The Last Kingdom on Netflix is a pretty decent series about this time. Sort of a non fantasy version of Game of Thrones. I think there are probably a fair bit of historical inaccuracies in there but nevertheless a fascinating time and decent series. I ended up reading up on wikipedia about several of the characters (at least the non fictional ones).
King Alfred and India
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Re: King Alfred and India
#12So I take it that island at the far east of the map is Japan? Its interesting how they thought the Nile came from Asia. And what's with Scandinavia missing?
The large labelled island at the very top is Taprobane, the name by which the ancient Greeks knew Sri Lanka. It was believed to be as large as Great Britain.
The text reads: "Tabrobanen habet x ciuitates, bis in anno merita [corruption of metit?] fruges", which translates as "Taprobane has ten cities, [and] twice a year reaps crops/fruits."
Re: King Alfred and India
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Similarly one wonders how chilli peppers are so prolific in Asian cuisine, but were only introduced during the columbian exchange.
Like potatoes in the British Isles. Do you mean how (the method by which it was achieved)? Perhaps you really wanted to know why? You might also compare coffee, and tea, there. I imagine it's about fashion really, the new product usurps the old, it garners higher prices initially, then there's a glut, unless there's a reason to go back the product becomes entrenched.
As far as I know, producing chilli is much easier than producing pepper.
Re: King Alfred and India
#14I come from Kerala, the southernmost state in India referenced in the article. My last name is Thomas and every now and then people in the US look at me bewildered when I tell them my name – “But you don’t look Spanish”. I take it as an opportunity to give them a bit of a history lesson – “Do you know Christianity came to India 14 centuries before the US? And Columbus was looking for these Indians selling black peppe…
Please, could you also educate them and tell them that Spain is a country in Europe? It seems that many US-americans believe Spanish is a race (whatever they think a "race" is) instead a nationality.
Re: King Alfred and India
#15The Last Kingdom on Netflix is a pretty decent series about this time. Sort of a non fantasy version of Game of Thrones. I think there are probably a fair bit of historical inaccuracies in there but nevertheless a fascinating time and decent series. I ended up reading up on wikipedia about several of the characters (at least the non fictional ones).
Thanks for mentioning. I was looking for such a series. As per Wikipedia, it's historical fiction. So, wouldn't it be somewhat different than real history?
Re: King Alfred and India
#16The Last Kingdom on Netflix is a pretty decent series about this time. Sort of a non fantasy version of Game of Thrones. I think there are probably a fair bit of historical inaccuracies in there but nevertheless a fascinating time and decent series. I ended up reading up on wikipedia about several of the characters (at least the non fictional ones).
Thanks for mentioning. I was looking for such a series. As per Wikipedia, it's historical fiction. So, wouldn't it be somewhat different than real history?
If the show is true to the books, it's fiction in the sense that individual characters and minor events are made up, but the historical setting and major events are close to accurate. After all, you can't realistically make it completely historically accurate down to the names of minor characters, simply because they weren't documented (or the documents didn't survive).
Re: King Alfred and India
#17The Last Kingdom on Netflix is a pretty decent series about this time. Sort of a non fantasy version of Game of Thrones. I think there are probably a fair bit of historical inaccuracies in there but nevertheless a fascinating time and decent series. I ended up reading up on wikipedia about several of the characters (at least the non fictional ones).
Thanks for mentioning. I was looking for such a series. As per Wikipedia, it's historical fiction. So, wouldn't it be somewhat different than real history?
It's a romanticized version of several events that actually took place featuring e.g. King Alfred and other historical characters. While there are some written records from that era, there's not much to go on. It was called the dark middle ages for a reason.
So, the script writers probably took quite a bit of liberties as did the author of the books this series is based on: http://www.bernardcornwell.net/series/the-last-kingdom-serie....
I haven't actually read the books; so I can't vouch for those. But if you are interested, I can recommend Hild by Nicola Grifith which is a good read about roughly the same era.
Re: King Alfred and India
#18I come from Kerala, the southernmost state in India referenced in the article. My last name is Thomas and every now and then people in the US look at me bewildered when I tell them my name – “But you don’t look Spanish”. I take it as an opportunity to give them a bit of a history lesson – “Do you know Christianity came to India 14 centuries before the US? And Columbus was looking for these Indians selling black peppe…
Similarly one wonders how chilli peppers are so prolific in Asian cuisine, but were only introduced during the columbian exchange.
Capsacin can be addictive
Re: King Alfred and India
#19There were networks of trade far older than even this between Europe and India.
Pompeii Lakshmi (1CE):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompeii_Lakshmi
1st century Roman coins found in Southern India:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Roman_trade_relations
Really, all these guys had to do was get to the vicinity of Rome or Constantinople, and catch a connection, and they were there.
Re: King Alfred and India
#20[deleted]