History

The first lottery in England and some strange facts

Published

8 months ago

January 28, 2021

The first lotteries date back to antiquity both the Romans and the Chinese had them, but they weren’t quite like modern ones. The first true national lottery was created in the Netherlands in 1400, other European countries soon followed.

The first national lottery of England and Wales was held in 1569. The papers promoting it were also hung in churches, St Paul’s Cathedral had one on the door.

The lottery was created to pay off state debts, particularly the cost of ships and ports. It was Queen Elizabeth I who developed both the commercial and war fleets.

It is not clear the purpose though, in fact the prize money was exactly equal to the sum of the proceeds from the tickets. Let’s say they were beginner’s problems.

There were other oddities in this Elizabethan lottery, everyone who bought tickets could not only win a prize, but were automatically exonerated from all crimes that weren’t particularly violent.

The other odd thing was that Queen Elizabeth I herself was in charge of drawing the winning numbers. But she wasn’t on television.

The grand prize was £ 5000, but not all cash, some of it was carpets and plates. The cost of a ticket was 10 shillings which was really very expensive for most people.

The government subsequently continued to sell the rights to the lottery tickets to intermediaries, who then hired agents to sell them. These intermediaries or brokers eventually became the modern day stockbrokers.

If you are curious you can see a poster promoting this national lottery. You can also enlarge it and read it all if you are really interested. You can find it here on the British Library website.

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archeology

An important archaeological discovery in Pompeii

Published

1 month ago

August 22, 2021

Laura S Hamlin

After almost 2000 years a tomb of a freedman, Marcus Venerius, whose body rested semi embalmed was discovered this week.

To the east of the ancient city, at the necropolis of Porta Sarno, archaeologists found the intact burial of Marcus Venerius Secundio . A very special tomb, because at the time in the city the bodies were incinerated, while that of Marco Venerio is a tomb and his body is inside, lying in a corner, with the nape covered with white and semi-mummified hair. His body was kept inside a cell which allowed its preservation.

Marco Venerio, was over 60 when he died and was a freedman which means a former slave who had gained his freedom. He had been the guardian of the Temple of Venus, protector of the city of Pompeii, minister of the Augustals and then, after the liberation, Augustale, or member of a college of priests of the imperial cult. What is amazing of all this is the fact that a former slave could make enough money to buy himself a posh tomb. Two cinerary urns were found externally in the tomb enclosure, one belonging to a woman named Novia Amabilis, probably Marco Venerio’s wife. Specialists are also analysing what remains of the funeral tunic, which was made of asbestos, which may have contributed to the preservation of the body. Asbestos was often used for embalming

This new discovery is very important as it contains many details of life at the time while at the same time adding a few unanswered questions.

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141

History

What is that spire outside Charing Cross station in London?

Published

4 months ago

May 27, 2021

Laura S Hamlin

What is that spire outside Charing Cross station in London? thumbnail

Maybe you don’t know what that kind of gothic spire is in front of Charing Cross station in London. Don’t worry we explain everything here. Edward I was a king of England in the thirteenth century and was known for his lavish lifestyle. He loved to spend money and had a fondness for extravagant items such as jewellery and tapestries. His wife, Eleanor of Castile, died in 1290 advertisement Harby near Lincoln. Charing Cross is one of twelve crosses called Eleanor Cross that the king had built to mark where his wife’s funeral procession stopped.

The cross was destroyed in the year 1647 by the Puritans during the English Civil War. After the construction of Charing Cross station in 1865, a reproduction of Eleanor Cross was created and placed outside the station and not in its original place in Trafalgar Square where the equestrian sculpture dedicated to Carlo.

The reproduction was created by the architect EM Barry himself who built the railway station. He used uncommon images available from the original. at the top, there are eight images of Eleonora, 4 as a queen, with imperial symbols and 4 represented as a Christian. Below are curved angels and shields with royal weapons and those of Ponthieu, Castile and Leon, all copied from still extant Eleanor Crosses who were at Waltham Cross and Northampton.

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archeology

What is special about King Tut’s brooch?

Published

4 months ago

May 19, 2021

Carole Ford

King Tutankhamun was the last of his family to rule Egypt 1334 – 1325 BC. He is famous because of the discovery of his treasure, together with his mummy, in his tomb, by Howard Carter in 1922. On the breastplate of the mummy, there was a winger scarab broach, fashioned from yellow glass.

Scarab beetles were worshipped in Egypt, as symbols of death and rebirth. They are active at night, finding their way by the distant rays of light from the Milky Way, rather than by bright stars. The scarab broach, belonging to King Tut, has itself an amazing connection to the cosmos.

It was discovered that the glass used, could not have been produced at the time of his death. Investigation revealed that it is desert glass, that originated in the Sahara desert. It is formed from the impact of a comet that fell to Earth, twenty eight million years ago! The discovery of the remains of a comet, a black pebble, found during excavations in the desert, was an astronomical first. Only dust fragments of comets, had been found before then.

So King Tut’s brooch is indeed a very special broach, as it was made from glass formed by the impact of a comet that fell to earth millions of years ago, an archaeological as well as an astronomical first.

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