son of Erebus, the personification of darkness, and Nyx, the personification of night.

The 5th Element

Plato described aether as being “the most translucent kind [of air] which is called by the name of aether” in his work Timaeus. While Plato does refer to the concept of aether when describing air, he was a firm believer in the classical system of four elements.

The classical system of four elements is something everyone is familiar with; it is the belief that the four elements that everything is composed of are Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. This would seemingly leave no space for aether, but this is only the beginning of the complications.

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The next philosopher who wrote about aether, or the fifth element, was Aristotle, a student of Plato’s. In Aristotle’s book On the Heavens, he explains how the four classical elements were known to change.

Aether, or as Aristotle called it, the first element was found in the heavens and celestial realm, was unlike the four elements. Aether was not dry or wet, and it was not hot or cold. Aether was unable to have “motion of quality or motion of quantity,” but it was able to move in a circular pattern.

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Space is filled with mystery. In the last 50 years, we have sent man-made satellites to explore our solar system and beyond. Their discoveries continue to amaze us. Let us take a look at some NASA photos which have captured - and tested - our imagination.

What We Thought Was Empty Space

Space is incredibly big. When we look out into the night sky, we see countless stars. But those are merely our closest neighbors in space. Behind them lie other galaxies like our own Milky Way with it its own cluster of stars. In 2003 and 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope took a series of high-resolution Ultra Deep Field images of just a tiny portion of empty space. Zooming into that space, astronomers found galaxies. And not just a few. This Hubble image captured over five thousand of them. With potentially billions of galaxies in our universe, the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life is highly probable.

Shiny Lights on Ceres

The dwarf planet Ceres has been captivating scientists since its discovery in the early 19th century. Too small to be a planet but too large to be an asteroid, it is the largest floating object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Recent images of the dwarf planet, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, added a new mystery to the planetoid. The pictures show two bright dots on the surface – one appears brighter than the other. Are they large deposits of some type of metal, or giant volcanoes, or even something even more mysterious? We will have to wait for new higher-resolution images to find out.

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Imagine the applications of a material that could resist temperatures of 10,000 degrees Celsius. That’s almost twice the temperature of the surface of the Sun or the blast of a nuclear bomb. Well, one man by the name of Maurice Ward did just that in 1986. His invention of a special plastic could withstand even a nuclear flash that would otherwise melt a thick piece of steel in the laboratory. Ward’s granddaughter named the product Starlite. The problem is that his creation never came to market. As a matter of fact, he kept his formula under such tight wraps that when Maurice died in 2011, the mysteries of the Starlite material all but died with him.

Ward’s formula remains publicly unknown, although a successor company claims to possess a reconstructed or updated version that has not been independently authenticated.

Maurice Ward invented the mysterious heat-resistant plastic, Starlite, in 1986.

Scientists have always been able to identify problems and find ingenious ways to overcome them. Maurice Ward, however, was no scientist. He was a simple hairdresser from Hartlepool in Yorkshire, England, who wanted to make the world a better, safer place. His inspiration stemmed from tragedy. In 1985, fifty-five people perished aboard a British Airtours plane within 40 seconds after the start of a fire during take off. But, it wasn’t the heat or flames that killed them. They had inhaled toxic smoke and fumes. Maurice had identified the problem. His next step was to find an answer.

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The decades following the detonation of the first nuclear bomb were a haze of controversial nuclear tests and detonations. As different powers raced to understand the devastating new power that had been uncovered, they became increasingly reckless and often it was the environment that paid the price.

One of the most infamous, and controversial, nuclear tests carried out by the US government was Project Cannikin, an underground nuclear weapons test carried out in 1971. Scientifically speaking the test was a massive success but its repercussions can still be felt to this day.

The Cannikin Test

The Cannikin test was carried out by the United States on November 6, 1971, on Amchitka Island in Alaska. The test involved the detonation of a 5-megaton thermonuclear device around a mile underground. 250 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, it was the largest underground nuclear explosion ever conducted by the United States.

The Cannikin test’s main objective was to study the feasibility and effects of a high-yield explosion in an underground environment. This was motivated by concerns over the safety and environmental impact of atmospheric testing, which international agreements had banned. It was hoped the Cannikin test would provide scientists with a new, safer, and more controlled method of nuclear testing.

Amchitka was chosen for its remote location and unique geological characteristics. Researchers believed the island’s geology would help to contain most of the explosion and minimize the impact on the surrounding environment. There were some concerns, however.

Environmental groups were worried about the potential release of radioactive materials into the ocean and the potential seismic effects on nearby fault lines. People were concerned, especially after the 1964 Alaskan earthquake, that such a large detonation underground could trigger a geothermal reaction in the fault lines, causing massive earthquakes and knock-on tsunamis.

Despite these concerns, the US, led by Richard Nixon at the time, decided to go ahead. The Cannikin test provided valuable data on the containment of high-yield nuclear explosions underground. It helped scientists understand the dynamics of underground detonations, the degree of containment, and the resulting release of radioactive materials.

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It has also been claimed that the test helped the US politically by bolstering Nixon’s position with his foreign and domestic opponents. A year after the test Nixon traveled to China and his administration managed to sign its first strategic arms limitation treaty with the USSR.

The test’s findings influenced later nuclear weapons testing policies and strategies, including the development of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty in 1974, which limited underground nuclear tests to 150 kilotons.

Yes, but What About the Island?

Unsurprisingly the detonation was devastating. The explosion caused the ground above the bomb to rise and then fall from 15 to 20 feet (4.5-6 meters). Ponds, lakes, and the earth itself flew into the air as “ground waves” ripped through the island’s surface.

A crater a mile (1.6 km) wide and 40 feet (12 meters) deep was left. The cliffs surrounding the island fell into the ocean and the water boiled.

Wildlife fared little better, the shock wave produced by the bomb killed countless seabirds and sea otters. The shock produced by the bomb registered at 7.0 on the Richter scale, which for reference is the same as the 2010 Haiti earthquake that devastated the island.

On the other hand, fears of the seismic shocks setting off a tsunami proved to be unfounded. The US also claimed fears of nuclear fallout were also misplaced. Their testing apparatus showed that the earth had contained the blast, meaning the surface of the island was radiation free.

The situation today is less clear, and largely depends on who you ask. The US Department of Energy claims that besides the massive crater left on the island, everything else is pretty much ok. Other researchers disagree.

While burying the bomb stopped the initial spread of radioactivity, that radioactivity didn’t just disappear. It was trapped under the earth’s surface. The blast created underground holes full of nuclear-contaminated rubble deep beneath the surface of Amchitka.

The problem is that groundwater may be moving through these caves, picking up radioactivity and carrying it out to the ocean. A lot of work is being done by environmental researchers to try and work out how this potential contamination is affecting Alaska.

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For example, in 1997 a biologist from Anchorage working for Green Pace, Pam Miller, discovered radioactive particles like americium-241 and plutonium in freshwater samples taken from the Bering Sea. This suggested that the fallout from the blast wasn’t as contained as initially believed. The debate is still ongoing.

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A Lost Island

The legacy of the Cannikin weapons test stretches further than just one heavily damaged and potentially irradiated island. In the run-up to the 1971 detonation, the US government faced heavy opposition to its nuclear tests.

Along the US-Canada border, thousands of protestors held up signs saying, “Don’t Make A Wave. It’s Your Fault If Our Fault Goes”. In 1971 the Canadian “Don’t Make a Wave Committee” chartered a ship in the hopes of sailing to Amchitka and protesting the planned Cannikin test. While the ship’s mission ultimately failed after the test was postponed a month, its name lives on.

What was the ship called? Greenpeace. Ever since the organization created by those protestors has fought under that name to fight for the environment. As the saying goes, every irradiated cloud has a silver lining.

Top Image: The Cannikin test may have irradiated the island of Amchitka, but it also spurred an international effort to reduce nuclear weapons proliferation. Source: Atomic Energy Commission / Public Domain.

By Robbie Mitchell

References

Mulvaney. K. 2007. A Brief History of Amchitka and The Bomb. Greenpeace. Available here: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/a-brief-history-of-amchitka-and-the-bomb/

Nuclear Princeton. 2023. Amchitka Island. Princeton University. Available here: https://nuclearprinceton.princeton.edu/amchitka-island

Weintz. S. 2017. The Story of Project Cannikin: In 1971, the U.S. Military Nuked Alaska. National Interest. Available here: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-story-project-cannikin-1971-the-us-miltiary-nuked-alaska-21564