One of the drawbacks of world history — at least as taught in the US — is the idea of separation. Culture X was here, Culture Y was there, don’t get them mixed up because that would make for a difficult test to write. But the reality is that all those “primitive” cultures ranged far and wide along trade routes. Which is why you find Near Eastern artifacts in Scotland, and Viking (or is it “Vandal”) graffiti in Constantinople.
I mean, not to over-exaggerate it in the opposite direction. We’re not talking about the AD 900 equivalent of farmers in Tanzania watching American shows on Chinese TV sets. But the idea that all these cultures, in as small a space as Europe and the Middle East, were separate and distinct and had no contact with one another, is not only kind of silly, but patently, by the evidence, false.
Viking Runes at Hagia Sophia
A small etching on the white marble parapet was written in runic script by a Viking mercenary.
Half Dan was here.
I don't think that the idea of separate cultures is part of the way History is taught in Europe. Quite the opposite, I'd say. But I'm Spanish, and we had quite a thorough mix of cultures as part of our past, and proud of it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_School_of_Translators
I teach this almost every show: "History did not occur in a vacuum."
Cultures connected.
I think the US's size and (hypothetical) uniformity and isolation stunts our concept of cultural intermixing.
A few years ago, I started walking for exercise and for fun, to clear my head and to shake off the labors of the day, averaging around five miles a day, five days a week. It reminded me that walking is free(ish) transportation.
Now, when I think of isolation-of-place, I like to measure walking distances on a map. On Google maps, it's about three weeks walk (nonstop) from Rome to Copenhagen, a month from Lisbon to Warsaw – those roughly cover the height and width of Europe. It's a month and a half from Liberia to Lisbon, give or take the boat ride across to Gibraltar, and two months from Liberia to Djibouti – the span of the widest part of Africa. Lisbon to Lahore is 75 days; Liberia to Lahore is about 100.
No place is too far to walk if you have the time, right? And when everyone either walks or rides an animal, they have the time.
+Michael Verona That's akin to the phenomenon I face whenever I go to the East Coast and (having been raised a California boy), I'm astonished by how close it is to travel from one state to another.