March 11, 2019

If your birthday is in March, you have two birthstones (gems associated with the month of your birth): aquamarine and bloodstone (a variety of chalcedony). Aquamarine is a light blue or bluish-green gem. It is cut in facets (polished flat surfaces) and used in all types of jewelry. Bloodstone is a dark green gem with red spots. It too is used in jewelry, but it is also associated with Christianity.

Aquamarine is one of two birthstones for the month of March. Credit: © Albert Russ, Shutterstock

Aquamarine is a variety of the mineral beryl. The most popular color is a clear sky-blue. Aquamarine is often treated with heat to improve its color. Almost all aquamarine is transparent. Aquamarines have been known since ancient times, when legends said the gems could help people relax or could act as an antidote to poison. The ancient Romans believed the gem could cure laziness and produce courage. The most important source of aquamarines is Brazil.

Bloodstone is another birthstone of March.
Credit: © Shutterstock

Bloodstone, a variety of the mineral Chalcedony, is related to agate, carnelian, and onyx. Chalcedony was named for the ancient town of Chalcedon, in what is now Turkey, which is near deposits of the mineral. Bloodstone is sometimes called Martyr’s Stone or Christ’s Stone because legend attributed the gem’s red spots to the blood of Jesus Christ. The ancient Greeks called bloodstone heliotrope (also a type of flower) for the way it reflects light. The Babylonians used bloodstone to make amulets, decorative vessels, and seals.

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Birthstones, according to tradition, bring good luck when worn by a person born in the associated month. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustrations by Paul D. Turnbaugh

According to tradition, a birthstone brings good luck to a person born in its month. Each birthstone also corresponds to a sign of the zodiac. The belief in birthstones may have come from a Bible story about Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. The story describes Aaron’s breastplate, which was decorated with 12 precious stones. Early writers linked these stones with the 12 months of the year and the 12 signs of the zodiac. The custom of wearing a stone that represented a person’s zodiac sign probably originated in Germany or Poland in the 1700′s.

March 8, 2018

In February, an exhibition called “Super/Natural: Textiles of the Andes” opened at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition features numerous textiles (woven fabrics) and other items created by the ancient Andean cultures of South America. These textiles were traditionally worn as clothing, but they also were used for communication and artistic and religious expression among the diverse peoples of the desert coasts and mountain highlands of the Andean region.

The “Super/Natural” textile exhibition includes this otherworldly figure holding a wild Pampas cat. Credit: Mantle (detail) (100 BC/AD 200), Wool embroidered in stem stitches by Paracas Necropolis; Emily Crane Chadbourne Fund/The Art Institute of Chicago

Textile creation in the Andes dates at least to the ancient Chavín culture (900 B.C. to 200 B.C.) in what is now Peru. The Chavín developed a backstrap loom and many of the techniques that weavers in the Andes still use today. In a backstrap loom, a strap on one end of the loom wraps around the weaver’s back. The weaver attaches the other end to a solid object such as a tree and leans or sits back to pull a set of yarns called the warp taut. 

The above textile, a product of the Paraca culture (500 B.C. to A.D. 200) in Peru, is a detail from a mantle (cloak) included in the “Super/Natural” exhibition. The figure holds a Pampas cat, a powerful predator and protector of agricultural fields. The individual appears to channel otherworldly power, as colored streamers emerge from the mouth and down the back, suggesting that the figure embodies the supernatural forces believed to govern the natural world. This type of representation is common throughout the Andes. Among the Nazca, a culture that emerged after the Paracas, woven textiles and painted vessels depict similar imagery. Individuals dressed in ornate costumes and wearing whiskered masks suggest transformation and connection between the natural and supernatural worlds. Later, such Andean cultures as the Wari, Chimú, and Inca also created intricate textiles for a variety of uses.

The “Super/Natural” exhibition features over 60 ancient textiles along with a number of Andean ceramics from the Art Institute’s collection. The exhibition highlights the unique aspects of individual Andean cultures while also demonstrating the similarities among them. The artistic objects deal with everyday life, the natural world, the supernatural world, and the afterlife.

February 8, 2019

If your birthday is in February, your birthstone—the gem associated with the month of your birth—is the amethyst. Amethyst is a purple or bluish-violet gem. It is used to make rings, necklaces, brooches, and other jewelry. Amethyst is a variety of quartz. The purple color of amethyst is believed to be caused by impurities such as iron and manganese. Amethyst has been a prized gem since the days of ancient Egypt, and today it can be found among the British royal family’s crown jewels.

Amethyst is February’s birthstone.
Credit: © Sebastian Janicki, Shutterstock

Amethyst is the birthstone for Pisces (February 19-March 20), a sign of the zodiac. It is also a traditional gem for the 6th and 17th wedding anniversaries. In the past, some people believed amethyst possessed magical powers. According to legend, wearing an amethyst could increase your intelligence or rid your mind of evil thoughts. The wine-colored gem could even prevent a person from becoming drunk (on too much wine, of course). Amethyst most often appears as crystals lining cavities in volcanic rock. It can be found in several places around the world, but the major sources for amethyst are Brazil and Uruguay in South America.

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Birthstones, according to tradition, bring good luck when worn by a person born in the associated month. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustrations by Paul D. Turnbaugh

According to tradition, a birthstone brings good luck to a person born in its month. Each birthstone also corresponds to a sign of the zodiac. The belief in birthstones may have come from a Bible story about Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites. The story describes Aaron’s breastplate, which was decorated with 12 precious stones. Early writers linked these stones with the 12 months of the year and the 12 signs of the zodiac. The custom of wearing a stone that represented a person’s zodiac sign probably originated in Germany or Poland in the 1700′s.

December 7, 2018

On Dec. 9, 1962, 56 years ago Sunday, the United States Congress established Petrified Forest National Park, an area with one of the greatest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood in the world. Located in the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona, the park contains giant logs of agatized wood (wood petrified into agate) and numerous broken sections and petrified fragments. Visitors can view petrified wood and other park features while hiking the park’s many trails. The park also contains dinosaur fossils and Native American petroglyphs (rock carvings).

These petrified logs at Petrified Forest National Park are about 225 million years old. Credit: © George Burba, Dreamstime

The trees of Petrified Forest National Park grew about 225 million years ago during the Triassic Period, when reptiles became the dominant animals on land and in the sea. Reptiles of the Triassic Period included the first dinosaurs and early large marine reptiles. The trees were buried in mud, sand, or volcanic ash, and turned to stone over time. Today, the park is home to a wide variety of plant and animal life. Cactuses, grasses, lichens, and wildflowers live there, as do many types of birds, lizards, rabbits, and other animals.

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Petrified Forest National Park is located in the Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

People of the Clovis culture first inhabited the area of the park around 13,000 years ago. Fragments of pottery found in the forest show that small groups of farming Indians lived there as early as A.D. 300. Spanish explorers reached the area in the late 1500′s, and American pioneers and homesteaders began settling there in the 1800′s.

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This map shows the locations of the national parks of the United States, which form part of the country’s National Park System. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt created Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906. After becoming a national park in 1962, the Petrified Forest National Wilderness Area was added within the park in 1970. In 2004, the park expanded from 93,533 acres (37,851 hectares) to 218,533 acres (88,437 hectares). Later additions brought the park’s area to 221,390 acres (89,593 hectares).

September 14, 2018

A fragment of bone discovered in a Siberian cave has recently revealed the first known hybrid between a Neandertal and a member of another prehistoric human group known as Denisovans. The fragment came from Denisova Cave on the Anuy River in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Genetic material extracted from the bone fragment showed that a teenage girl who lived and died more than 50,000 years ago was the daughter of a Neandertal mother and Denisovan father. The finding confirms interbreeding between the prehistoric peoples that had been only hinted at in earlier genetic studies.

The bone fragment called Denisova 11 (seen here in different views) was found at Denisova Cave in 2012. DNA evidence recently showed that the bone came from the daughter of a Neandertal mother and a Denisovan father. Credit: © Thomas Higham, University of Oxford

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, examined a small bone fragment excavated at Denisova Cave in 2012. Proteins extracted from the bone fragment, called Denisova 11, indicated that it came from a human being. The fragment likely came from a shinbone or thighbone. The thickness of the bone suggested the fragment belonged to a female who was at least 13 years old when she died. Radiocarbon dating indicated the bone fragment was at least 50,000 years old. Analysis of the bone’s genetic material showed that Denisova 11 had approximately equal amounts of Neandertal and Denisovan ancestry.

Denisovans were prehistoric humans who lived in Asia. Scientists do not know what they looked like, because they are known only from a few skeletal remains. Scientists identified this population by analyzing ancient DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) recovered from the bones. The scientists were able to extract and sequence entire individual genomes. The term genome refers to all the genes on a cell’s threadlike structures called chromosomes. The discovery of Denisovans was the first time that scientists identified a prehistoric human population through DNA analysis alone.

The Neandertals were prehistoric people who lived in Europe and Asia. They are mainly known from thousands of fossils that date from about 150,000 to 39,000 years ago. Neandertals were very different from people today. Their skulls were huge, with a large, projecting face; a low, sloping forehead; and a prominent browridge, a raised strip of bone across the forehead above the eyes. By 2010, scientists had sequenced the entire Neandertal genome. The Neandertal genome differs markedly from that of the Denisovans, suggesting that the populations lived apart for many thousands of years.

The young girl was a hybrid of two very distinct groups of prehistoric people. Neandertals and Denisovans differed both culturally and physically. Meetings between the two groups and the creation of hybrid children were most likely rare events. The study of human genomes shows that both Neandertals and Denisovans also occasionally interacted and interbred with modern humans, whose era was beginning as the prehistoric humans were dying out. Among modern peoples of Europe, Asia, and the Pacific islands, between 1 and 4 percent of the population’s genome comes from Neandertals. Scientists have also found that Europeans, Asians, and some aboriginal peoples of Australia, New Guinea, and islands of the western Pacific have trace amounts of Denisovan DNA.

September 12, 2018

High in the Atacama Desert of Chile, a system of stone pillars and rock piles called saywas was recently found to be an ancient Inca calendar. Once thought only to mark a local Inca trail, a team of archaeologists, astronomers, historians, and researchers recently showed how the saywas work as a complicated and connected calendar to identify and predict equinoxes, solstices, and other astronomical events. The Inca trail in the Atacama Desert is part of the Qhapaq Ñan, an extensive Inca road network that stretches from southern Colombia to central Chile.

The sun peeks over the Andes Mountains at dawn, illuminating a line of ancient Inca saywas in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. Credit: A. Silber, ALMA/ESO/NAOJ/NRAO

Working at 13,800 feet (4,200 meters) above sea level in the desert mountains near Taltal, a small city in northern Chile, the scientific team began visiting the saywas and taking measurements in 2017. The team included local indigenous people as well as experts from the Chilean Museum of Pre-Colombian Art, the nearby Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory, and the European Southern Observatory. The research was funded by BHP/Minera Escondida, a mining company with more material interests in the desert.

The scientific team began the study by documenting alignments between certain saywas and the sunrises on the March equinox and June solstice. They then began connecting saywa points with other important dates on the ancient Inca calendar. Operating much in the same way as Stonehenge in England, the saywas align with sunrises on certain dates, while also projecting shadows on the ground that lead to other stone points. The researchers also found that certain saywas align with constellations at night, further strengthening the researchers’ conclusion, published in 2018, that the network of stones served as a large calendar for Inca astronomers.

The first written accounts of the saywas were recorded during the Spanish conquest of Andean  South America in the 1500′s and 1600′s. The saywas’ remote locations in the empty desert, far from Inca cities, led the Spanish to believe that the stone piles were little more than pathway markers to help guide people through the vast, barren desert. The saywas did in fact aid in navigation, but the larger purpose of the stone markers remained unknown for centuries. In recent years, however, knowledge of the Inca has greatly expanded, and the study of ancient Quechua and Aymara (Inca languages) dictionaries led to the examination of the relationship between the saywas and the Inca astronomical system.

The ancient Inca capital of Cusco (in modern-day Peru) was surrounded by columns used to measure time, create calendars, and predict equinoxes and solstices as well as the planting and harvesting seasons. The remote saywas, however, were tucked away in the Atacama Desert. Perhaps that was merely the best view of the heavens, allowing Inca astronomers to get the most accurate measurements while Cusco was obscured by clouds and mist. Modern astronomers use the high desert for the same purpose. The sprawling ALMA observatory is only a (figurative) stone’s throw away.

August 27, 2018

It was said that Harald Blåtand, a Danish ruler who lived in the A.D. 900’s, possessed great skill in bringing people together through words and communication. He united the Danes, helped to spread Christianity among them, and became the first king of a united Denmark. He also brought part of Norway under his rule.

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Scandinavia includes the countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

About 1,000 years later, in the 1990’s, a man who had recently read about Harald in a book on Scandinavian history was part of a group trying to develop a uniform standard for the short-range wireless communication technology that enables computers and other devices to work together. The group needed a name for their project. Since Harald had united people and they were trying to unite technologies, the man suggested temporarily naming it after Harald. The name stuck. The English translation of the old Scandinavian word blåtand, and the name of the modern wireless technology standard, is Bluetooth. The Bluetooth logo combines medieval Scandinavian runes (alphabet letters) for H and B.

The flag of Denmark flies over millions of speakers of Danish, a Scandinavian language. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Danish is one of several closely related languages known as Scandinavian languages. Scandinavia is a large geographic region in northern Europe. It includes the countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. These three countries have interwoven histories and cultures. Each of their languages—Danish, Swedish, and two forms of Norwegian—has its own vocabulary and forms of pronunciation. However, the languages are similar enough so that Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes can often communicate without translating into each other’s languages.

The flag of Norway flies over speakers of Norwegian, a Scandinavian language related to Danish and Swedish. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

The Scandinavian languages make up the north Germanic branch of the large Indo-European language family. Their closest language cousins are the west Germanic languages of that family. The west Germanic languages include Dutch, English, and German. A large Swedish-speaking minority lives in Finland, which lies just east of Sweden, and Sweden has a large Finnish-speaking minority. The Finnish and Swedish cultures have much in common. However, the distinctive Finnish language belongs to the entirely different Uralic family, and it is not considered part of the Scandinavian language group. The Uralic family also includes the languages of the Sami—also known as Lapps—who live in far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and northeastern Russia.

The flag of Sweden resembles those of its fellow Scandinavian countries Denmark and Norway. The Swedish language is closely related to Danish and Norwegian. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Around 1,000 years ago, Scandinavian languages spread to a number of regions beyond Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. At that time, Scandinavians were the best shipbuilders in Europe. From the late 700’s through the late 1000’s, skilled Scandinavian sailors traveled up and down the rivers of Europe and across the rough waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Other Europeans called the sailors Norsemen, and later Vikings. Some Vikings were raiders. Some were explorers, traders, or settlers. Norsemen who settled in the British Isles introduced a number of words, including sky and they, into the English language.

During the 800’s, Scandinavians sailing east across the North Atlantic reached and settled the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Modern Faroese and Icelandic are both Scandinavian languages. Of all the modern Scandinavian languages, Icelandic is the closest to the speech of the Viking era. Present-day Icelanders usually can read medieval Icelandic literature and historical records without too much difficulty. Iceland experienced a golden age of literature in the 1100’s and 1200’s. Poets wrote down legends about the ancient northern European gods, such as Odin and Thor. They also wrote heroic sagas about people from Icelandic and Scandinavian history. Snorri Sturluson, a poet and historian who lived from 1179 to 1240, is the most famous medieval Icelandic writer. His Heimskringla (Circle of the World) describes the history of the kings of Norway from their origins until his own day. One of the royal rulers that he wrote about was the Danish king Harald Bluetooth.

August 15, 2018

From August 13 through today, August 15, people celebrate the annual Obon festival in Japan and in Japanese communities around the world. Also called the Bon, Bon Odori, or Urabon festival, Obon is a Buddhist event that marks the spiritual return of dead ancestors to the living world on Earth. Because lanterns are hung to guide the souls of the dead, Obon is sometimes called the Festival of Lanterns. In some parts of Japan, the festival takes place in July.

Lanterns illuminate the night and guide the spirits of the dead during the Obon festival in Japan. Credit: Yoichiro Akiyama (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

According to the Buddhist sutra (scripture) Urabon-kyō, Buddha’s disciple Maudgalyāyana found his deceased mother in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, where spirits suffer from eternal hunger and thirst. Maudgalyāyana tried to give her a bowl of rice, but it burst into flames. He went to the Buddha for help, and was instructed to offer food and drink to monks on the 15th day of the seventh moon, the traditional end of Japan’s rainy season. The act of gratitude and respect freed Maudgalyāyana’s mother from her torment, and he danced with joy. By repeating the disciple’s offerings—and his dance—each year, Buddhists honor the dead and celebrate the relief of their suffering.

The three-day Obon begins with mukaebi, the lighting of fires and lanterns to guide spirits home. Many families build two altars of fruit, incense, and flowers called shōryō-dana. One altar is for ancestors, and the other is for any spirits who have not attained peace. Other common rituals include ohakamairi, the cleaning and decoration of ancestral tombs; prayer services at temples; and the preparation of special foods. Bon Odori, a Buddhist folk dance, is performed during the festival. Dancers in elaborate costumes form a circle around musicians and taiko drummers. (Taikos are large ceremonial drums.) Obon ends with okuribi, when fires and lanterns are again lit to bid spirits farewell. Some communities celebrate Obon with carnivals and other outdoor events.

August 7, 2018

Yesterday, on August 6, Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city, celebrated the 480th anniversary of its founding in 1538. One of the oldest cities founded by Europeans in South America, Bogotá is also one of the biggest. Some 8 million people call the city home. Bogotá hosts a birthday carnival every year on August 5 and 6, a raucous celebration of the city’s—and the nation’s—cultural and musical diversity.

Bogotá sits high in the Andes Mountains of central Colombia. The city was founded 480 years ago on Aug. 6, 1538. Credit: © Stone from Getty Images

Bogotá’s birthday carnival centers on the city’s Simón Bolívar Park, and parades teeming with dancers and musicians in vibrant costumes spiral into the nearby streets. Aromas of ajiaco—the city’s traditional chicken and potato soup—compete with stuffed arepas and empanadas for revelers’ culinary attentions. The Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra plays a more subdued free concert in the city’s main square, the Plaza de Bolívar, and individual parties take place in every barrio (neighborhood). At sunset, fireworks erupt from atop the 643-foot- (196-meter-) high Torre Colpatria, Colombia’s tallest completed building. The south tower of the nearby BD Bacatá complex (scheduled to open later this year) looks down on the Colpatria by about 210 feet (64 meters). Bacatá is the Muisca Indian word for the region that gave Bogotá its name.

Bogotá was founded as Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1538 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, a Spanish military leader who conquered the area’s Muisca and Chibcha Indians. In the early 1700′s, the city became the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The viceroyalty consisted of what are now Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. In 1830, Bogotá became the capital of independent New Granada, later renamed Colombia.

The Santamaría bullring, shown here, is one of Bogotá’s key points of interest. The Park Towers, designed by Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona, rise beside the bullring. Credit: © Jess Kraft, Shutterstock

Bogotá lies on a plateau about 8,660 feet (2,640 meters) above sea level, in the Andes Mountains in central Colombia. The steep mountains that surround much of Bogotá give the city a dramatic physical setting. One peak is crowned with a figure of Jesus Christ, another with a cross, and a third with a shining white convent. Cable cars travel between the city and the top of Monserrate, a mountain that is a popular observation point. A mansion at the foot of the mountain once belonged to the South American general Simón Bolívar. It is now a museum that displays items relating to Bolívar and South America’s struggle for independence.

At the center of Bogotá is the Plaza de Bolívar. It is surrounded by historic buildings, including the Cathedral; the Archbishop’s Palace; Liévano Palace, which houses the mayor’s office; and the Capitol. Nearby, mansions from the Spanish colonial era, which lasted from the 1500′s to the early 1800′s, line the narrow streets. The Gold Museum has a collection of about 35,000 gold works of art crafted by Indians before the Spaniards arrived.

August 6, 2018

About 8 million people in Andean South America speak one of the many dialects of the Native American language Quechua. Quechua, or Runa Simi as it is called by its speakers, is commonly heard in Peru and in parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. Spanish is the official language of these nations, but Quechua has equal status in Peru. Quechua descends from the dominant tribal groups of the Inca empire. More than a quarter of Peru’s population speaks Quechua. In Bolivia, there are more people who speak Quechua than speak Spanish.

Quechua is an ancient dialect of the Inca empire. Many people speak the language in Peru, where Inca religious ceremonies—here, the Festival of the Sun—still take place. Credit: © M. Timothy O’Keefe, Alamy Images

Quechua originated as the language spoken by the Inca. The Inca were a native South American people who ruled one of the largest and richest empires in the Americas. The Inca empire emerged in the early A.D. 1400’s and occupied a vast region centered around the capital of Cusco, in modern-day southern Peru. The empire extended over 2,500 miles (4,020 kilometers) along the Andes Mountains. Different peoples within the empire spoke Quechua and a variety of other native languages. A second important language in the empire was Aymara, which is still heard in Bolivia and other nations.

The Peruvian flag flies over millions of Quechua speakers. Credit: © Gil C, Shutterstock

The Inca did not have an alphabet. They did have quipu, however, a cord with knotted strings of various lengths, colors, weaves, and designs that served as a system of record keeping. Special officials throughout the empire read the quipu and maintained the knotted strings. Archaeologists have discovered how the Inca recorded numbers and dates using quipu, but they are still trying to understand what other information might be encoded in the knotted strings.

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The map at left shows the location of the Inca empire along the Andes Mountains of South America. The empire’s capital, Cusco, is in modern day Peru. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Without an alphabet or written language, information was passed along the Inca empire’s system of royal roads by messengers called chaski. Messages were passed by word of mouth or by quipu. Chaski were stationed every few miles, and messages would be passed from one messenger to the next so information would flow quickly throughout the empire.

The sons of rulers throughout the empire were sent to Cusco, where they were instructed in Inca language, history, and religion. They were also taught about the quipu and Inca fighting techniques by teachers called amauta. These teachers also recorded stories and legends in poems and songs that they retold at gatherings.

In the 1500’s, during the Spanish conquest, missionaries used Quechua to teach the Inca about Christianity. The missionaries were the first to record Quechua in written form. An official orthography—method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols—was drafted in 1939 and adopted in 1946 for the main Peruvian dialect of Quechua.