[Steppes] Period Week in Review 06-18 thru 06-24-2006

[Mike]

Heilsa,

Hope the reader will enjoy this look at History
within Period - both from the past and the present
as it affects the history that is known today.

Week in Review:

June 18th:
Mongolia Modern Day
Mongolia First Rock Opera Honors Genghis Khan. This year
Mongolia celebrates it's 800th anniversary. One of the events
honoring the country's rich history is a rock opera about
Mongolia's most famous citizen: Genghis Khan. The opera,
with lyrics by Dojpalem Ganzorig, is designed to show the
conqueror in a different light.
"He was a good husband, a good son, and a good friend,
and I wanted to show him that way," said Ganzorig. "Not as
a tyrant or someone with a bad character which is how some
people see him."
Lyricist Dojpalem Ganzorig said he wanted to show the
country's founder - viewed as a ruthless conqueror by much
of the world - in a different light. It combines operatic singing
with a rock beat, although traditional Mongolian elements like
throat-singing and the horse-head fiddle also feature. Ganzorig,
the guitarist with rock band The Black Wolves, called the rock
opera genre "the height of rock".

June 19th:
Modern Day
Before 0601 Brewing and Vinting
"Vita vinum est" -- "Wine is life" -- according to Petronius,
a Roman writer. Romans loved their wine, loved talking about it
— and writing about it. An article for CentreDaily.com focuses
on the history and sources for study of Roman wine.
The author writes:
"We know a whole lot about Roman wine because the Romans left
volumes of written records, and because the Italian peninsula,
primarily the ocean bottom just off the coast, is littered with amphorae
(the jugs in which wine was stored and transported). The distribution
of and the writings scratched into these jugs tell much of the wine
trade."

England Modern Day
Time Period (0601 – 700) Agriculture, English
Rare Exmoor ponies to help save dwindling peat bog. Researchers
believe that ancestors of the rare Exmoor ponies may have been
used by warriors in service to Queen Boudicca in the first century CE.
The ponies are being imported to the Drumburgh Moss National Nature
Reserve, maintained near Carlisle, England, by the Cumbria Wildlife
Trust. According to naturalists, invasive grasses threaten to dry out
the peat bog and destroy native mosses and other plant life. Six of
the Exmoor ponies were moved to Drumburgh on June 8, 2006.
Ponies from an endangered breed, descended from the original
British "hill ponies," are being brought into a nature preserve on
the Solway Plain in England, to graze away grasses that threaten
one of the area's few remaining peat bogs. The ponies provide a
natural way to remove the invasive grasses, and they are unusual
in their ability (and willingness) to wade belly-deep into the bog to
graze. They also are unusually resistant to the hoof-rot that would
afflict many other equine species.

And you too could a portion of history to warm your home!
For decades, peat has been burned in Ireland for domestic
heating in its country homes, cottages and castles - while also
providing an incredible ambiance that is hard to explain with
mere words, just like many of Ireland's fantastic people and
breathtaking landscapes.
Irish peat has also become a staple in the pubs, restaurants and
hotels of Ireland, burning throughout the day and night while the
Guinness, stories and music flow. In places like Gus O'Connor's
Pub in Doolin, visitors have been enjoying their draught while
drying their soggy shoes by the peat filled hearth since 1832.
Although it's possible to take these great memories like Gus
O'Connor's Pub from Ireland after visiting, you can't bring the peat
back with you. So if you're looking to enjoy the unmistakable aroma
and sight of Irish peat burning in your own fireplace, you've come
to the right place. Irish Peat can now be ordered online and
delivered right to your doorstep.
Web site: www.irshpeat.com
One Bale of Genuine Irish Peat:
One 11 lb. bale of genuine Irish Peat. Imported directly from
Ireland, this is the compressed peat brick developed by
Bord na Mona®. Burns for hours and will fill the air with
that old familiar smell.
$19.99 USD per bale + 9.99 Shipping
TOTAL PRICE: $29.98

June 20th:
England 1301 – 1400
On June 20th, 1367 King Edward III of England awarded
Geoffrey Chaucer an annual pension and the position of valet
at court. Chaucer had not yet risen to prominence as a poet, and
this was one of several appointed posts he held. He became
customs officer for the port of London, and later Clerk of the
King's Works, a supervisor of royal building projects. After being
robbed, he left that job and became a deputy forester.
Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey. His remains were
later moved to the spot known as Poet's Corner.

June 21st:
Florence 1501 - 1600
On June 21st, 1527, Nicolo Machiavelli (b.1469), Florentine
statesman, author (The Prince), died.
“When the effect is good... it will always excuse the deed.”
Niccolo Machiavelli (sometimes spelled Nicolo Machiaveli) was
the earliest great political theorist, whose work is still controversial
today. In addition to writing The Prince (the actual meaning and
intent of which is still debated) and historical tracts, Machiavelli
wrote humorous plays and poetry. He was also a statesman who
worked for Cesare Borgia and the Medici, and served as an
ambassador and military advisor.

June 22nd:
Italy Rome 1201 – 1300
On June 22nd, 1276 Pope Innocent V died. At the age of sixteen
he joined the Dominican Order. After completing his education,
at the University of Paris, where he graduated as master in sacred
theology in 1259, he won distinction as a professor in that institution,
and is known as "the most famous doctor", "Doctor famosissimus".
He played a prominent part at the Second Ecumenical Council of
Lyons (1274), in which he delivered two discourses to the assembled
fathers and also pronounced the funeral oration on Saint Bonaventure.
Elected as successor to Gregory X, whose intimate adviser he was,
he assumed the name of Innocent V and was the first Dominican
pope. His policy was peaceable.

June 23rd:
Malta 1501 – 1600
On June 23rd, 1565 The Siege of Malta (also known as the
Great Siege of Malta) took place in 1565 when the Ottoman Empire
invaded the island, held by the Knights Hospitaller. The siege is one
of the great sieges of history, fought out by unequal forces on the
small island of Malta which commands the sea-routes at the centre
of the Mediterranean. The Knights of St John were a remnant of the
medieval world, the largest of the surviving crusading orders - warrior
priests sworn to obedience to the Grand Master, recruited from
Europe's nobility. They had been driven out of their base on Rhodes
in the eastern Mediterranean after being defeated by the Turks in
1522. From Malta, their new ideal base in the middle of the known
world, they continually harassed Ottoman trade shipping having
acquired their naval skills from the renowned Rhodians.
St Elmo was fiercely defended and, supported by additional troops
dispatched from the larger fortresses, held out against the attack for
a month. St Elmo eventually fell, at a dreadfull cost of 8,000 Ottoman
casualties against the entire garrison of 1,500 Knights and Maltese
soldiers killed, the Ottoman attack was then directed primarily
against St Michael.

June 24th:
France 1501 – 1600
On June 24th, 1520 Mass at Field of Cloth of Gold. Henry VIII of
England and Francis I of France met between Guînes and Ardres
near Calais to discuss an alliance. Since the nearby castles were
in decay, temporary pavilions of such splendor were erected that the
entire meeting area was called a "Cloth of Gold." At the end of more
than a fortnight of cordial negotiations and entertainment, mass was
said on Sunday, June 24, and the kings parted. Political results of the
meeting were negligible.

YIS,
Lord Michael Kettering
Combat Archer for the Condottieri