Arsenic in the Arctic: The Polaris expedition and the poisoning of CF Hall Nearly a century after the event, Emil Bessels was accused of murdering Charles Francis Hall high in the Arctic Circle.

Murder in a cold climate? The terrifying tale of the American Arctic explorer and the German scientist.

Slow collapse: How Eurasian diseases devastated the Americas - The Age of Exploration When worlds collided: A regional guide to the Columbian Exchange, disease and population collapse in the Americas After 1492.

Diseases brought by European travellers killed tens of millions in the Americas. But how did they spread, and what actions taken by the Europeans made them even more deadly to local populations? Epidemiologist Devin Teichrow examines the evidence.

Seaweed and cloudberries: How the Vikings solved scurvy - The Age of Exploration The Norse likely relied on berries and wild plants to stave off illness on long-distance voyages, including to North America.

The Vikings travelled vast distances yet rarely suffered the scourges of scurvy? How? A combination of island-hopping tendencies and the ability to source berries and plants that are high in vitamin C.

theageofexploration.com/seaweed-and-...

Map of the west coast of West Africa and the Cape Verde islands, highlighting the location of the largest island: Santiago.

When Genoese & Portuguese navigators discovered Cape Verde in AD 1456, it was uninhabited. They settled in 1462 and brought enslaved West Africans to the islands, making them a unique location to examine early slave-trade based colonialism.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Hy-Brasil: The island that never was - The Age of Exploration The legendary island of Hy-Brasil bewitched cartographers and explorers for centuries, yet was little more than a figment of the imagination.

Hy-Brasil: The mythical island that confounded mapmakers for centuries.
theageofexploration.com/hy-brasil-th...

Franklin’s lost expedition: The 170-year search for HMS Erebus and Terror - The Age of Exploration John Franklin's lost expedition and how it took 170 years to locate the missing ships, the Erebus and the Terror.

John Franklin's expedition to complete the exploration of the North-West Passage ended in disaster. All hands were lost, and the two ships, the Erebus and the Terror, disappeared in the ice. It would take 170 years to find again.
theageofexploration.com/franklins-lo...

John Cabot: The Italian explorer who claimed North America for England - The Age of Exploration Based on the scant historical records available, we present the early life and voyages to America of the Italian explorer John Cabot.

John Cabot: The Italian explorer who claimed North America for England
theageofexploration.com/john-cabot-t...

Microplastic and garbage patches follow routes of the great explorers - The Age of Exploration Microplastics and garbage patches of the world are created by the same currents that aided great explorers in the Age of Discovery.

The surprising link between Age of Discovery maritime routes and modern microplastics.

theageofexploration.com/microplastic...

Magellan and Elcano: The first voyage around the world - The Age of Exploration The Magellan-Elcano voyage: What made it simultaneously both the greatest and most disastrous expedition in history.

The Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation: the greatest and the most disastrous voyage in history. On 20 September 1519, around 260 men set out in 5 ships from the southern Spanish port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Only 18 men and 1 ship and would return.
theageofexploration.com/magellan-and...

Easter Island: Solving the mystery of the moai - The Age of Exploration Ever since the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen sighted Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in 1722, visitors have been fascinated by the moai, the mysterious enormous stone statues found throughout the island. At...

How did the people of Easter Island transport the moai statues? An interview with Professor Carl Lipo, who found the answer. theageofexploration.com/easter-islan...

What a ship!

If you're the history department in a city absolutely full of historic architecture, then I guess you want to work in a historic building. It is funny though.

On New Year's Day 1502, Gaspar de Lemos misnamed Rio de Janeiro - The Age of Exploration How a group of 16th-century Portuguese explorers mistook a bay for a river and misnamed the most famous city in Brazil.

Why is Rio de Janeiro named after a river when it's located in a bay?

theageofexploration.com/on-new-years...

On Christmas Day 1492, Columbus lost the Santa María - The Age of Exploration On Christmas Day 1492, Christopher Columbus lost the Santa Maria, his flagship on his first voyage. And all because of a careless cabin boy.

Talk about a bad Christmas... theageofexploration.com/on-christmas...

1507: The year Europe named America - The Age of Exploration 1492: we all know that this is the date when the new continent or ‘terra incognita’ was discovered by the famous Christopher Columbus. Yet it would take 15 years for it to receive its final name of Am...

The Waldseemüller Map: How America got its name theageofexploration.com/1507-the-yea...

101 grisly ways to die in the Age of Exploration - The Age of Exploration No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and...

Not strictly 101, but you can use your imagination...

theageofexploration.com/101-grisly-w...

Pringle Stokes: Suicide at the edge of the world - The Age of Exploration Captaining a sailing ship during the Age of Sail was surely one of the most demanding and challenging jobs on the planet. Often hundreds or thousands of nautical miles away from whichever whimsical mo...

Pringle Stokes, the first captain of Darwin's famous ship the Beagle, was both a hero and a tragic figure.

theageofexploration.com/pringle-stok...

People pulling on ropes to move a moai

A useful view of the Pavel Pavel method for “walking” a moai. There are 2 ropes pulling at an angle on the base. The moai swivels from side to side, grinding on its base. Movement was slow as the pullers had to overcome friction to do this. This moai has eyes: an ahu moai carved to stand upright.

When Columbus nearly drowned off the coast of Portugal - The Age of Exploration Whatever you think of him, Christopher Columbus is surely one of the most consequential figures in all history. When his flagship, the Santa Maria, landed on the island of San Salvador in 1492, it set...

Did you know that as a young sailor, Christopher Columbus got caught in a naval battle just off Portugal between a Genoese trading mission and French pirates? Columbus grabbed a piece of wood and started swimming to the nearby coast.
theageofexploration.com/when-columbu...

Dugout canoes in Great Lakes reveal signs of ancient bioengineering – The Age of Exploration

Full story here: theageofexploration.com/dugout-canoe...

Dugout canoes in Great Lakes reveal signs of ancient bioengineering

Analysis suggests the indigenous people that built these canoes may have deliberately 'wounded' trees in order to induce tyloses, balloon-like structures that block the movement of water and make the wood waterproof.

London National Maritime Museum: Explore a thousand years of history – The Age of Exploration

Definitely worth a visit to Greenwich.

theageofexploration.com/london-natio...

Magellan the movie: new Lav Diáz film promises to be epic – The Age of Exploration

Could this be the finest Age of Exploration film ever made?

#Magellan #LavDiaz #GaelGarciaBernal

theageofexploration.com/magellan-the...

3D model of an imperfectly round stone with a design engraved on its surface, outlined to make the inscription clearer. It depicts a high-status figure seated on a mat with probable chalchihuites (circular elements of precious green stone). The figure wears a tassel headdress, likely an insignia of office, and is accompanied by a year sign. A torch, often associated with the New Fire ceremony, and the possible year-bearer date of 13 Flint are placed before the figure, in the position usually used to denote an individual’s name in Teotihuacan writing

Monument from the mountain Cerro Patlachique, south of Teotihuacan. It likely depicts a fire priest #FolkloreThursday
Fire priests were religious and political authorities, indicating the sacred mountain was controlled by the Mesoamerican city-state.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Captain Flinders and Ann Chappelle: The man who named Australia built a secret cabin for his wife but then left her alone in England for nine years. She waited it out and they eventually had a baby daughter together.

When on the brink of starvation on the other side of the world and beset by enemies, I imagine religious differences were the least of their problems.

In search of adventure: An interview with Giles Milton – The Age of Exploration

Why is the East India Company a bit like Google with an army? Giles Milton has the answer.

theageofexploration.com/giles-milton...

Great story! I still can't quite work out how they invented this 😀

Pachacuti: The mythical life of a great Inca leader – The Age of Exploration

Before the Spanish came to the Americas, there was Pachacuti, the greatest Inca leader of all time.

theageofexploration.com/pachacuti-th...

Shipwrecked? When Captain Cook smashed into the Great Barrier Reef – The Age of Exploration

What do you do when you get your ship stuck on the Great Barrier Reef?

A good bit of fothering, obviously.

theageofexploration.com/shipwrecked-...