History teaching fails to give pupils proper view of the past, says watchdog:

The Ofsted report said many primary and secondary pupils are being let down by a curriculum which does not give them a “chronological understanding” of the subject …

Schoolchildren fail to grasp how events in history are linked because the subject is taught in “episodes”, an official report has warned….

A “fundamental weakness” in primary schools was that some teachers “did not teach to establish a clear mental map of the past for pupils”.

One reason “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy is a worthwhile read is its exploration of history in chronological order — with time lines before each new era — as it traces the development in horsemanship in civilization.

The books of the trilogy convey accurate history in a fun and engaging story …  the books give readers solid overview of history as they ride along with an exceptionally well-written and intelligent literary tale. (For ages 14 and up)

We can recognize our common (if unsavory) humanity in the prevalent Curse Tablets of ancient Rome, which were inscribed on thin lead tablets and hidden in advantageous spots … chariot racing was a hotbed of sabotage and curse tablets.

Here is an actual Roman curse typical of the day:  ‘I command you, demon, and demand from you this hour and day and moment, that you torture and kill the horses of the Greens and that you kill in a crash their drivers.’

Other authentic Curse Tablets were more elaborate and featured detailed instructions:

‘I conjure you, holy beings and holy names, to join in aiding this spell, and bind, enchant, thwart, strike, overturn, conspire against, destroy and kill the charioteer and all his horses tomorrow in the circus at Rome. May he not leave the barriers well. May he not be quick. May he not outstrip anyone. May he not make the turns well. May he not win any prizes, and if he has pressed someone from behind, may he not overtake him; but may he meet with an accident; may he be bound, may he be broken; may he be dragged along by your power, in the morning and afternoon races.

Superstition is an ancient custom and, then as now, not always a pleasant one.

According to fossilized bones and cave paintings, that’s just how things were between horses and humans 20,000 years ago.

Our clear understanding of the distant past remains shrouded by the passage of time, but there are two important facts we can know about prehistoric horses:

1) Horses have always been with us. Early man spent many thousands of years watching, stalking, hunting … and painting horses. The horse has been part of humanity’s story since the very beginning.

2) It took thousands of years for primitive humans to even begin to learn to use horses to assist in work. Man’s journey from the caves required a change in attitude to seek forms of cooperation, away from seeing horses as only a form of prey. This new outlook took an amazingly long time to happen, especially considering that it was so tangibly rewarded by a horse’s willingness to share his strength with mankind.

Perhaps we can’t know details about how mankind’s attitude toward horses shifted from meal to tamed beast — but the change is a case of old ways of thinking being replaced by new and better ideas. In this way, horsemanship is a living demonstration that cooperation brings new possibilities to human life and can open entire new worlds.
_______
Copyright © 2010  John Allen Royce, Jr.

Are these the same Man?

Much cave art is utilitarian and crude. Only a few “works” stand out … could it be some artists saw the horse differently — as something to be admired and approached for qualities beyond that of mere food?

If so, the artist’s path was not quickly taken:  mankind crouched and crept through his world for many thousands of years, scrounging a life as both predator and prey. Yet eventually, somehow, the idea of using horses for limited work prevailed, and later the concept of the horse as a partner opened possibilities unknown by our distant ancestors.

It would be hard to argue with the primitive hunter “in the moment.” There is clearly a meal on the hoof, it tastes good: an undefeatable argument. As it happened, it was a limited, self-serving failure of an argument … but undefeatable at the time! The use of horses cannot happen if your fellow caveman simply kills them. It mirrors the age-old problem of progress, of mankind bound by its own ignorance and short-term, “greedy” impulses. We have left the caves, but not this basic conflict.

Still, there was a moment when a human didn’t kill a horse he was able to. People did begin to stop hunting/killing horses, in favor of use for packing and driving.

It is the artist’s view that would have seen the horse as something other than quarry. Perhaps art truly does light a road to human progress.

Another outcome …

Strangely, even the best cave art discovered in North America is more crude and hunter-focused than that found in caves of Europe. Illustrated animals in cave art of North America are usually depicted being pierced by arrows.

Horses evolved in North America, but disappeared long before European settlers arrived … and evidence suggests equines may have been hunted to extinction by natives. If so, whether resisted by a more ‘artistic’ view or not, heedless hunting had its way.

Horse-using cultures outstripped others in the development of civilization — American natives were overrun by people who had benefited from their association with the horse. What difference might horse domestication have made to the cultures of the native American had the horse survived … if, perhaps, the artists had won?

If it is true that indigenous horses were hunted to extinction, it provides evidence that sometimes acting from a short-term view acts to limit one’s future to the short term.

Evidence exists of man’s earliest relations with horses over 20,000 years ago and, though details of prehistoric times can be murky, something not in reasonable dispute is that prehistoric man hunted horses long before domesticating them.

Horses haven’t changed much since ‘caveman’ times; equines are an ancient species that retain their natural instincts. Cavemen could have harnessed the horses available … yet it took tens of thousands of years to even begin learning how to do so.

Taming horses required a strikingly new attitude, something quite beyond the ‘kill eat food’ pattern prehistoric humans lived by. Once early man did change its outlook on horses, a whole world of possibilities opened that were unimaginable before.

The lesson of prehistoric horses is that the world can have potential that exceeds not our grasp … so much as our attitudes.
_______
Copyright © 2010  John Allen Royce, Jr.

History can scare you

Civilization has not been a straight path upward: human empathy and progress have faltered before. The last great ebb in Western Civilization was the Middle Ages, or medieval era, after the fall of ancient Rome, when humans lost civilization and reverted to brute conditions of bestial poverty.

Thoughts preserved in writings from ancient Rome are actually more modern than the more recent Middle Ages. As an example, the ancient historian, Tacitus (56-120 AD) is often insightful:

“Abuse, if you slight it, will gradually die away; but if you show yourself irritated, you will be thought to have deserved it.”

“Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.”

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”

For comparison, the opening translated lines from the Old English work Beowulf,  written 7 to 10 centuries after Rome — we aren’t even sure! — begin a work filled with homage to violence and patrimony:

“So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.

There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes…

A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on.

In the end each clan on the outlying coasts beyond the whale-road had to yield to him and begin to pay tribute. That was a good king.“

Beowulf  says this about human nature: “It is always better to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.”

Centuries earlier, the old Roman Tacitus attempted an explanation:  “Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.”

A difference in quality of thought becomes evident when reading translations from ancient Rome and those, centuries later, from the Middle Ages. There was a falling down of humanity which may serve as a warning that our society today — imperfect as it is — is not inevitable and we can return to something much worse.