5 Amazing Wiped Out Historical Facts

Thanks to Hollywood for portraying history. Recreatinghistorical facts and happenings and reliving lost cultures, ideas, facts and myths in such a way that we can imagine and live centuries ago worlds today. Remembering “The Gladiator” or “The Braveheart” where forgotten stories and characters are brought back to life by wearing knight’s armor or riding an exquisite breed of Spanish horses while waving long heavy swords made up of valerian steel.

With all this out of the blue experience from the past, there are numerous accounts which one does not find easily. It requires in-depth historical research. For example, medieval times introduced insane techniques of torture, stealing and punishment coupled with bizarre cultural norms. Here we list five of those forgotten and wiped out historical facts.

5) Pooping – A Never Ending Horror Show!

What is the worst you can find or experience while pooping in today’s era? A giant spider staring at you while sitting at the edge of seat? Well, guess what? You are lucky. Because pooping and live fire went hand to hand in ancient Rome. Fire under damp and awful stone closets were the modern toilets in Rome. Inhabitants back then did not take pain to use water or other means to wash it off. With rampant methane fumes result in fueling flames on body, Romans drew the image of “Fortuna” the goddess of luck. As medieval times revived, inhabitants started living in close quarters resulting in congested neighborhood. This posed serious problems of disposing poops. People came up with ingenious ideas of digging underground passages which threw all the mess onto streets. People with less fortunate financial status did not care where poops were disposed off. One of the historians writes that floors were rarely cleaned resulting in layers upon layers of poop, animal wastes, ale droppings etc. The only solution was to create a new layer upon the filth covered layer. 

4) Have a Minor Disfigurement? Out You Go!

Do you have acne or psoriasis in today’s world? If yes, better treat it. But if somehow you were born centuries ago and had these minor health problems, you could have been a deformed outcast. With our advancement in medial sciences we can treat skin problems and other unsightly features. The best remedy we have these days is plastic surgery but back then any such disease was destined to have you outcast. Leprosy for instance, plagued European empires for quite long where even having a rash on your skin resulted in complete social isolation and mass killings. Another disease was Syphilis, a nasty condition that rotted the flesh (of the nose in particular) and smelled like dead fish.

3) Are You Unemployed? How About A few Whips?

Joblessness has been common throughout human history. It breaks people down both emotionally and socially. But one of the worst historical account in this regard is found centuries ago when not being able to find a living was considered a fate worth a punishment i.e. whipping bare flesh until bloody. For example, in 16thcentury England, being unemployed was considered as a punishable crime when people wandered from place to place in search of living, they were considered as vagrants. In 1547, the law was altered so that instead of whipping, people would be branded like cattle and forced into slavery. In early 1600s new laws were implemented as per which rewards and bounties were announced for whosoever captures a vagrant. The governments back then did provide some sort of assistance but that also came with an outcast branding tactic i.e. a jobless person was forced to wear a badge with letter “P” to distinguish them from the rest.

2) Brawls At School Turned Into DeadlyFight Offs

In the darkest era of the 13th Century in Paris, brawls in the streets were not the one we see in our today’s world. Brawls starting on meager arguments ended up with guts on swords and hammers. This was not being done by kids, but adult mobs taking onto streets with kill or be killed motives. An historical record of one of such incidents is found in 1299 when a group of students went inn-hopping and, started to argue on the price of wine. The argument escalated to an extent that townspeople had to come and rescue the day. Next day the group came back with even large numbers equipped with swords and hammers. The turned the innkeeper’s wine jugs and then took on the streets, killing whosoever came in the way.  During medieval times, Oxford University (yes, the same iconic Oxford) witnessed these deadly fights on routine. Factions from Southern and Northern nations ended up killing dozens with swords during fights. One of the famous accounts occurred in 1355 a few days before Valentines. Once again, the catalyst was wine, though this time it was over its quality and not its price. Oxford church rang its own bell when city’s bells were ringing to call out on people to fight student body. When the dust settled, thirty townsmen and 63 students were dead.

1) Species were Treated Like Narcotics

Historical accounts reveal that spices in medieval times were often treated as currency. That’s why ancient empires are all about salt, pepper and other seasoning which were hard to come by. They started to believe that spices were an effective agent to fight of random ailments and associated its spiritual effects with their religious rituals by burning tons of it and breathing the fumes. It is said that a lad during this era boasted 386 pounds of pepper, 286 of ginger, 207 of saffron, 205 of cinnamon, 105 cloves and a mere 85 pounds of nutmeg. If your thinking they were up for a spiced-up roller coaster dine in – you are missing the point – these people piled it up just to show how filthy rich they are to afford these hard to find spices. Ginger was one of the stars back then, in the 3rd century Rome, a pound of ginger was worth about 18.5 years of a craftsman’ wages. Oh, and when Visigoths ransacked Rome in 5th century, they demanded ransom of 3,000 pounds of peppercorn to release the city.

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