When does anyone ever apologize like this?

ETA is the Basque separatist organization, which has been fighting for their independence in the Pyrennees region of Spain and France for many years.  They are well known for their terrorist attacks, which included blowing up a Spanish PM and a grocery in Barcelona.

Recently they have announced their disbandment.    As part of this process they have -- get this --
apologized to all the people they have harmed.

From the Guardian, today:

The Basque terrorist group Eta, which killed more than 800 people during its four-decade armed campaign, has apologised for the suffering it caused and asked for the forgiveness of victims and their families as it prepares to dissolve.
In a statement released on Friday morning, the group made a full and unambiguous apology for its actions, accepting that it bore “direct responsibility” for years of bloodshed and misery.
“We know that we caused a lot of pain during that long period of armed struggle, including damage that can never be put right,” it said. “We wish to show our respect for those who were killed or wounded by Eta and those who were affected by the conflict. We are truly sorry.”
The statement also recognised that Eta’s “mistakes or mistaken decisions” had led to the deaths of people who had nothing to do with the conflict, both in the Basque country and beyond.
“We know that, owing to the necessities of all kinds of armed struggle, our actions have hurt people who bore no responsibility whatsoever. We have also caused damage that can’t be undone.
“We apologise to those people and their families. These words won’t make up for what happened nor will they lessen the pain, but we speak to them respectfully and without wanting to provoke further suffering.”

I am not going to argue with anyone who has a cynical view of this declaration.  But who ever says "WE WERE WRONG?" in such a case?

Maybe this might be a step towards NOT "MISTAKENLY KILLING LARGE GROUPS OF INNOCENTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?"

El Minesterio del Tiempo and the Frankenstein Chronicles -- treats for history fans

Recently I have run across on Netflix two series which I found particularly satisfying because they were clearly created by people who like history as much as I do, and who have taken care to do it right.

One of them is the Frankenstein Chronicles, which might qualify as a good historical movie simply because it stars Sean Bean, but which has so much more.  The story depicts what might have happened in intellectual circles in London after the publication of the novel Frankenstein.  The movie shows as talented scientists being inspired by the book to attempt not just to understand the nature of life and death, but to find the the secret of immortality.

Of course, this doesn't work out very well for them.

What I liked best about the Frankenstein Chronicles was the convincing and detailed depiction of this pre-Victorian era.  Lots of real people show up to add depth to the story:  Mary Shelley, Sir Robert Peel (creating the "bobbies," the London police force), King William IV, William Blake (on his death bed) and several more.  I can't swear to the absolute accuracy of any of these individual portraits, but the nuanced portrayal of the environment as a whole is very pleasing to this retired history professor.  It reminds me of the care put into those prize historical movies of the early 70s, the Three Musketeers and the Four Musketeers.

Also on Facebook is a Spanish series, El Minesterio del Tiempo. The Ministry of Time is a branch of the Spanish government devoted to preventing unauthorized time travelers from changing essential elelments of the past -- specifically the Spanish past.  I have screened only about a quarter of the series, but most of it so far shows the ministry agents most concerned that famous artists and writers are able to produce the works that they contributed to Spanish culture.

There are other entertaining features of the story.  You probably wouldn't think of Spain as the most likely country to have a monopoly on time travel technology.   If so, know that the characters agree with you!  Anyway, the Spanish time travel technique is not obviously technology.  It was invented by a 15th century rabbi, and ever since his time, the Ministry has been secretly using doors that go from one time and place to another.  If there is an explanation for this. or for the creation of the Ministry itself, it is not clear to me.

But perhaps the best part of the series is the way the characters deal with a power that potentially makes them omnipotent.  All the agents have been plucked out of the normal time stream, sometimes after some family tragedy.  The agents can go back to their original environment any time they want, but they risk damaging their (our) timeline and their own mental health if thety do so.

El Ministerio del Tiempo is getting better as it goes along.  The actors are great.  Are they top-ranked stars in Spain?

Later:  The portrayal of Goya discussing his theory of art is stunning.

A twelfth-century description of a judicial duel on horseback

A new site dedicated to the "Song of My Cid" -- the famous Spanish epic -- includes this interesting account of the judicial duel between three of the Carrion clan whose "enfantes" mistreated the Cid's daughters and three of the Cid's chief vassals. Note that the bad guys are unwilling to face the famously sharp swords wielded by the good guys, and bail out by running out of the boundaries. I can't help thinking that structurally this combat may have been like a tournament. Get up and go out to the field, infantes of Carrión,

it is time for you to fight like men,

the Campeador's men will not fail in anything.

If you come off he field well, you will have great honor,

if you are defeated, don't blame us,

for everyone knows that you went looking for it.-

Now the infantes of Carrión are repenting,

for what they did they are filled with regret,

they wouldn't have done it for all there is in Carrión.

All three of the Campeador's men are armed,

King don Alfonso went over to see them,

the Campeador's men said,

-We kiss your hands as king and lord,

that you be field judge for them and for us,

help us fairly, allow no wrongs.

Here the infantes of Carrión have their band,

we know not what they will plan or what they won't,

in your hand our lord placed us,

protect our rights, for the love of the Creator.-

At that moment the king said, -With all my heart and soul.-

They bring them their horses, good ones and swift,

they blessed the saddles and mount confidently,

the shields that are well reinforced at their necks,

in their hands they take the shafts of the sharp lances,

these three lances have their own pennons,

and around them many fine men.

They now went out to the field where the markers were.

All three of the Campeador's men are in agreement

that each one of them should strike his adversary hard.

Behold at the other end the infantes of Carrión,

very well accompanied, for there are many relatives.

The king gave them judges to tell them what's right and what isn't,

that they not dispute with them about who is or isn't right.

When they were in the field King don Alfonso spoke,

-Hear what I say to you, infantes of Carrión,

this combat you might have had in Toledo, but you refused.

These three knights of my Cid the Campeador

I brought them safely to the lands of Carrión,

be in the right, don't commit any wrongs,

for whoever wishes to commit a wrong, I will severely prohibit it,

in all my kingdom he will not be welcome.-

Now it begins to grieve the infantes of Carrión.

The judges and the king point out the markers,

all those around them left the field,

they showed clearly to all six of them how they are laid out,

that there whoever went outside the marker would be defeated.

All the people cleared out around there,

that they not approach the markers by any more than six lance lengths.

They drew lots for field position, now they divided the sun equally,

the judges got out from between them, they are face to face,

then the Cid's men came at the infantes of Carrión

and the infantes of Carrión at the Campeador's men,

each one of them concentrates on his target.

They clasp their shields before their hearts,

they lower their lances along with the pennons,

they lower their faces over the saddlebows,

they struck their horses with their spurs,

the ground shook where they were riding.

Each one of them has his mind on his target,

all three on three have now come together,

those that are nearby think that at that moment they will fall dead.

Pedro Bermúdez, he who challenged first,

met with Fernán González face to face,

they strike each other's shield fearlessly.

Fernán González pierced the shield of Pedro Bermúdez,

he hit only air, he did not strike flesh,

in two places his lance shaft broke cleanly apart.

Pedro Bermúdez remained steady, he did lose his balance from it,

he received one blow, but he dealt another,

he broke the boss of the shield, he split it in two,

he went through it entirely, it didn't protect him at all,

he stuck his lance into his chest, it didn't protect him at all.

Fernando wore three layers of mail, this helped him,

two of them broke on him and the third held up,

the padded tunic with the shirt and with the mail

out from his mouth the blood came, his saddle-girths broke,

not one of them was of any use to him,

over the croup of the horse he was thrown to the ground.

In this way the people thought he is fatally wounded.

The other dropped the lance and the sword he took in hand,

when Fernán González saw it, he recognized Tizón,

rather than wait for the blow he said, -I am defeated.-

The judges granted it, Pedro Bermúdez let him be.

Martín Antolínez and Diego González struck each other with their lances,

the blows were such that both lances broke.

Martín Antolínez took his sword in hand,

it lights up all the field, it is so clean and bright,

he gave him a blow, he hit him a glancing blow,

it broke away the top of the helmet,

it cut away all the helmet straps,

it tore off the mailed hood, and reached the coif,

the coif and the hood all were ripped away,

it cut the hairs on his head, and it reached well into the flesh,

one part fell to the ground and the other remained.

When precious Colada has struck this blow,

Diego González saw that he would not escape with his soul,

he turned his horse to face his opponent.

At that moment Martín Antolínez hit him with his sword,

he struck him broadside, with the cutting edge he did not hit him.

Diego González has sword in hand, but he does not

use it,at that moment the infante began to shout,

-Help me, God, glorious Lord, and protect me from this sword!-

He reined in his horse and, dodging the sword,

rode it outside the marker, Martín Antolínez remained on the field

. Then said the king, -Come join my company,

by all you have done, you have won this battle.-

The judges grant it, that he says the truth.

Both men have won, I'll tell you of Muño Gustioz,

how he fared against Asur González.

They strike each other on their shields with such great blows,

Asur González, rugged and valiant,

struck the shield of don Muño Gustioz,

through the shield he broke his armor,

the lance hit only air, for it did not strike flesh.

This blow struck, Muño Gustioz struck another one,

through the shield he broke his armor,

he broke through the shield's boss,

it could not protect him, he broke through his armor,

he hit him on one side, not near the heart,

he thrust his lance and the pennon right through his flesh,

pushing it through the other side an arm's length,

he gave it a twist, he tipped him from the saddle,

when he pulled back on the lance he threw him to the ground,

the shaft came out red as did the lance-tip and the pennon.

Everyone thinks that he is mortally wounded.

He repositioned his lance and halted over him, said Gonzalo Ansúrez,

-Don't strike him, for God's sake!

He is defeated since this is finished.-

Said the judges, -This we hear.-

The good king don Alfonso ordered the field cleared,

the arms that remained there he took them.

The Campeador's men left fully honored,

they won this combat, thanks to the Creator.

Great is the grief through the lands of Carrión.

The king sent my Cid's men at night,

so that they not be attacked or have fear.

Like prudent men they ride day and night,

behold them in Valencia with my Cid the Campeador,

they left the infantes of Carrión in disgrace,

they have fulfilled their duty that their lord demanded of them,

my Cid the Campeador was pleased by this.

Great is the shame of the infantes of Carrión,

whoever scorns a good lady and then abandons her

may such befall him or even worse.

Another review of Noel Fallows' book on jousting in Iberia

This reviewer, writing for the online Medieval Review, also has a high opinion of it.

Fallows, Noel. Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia.
Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2010.  Pp. xix, 541.  $99.00.  ISBN:
9781843835943.

  Teofilo F. Ruiz
       University of California, Los Angeles
       tfruiz@history.ucla.edu


In this handsomely-produced and beautifully-illustrated book, Noel
Fallows offers, for the benefit of scholars and general readers alike,
four engaging, valuable, and interrelated contributions to our
understanding of jousting in late medieval and early modern Spain.
More importantly, the author, through a thoughtful deployment of texts
and images, takes us into the complex social and cultural world of
late medieval and early modern chivalry. Having just completed a book
on festive traditions (at the copy-editing stage presently), I can
only bemoan not having read this book earlier. And although I have
tried to incorporate many of Fallows' valuable insights and
information into my own work, his insights into these questions and
capacious treatment of the subject deserve more than just a passing
reference.

Anchored on the close reading of four seminal texts on jousting (plus
a series of other ancillary texts)--Pero Rodríguez de Lena's El
passo honroso de Suero de Quiñones (1434), Ponç de Menaguerra's
Lo cavaller (1493), Juan Quijada de Reayo's Doctrina del
arte de la caballería (1548), Luis Zapata de Chaves' "Del justador
(in his Miscelánea, 1589-93), plus short excerpts from Hernán
Chacón's Tractado de la cavallería de la gineta (1551)--Fallows
brings to life the chivalric world of jousting, connecting these texts
to their particular historical contexts. His four distinct and signal
contributions to the scholarship on jousting and other martial games
rest on his careful edition and translation of the above mentioned
works. His edition of the texts of Menaguerra, Quijada de Reayo,
Zapata de Chaves, and short excerpts from Chacón are the first modern
grouping of these works into one book. Although closely related to
each other thematically, they have never been examined as an almost
century and a half long discussion on jousting, warfare, and knightly
values. As such, his editions of these texts--also translated into
English for the first time--allow us to trace changes over time in the
rules, character, and equipment employed in Spanish jousts and
elsewhere in the West in the transition from the Middle Ages to the
early modern period.

Moreover, his new edition of significant portions--the most salient
ones--of Rodríguez de Lena's El passo honroso (the ur-text of
jousting in the Iberian peninsula) offers, once again through his up-
to-date edition and translation, an important source for the study of
fictional warfare in late medieval and early modern Spain, and,
because of the international nature of jousting in this period in
general and of the passo honroso in particular, the rest of
western Europe. His edited and translated short excerpts of Chacón's
Tractado is similarly the first version in English of a very
significant treatise on Spanish equestrian skills.

Second, although the edition and translation of the texts are found in
the second part of the book--almost as a stand-alone monograph--the
introductory study, found in Part One of Jousting in Medieval and
Renaissance Iberia, expands on the textual evidence, offering to
the reader four diverse perspectives on Spanish chivalrous culture.
His introduction and chapter 1 provides a typology of knightly armed
encounters: mêlée tournaments, tournaments, jousts, and other such
martial games. The introduction also places Fallows' edition of the
texts within a judiciously drawn map of methodological and
historiographical approaches to the topic. His opinions are measured
and sound, dealing as he does with diverse and, often times,
contradictory interpretations. And he does this in a civil fashion,
assessing the worth of each approach, while presenting his own point
of view. Moreover, he allows the texts to guide us through these
discussions, and what can be better than his command of these primary
sources in guiding his readers to a new understanding of the evidence.

While noting the cultural importance of printing in the diffusion of
the new culture and technologies of jousting, Fallows, by deploying
Pedro Cátedra's ideas about "paper chivalry," Martín de Riquer and,
most famously, Huizinga's arguments about late medieval chivalry,
explores the links between literature and armed combat and the
circularity of writing about chivalrous deeds, fictional combat, and
the reality of lived lives. In chapter 1, Fallows turns to a careful
analysis of the three main treatises on jousting, examining how these
texts intersect with the authors' personal experiences, as well as the
different contexts from which they wrote. These brilliant mini-
biographies and case studies allow us to place the three main writers
of treatises on jousting within a long tradition of martial games,
warfare, and court life. For me in particular, the information on two
of these authors, Quijada de Reayo and Zapata de Chaves, and their
role at the great pageantry held at Binche in 1549 and at Philip II's
court is a most welcome revelation.

Although his introduction and chapter one are also in themselves a
small monograph, chapters 2 and 3 offer us a different and as equally
valuable contribution. These two chapters,  erudite and technically
complex, discuss types of armor, helms, saddles, weapons, and every
other piece of equipment used by knights during jousts and
tournaments. Profusely illustrated, technically precise, and with a
myriad of examples and images from the sources, they are a veritable
mine of information and a source for tracing the evolution of armor
and other equipment associated with these martial games from the late
fifteenth century into the sixteenth.

Chapters 4 and 5 shift the inquiry from armors and knightly equipment
to the nature of combat, its rules, and expectations. Fallows notes
the principles or ideals that governed the joust, how scores were
kept, excessive harm prevented, and wounds tended to. In chapter 6, he
turns his attention to war or, far more accurately, to the
relationship between jousting and actual warfare. Fallows, once again,
places his inquiry within the historiographical debate on whether
tournaments were a form of preparation for war or simply a form of
theater and display. Yet, his somber reflections on the actual carnage
found in sixteenth century warfare, the increasing toll taken by
firearms, and by the emphasis (for the sake of victory over the enemy)
on infantry and well disciplined formations over heroic single combat
clearly show the disconnect between the world of jousting and that of
the battlefield. Chapter 7 focuses on other forms of martial
spectacle, with the game of canes and the running of bulls featured
most prominently. These two semi-martial activities came to parallel
the medieval joust, marking a transition that the author describes as
"from sport to spectacle."

Early in his introduction Fallows notes that "chivalry must be seen in
order to be understood."(p. 27) This he has done as best as it could
be done by his vivid textual examples, case studies, and vivid
descriptions, creating a textual portrait of the joust. This he has
done superbly well by his choice of images and by the abundant amount
of visual material included in the book and keyed to the text. When
Spanish images have been lacking, he has borrowed from Italian,
German, French, and English visual evidence to provide us with a clear
idea of what was like to be in a joust. Technical at times, highly
engaging at most other times, this is a book that does many different
things, and it does all of them well. While examining the diverse
social and cultural aspects of fictitious and chivalrous warfare, the
texts that he has so carefully edited and translated remain a thread
that links the book's varied themes into a comprehensive and
compelling vision. I would have liked to see a more careful discussion
of the game of canes and of the role of bulls. I, for one, think that
they occupied an important place in the festive imaginary of early
modern Spain, but this is a very small quibble on what is an
impressive and important achievement. Fallows' super book, beyond
bringing these important treatises to the attention of scholars and
other readers, reintegrates Spain--often neglected in Huizinga's
masterpiece or in Roy Strong's discussions of festivals--into the
general late medieval and early modern European culture of jousting
and chivalric culture.  That in itself is a worthy achievement.

Walking in Catalonia with Jonathan Jarrett

A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe is a valuable blog in many ways, but it really shines when Jonathan goes to visit the landscape that gave rise to his charters.  He's doing it now!  Don't miss it!

Those belligerent jousters

In my own research on jousting  which is based on Charny's questions on the law of arms as it applies to jousting tournaments and war, I got the impression that men at arms, full-fledged warriors, were a pretty argumentative lot. But of course, since Charny's questions are about resolving arguments, Charny had to conjure up some belligerent sorts, however many there may have been in real life. A few choice passages in Froissart's Chronicles convinced me that I was right about the belligerence, but I am pleased nonetheless to find in Noel Fallows' Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia proof positive that jousters were so concerned about their honor that they often got into arguments about the rules of the game and the rulings of the presiding judges.


One of the most interesting documents in Fallows' book is a very detailed account of a deed of arms that took place in 1434, El Passo Honroso de Suero Quinones. This deed, which involved ten jousters taking on all comers, was recorded blow-by-blow by a jouster, who not only gave a detailed account of each course, and explained which of the competitors did better, and why.  I have my doubts that Froissart gave an accurate account in his famous description of St. Inglevert, but this account by Pero Rodriguez de Lena inspires confidence.

In the account  it is quite common for there to be some accident that prevents two jousters from finishing the number of courses with broken spears set forth in the rules of the occasion, or some other event takes place that inspires one of the competitors to make a plea to the judges for a special dispensation –  generally that they be allowed to ride some more courses on the field, perhaps at a later time.  The judges, in this case two senior knights, absolutely refuse to change the rules or reverse their own decision once it has been made. To the demands of the competitors, the judges oppose the fact that all of the jousters have sworn to obey them in all matters.  When the host of the event persists in defying them over a non-standard joust he wants to ride, they have him taken prisoner!

Yes, those old jousters were a willful lot, and those who presided over them had to push back hard.

A $100 book

Noel Fallows' Jousting in Medieval and Renaissance Iberia is a $100 book.

And I say that with the greatest respect.

I have been known to rant and rave about the fact that all too many scholarly works cost a hundred dollars. But every once in a while you come across something that bears that a price tag for a good reason, and this is one of them. I am very glad I got this book that a deep discount at an academic conference, but in all fairness I must say that Boydell Press can be proud of this publishing venture, and the price that they have attached to it is quite a reasonable one for the people who want the book.

And what a book it is. The phrase "antiquarian" comes to mind, because this seems to be an old-fashioned effort to collect and interpret all the relevant information on an important topic. Antiquarian is usually not a compliment these days, because antiquarianism is thought to emphasize collection over interpretation. There's just some subjects where nothing much can be done without collecting the source material first and making it available to the readers, who can then appreciate the scholar's interpretation. And this is the case with Fallows' book. English-speaking readers have little access to the rich material on jousting from Spain and Portugal in the later Middle Ages. So Fallows makes it available to us, so that we can we can explore the social and psychological and technical history of jousting in the Peninsula.

And no one could credibly say that Fallows is a deficient scholar, a "mere" antiquarian.  It may be too much to say that he is scholarly Superman, but his big ambitions – to re-create before our eyes the entire world jousting – are matched by his energetic and careful compilation of data and sources.

Some of those sources are written accounts, including several manuals, about Iberian jousting. Their inclusion, which is immensely to the value of the book, makes this work a large one, over 500 pages. The book also includes a vast amount of information on the equipment used in jousting over the 14th 15th and 16th centuries. To aid the reader's understanding, there are dozens of photographs and other illustrations, printed on high-quality paper.

And now you know why this is a $100 book.

The intended reader of this book will not care about the price, if he or she can afford it up front. Once the reader has the book in hand, she or he will find hours and hours of edification and amusement. When I think of the real fans and the serious scholars immersing themselves in this amazing work, that's when I think of the antiquarian books of old, where an enthusiastic and often quite talented nonacademic scholar did his level best to master an exotic piece of the past, one that in his judgment had never been done justice before.

Gentlemen and ladies, you now know whether this book is for you.

I hope to say more about this book later.

New book on jousting -- already out of stock!

Ever since I started actively researching chivalry and formal deeds of arms (jousts, tournaments, duels, and challenges), I have been aware of Noel Fallows' work on Iberian chivalry.  He's the go-to guy in the English language and the articles I've read are very thorough.

Now he's put together a monster book including 200 illustrations and the texts and translations of three late medieval/early modern treatises to create what will probably be, for a long time, the definitive work on the subject of jousting in a part of Europe often overlooked by people who don't live there.

If you are a jousting fan, don't tell me that this publisher's description doesn't make your mouth water:

It focuses on three jousting manuals, written by practising champions at the time: Ponç de Menaguerra's Lo Cavaller (`The Knight', 1493); Juan Quijada de Reayo's Doctrina del arte de la cavalleria (`Doctrine of the Art of Chivalry', 1548); and Luis Zapata's Del Justador (`On the Jouster', c.1589-93). As well as editions, with the first English translation, of these important texts, it includes introductions and an analytical study; there are also chapters on the arms and armour of the joust. Nearly 200 colour and black-and-white illustrations, many never previously published, illuminate the sometimes complex technical terminology of these authors, and provide further evidence of how weapons and armour were actually used.

There's just one problem, a temporary one I  hope:  the book, published this month, seems to be out of stock already!  (You can back order.)  Somebody thought the book would sell, but not this fast.

Hats off to Professor Fallows and Boydell and Brewer.

A fascinating article on the current bullfighting controversy in Spain

In the Guardian.

Dead Kennedys’ Plastic Surgery Disasters and Christian-Muslim relations in Early Medieval Spain

If you are one of those people who comes here looking for insights into obscure medieval topics, I am afraid I've got nothing for you today -- except, of course, something from Jonathan Jarrett, who is trying to interpret a ninth-century theological treatise written in Muslim -ruled Cordoba, Spain.

And if you want to know what the Dead Kennedys have to do with this, you'll have to read not just the post but the footnotes.

Image: the martyrs of Córdoba at the Last Judgment.

Southwest Script

...has nothing to with Arizona or New Mexico. It is a script found on stones in southern Portugal and some neighboring parts of Spain. And I had never heard of it before I was directed to this AP story by Explorator. Here are some of the more interesting things I learned:

For more than two centuries, scientists have tried to decipher Southwest Script, believed to be the peninsula's oldest written tongue and, along with Etruscan from modern-day Italy, one of Europe's first. The stone tablet features 86 characters and provides the longest-running text of the Iron Age language ever found.

About 90 slate tablets bearing the ancient inscriptions have been recovered, most of them incomplete. Almost all were scattered across southern Portugal, though a handful turned up in the neighboring Spanish region of Andalucia.

Some of the letters look like squiggles. Others are like crossed sticks. One resembles the number four and another recalls a bow-tie. They were carefully scored into the slate. The text is always a running script, with unseparated words which usually read from right to left.

The first attempts to interpret this writing date from the 18th century. It aroused the curiosity of a bishop whose diocese encompassed this region where the earth keeps coughing up new fragments.

Almodovar, a rural town of some 3,500 people amid a gentle landscape of meadows punctuated by whitewashed towns, sits at the heart of the Southwest Script region. It created a museum two years ago where 20 of the engraved tablets are on show.

Though the evidence is gradually building as new tablets are found, researchers are handicapped because they are peering deep into a period of history about which they know little, says professor Pierre Swiggers, a Southwest Script specialist at the University of Leuven, Belgium. Scientists have few original documents and hardly any parallel texts from the same time and place in readable languages.

"We hardly know anything about (the people's) daily habits or religious beliefs," he says.

Southwest Script is one of just a handful of ancient languages about which little is known, according to Swiggers. The obscurity has provided fertile ground for competing theories about who wrote these words.

It is generally agreed the texts date from between 2,500 and 2,800 years ago. Most experts have concluded they were authored by a people called Tartessians, a tribe of Mediterranean traders who mined for metal in these parts — one of Europe's largest copper mines is nearby — but disappeared after a few centuries. Some scientists have proposed that the composers were other pre-Roman tribes, such as the Conii or Cynetes, or maybe even Celts who roamed this far south.

Another translation difficulty is that the writing is not standardized. It seems certain that it was adapted from the Phoenician and Greek alphabets because it copied some of their written conventions. However, it also tweaked some of those rules and invented new ones.

Experts have identified characters that represent 15 syllables, seven consonants and five vowels. But eight characters, including a kind of vertical three-pronged fork, have confounded attempts at comprehension.

There is more at the Yahoo news site.

Image: one reconstruction of Southwest script.

Crusade pageants in New Spain

Note this from Tyerman's God's War, pp. 672-3.

In faraway Central America, local allies in the conquistadors that Tlaxcala, a state city state east of Mexico, marked the Treaty of Aigues Mortes between Charles V and the French king Francis I in 1538 at the lavish pageant showing the anticipated conquest of Jerusalem by the King of Spain. On Corpus Christi Day 1539 in the presence of the consecrated host, the lavish display included two Christian armies laying siege to the holy city, 11 compromising Europeans, the other commanded by the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza with the Tlaxcalans and other "New Spaniards" in their own war costumes, complete with "feathers, devices and shields." Seemingly a good time was had by all. A few weeks earlier, the Mexicans to the east had laid on a similar show depicting the Turkish siege of Rhodes. Through these traditional images of past future crusading, New Spain was being assimilated into the culture of the old.

Tyerman calls these "bizarre consequences" of the appropriation of crusading as an element in national identity and imperialism (Spanish). But how is this any more bizarre than other aspects of crusading?

It is pretty colorful, though.

Image: Cortez and Dona Marina negotiate with the Tlaxcalans.

Tour Barcelona on foot with a medievalist

Long ago I had a day in Barcelona in the spring; it was indeed a beautiful city, and I remember people doing circle dances before the medieval cathedral.

Now Jonathan Jarret, who researches this area specifically and blogs about it at A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe, is enjoying the city, even if he is missing all the hot nightspots. If you want a happier cityscape than Baghdad's, have a look at his most recent post, In Marca Hispanica II.

Image: Barcelona's other, modern cathedral.

Lessons in imposed democracy

Today's Washington Post has an interesting article by Shankar Vedantam entitled Lessons in Enforced Democracy (a title less accurate than the one I've chosen for this post). Vedantam has got hold of an unpublished study by Andrew Enterline and J. Michael Greig on the fate of democratic regimes imposed by foreign countries. (Unfortunately he doesn't say where this study will be published and whether it will be an article or a book. But I will keep an eye out.)

The study suggests that this usually works out badly because the countries on which democracy has been imposed lack the appropriate civic institutions. The traditional generation seems to be a turning point. Weak democracies with elections but no institutional infrastructure fail in large numbers in the first 30 years. Strong new democracies that reach 30 seem to have become very well established by that point.

I am tempted to say DUH! but really I'm pleased that this serious matter has appeared in a major American newspaper. It's an improvement over what often appears in the WP, not to speak of lesser forums like the discredited NYT. However, I wonder how much systematic thinking is behind the study. Here, for instance, is the study's recipe for success as reported by Vedantam:

...large occupation forces early on to stamp out nascent insurgencies; a clear message that occupation forces were willing to spend years to make democracy work; an ethnically homogenous population, where politics was less likely to splinter along sectarian lines; and finally, the good fortune to have neighbors that also were democratically minded, or at least neighbors who could be kept from interfering.

Is this just an ad hoc argument for a long-term US commitment to Iraq?

One thing that makes me wonder is this paragraph from the article:

Enterline and Greig said there is one large exception to their finding: India, with its myriad internal divisions, but which still has become a strong democracy. Civic culture and a strong desire for representative government undoubtedly play a role in whether stable democracies emerge, Greig said -- meaning that Iraq might yet defy the odds.

Indian democracy is a remarkable achievement, but perhaps success there indicates that civic institutions are far more important than ethnic homogeneity. After all, neither the USA nor Canada has ever had any such thing. There's always been some new wave of immigration to mix things up. Political science has known for years that having a tradition of British justice and an independent judiciary gave freed British colonies a better head start on stability than colonies of other countries. In the partition, the Republic of India got the vast bulk of the institutional inheritance of the Raj, while Pakistan just got the army. Even so, the Pakistani judicial system has shown itself recently the biggest organized force for reform.

The Vedantam article cites the problems that the Philippines have had maintaining democracy after independence from American rule; it might be interesting to compare American-imposed institutions in the Philippines to British ones in India, at a detailed level of analysis.

While we are wishing, what about a good study of Spain -- model backward Fascist state to model European democracy in less than a generation? All while suffering from domestic terrorism! Long-established democratic countries -- you know who you are -- should bow their heads in shame in the face of this example.

Update: Thanks to Will McLean, I now have a link to the Enterline and Grieg paper. Alas, the briefest of looks makes me question the analytical judgment of the authors. To term the 19th century democratization of Canada and New Zealand cases "imposed democracy" similar to the cases of Germany and Japan and now Iraq shows a profound ignorance of the internal dynamics of Canada and New Zealand in that era.