10 of my favourite little known historical facts, part 1

If you enjoyed my Christmas facts, this should blow your mind

• Stonehenge would have already been in ruins by the time Jesus was born

• Easter Island Moai figures were ‘walked’ to where they needed to go by aid of ropes. When the indigenous people told European explorers that the statues walked there, they were dismissed as referring to a myth that was not to be taken seriously 

• Rap battles may have existed as early on as the 5^th century. Nordic and Scottish communities would engage in ‘flyting’ where insults in the form of verse would be exchanged at spoken word events

• Before Rosa Parks staged her sit in, a teenage black girl called Claudette Colvin had done the same thing earlier. However, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decided the event should be re done and publicised, as Claudette had become pregnant out of wedlock which may have decreased respect for the movement

• Indigenous Australians have songs and stories so old that they can tell us about the earth before the end of the last ice age (at least 20 000 years ago). Giant wombats and kangaroos were deemed a myth until fossil evidence was found for them, and stories about the transformation of the peninsula into islands are consistent with rising sea level patterns as the climate changed

• Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep are the first same sex couple depicted in history. In their ancient tomb in Egypt, they are depicted in one of the most intimate poses allowed by artists – face to face, with their noses touching 

• During the time of slavery in the US, the West African tradition of swimming was destroyed as slave owners instilled a fear of the water into their slaves by dunking the disobedient in water until their nearly drowned. This was designed to prevent slaves from escaping by swimming

• “Operation Babylift” airlifted orphans from Vietnam to the US during the war. Except most of them were taken from refugee parents in Vietnam and fraudulently registered as orphans, in an attempt to decimate the country and supply the US with children to adopt. Many Americans who partook in this operation believed children would be better off raised by white Americans. Similar things happened in Korea

• In the 17^th century, large numbers of Japanese Samurai came to Mexico from Japan to work as guardsmen and mercenaries. Just one of the facts that mean anyone who says there were no ethnic minorities in different countries and so TV shows and movies set centuries ago shouldn’t have a diverse cast are wrong

• The full version of the phrase ‘blood is thicker than water’ is actually ‘the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb’, turning the meaning on its head

Look out for more facts next week!

Plus, the fundamentals of working through the Christmas holidays apply to Easter as well, so check out this post to get you motivated to revise!