October 2008
7 posts
The Fate of Greenland's Vikings →
From around 980 until the 15th century, there was a Norse settlement on Greenland, which may have topped out at around 5,000 people. It was founded by a sympathetic fellow named Erik the Red, who fled Norway for Iceland after some killings, and then set sail westward from Iceland after he was banished for three years for another murder. He discovered a large island, claimed it for himself, gave it...
Witches of Cornwall →
“Macabre evidence of age-old spells surfaces in an archaeologist’s front yard.”
Never Say Die: Why We Can't Imagine Death →
Interesting article on the psychology of mortality.”[My] position holds that our ancestors suffered the unshakable illusion that their minds were immortal, and it’s this hiccup of gross irrationality that we have unmistakably inherited from them”, writes Jesse Bering. “According to Anthropologist H. Clark Barrett, comprehending the cessation of the mind, on the other hand, has no...
