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FROM THE EDITOR
National Geographic History
A POINTED HISTORY
Ancient Ink: The Story of Tattoos in North America • Identification of an ancient tattoo needle confirms that the practice began in the Southwest much earlier than was previously thought.
HOT FOOD AND HIGH DWELLINGS
The Life of an Imposter
Princess Tarakanova, Pretender to the Throne • Catherine the Great of Russia faced many threats to her rule during her 30-year reign, but the attempts of one imposter princess became legendary.
LOCKED AWAY
THE FALSE TSAR
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The Mystery of Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight • The aviator was nearing the end of her round-the-world flight when her plane vanished over the Pacific in July 1937. More than eight decades later, the mystery of her disappearance—and the quest to solve it—still survive.
PICTURING AMELIA
Was Earhart a Castaway?
SAVING THE TEMPLES OF ABU SIMBEL • In 1960, ancient icons in Upper Egypt were threatened by a proposed dam on the Nile. If the world did nothing, floodwaters would drown historic sites, including Ramses II’s colossal temple complex at Abu Simbel.
UNITED EFFORT
THE SURVIVORS AND THE SUBMERGED
PAIDEIA EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE • Many modern ideas about education have their foundation in ancient Greece, where rhetoric and wrestling were of equal importance to future citizens.
A CLASSICAL EDUCATION
BECOMING HUMAN
MOVING AND THINKING • Physical education was useful for the state, as it prepared a boy for the military. The Greek ideal of a balance between intellect and physical prowess underpins many educational systems to this day. Scenes of physical, as well as mental, gymnastics were common themes on Greek pottery from the time.
HOMER, TEACHER OF THE GREEKS
DEPRIVED OF A VOICE
FEMALE PURSUITS • Despite a lack of access to formal education, some women pursued many of the same intellectual and physical activities as men. In Athens (unlike in neighboring Sparta), educational and sporting activities were carried out in a strictly segregated environment.
TRIUMPHS OF CAESAR • Rome celebrated Julius Caesar with an unprecedented four triumphs, the highest honor a victorious general could receive. These spectacles were magnificent, but not all Romans were cheering.
CAESAR’S FIRST FOUR
WALKING OVATIONS
TO THE VICTORS
EGYPT COMES TO ROME • In 46 B.C, Julius Caesar celebrated his Egyptian triumph after he and Queen Cleopatra defeated her siblings for the throne. At the triumph’s climax (below), the procession arrived at the Temple of Jupiter on Capitoline Hill, where Caesar showed off the spoils of war.
FIFTH AND FINAL TRIUMPH
CAESAR’S GALLIC TRIUMPH • Below are eight of the nine 15th-century panels painted by Andrea Mantegna, re-creating Caesar’s first triumph of 46 B.C.
BOTTICELLI RENAISSANCE ICON • Coming of age in 15th-century Italy, the son of a tanner became better known as Sandro Botticelli, the painter whose works of art revered Europe’s classical past and celebrated his Florentine patrons, the powerful Medici family.
AFRICAN ODYSSEY THE EPIC JOURNEY OF VIRGINIA’S FIRST AFRICANS • Stolen from home and forced on a dangerous voyage across the Atlantic, “20 and odd” African people set foot in British North America in 1619, the first steps toward what became slavery in the United States.
VIRGINIA’S BEGINNINGS
FROM AFRICA TO...