Excerpt from The Dead Gods

 

“Kiri! Come on child, I am finished for today. We are going home.”

Tunaka stood up and straightened his back with a grunt. He wiped his dirt-encrusted hands on his rough tunic. He had spent many long hours preparing the rich soil that characterised the fertile pocket of the Dofr’ame forest. It was now a fine tilth, perfect for planting. Tomorrow morning he would sow beans and pulses. In the afternoon he would perhaps take his bow and hunt in the brooding forests. Unlike the days of his childhood, the forests were now teeming with game. For now though, the sun dipped towards the horizon. He could almost taste the stew his wife had spent the afternoon preparing. He visualised it bubbling away over the firepit. His stomach rumbled in anticipation; he had earned his supper today.

He heard a giggle behind him and the pounding of tiny feet. He turned to see his five-year-old daughter hurrying over from where she had been playing in the dirt. Her smiling face warmed his heart, although he scowled when he saw her intended route.

“Go around, Kiri, not on the ground I have prepared!” he cried in mock frustration and anger.

She came to a sudden stop and then ran around the side of the prepared bed. She sprung towards him and he caught her and embraced her in his arms. He revelled in the fierce, tight hug she gave in return. Her smell mixed with the aroma of the rich earth filled his nostrils, and he felt content and happy. His life was more than he could ever have dreamed of at her age. Reluctantly, he set her back down on the ground, kneeling down to her level.

“Come on now, my sweetling, it will be dusk in an hour,” he said, attempting to dust the soil off her clothes. “I need your help to carry the tools home.”

“Yes, Ubaba,” Kiri replied, picking up a wooden rake and standing to attention like a militiaman. “Why are you afraid of the dark? You always finish your work in the fields before the sun has set.”

“It is force of habit, sweetling,” Tunaka replied, smiling as he signalled for Kiri to begin the stroll home from the fields. As the sun settled low over the horizon other workers could be seen leaving their fields and plots, journeying to their homes and hovels clustered here and there amid the fields.

“I asked my friend Tablis why,” Kiri said, as they walked together. “She said it is because you are afraid of the ghosts that rise from the old city over there.”

As she spoke, she pointed to the shattered ruins of what was once the city of Acarross, standing beside the river. Its once mighty walls were falling into disrepair, still charred by the cleansing fires of nearly two decades before. So intense were the flames that some parts had melted almost to glass. Some of the stones had been robbed for building projects elsewhere, but the place had mostly been left to its ghosts.

Tunaka gave it a fleeting glance, no more than that. His gaze returned to their path ahead. The place was imprinted on his psyche, a place of monstrous evil, oppression and black cruelty. It was best not to cast one’s shadow in that fell place; between that and the forest that was once the abode of the foulness. Tunaka shivered despite the warmth of the sinking sun on his back. He needed to remind himself that the evil was gone, that the demons of the past were no more, yet always there was a gnawing doubt. He knew what was buried there.

“We were an enslaved people once, Kiri.” he replied, as they trudged homeward, his daughter carrying the rake over her shoulder like a spear.

“Years before your mother and I were blessed by your birth, we were captive here in these same fields, fenced in by evil monsters that haunted the forests. Chained by cruel men who once dwelt in that accursed pile of stones.”

“What happened to the monsters and the cruel men, Ubaba?” Kiri enquired, looking suspiciously at the old city.

“That is a tale of how we freed ourselves from the terror of both. Of the days of Nurarna and the northern warrior, Kaziviere, the Gutspiller….”

The sun sank as he continued to tell the story and as they neared their home their shadows grew long in the telling.

The Scourge of God - A Review

 The Scourge of God by C R May

"Vidar, son of Woden, Fenris bane: god of vengeance. Here, another man's son proclaims that he too is keen to avenge his father."

 

The late Roman Empire was an altogether different beast from the heydays of imperium. Riven by internal strife and civil war, since 395AD the empire had been split into the Western and Eastern Empires, centred on Rome and Constantinople. This was also the period of migration, a domino effect far to the east and sent tribes and peoples migrating west. Peoples saw the relative comfort of the Roman empire, with its trappings of civilisation and its established farmlands, and coveted them.

For many years it had been Roman policy to keep the barbarians beyond their borders fighting each other, as well as using their services as mercenaries. With the pressures of the migration period, securing the borders was proving an impossible task for the declining empire, both militarily and financially. The empire cut its losses and abandoned the province of Britannia, while adopting a policy to accommodate invading tribes within the empire, as semi-autonomous regions to act both as buffer states and police rebellious regions of the empire. After all, these tribes didn’t wish to destroy the empire; they wished to enjoy the fine living that civilisation had to offer. It was from these peoples that settled that formed the nations of Europe, their memory retained in the names of countries and regions.

Barbarian Invasions - Wikipedia

Some peoples never reached an accommodation with the empire, hence the modern meaning of the word vandal; the Germanic Vandals were never accepted and migrated through Gaul (modern France), through modern Spain, to settle in North Africa, ironically the area that once was Carthage. From there they adopted naval tactics to pillage Italy and the coasts of the Mediterranean.

At the same time a major military power had exploded on the scene, whose name became synonymous with barbarity; the Huns. The Huns were a confederation of nomadic tribes, originally from the Central Asian Steppes. Renowned horse warriors armed with javelins, lassoes and bows they rode westward carving out an empire in Eastern and Central Europe, with tactics very different to the traditional warfare of infantry and cavalry armed with lance. The subjugated the Ostrogoths, the Alans and numerous Germanic tribes such as the Gepids. After devastating the Eastern Roman empire and exhausting the area of tribute, their king, Attila, turned his attention westward. The western empire had heard dread reports of this Scourge of God, surely this was the coming apocalypse, the battle to end all battles. Such a battle was that of the Catalaunian Fields, also known as the Battle of Chalons, which took place in mid-summer 451AD.

Hun Warrior

Drawing upon a similar, rich vein as in his King’s Bane series, C R May racks up the tension as his characters face taking part in, arguably, one of the greatest battles in history. We experience the conflagration through the eyes of Halga Hunding, a young Jutish nobleman, who narrowly escapes a treacherous attack that claims his father and hearth troop. With his elder brother long disappeared, responsibility hangs on Halga’s shoulders. Swearing vengeance, and arming himself with his grand-fathers sword, he escapes south with a small band of followers, seeking exile with his foster father Hengist of the Angles. He finds Hengist overseas serving in Britannia, however the Angle’s brother, Horsa, takes the young Jute under his wing. Horsa advises Halga that he needs wealth and fame to draw to him the strength to take back what was his. Such an opportunity can be found to the south where Horsa’s military service has been requested by his liege lord, the king of the Sea Franks. Halga agrees but must first mount a daring raid in the depths of winter, during Yuletide. to free one of his father’s retainers, the female Hun archer Arekan.

Travelling with Horsa, Halga meets and offers his service to the Frankish king Merovech. King Merovech accepts his service and gifts him a fine saex, naming it Long Knife. The Franks as members of the Foederati have been summoned to serve the Roman Magistar Militiae, General Flavius Aetius. Aetius is gathering a huge coalition army composed of Romans, Visigoths, Alans, Franks and Burgundians of the Germanic Foederati to push Attila out of Gaul. Aetius himself had personal knowledge of the Huns and their tactics, having once been a Roman hostage in the court of the Huns, and even has them in his own retinue.

Germanic Foederati - Angus McBride

Halga must learn quickly the art of leadership, how he must inspire the men around him by his actions, but with their companionship comes the shouldering of responsibility. He learns this bitterly when a tavern fracas crosses the bounds into seriousness and ends with the death of one of the combatants.

Eager to regain the favour of the Frankish king, Halga acquits himself admirably in a skirmish between the Franks and the Gepid rear-guard, the night before the great battle. Here Halga earns the name Long Knife and Merovech, impressed by the Angles and Halga’s small Jutish band, he rewards them well with mail, helms, shields and swords. Halga is now able to arm his comitatus as a lord should.

Then dawns the day of the battle itself as the vast coalition gathers to face the Hunnish horde.   You stare in wonder, through the eyes of Halga at the armoured Alan horseman and the fierce warriors of different nations, desperately throwing up your shield as the Hunnic archers wheel and shoot arrows, again and again. It’s a relief when they withdraw, to let their subject Germanic warriors crash into the shield wall. Here Halga and his comitatus fight in their traditional manner as the complexity of differing loyalties of each coalition is exposed with Frank fighting Frank, kinsman versus kinsman, as the armies clash in a titanic struggle.

Aetius with Burgundian Bodyguard - Medieval Warlords Blandford Press

Of course, this great battle is merely honing the qualities of Halga, beyond the coalition’s victory, the fall of night and the distant horizon, there lies the need or vengeance, to fulfil his oath to Woden. As Horsa knew, the campaign has been the making of Halga, as we watch him mature from youth into a skilled leader of men.

“The past is a foreign country”, so the saying goes, but not to this author. Ever the wordsmith, C R May effortlessly recreates this heroic world. Being of the era prior to the migration of the peoples who would become the English: the Jutes, Angles and Saxons, the author angelizes the place names of what is now Denmark. This creates a pleasant familiarity with the described landscape for the reader. There is a closeness too with beliefs of the characters. What is now myth and folklore is accepted reality in the character’s mindsets, we are privy to. The gods are ever at our shoulders, our actions felt beyond the confines of Middle-Earth. When Halga rescues Arekan, he recognises that she has suffered, both mentally and physically, during her captivity. Realising that she required healing, Halga takes her (and a captive traitor) to see the Angle witches. What bloody deeds were done to accomplish the healing remains a mystery, but only Arekan returned…

Unusually for C R May, Scourge of God is (at time of writing) a stand alone novel, but it fits in perfectly with the author’s anthology dealing with this fascinating, early medieval period, such as the previously mentioned King’s Bane, and also the Sword of Woden series. Scourge of God is a well-researched novel, the battlefield, armaments and tactics described in detail. Above all the development of Halga's character is a joy to read. This novel is a rollicking read; an action packed tale that will grace anyone's bookshelf.

Scourge of God is available now at Amazon as paperback and kindle.

Medusa's Shame - The Sacred Throne Series Book 1 by Robert Southworth - A Review

 

The Classical gods are fickle entities; divine beings yet all too easily driven by the human traits of jealousy, lust and vengeance. The inhabitants of Olympus demand their worship and adoration from mortals, yet all too often see humanity as nothing but mere pawns to play against one another, regardless of the resultant tragedy, and so the story unfolds …

Among the hotchpotch of Bronze Age Greek city states stands the kingdom of Mycenae.  Its king, Atreus, wears the crown upon a troubled brow; his brother Thyestes coverts the throne and moves against him in the shadows. Through treachery Thyestes takes the city and throne, killing Atreus. The usurper would have killed the princes Menelaus and Agamemnon as well, were it not for Atreus’ trusted general Pallas leading his charges out of the city.

Hunted, and fearing for their lives, the princes are met by a mysterious hooded figure, who seems to possess uncanny abilities. Calling himself Thanatos, their guide leads the fugitives through a maze of mines to seek exile aboard waiting vessels on the coast. After a frustrating failure to seek refuge from King Priam of Troy, an embittered and vengeful Agamemnon joins his brother Menelaus in Sparta, where they are adopted by the aged king Tyndareus. Knowing that Agamemnon seeks revenge against Thyestes and to regain the throne of Mycenae, King Tyndareus names Menelaus as his heir. Both princes marry daughters of Tyndarereus, Agamemnon to Clytemnestra, while Menelaus has a somewhat difficult marriage to Helen, soured early on in their relationship by Helen’s youthful impropriety.

King Thyestes of Mycenae, would seek the deaths of his nephews and increase his wealth and power in the process. He builds an alliance with neighbouring states, built upon threats and coercion, to conquer Sparta...

Robert Southworth is an accomplished author of historical fiction, known for his works on Spartacus and Jack the Ripper (See my review of The Ripper Legacies Here) . In his unfolding Sacred Throne series, while reinterpreting the world of the Illiad, he is able to cut loose from the boundaries of historical fiction and introduce the fantastical. It’s a freedom to be enjoyed and have fun with, and the author's enjoyment shows in Mr Southworth’s wonderful tale.

In this world the gods and demi-gods walk among us. Centaurs haunt the woods on the edge of civilisation and monsters can be summoned from the underworld and Tartarus by those with the power to do so.

The characters come to the fore, the wise Menelaus, the brutal Agamemnon (one would not want him as an enemy), the cruel  and despotic Thysetes, the peaceable Centaur Airlea,  and the manipulative puppet master that is Thanatos; bending all to his will, sometimes subtlety, but all too often not! The author weaves the threads of his characters with a rare skill, brutal and bloody and yet also humorous at times, creating a rich and colourful tapestry in the reader's imagination.

It’s always a good measure of a book when the reader positively devours the imagery and tale, even more so when the eureka-like ending leaves the reader desperate to continue the story, as pieces tumble into place. Medusa’s Shame is such a book. Bravo Mr Southworth, this reader eagerly awaits book 2!

Medusa's Shame is available as kindle and paperback at Amazon

You can view all of Robert Southworth's work and enjoy his regular blog pieces at Robert Southworth-author.com/home

Future Humans

 It was during the period of the C20th and C21st that persistent reports of sightings of the UFO phenomena entered the sphere of public knowledge. The development of mass media communication brought such reports into the mainstream, albeit being a fringe interest at the time. Such reports were treated as far-fetched, especially those involving actual physical encounters. However certain aspects of these sightings exhibited a number of consistent aspects, namely the so-called saucer shape to these extraterrestrial vehicles and the description of the vehicle of their occupants; the “grey alien” trope. 

It was following the end of the major global conflict of 1939-45, and the paranoia of the following cold war between the power blocks of the time, that the number of sightings entered the mainstream consciousness. This conflict, in a century marked by bloodshed, was brought to a conclusion with the use of nuclear weapons. The standoff between the one-time allies during the Second War World (as it became known) was renowned as being one of Mutually Assured Destruction, as both political and economic power blocks developed increasingly sophisticated and powerful weapons of mass destruction. M.A.D. kept the peace, in that a catastrophic hot war between the two sides was averted, however, wars were waged via proxy states in the less industrialized countries instead. To such countries the relative peace enjoyed by members of the “nuclear club”, made the acquisition of these weapons appear desirable, despite the huge financial costs involved in their development. The risk of nuclear annihilation was long held to be the catalyst for the interest in humanity shown by these “extra-terrestrials”. The famous Roswell incident of 1947, with the initially reported crash of a vehicle, and capture of occupants (living and dead), occurred nearby a US nuclear bomber airbase, reinforced this belief. 

Evidence of visitation was long ridiculed and looked upon as fringe subject. As well as vehicle sightings, reports of human and animal abductions, involving medical experimentation became commonplace. It was long held that Govts were privy to knowledge of such events despite vehement denials. Despite career risking whistleblowers making public these govt investigations and coverups, the media kept up the pretense that such events were outlandish and open to ridicule. However, some information was still able to seep into the public consciousness. Believers were frustrated by the slow drip feed of information; however, it became clear that Govts worldwide were very aware of these visitations and were following a set roadmap of releasing knowledge to the general public. 

Some unofficial investigators (so called UFOlogists), fed by rumours regarding the captive E.T. discovered at Roswell, put forward the suggestion that these “grey aliens” were not actually as they appeared to be. Far from being aliens, they were humans from the far future, with the means of inter-dimensional travel across time and space. Such claims were vilified by certain sections of the UFO community, who refused to believe this. These aliens were interstellar naturalists, collecting biological samples. But all those that encountered such beings were struck by their odd insectoid mannerisms. 

However, this raised further questions such as why were some families targeted across several generations, and what would the connection be with the nuclear arms race, unless the unspeakable was due in the near future? The targeted families seemed of no real consequence, being very average; why wouldn’t the “visitors” approach chosen families of renown? 

Other clues were hidden in plain sight, in retrospect. In 1954, just seven years after Roswell an international grouping of governments embarked on building a Large Hadron Collider in Cern in Switzerland. This was a vast civil project, which didn’t come online until 2010 (excluding the abortive magnetic quench attempt in 2008). The building of this particle collider, not only possessing the ability to recreate the moments after the big band but also to open portals to other dimensions, began decades before the technology to operate the facility was available. As the knowledge of physics took great leaps forward, Cern was compatible with the new technology, such as quantum computing. If there were some who questioned this fortunate coincidence, it wasn’t made widespread.  Some recorded strange, and unnerving atmospheric anomalies (many seemingly saucer shaped craft) above Cern published on the internet, which were quickly disavowed as computer generated images. 

Despite the continuing narrative the world’s population were becoming increasingly aware that not all was at it appeared. People began questioning the reality as described in the world’s media, which was in opposition to their own observations. Politics became oddly extreme, despite the Western power block winning the cold war during the late 80’s and 90’s, the peace dividend was squandered in pointless wars. In the C21st a new cold war began to form as a rising economic superpower began to assert global hegemony, economically and militarily. This coincided with deep intersectional rifts forming in western societies in the early C21st; to such an extent that even questioning biological certainties became the status quo. Onetime open and liberal societies were on the point of self-destruction.  

At this point, as reality became increasingly frayed, a global Coronavirus pandemic took hold in 2020. The narrative of this pandemic itself was questionable from the initial nightmare images shown in the country of origin, which weren’t echoed in other countries, to the extreme measures enacted by economy destroying lockdowns. Its origin was a source of contention, from a so called wet market in Wuhan or an actual manufactured virus in a lab, the narrative remained fluid and subject to change, yet forcefully adhered to across all media outlets.  One theme was common, which was repeated across borders, which was the insistent application of RNA based vaccines. Many had questioned the wisdom of mass introducing synthetic RNA into the human genome, as the long term effects were an unknown. Across the media such dissenting voices were ruthlessly silenced. Two shots to acquire immunity required a booster and as the C21st progressed Govts inflicted biannual boosters on their population. This began to have a profound, long-term effect on human biology. 

The change was barely noticeable at first, but as countries across the globe introduced social credit systems and authoritarian control of their populations under the guise of climate concern, only the compliant continued with careers, especially as AI and robots caused mass redundancies amid the mass of the population. Procreation was only possible under license, the universal basic Income and enforced pod habitation made the traditional family life impossible. The vaccinated compliant became increasingly of one thought, developing a “hive mind”. It would take centuries for the physical changes to take shape of diminutive size and greying skin tones. 

It became clear that the future inter-dimensional visitors were indeed humans (if they could still be described as such) and that they had been drawn to the point in history when their branch of evolution began. It remains moot as to whether these future beings were merely observing this change or were the actual architects of their future evolution. 

Grey Alien by Harnois75 deviantArt

The Day of the Wolf (Erik Haraldsson III) by C R May - a review

The Day of the Wolf is C R May’s final book in his Erik Haraldsson trilogy. Erik Haraldsson goes by the better known (and descriptive!) name of Eric Bloodaxe. Perhaps you are aware of Eric, if you have ever visited the Jorvik Viking Centre, or maybe you remember him from Michael Woods’ excellent TV series and book In Search of the Dark Ages? He is remembered as the last king of an independent Northumbria; his demise at Stainmore signalling the end of the Viking Age in England. The Day of the Wolf ably stands alone as a novel, but you would be doing yourself a disservice not to read Bloodaxe (see my review here) and The Raven and the Cross (review here).

In the hero society of the pagan Viking world reputation was all.  To be a renowned doughty warrior, to command respect amongst your comrades at the ship’s oar and be a worthy opponent on the field of battle, such things were worthy. Warriors would gain reflected glory slaying such an opponent, whilst the slain, denied the shame of the straw death would enter the halls of Valholl, their names extolled and invited to feast until Ragnarök, alongside Odinn and his heroes. Many would forgo their weight in silver to be enriched with fame-wealth, their name remembered long after the count of their years is done.

Four years have passed since Erik Haraldsson – the Bloodaxe- relinquished the throne of York to return to the Orkneys. According to the prophesy given to him many years previously in the far north, it was his wyrd – his destiny – to wear five crowns. The kingdom of York was his fourth. The fates demand that he will wear it again.

Erik and his family have not been tardy in their four years in the Orkneys. Experience has taught him that a ready supply of silver can help hold a throne better than any sword arm. To that end he has been busy raiding as a true Viking, filing his treasure chests with plunder and the profits from slavery. In conjunction with the Archbishop of York, Wulfstan, Erik works to oust the present incumbent, the puppet of Wessex – Olaf Cuaran. With Eadred, the king of Wessex, now old and ailing, Erik seeks to make his fifth crown a success, perhaps carve out a North Sea empire. However, the three Norns that weave men’s fates are fickle; that prophet from long ago spoke also of Erik meeting his death on a windswept fell.

The Day of the Wolf brings Cliff May’s Erik Haraldsson trilogy to a worthy finale. It is a fast-paced tale, reflecting Erik’s lightning strikes to secure his newly won kingdom. He has enemies all around, the English king with his deep pockets of silver, to the south of course is an ever-present threat. However, it is Erik’s immediate neighbours  - the kingdom of Strathclyde to the west, Alba to the north and, in between them, the  strategically positioned Earldom of Bernica and the untrustworthy Oswulf Ealdwulfing - that may snatch away his crown.

Erik truly is a thunderbolt, striking hard and fast on his own terms. Lovers of Mr May’s prose, as the ravens caw above warriors and shields clash together in battle, will not be disappointed. The battle centred around Corebricg and Haydon is truly epic, in scale and description, with Erik facing an alliance of three enemies. He must fight and think like Odinn to prevail. What struck this reader was how Eric, now in his sixth decade, forces himself  to be the dynamic warrior he ever was, but now faces the bone weariness battle inflicts. As ever he has his capable warriors of his hird  (trusted warband) around him and Erik knows when he must be seen to take the lead and when his cause is better served to let others lead the Svinfylking -Boar-snout in attack.

Boarsnout formation - Pintrest.

Mr May has pieced together a riveting tale and has had to research widely  to create the momentous three years of Erik’s fifth kingship. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is very scant, but Eric is mentioned in a variety of  other sources around the Viking world – snippets here and there in the annals of his contemporaries, a few lines written by an anonymous Clerk in York. Perhaps the best description of Erik the man and his true Viking finale is in the Eriksmal, his poetic epitaph, as this last Viking enters Odinn’s halls. The reader finds themselves rooting for Eric, even as the Norns sharpen their shears and the wolf drools in hungry expectation; you always carry the hope that the Bloodaxe will  somehow avoid his doom, that the final battle will be won by him, but…

‘What thunders there as if a thousand were stirring – a mighty host?’ Said Bragi. ‘All the bench planks creak, as if Balder were coming back into the halls of Odinn.’

‘The wise Bragi should not blather, ‘ replied the Allfather, ‘when you know the truth full-well; the clamour is made for Erik, who must be coming here, a prince into Valoll.’

Valholl - Historicmysteries.com

Was it not for that windswept fell one wonders what could have been? Erik’s alliance with Archbishop Wulfstan proves that he had succeeded in bringing together his English and Norse subjects and won the church based in York to his side. For a brief time perhaps Alfred’s dream of a unified England was in jeopardy, but instead it was the last hurrah of a fading age.

As with all Mr Mays novels I would thoroughly recommend reading his afterword section. It is perhaps the fate of writers of historical fiction (unfairly in my view) to have to justify their stories with factual records, but it offers fantastic factual snippets as well as an overview of the evolution of the author’s telling of their story. Such snippets are the fate of Erik’s family, from his remarkable widow Gunnhild (who deserves a storytelling herself) to that of his sons and daughter. Alas Erik’s dream of a dynasty was not to be, but to be remembered, to have the glint of his fame-wealth shine down the ages; perhaps he would be content.

The Fertile Crescent and the lost days of Sumer

Throughout June and July, the Historical Writers’ Forum’s Blog Hop has been publishing posts regarding various singularly significant historical events. Please be certain to visit the  Hop's Facebook Page to catch up on posts you may have missed and up and coming posts. Today it is my turn and I’m going to look at more of a process rather than a single event. 

Approximately 12,000 years ago humanity altered its lifestyle and destiny in the most fundamental way. For most of our history, humans have led a nomadic lifestyle, at least for part of the year, obtaining nourishment from hunting, fishing and gathering; very much like the traditional lifestyles of Amazonian tribes, Kalahari bushmen and native aborigines. 

These prehistoric hunter/gatherers had collected wild grains at least 105,000 years ago. But it was not until approx. 11,500 years ago (in the Epipaleolithic) that stone age people actively began cultivating founder crops of wheat, barley, peas, lentils and chickpeas. The archaeological evidence points this as first occurring in the Levant region, part of what was termed “The Fertile Crescent”. This occurred as the climate began to warm, as the Pleistocene Ice Age yielded to the climate of the current Holocene geological epoch. 

Fertile Crescent - Encyclopaedia Britannica

The Fertile Crescent is a sickle shaped area extending from the Mediterranean Sea at Egypt, through the Levant, through Syria and Southern Turkey and then down through Iraq – ancient Mesopotamia -following the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf. Historically this region was blessed with extremely fertile soils, with an abundance of fresh and brackish water sources, far removed from the arid lands they are now. This really was almost the biblical Garden of Eden, with many edible plant species native to the region. 

The transition from hunter gatherers to settled farmers was a long process, no doubt replete with trial and error, with many prehistoric cultures coming and going. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment that such a fundamental change in lifestyle began. We are in a process of learning more about this lost period, the most exciting development perhaps being the discovery of the Göbekli Tepe site in Turkey. It is a temple perhaps from the dawn of agriculture at around 10000 BCE but exhibiting levels of remarkable sophistication. It might well cause a complete re-evaluation of our prehistory. At present its offering more questions than answers, such as why was it purposely filled in and buried?

Göbekli Tepe - Ancient Origins

It was, in the former British Protectorate of Palestine, in 1928, that the British archaeologist Dorothy Garrod, initially searching for biblical archaeology, discovered the Natufian culture of the late Epipaleolithic. During this time, the Levant was a rich land of oak forests and high scrublands. The Natufians were prehistoric hunter gatherers, practicing a semi-permanent sedentary culture. They reused settlements, building walls and setting post holes as well as using caves. Their stone age technology involved using microliths, small flint blades, to process kills and to make rudimentary sickles to cut plants. What set these people apart from previous stone age cultures in this region was the rudimentary agriculture they began practising during the Younger Dryas period - a 1000-year interruption in the warming of the climate. It is thought this caused drought, endangering wild cereals growing on the wild scrublands. The Natufian people had become dependent on the gathering of these cereals and began to clear areas to actively sow these plants. Using these wild grains these people baked unleavened bread initially. However (as recently discovered evidence indicates) they even brewed beer. This is some 8000 years earlier than previously thought beer was first brewed. Bread and beer occurring together makes sense, as both use yeast. Using yeast allows for the baking of leavened bread. It was also this culture that is thought to have first domesticated dogs; two Natufian burials have been found to include the skeletal remains of canids.

 

Temperature Graph - WUWT

It was in Mesopotamia that archaeological evidence points to a real agricultural revolution taking place. Situated at the Upper Tigris and Euphrates valleys, around 9500BCE, people began living in permanent settlements of round mud dwellings, farming lentils, wheat and barley as well as domesticating pigs and sheep. The archaeological record of the Syrian village of Tell Abu Hureyra shows the switch from the hunting of gazelle to the farming and processing of grains. The mainstay nutritional value of bread - one of the oldest processed  foods - cannot be overstated. It is perhaps not surprising that the staff of life has such cultural significance among many cultures, even being used in religious ritual. The farming of cattle would take another 1000 years with animals descended from the wild Aurochs being domesticated in areas of modern Turkey and Pakistan. 

Agriculture allowed for  population growth and the establishment of sedentary human settlements, enabling a surplus of crops and livestock to be raised, and an end to having to move due to exhaustion of wild game. By 8000BCE agriculture was fully established along the Nile. It’s also intriguing that around this time, independent of the cultures of the Fertile Crescent, agriculture began to spring up in different areas of the globe, using native plants to these regions, such as rice and millet in China, and maize and potatoes in Mexico. Its intriguing to contemplate that there may have been considerable cultural interaction in this prehistoric world, as the domestication of plants and animals began to become the norm. Around 6000BCE domestic species appear in the Iberian Peninsula and pigs are farmed in the forests of Europe. 

However, it is in Mesopotamia where settlements, that can truly be described as cities, begin to take shape as the Stone Age yielded to the Copper and then Bronze Ages. In southern Iraq, a prehistoric people - the Ubadians - began farming and constructing mud brick dwellings. They have left fine examples of pottery and developed trade links as far away as Oman for copper. The Ubadian society would be supplanted by the Sumerian civilisation, which was established between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Sumerian society would last for approximately 3000 years and create the template for all government and urban societies that followed.  Yet astonishingly the Sumerians were almost entirely forgotten for thousands of years, until archaeological discoveries were made in the C19th. 

The Sumerians were a fascinating civilisation, founded around 4000BCE, they were independent city states, each with their own king, linked by a common language and culture. At the time, the shoreline was further inland than now, their main city of Ur was situated on the Persian Gulf of antiquity. 

Where the Sumerians originated from is somewhat of a mystery, as their language was different from those of neighbouring Semitic cultures. Some have postulated that they were originally of North African origin migrating from the green Sahara, others that they could have been descendants of our old friends the Natufians, or even originally Dravidians from the Indus river area. 

It might well be a mixture of cultures that explains the genesis of Sumer. One of their oldest cities was that of Eridu on the Persian Gulf, which fused the proto-Sumerian Ubaidian farmers, Semitic herds people and fisher folk of the southern Mesopotamian marshlands. Living in an area of low rainfall the Sumerians drained marshes and built canals to irrigate their crops. 

Sumer showing ancient coastline - Wikipedia

Such projects require a defined division of labour and as such, Sumerian society evolved and made great strides in innovation, which we take for granted now. Sumerian trade links became even more extensive than the Ubadian, their influence, goods and ideas stretching west to Egypt and east to the Indus. As well as goods, communication and record keeping were essential for trade and so it was that their written language of Cuneiform developed. Initially for bookkeeping this written communication flowered into one capable of great literature, perhaps best illustrated with The Epic of Gilmagesh – a poem which may have inspired in part the Iliad, The Odyssey and perhaps even sections of the Hebrew bible, such as the great flood myth. 

Cuneiform - the Epic of Gilmagesh

Sumer had an established religion, although each city had their own patron god or goddess. Each city was built around the religious centre – the Ziggurat, the design of which may have influenced that of Egyptian pyramids. The Sumerians believed that it was humanities’ task to work alongside the gods and establish order from chaos. To do this the gods required people to cooperate and set aside their petty differences for the common good. Men and women enjoyed equal status in Sumerian society. The Sumerians really thought themselves as shapers of the earth, altering the land for their agriculture to prosper. They studied cosmology, recorded their history, wrote farmer’s almanacs, introduced taxation (and tax cuts!), developed literary devices, wrote fables, set moral codes on behaviour and set up schools. They even invented the concept of time, dividing day and night into 12 hours, each hour consisting of 60 minutes, each minute made up of 60 seconds.

 

However, there is always a snake in the garden, the Sumerians also conducted the first recorded war, with their successful campaign and sacking of the city of Elam around 2700BCE. The Sumerians did practice slavery, mainly to work their fields, although some would also serve in homes too. Slaves would be either debtors, able to buy their freedom or prisoners taken in war as part of  plunder.  As farmers group together, creating towns and in turns cities, freedom from subsistence farming allows for the development of specific professions and trade. Life becomes easier, yet it also creates greed and  societal hierarchies develop. The fields that supply food, once painstakingly drained from the marshes by their forebears, becomes a valuable commodity. There are the haves and the have-nots, and on the  very bottom rung of society are the slaves. Regrettably its a truism that slavery is as old as civilisation itself.

Sumerian Warriors - The Standard of Ur

Sumeria itself had a long decline and was conquered itself by Sargon of Akkad around 2340BCE, who appreciated it as an administrative centre of the Akkadian Empire. Sumer and Akkad had long had a history of cultural exchange. After a relatively brief Sumerian renaissance, the rise of Babylon, and resurgence of the Elamanites, combined with overuse of the land finally put paid to its political power, if not its cultural influence, around 1750BCE. Interestingly around the time of its decline, especially its conquest by Babylon there was a notable change of women’s rights in Sumerian society, illustrated by the marginalisation of goddesses in favour of a more patriarchal Babylonian supreme deity, Marduk. Empires came and went, centres of power shifting north to the Assyrians and Hittites, and east to Persia. Ancient Sumer was a mere imperial province, its cities, gods and goddesses forgotten.

It is perhaps fitting that, lying forgotten in and under the sands of time, Sumeria’s later discovery was down to monotheist archaeologists seeking biblical evidence. What they found was not only the wellspring of the bible, but of human civilisation itself.

The Ripper Legacies by Robert Southworth

Jack the Ripper, Saucy Jack  -names synonymous with murder and mystery and terrible crimes unsolved…

The Ripper Legacies are a trilogy of books consisting of The Reaper’s Breath, The Reaper’s Touch and The Reaper’s Kiss.

In The Reaper’s Breath the scene is set, we are transported to the filth and grime of Victorian London, a semi-lawless place of dockyards, crumbling tenement slums, blind alleys and snickleways. Within this world society is split between those of obscene and visible wealth and those held captive in crippling poverty. Into this world is the mysterious Jack the Ripper, a murderer of women forced to sell their bodies to survive. What sets these murders apart is the Ripper’s modus operandi; each victim is subjected to extreme butchery – Jack sees himself as an artist with the blade.

From London we are taken to Cloveney Hall – a country estate home of the Harkness family. Within these walls resides the young William Harkness. William has his destiny plotted for him, heir to his father Simeon’s, fortune, set to wed Emily his childhood sweetheart. Resentful of his father, who he blames for his mother’s passing, William rejects this path and joins the army. Captain William Harkness narrowly avoids death in Afghanistan during the disastrous Battle of Maiwand and returns to Britain scarred, both mentally and physically. He finds solace and comfort in drink and the arms of a young woman called Mary Kelly. When Mary dies under the Ripper’s blade, William’s lust for vengeance leads to his recruitment to Slaughter Yard. Under the wings of the Metropolitan Police, Harkness gathers a group of trusted individuals to hunt down the Ripper, without the constraints of the Police’s code of conduct.

It becomes clear that the Ripper is all too aware of Slaughter Yard, can Harkness outwit his cunning opponent? And what of Emily, now trapped in an abusive marriage?

In the Reaper’s Touch, Harkness and his comrades at Slaughter Yard continue the hunt, now convinced they face more than one individual. The Ripper has now changed target, not content with the slaughter of ladies of the night the Ripper is killing prominent individuals and seems intent on raising the racial tensions in the burgeoning metropolis of London. The nature of the Perpetrator(s) become more apparent with William and his men actively targeted. Fortunately, William has come to terms with his father as all hell breaks loose pursuing the men of Slaughter Yard to Cloveney.

In The Reaper’s Kiss  the Ripper emerges once again after three years since his last reign of terror. William Harkness and his comrades at Slaughter Yard have kept watch certain that the Ripper and his  organisation would emerge once more to inflict his bloody terror on London again. With the backing of his father Simeon, the investigation finds financial tentacles about the empire. Slaughter Yard begins cutting them one by one forcing the monster from the shadows.

Each  book of the trilogy can stand alone as  a novel, but its clear in the first two that a complete resolution is still to be reached.  Personally, I devoured all three one after the other over the course of a  few days. For a week I was walking fearfully in my minds’ eye, experiencing the menacing paranoia of the grimy streets of Victorian London. What death lurks in the shadows? Were those footsteps heard behind?

The author has the skilful ability to lob a shocking twist  into the story, just when you think you know who the perpetrator of evil is you realise you’ve been tricked, just as Harkness has been duped. There is no real happy ever after as the Ripper’s influence has moulded Harkness, unbeknown to him.

Five stars for each book, dare you face the Reaper?

The Ripper Legacies are available as ebooks, audiobooks and paperbacks on
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