Real History: The Nuragic Civilisation

A look at a Bronze Age civilisation that many people might not know about. The Nuragic civilisation of the island of Sardinia.

Real History: Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest

Two great articles about the the remains of cultures that existed in South America. I find this type of culture fascinating and imagine many of the cultures in my Sundaland setting exist.

The first article includes some artist impressions of what the area could have looked like. 

Archaeologists using 3D mapping are uncovering the remains of thousands of green metropolises with composted gardens, fisheries, and forests groomed into orchards

Lost cities of the Amazon: how science is revealing ancient garden towns hidden in the rainforest 

This article prioritized studying the roads and paths that are interconnected to geoglyph-type sites in the Western Brazilian Amazon, not only because of their originality, but also to understand some issues that permeate the universe of geoglyphs, such as how was gave the spatial distribution of these roads in the region, what meaning they had within the sociocultural context of that society.

The pre-Colombian roads of geoglyphs sites in the state of acre: the tequinho site road complex

Real History: Lost Maya city with temple pyramids and plazas discovered in Mexico

Another day and another lost Mayan city has been discovered: 

“The larger of Valeriana’s two monumental precincts has all the hallmarks of a Classic Maya political capital: multiple enclosed plazas connected by a broad causeway, temple pyramids, a ballcourt, a reservoir formed by damming an arroyo (a seasonal watercourse), and a probable … architectural arrangement that generally indicates a founding date prior to AD150,”

“The ancient world is full of examples of cities that are completely different than the cities we have today,” Auld-Thomas said. “There were cities that were sprawling agricultural patchworks and hyper-dense; there were cities that were highly egalitarian and extremely unequal. Given the environmental and social challenges we’re facing from rapid population growth, it can only help to study ancient cities and expand our view of what urban living can look like.”

You can read the article here:

Lost Maya city with temple pyramids and plazas discovered in Mexico

Ancient Apocalypse Season 2 is out now on Netflix

 

 

Ancient Apocalypse Season 2 is available to watch on Netflix. I've only watched the first episode and it's very light on details, but then I've read a bunch of Graham's book and listened to many interviews so I'm quite familiar with his hypotheses. In any case it still provides ample inspiration for my Sword & Sorcery setting.

The first episode includes Graham visiting the Amazon to see large earthworks. The the concept of Garden Urbanism is very interesting to me. The idea that large complex societies could exist in rain-forest or tropical environments.

In recent years researchers have found huge earthen structures, including platforms, mounds and causeways, across the Amazon, from Venezuela to central Brazil. But the infrastructure in Upano, described in a study published on Thursday in Science, “is completely unprecedented in Amazonia and in Andean prehistory,” says archaeologist José Iriarte of the University of Exeter in England, who studies pre-Columbian earth-builder cultures in Brazil and was not involved in the new study. “We don’t see an equivalent to these plazas elsewhere in Amazonia.” The nearest similar urban layout is in Maya territory in Central America.

Scientific American: Ancient Amazon Civilization Developed Unique Form of ‘Garden Urbanism’

Real History: Carboniferous Period Was a Pure Nightmare HORROR

Here's some great inspiration for monstrous animals for any fantasy setting. The channel features many great videos about prehistoric animals.

 

New blog: Timothy Westwind - Making it up as I go along

 

I've started another TTRPG blog which you can check out here: Timothy Westwind - Making it up as I go along

Currently I'm sharing a work-in-progress 6 Mile Hex map for the Baltic Region using Worldographer which I may use for a semi-historical Medieval + Dark Fantasy game. I'm torn between playing in semi-historical world or creating something new.

I'm also occasionally playing a game of The One Ring 2e (Darkening of Mirkwood campaign) which I'll write about.

Real History: World building in the Bronze Age: How did people live?

An interesting video about the Bronze Age, aimed at people who are just learning about the period. The information presupposes a focus on the Bronze Age in Europe and the Middle East (referencing the importance of grain agriculture, bread, beer, wine, wool, flax, linen etc.) but a lot is still relevant to my Sundaland setting.