Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter April 2020

APRIL -2020 PRESERVATION  EDUCATION  RESEARCH  INSPIRE Dear Member: We have cancelled the April Lecture. We all have to do what we can to contain and eliminate the pandemic. This is not the first time that humans have incurred Nature’s wrath, see the excellent article by Evelyn Mangie below about the history of pandemics. Also we have two very good papers submitted in our Cornelia Futor Memorial Student Paper Grant Competition. We will highlight them next month in the newsletter. Another reschedule is the Florida Anthropological Society’s (FAS) 72nd Annual Conference. It has been moved to October 2 - 4 at the Ritz Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, FL. The program includes archaeological exhibits, three halls with continuous 15 minute lectures with over 50 speakers talking about their latest projects, a reception, and a dinner with Keynote Speaker Dr. Ryan Wheeler. He will talk about the intersection of Florida archaeology and northern museums. For more information and to register, please go to the FAS website. https://fasweb.org/annual-conference Thank you for being a Time Sifters member. Darwin “Smitty” Smith, President [email protected] Notes from a Time Sifter By Evelyn Mangie Time Sifters Board Member Pandemics That Changed History An epidemic is a disease that Image: National Geographic. because Macedonia was rich in affects a disproportionately large timber at this time when the timber- number of individuals within a squeezed together inside the city’s starved Greek states were building population at the same time. That protective walls when the disease more wooden ships. The Macedo- began to happen when people hit. It spread quickly, killing almost nian leaders exploited their ad- turned to agriculture and began two thirds of the Athenian popula- vantage and became very wealthy. to live close together in permanent tion. Their military was diminished, In 359 BCE, Philip II claimed the villages and towns. An epidemic and their economy was flattened. Macedonian throne and turned his becomes a pandemic when it The plague also affected the other kingdom into a powerful military state spreads beyond a country’s Greek states, but they continued to that brought all of the Greek borders and into the rest of the battle, reinforcing their navies. The states under Macedonian control, world. That is what the world is kingdom north of the Greek states, ending the Athenian democracy as experiencing today with the Macedonia, benefitted from these wars well as Greek control over the coronavirus that has spread to Aegean and Ionian Seas. the entire populated world. That kind of disease has affected world The loss of classical Greek control communities for centuries, not just left Philip’s son, Alexander (the with suffering and death but also Great) able to conquer the causing political and economic Persian empire in the east while disturbances. The following are the Roman Republic in the west examples of how some pandemics began to gain power in the Italian probably changed history. peninsula. The first recorded pandemic The Romans eventually grew into happened in ancient Greece during an enormous empire so large that the Peloponnesian War, (431-404 it split into a Latin-speaking western BCE) when the city-states of part and a Greek-speaking eastern Athens and Sparta were fighting part. The western part fell to to maintain leadership of the barbarian invaders in the 5th century Greek states. The Athenians were CE. Continued on page 2 ...

Continued from page 1 ... Pandemics That Changed History Justinian, the Images: Wikipedia; Historic-UK; nyhistory.org; government, but it did not stop emperor of the National Museum of Health & Medicine. pandemics. One of the worst was eastern part, the Spanish flu in 1918, the began an and Joseph Lister who discovered deadliest disease outbreak in attempt to that disease was caused by germs human history (so far). Unlike regular reunite the and that cleanliness limited the risk flu, Spanish flu could also affect the entire Roman of spreading it. These preventive brain and the nervous system. A Empire but a measures were adopted by many terrified U.S. Congress attempted pandemic struck countries and led to better medical to keep the details from the general the Mediterranean practices as well as government public that was just recovering area in 541 CE involvement in cleaning up filthy from the horrors of WWI. Congress (the Justinian municipal areas and assisting the made it a crime to write, print or Plague). It poor. killed so many people that the say anything nega- emperor was forced to give up his That had a major impact on the tive about our gov- plan. Had Justinian been able to advancement of modern medicine ernment and reunite, Roman Christianity and the development of proactive President Woodrow probably would have been Wilson tried to replaced by Byzantine Christianity maintain the and Europe might not have fallen appearance of into the Dark Age. strong leadership. But in 1918, when A repressive feudal society developed he went to the during the Dark Age but another Versailles Peace pandemic, the Black Death of Conference in Paris, 1347 CE, ended that feudal President Wilson system. This hid the fact that pandemic killed millions, he had a tempera- leaving the manors without ture of 103 degrees. both lords and serfs. He often became Survivors left the manors confused during to seek wage labor that the negotiations laid the foundation for and historians capitalism. Searching for believe that his blame, people began to weakened cognitive question authorities, both abilities were a result of the flu and religious and political, which that his condition contributed to probably led to the the flaws in the Versailles peace Protestant Reformation in treaty that led to WWII. the 16th century, and the We can only guess what history- Enlightenment that changing effects this corona virus developed in Europe from pandemic will have on the future. the 17th to the 19th Hopefully, some of the effects will centuries. The new be positive and will allow us to capitalism sent the Spanish, mitigate pandemics before they English and French to the arrive and save us from the death, Americas and brought insecurities, and economic disaster another plague that killed 90% that always accompanies them. of the American Indians. The loss of the indigenous population left both American continents open for massive European migration and settlement. After that, the ocean no longer protected the Western Hemisphere from eastern pandemics and in 1829, a plague of cholera spread from India through Europe and, by 1832, to North America. The terrible death rate encouraged Enlightenment scientists to study the cause of disease. That produced great scientists like Louis Pasteur

Archaeologists You Should Know Sir Arthur Evans Palace of Knossos on Crete and the Minoan Civilization By Smitty, Time Sifters Board Member; Sources - Wikipedia & Educational Resources Sir Arthur Mediterranean. processing centers. The complex Evans was In 1893, after the sudden death served as a central storage point, born in of his wife, Evans gave up his and a religious and administrative Nash Mills, England, on July 8, post at the Ashmolean and center. 1851 to John and Harriet Evans. turned his sights on Crete to By 1903, most of the palace was He was the first of five children. focus on this little known civiliza- excavated, bringing to light an He earned a BA degree from tion. Using the Cretan Explora- advanced city containing artwork Brasenose College, Oxford in tion Fund, he paid off the debt for and many examples of writing. 1874 at the age of 24. After the land that encompassed Painted on the walls of the palace school he spent time roaming Knossos. He hired two foremen, were numerous scenes depicting around Bosnia and Herzegovina. and 32 diggers and started work bulls, leading Evans to conclude His stories were published by the on the hill in March 1900. that the Minoans did indeed worship Manchester Guardian who hired He would be assisted by the bull. In 1905 he finished him as a correspondent in the archaeologist Duncan Mackenzie excavations. What then ensued Balkans in 1877. Though not a and Mr. Fyfe, an architect from were a series of restorations that, professional statesman and probably the British School at Athens. according to many critics, was in never a paid agent of the government, some he played a role in the formation regards of the nation of Yugoslavia. “fanciful” In 1884, at the age of 34, he was at best. appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean He then Museum in Oxford. Part of his proceeded new duties included archaeology. to have Evans is better known as an the room English archaeologist and pioneer Images: Wikipedia; arthistoryreources.net called the in the study of Aegean civilizations in the Bronze Age. He is most Within a few months they had throne famous for unearthing the Palace room repainted by Swiss artists. of Knossos on the Greek island of uncovered a substantial portion While Evans based the recrea- Crete. Evans continued Heinrich of what he called the Palace of tions on archaeological evidence, Schliemann's concept of a Minos. some of the best-known frescoes Mycenaean civilization, but found However, “palace” may be a from the throne room were after his extensive excavations, misnomer. Knossos, which spans almost complete inventions. another different civilization, the five acres and the palace had a In 1908, he decided to concentrate Minoan. He based this on the maze-like quality that reminded on researching and publishing. structures and artifacts found Evans of the labyrinth described Evans had found over 3000 clay there and throughout the eastern in Greek mythology. In the myth, tablets at Knossos, which he the labyrinth had been built by transcribed and organized, King Minos to hide the Minotaur, publishing them in Scripta a half-man half-bull creature that Minoa. In 1914 at the age of 63 he was the son of Minos's wife, took on the Presidency of the Pasiphae, and a bull. Evans Antiquaries and ex officio appoint- dubbed the civilization once ment as a Trustee of the British inhabiting this great palace the Museum. Minoan civilization. They On July 11, 1941, Evans passed unearthed over 1000 interlocking away at the age of 90, in his rooms, some of which served as Youlbury, England home and is artisans' workrooms and food buried in the local cemetery. Officers: Board of Directors Copyright © 2020 Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, President Time SiftersArchaeologySociety,Inc., Sherry Svekis, Vice President Directors: Evelyn Mangie All rights reserved. Marion Almy, Secretary Dorothy Cascio Don Nelson We send newsletters to people Laura Harrison, Treasurer Steven Derfler who have attended or expressed Karen Jensen, Membership interestin our lecturesand given us their email address.

Membership Speakers & Events Calendar Lifetime: $350 Unless noted, all will be held at 6:00 PM Individual: $25 Selby Library, 1331 First St., Sarasota 34236 Family: $35 Student: $10 April 13, 2020 Supporting $40 2019 Cornelia Futor Memorial Student Paper Winners 1st and 2nd Place Student Paper Presenters Pay online at: WWW.TimeSifters.org May 20, 2020 Or mail checks to: Archaeology & the Bible: Time Sifters, Inc. Excavation of Nahal Yatir—A Biblical City PO Box 5283 Dr. Steven Derfler Sarasota, FL. 34277 September 16, 2020 Explorers, Traders, Soldiers: Aegean presence in Sicily before the colonization. Dr. Davide Tanasi Time Sifters Archaeology Society P. O. Box 5283, Sarasota, FL 34277