The First
For a brief period in the 6th century there was among the splinter sects of Khivan Nestorians a cult with a peculiar doctrine.
HistoryScience
Cosmographia.
M. E. Rothwell on earth history, human evolution, and how geography shaped civilization.
Recent essays
30 of 47POET OF SMOKE
A leaf bound into a copy of the Chronica Gentis Scotorum relates the following story, attributed to Donnchad mac Gilla Críst, a minor toísech of the Atholl highlands.
The Pyramid of Sorrows
The conquistadors wrote that Tenochtitlan, capital of the Mexica Empire, was the crowning glory of the earth.
Into the Baobab Tree
Recently I at long last returned to my beloved Zambia for a friend’s wedding.
Interpreting the Odyssey
(Spoiler Warning)
East meets West
The first encounter between Japan and Europeans
The Black Death is far older than we thought (again)
New findings have changed the story once again
Photographs of Old China II
The Doomed Republic
CHINA: ETERNAL RECURRENCE
Understanding China: Part III
CHINA: THE THREE MINDS
Understanding China: Part II
CHINA: BIRTH OF THE DRAGON
Understanding China: Part I
Written in the stars
A Short History of Mesopotamian Astrology
Photographs of Old China
Twilight of the Qing Dynasty
Where should we map next?
Choose our next civilisation to explore
THE COMING TECTONIC COMPETITION
How tectonics will shape the geopolitics of the next century
THE TECTONIC ORIGINS OF CIVILISATION
How tectonics creates different types of landscape, which in turn create different types of civilisation
ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS EMERGED ON TECTONIC PLATE FAULTLINES
Cartographia
THE STEPPE HAS ALWAYS SHAPED HOW HUMANS MAKE WAR
A brief history of the steppe's influence on military technology, from the chariot to the drone
THE STEPPE, THE STEPPE
An ode to the grasslands
THE STRANGENESS OF YAHWEH
By Sam Jennings
IRAN: SERIES WRAP UP AND READING LIST
Understanding Iran: Epilogue
IS THIS THE END OF FREE SEAS?
How drones brought back a very old tax
IRAN: THE PLATEAU ABIDES
Understanding Iran: Part VII (and final)
IRAN: THE VIEW FROM THE PLATEAU
Understanding Iran: Part VI
IRAN: GRIEF, GUILT, AND THE MAKING OF A THEOCRACY
Understanding Iran: Part V
IRAN: BUILDING PARADISE
Understanding Iran: Part IV
On artistic inheritance
Dare to create
The Vikings of Greenland
They did not go gently
Some really cool paintings of dinosaurs
The life and work of Charles R. Knight
The Rupture
Welcome to Cosmographia — histories of the earth and the stars.