National Geographic History

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FROM THE EDITOR

National Geographic History

Neolithic Finery Shines Again • Researchers have meticulously restored a 9,000-year-old necklace from Jordan.

World’s “Oldest Alphabet” Discovered in Syria • Clay cylinders offer scholars a new way to investigate the timeline and development of alphabetic symbols.

SYMBOLS ON A CYLINDER

TREASURES FOR THE PRIVILEGED

Robberies, Arrests, and Escapes

Jack Sheppard, the People’s Favorite Thief • An expert in picking locks, Sheppard rose to fame for his spectacular escapes from London’s notorious prisons. But harsh English laws against theft eventually sent him to the gallows.

NEWGATES’ STAR PRISONER

FUGITIVE COUPLE

JONATHAN WILD

DISHING UP A NEW WORD

The Revolutionary Birth of the Restaurant • The idea of the modern restaurant emerged in Paris in 1765, a philanthropic recipe to bring good food to the people.

Refined Taste in Newly Reimagined Paris

Visions of a Dance • A Paiute man had a vision: A ritual dance would reunite his people with their dead. The ritual swept across other North American tribes, until fear and violence brought it to a tragic end.

THE MAN WITH A VISION

DANCING FOR THE MESSIAH

PROHIBITION • During Prohibition the U.S. government added toxins to industrial alcohol, knowing it could kill. The result? A chemical war that targeted the poor and reshaped public trust.

HIEROG LYPHS THE SACRED WRITING OF EGYPT • The Egyptians believed that hieroglyphs offered magical protection to people in this life and the afterlife, so they inscribed the signs on monuments, statues, funerary objects, and papyri.

EARLY SIGNS

INSTRUCTION MANUALS ON THE WALL

HIEROGLYPHIC HEALING

ROMAN ENGINEERS • Rome’s expansion was driven by ingenious developments in construction materials and techniques. Some of the bridges, aqueducts, and ports that once connected the Roman world still stand proud.

ROADS AND BRIDGES

GREEK IDEAS, ROMAN PRACTICE

ROME: A LAB FOR BRIDGE BUILDING

THE ALCÁNTARA BRIDGE

ORDERED BY THE EMPEROR

THE ART OF BRIDGE BUILDING • Roman engineers developed complex techniques to build different types of bridges, whether pontoon, wooden, stone, or a combination of wood and stone. Their variety of methods are illustrated on these pages.

THE SACK OF CONSTANTINOPLE • In 1204 the soldiers who had set out to retake Jerusalem in the Fourth Crusade changed tack and instead carried out a siege of the Byzantine capital.

A Tragic and Failed Crusade

FRENCH COLLECTION

FLYING BRIDGES

NO MERCY

A CAPITAL COLLAPSES

DOGE OF VENGEANCE

VENETIAN BOOTY

Gandhi: The Making of Mahatma • To the world, he is an icon of nonviolent civil disobedience. To Indians, he will always be Mahatma, the Great Soul, whose principles of peace and courage led his nation to freedom.

THE RICHES OF NINEVEH

Treasures of the Library of Ashurbanipal • The 1850 discovery of a vast library of cuneiform tablets at Nineveh illuminated fascinating records and complex links with neighbors.

ROOMS FILLED WITH SHATTERED TABLETS

THE STAMP OF INDIVIDUALITY

SIGNS, OMENS, AND DEMONS