6. WHAT IS EUROPE? DEFINED BY A 14TH
CENTURY ENCYCLOPEDIST.
“ EUROPE IS SAID TO BE A THIRD OF THE
WORLD, & HAS ITS NAME FROM EUROPA,
DAUGHTER OF AGANOR, KING OF
LIBYA….EUROPE BEGINS ON THE RIVER TANAY
( DON) & STRETCHES ALONG THE NORTHERN
OCEAN TO THE END OF SPAIN. THE EAST &
SOUTH PART RISES FROM THE SEA CALLED
PONTUS (BLACK SEA) & ALL IS JOINED TO
THE GREAT SEA (MEDITERRANEAN) & ENDS
AT THE ISLANDS OF CADIZ (GIBRALTAR).”
7. THE BOUNDARIES OF EUROPE
“ SO IT WAS NOT UNTIL 1730 THAT A SWEDISH OFFICER IN THE
RUSSIAN SERVICE CALLED STRAHLENBERG SUGGESTED THAT
EUROPE’S BOUNDARY SHOULD BE PUSHED FROM THE DON TO
THE URAL MOUNTAINS & THE URAL RIVER. SOMETIME IN THE
LATE 18TH CENTURY, THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT ERECTED A
BOUNDARY POST ON THE TRAIL BETWEEN YEKATERINBURG &
TYUMEN TO MARK THE FRONTIER OF EUROPE & ASIA. FROM
THEN ON THE GANGS OF TSARIST EXILES, WHO WERE MARCHED
TO SIBERIA IN IRONS, CREATED THE CUSTOM OF KNEELING BY THE
POST & OF SCOOPING UP A LAST HANDFUL OF EUROPEAN
EARTH…BY 1833 WHEN VOLGER’S ‘HANDBUCH DER GEOGRAPHIE’
WAS PUBLISHED , THE IDEA OF ‘EUROPE FROM THE ATLANTIC TO
THE URALS ‘ HAD GAINED GENERAL ACCEPTANCE.”
(NORMAN DAVIES. “ EUROPE. A HISTORY’)
15. THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF
AGRICULTURE
“ AGRICULTURE – THE GROWING OF FOOD - WAS WHAT
REALLY MATTERED. IT RELEASED THE BRAKE OF
POPULATION GROWTH WHICH HAD HELD DOWN
HUNTER-GATHERER POPULATIONS , DEPENDENT AND
PARASITIC AS THEY WERE ON HERDS OF GAME. AS FOOD
SUPPLIES BECAME MORE ASSURED, HUMANS WERE
LIBERATED FROM THE NEED TO FOLLOW WILDLIFE ABOUT,
COULD LIVE MORE SETTLED LIVES, COULD LOCATE
THEMSELVES IN VILLAGES OF BUILT DWELLINGS. THE
STORING OF FOOD, MOREOVER, EASED THE WAY TO
SPECIALISATION OF FUNCTIONS. THE UNDERLYING
DEMOGRAPHIC GROWTH MEANWHILE SEEMS CLEAR BY
2000 BC, THERE MAY HAVE BEEN ABOUT 5,000,000
EUROPEANS.” (J M ROBERTS. ‘A HISTORY OF EUROPE’)
21. THE COMING OF THE IRON AGE
THE SO-CALLED IRON AGE HAD BEGUN WITH THE
AEGEAN PEOPLES AROUND 1100 BC, BUT DID
NOT REACH CENTRAL EUROPE UNTIL ABOUT 800
BC. HOWEVER, IT WAS NOT UNTIL STEEL-
MAKING TECHNOLOGY (HEATING, AT HIGH
TEMPERATURES, OF IRON WITH CARBON), THAT
SUPERIORITY OF BRONZE OVER IRON PRODUCTS
ENDED. EG: STEEL BLADED PLOUGHS ENABLED
DEEP PLOUGHING OF SOILS FOR GREATER
PRODUCTIVITY.
23. THE DAY EUROPE’S PRE-HISTORY
ENDED WHEN MOUNT THERA
(SANTORINI) BLEW UP
24. THE ERUPTION OF MOUNT THERA
“ THE ERUPTION OF THERA (SANTORINI) WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST
EVENTS OF EUROPEAN PRE-HISTORY. IN ONE CRACK OF DOOM ,
LIKE THAT AT KRAKATOA IN MODERN TIMES, 30 CUBIC
KILOMETRES OF ROCK, FIRE & SULPHURIC ACID WERE BLOWN
TWENTY MILES INTO THE STRATOSPHERE. AT A DISTANCE OF ONLY
ONE HUNDRED MILES THE WATCHERS AT CNOSSOS (KNOSSOS)
COULD NOT HAVE FAILED TO SEE THE PLUME & THE FLASHES, &
THEN THE PILLAR OF ASH. WITH NINE MINUTES DELAY THEY
WOULD HAVE HEARD THE BOOM, THE RUMBLES, & THE THUDS.
THEY WOULD HAVE SEEN THE SEA RECEDE AS IT RUSHED TO FILL
THE GASH IN THE SEABED, ONLY TO RECOVER WITH THE DISPATCH
OF A MIGHTY TIDAL WAVE THAT SWAMPED THE CRETAN SHORE
UNDER A HUNDRED FEET OF BRINE.”
( NORMAN DAVIES. “EUROPE. A HISTORY.”)
25. MT. JUKTAS, CRETE. HUMAN
SACRIFICE ALTAR(4.7 M. LONG X 50
CMS HIGH) ABOVE CAVE.
26. THE SHRINE ON MT. JUKTAS WHEN
MT. THERA ERUPTED
“ HIGH ABOVE CNOSSOS, ON THE NORTHERN SLOPES OF MOUNT
JUKTAS, THE PRIESTS OF THE MOUNTAIN SHRINE BUSIED
THEMSELVES WITH THE HUMAN SACRIFICE WHICH THE DISASTER
DEMANDED…ON A LOW TABLE (OF ROCK), A YOUNG MAN LAY
WITH HIS FEET BOUND – ON HIS CHEST A BRONZE-BLADED KNIFE
ENGRAVED WITH A BOAR’S HEAD . BESIDE HIM STOOD A
POWERFUL MAN OF STATUS, WHO WORE A PRECIOUS RING & AN
AGATE SEALSTONE ENGRAVED WITH THE FIGURE OF A GOD
PUNTING A BOAT. BUT THE EARTHQUAKE TRIGGERED BY THE
ERUPTION STRUCK FIRST. THE TEMPLE ROOF COLLAPSED. THE
SACRIFICE WAS NEVER COMPLETED. THE BODIES OF THE
PARTICIPANTS REMAINED WHERE THEY LAY, TO BE DISCOVERED
THREE & A HALF MILLENNIA LATER.”
(NORMAN DAVIES)
28. CNOSSOS ESCAPES FATE OF POMPEII
BUT…
“ A WESTERLY WIND HAPPENED TO BE BLOWING ON
THE DAY OF THE ERUPTION, & THE HEAVIEST
DEPOSITS OF ASH FELL ON THE COAST OF ASIA
MINOR. EVEN SO, CNOSSOS WAS ROCKED BY THE
QUAKE THAT FELLED WALLS & PILLARS; & ONE HAS TO
ASSUME THAT DAMAGE TO THE MINOAN NAVY WAS
EXTENSIVE , IF NOT TOTAL. IN THE SPACE OF A FEW
HOURS THE CONE OF THERA WAS REDUCED TO A
SMOULDERING RING OF BLACK BASALT CLIFFS ROUND
AN EERIE, SULPHUROUS LAGOON. LIKE THE STUMP
OF ROCK IN THE CENTRE OF THAT LAGOON, CRETE
MUST HAVE BEEN LEFT MAROONED AT THE CENTRE
OF A BLASTED EMPIRE.” (NORMAN DAVIES)
31. THE GREAT CYCLES OF EUROPEAN
HISTORY
“ ARCHAEOLOGISTS & PREHISTORIANS THINK IN
LARGE SPANS OF TIME. FOR THEM, THE
PREHISTORIC, BRONZE AGE CIVILISATION,
WHICH CAME TO AN END WITH CNOSSOS &
MYCENAE WAS BUT THE FIRST OF THREE GREAT
CYCLES OF EUROPEAN HISTORY. THE SECOND
CYCLE COINCIDED WITH THE CLASSICAL WORLD
OF GREECE & ROME. THE THIRD CYCLE, WHICH
BEGAN WITH THE ‘SYSTEM COLLAPSE’ AT THE
END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, COINCIDED WITH
THE RISE OF MODERN EUROPE. IT IS STILL WITH
US.” (NORMAN DAVIES)
32. SOME HOMEWORK IDEAS
READING
ANTHONY PAGDEN: “THE IDEA OF EUROPE: FROM
ANTIQUITY TO THE EUROPEAN UNION.”
PAPERBACK AT AMAZON $56.94. YOUR LOCAL
LIBRARY CAN GET IT OR YOU.
VIDEOS
• SANTORINI – THE THERA CATACLYSM. 29 MIN.
• EUROPEAN YOUTH EVENT: CONFERENCE ON THE
FUTURE OF EUROPE. 47 MIN. 22/6/21
• INDO-EUROPEANS AND HORSE. 53 MIN.
