1st Millennium AD: One Question per Century (#2) Quiz

Answer: asbestos

Chapter 4 of Book XIX of Pliny the Elder's "Natural History" contains a detailed description of asbestos, as well as the first mention of its name ("asbestinon", meaning "unquenchable" in Greek). However, Pliny calls asbestos "living linen", incorrectly classifying it as a material of vegetable, rather than mineral, origin; he also states that it "grows" in the scorching deserts of India, and is naturally red in colour. Asbestos fibres were used in the making of various kinds of fabrics, which could be cleaned by throwing them into a fire - from which they emerged whiter and brighter than before; this is also mentioned in Chinese sources.

According to some modern sources, asbestos cloth was one of the most prized Roman-made items traded in exchange for Chinese silk from the 1st century BC onwards. In support of this theory, fragments of asbestos cloth have been found in various archaeological sites in East and Southeast Asia. Asbestos is now considered a health and safety hazard in many countries, and its use has been outlawed. However, any claims that Pliny or other ancient scholars already knew of its dangers are unsubstantiated.

The "Natural History" - widely considered one of the first encyclopedias ever written - was Pliny the Elder's last work before his death in 79 AD, during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Answer: Libya

Founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century AD, Leptis Magna was located at the mouth of the Wadi Lebda, on Libya's Mediterranean coast. Its extremely well-preserved ruins now lie just outside the city of Khoms. Leptis Magna came under Roman control after the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War (149-146 BC). When Septimius Severus, who became Rome's 21st emperor, was born, Leptis Magna was a prosperous city, whose economy depended mainly on the production of olive oil. Under Septimius's reign, however, it became one of Roman Africa's most important cities, together with Carthage and Alexandria.

The scion of a wealthy family, Septimius Severus moved to Rome as a young man, and embarked on a successful political career. He was governor of the province of Pannonia Superior (which included parts of present-day Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, and Slovenia) when he made his bid for the Imperial throne in the spring of 193. Four years later, after defeating all his rivals, he gained full control of the Empire, becoming the first emperor born in the provinces from a family of non-Italian origin. After a series of military campaigns in Africa, which expanded and strengthened the Empire's southern border, he turned his attention towards Britain, trying to conquer Caledonia (Scotland). During the campaign, he fell ill and died at Eboracum (York) in 211. The Severan dynasty he founded ended in 235, undermined by familial strife.

When he became emperor, Septimius Severus lavished a lot of attention (and money) on his native city, erecting magnificent buildings such as a new Forum, a triumphal arch (pieced back together by archaeologists in the 1920s), a basilica, and new docks - including a lighthouse that was said to have been taller than the famed Lighthouse of Alexandria. The ruins of Leptis Magna were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Answer: Manichaeism

Manichaeism is named after its founder, the Iranian prophet Mani. Born in 216 to a family of followers of a Jewish Christian sect, as a young man he traveled to India to study Hinduism and Buddhism. Upon his return to Persia, he presented himself to the court of Shapur I, the second ruler of the House of Sasan, founded by his father Ardashir I. Shapur welcomed him, and allowed him to preach his teachings at court; Mani dedicated his sacred book, "Shabuhragan", to him. However, Shapur's eldest son, Bahram I, who came to the throne in 271, was a strict follower of Zoroastrianism, and ended his father's policy of religious tolerance. Under his rule, Manichaeism was persecuted, and Mani died in prison in 274 or 277.

An elaborate belief system, Manichaeism contains elements of Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and other religions. Its most significant feature - the one that has made the religion's name synonymous with a sharply polarized, black-and-white worldview - is its dualistic cosmology, based on the constant conflict between the spiritual world of light and the material world of darkness. Those who clung to things of the flesh were punished with being reincarnated in a succession of bodies. The highest-ranking members of the Manichaean Church, the Elect, practiced an extreme form of nonviolence, avoiding the harvesting of crops and the preparation of any kind of food in order to avoid murdering plants. Some prominent sects of the Middle Ages - such as the Bogomils and the Cathars - were probably influenced by Manichaeism.

Though Manichaeism quickly spread west to the Roman Empire, it faced strong opposition by both the Christian Church and the Roman state, and did not last beyond the 6th century. It lasted longer in the East, where it spread as far as China, and is believed to have continued until at least the 13th century. Unlike Manichaeism, the three religions listed as wrong answers (Jainism and Sikhism from India, and Taoism from China) are still practiced today.

Answer: Korea

In the 4th century, the Korean peninsula was divided into three kingdoms - Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla - plus the smaller Gaya confederacy in the south. Goguryeo was the northernmost of the three, and the largest by far, occupying also half of Manchuria (now in Northeast China) and smaller parts of present-day Russia. Though the cultural influence of China was also strong in religious matters, the three kingdoms practiced an ancient, indigenous shamanistic religion known as Muism.

According to the historical accounts known as "Samguk Yusa" and "Samguk Sagi", a Buddhist monk named Sundo brought Buddhism to Goguryeo in 372, while Malananta (who was originally from India) introduced Buddhism to Baekje in 384. A third monk, Ado, is credited with the introduction of Buddhism to Silla in the mid-5th century. As it later happened in Japan, Buddhism was not considered in conflict with the nature worship on which Muism was based, and was therefore widely accepted.

The Three Kingdoms period, which had begun in 57 BC, lasted until 668, when Silla allied with China and for the first time unified the Korean Peninsula. Civil war eventually led to Unified Silla's collapse, but towards the end of the 1st millennium, Goguryeo was resurrected with the name of Goryeo (from which the modern name "Korea" derives), and unified once again the peninsula into a single sovereign state. Under Goryeo (918-1392) the role of Buddhism in Korea grew exponentially - so much that it became the state religion. On the other hand, under the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), Korean Buddhism was suppressed, often violently.

The Korean Peninsula has been divided between the sovereign nations of North Korea and South Korea since 1948.

Answer: pepper

Alaric I was the first king of the Visigoths, a Germanic people who had settled in the Balkan Peninsula after the Battle of Adrianople (378), in which the Romans had been defeated. The Romans and the Visigoths had a rather volatile relationship, being allies when it was convenient to both parties, and waging war on each other when it was not. A strong, charismatic leader, trained in the Roman army, Alaric became king in 395, and soon took advantage of the weakness of the Roman Empire after the death of emperor Theodosius in the same year. His first invasion of Italy, in 401-403, was unsuccessful, but on his second attempt, in 407-408, he managed to besiege Rome with a force of around 30,000 men. The siege was lifted only when the Visigoths were granted a hefty ransom (which included 5,000 pounds of gold and 30,000 pounds of silver besides the pepper).

In August 410, Alaric and his Visigoths managed to enter Rome, and sacked the city for three days. The attack dealt an almost fatal blow to the city and the Western Roman Empire, which eventually collapsed a few decades later. However, during his march south, Alaric (who was around 40 years old) caught a fever and died near present-day Cosenza, in the region of Calabria. According to a popular legend, his body was buried in the bed of a nearby river, together with a large amount of treasure.

Native to South Asia, in antiquity black pepper was a much sought-after commodity, nicknamed "black gold" for the high price it commanded - which made it a status symbol. Though it may also have been used for medicinal purposes, in Ancient Rome and in the Middle Ages it was mostly employed as a seasoning - possibly also to disguise spoilage in meats.

Answer: silk

Highly prized in the Roman Empire, silk was traded with goods produced in Europe and the Middle East - such as the celebrated Roman glassware. However, the secret of its production - developed in China thousands of years before the beginning of the Christian era - eluded the peoples of the West for a long time. China - known in antiquity as "Serica", a name derived from the Greek word for silk - held tight onto its monopoly, though silkmaking was already known in India, and possibly also in Thailand and Japan. Opened probably in the 2nd century BC, during the Han Dynasty, the Silk Road connected China with Rome, Egypt and Greece, where the textile was highly coveted by the upper classes. Persia, located in a strategic position between East and West, gained advantage from the popularity of this luxurious textile, and became a major centre for silk trade under the Parthian Empire (247 BC - 224 AD).

The silkmaking process ceased to be a secret outside China around the mid-6th century, thanks to Byzantine emperor Justinian I. According to contemporary accounts (in particular the one by historian Procopius of Caesarea), two monks ostensibly sent to China by the emperor as missionaries smuggled silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire by hiding them into hollow bamboo canes. The Empire thus became the main centre of silk manufacturing in the West, dominating the industry for many centuries and introducing innovative weaving equipment and techniques.

Silkmaking eventually spread outside the boundaries of the Byzantine Empire; silk production thrived in the Islamic world and around the Mediterranean basin. In the High Middle Ages, Italy became the most important silk producer in the West.

Answer: Caedmon

What we know about Caedmon's life and work is contained in Bede's "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" (ca. 731). According to the Early Medieval scholar, Caedmon was a lay brother who cared about cows and other domestic animals at the monastery of Streonęshalch (later known as Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire) in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria. Though ignorant of the art of song (and probably also illiterate), one night he had a dream in which someone approached him and asked him to sing "the beginning of created things". Caedmon initially refused, but eventually produced a short poem in the vernacular (Old English) - which led to him to taking monastic vows and becoming a prolific poet when he was already of advanced age.

Though, according to Bede's account, Caedmon wrote many vernacular poems on various Christian topics, only nine lines of his original poem remain, written in the alliterative verse that characterizes early Germanic poetry. Known from 21 manuscript copies, Caedmon's Hymn is one of the three earliest attested examples of Old English poetry - alongside the runic inscriptions on Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket (both dating from the 8th century).

Caedmon (whose name is believed to be of Celtic, possibly Welsh, origin) is one of only 12 Anglo-Saxon poets identified in medieval sources, and one of only three for whom some contemporary biographical information and literary output are available (the other two being King Alfred the Great and Bede himself). The name of the author of the epic poem "Beowulf", the most famous literary work in Old English, is not known. The cross erected to commemorate Caedmon in St Mary's Churchyard, Whitby, cites 680 as the date of composition of his hymn.

Answer: Indonesia

Located in Central Java (Indonesia), the temple of Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist temple. The massive, pyramid-like structure, built of volcanic rock taken from nearby quarries, consists of nine stacked platforms, topped by a central dome surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, and decorated by over 2,600 relief panels. Abandoned around the 14th century for reasons still unclear (though volcanic activity in the vicinity might have been a decisive factor), the temple lay hidden by thick vegetation and volcanic ash for centuries, either forgotten or viewed with superstitious dread by the native population. It was rediscovered in the early 19th century by British and Dutch colonial administrators (such as Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore), and restored various times during the 20th century. Now it is the most visited tourist site in Indonesia, designated as a World Heritage Site in 1991.

The monumental complex is likely to have been built towards the end of the 8th century or in the early 9th century during the rule of the Shailendra dynasty over the Hindo-Buddhist Mataram Kingdom, which flourished between the 8th and the 11th centuries in Central Java. Though no records remain of the temple's construction or intended purpose, comparisons between some of the carved reliefs and other inscriptions dating from the 8th and 9th century point to construction having lasted about 75 years. According to some sources, construction of Borobudur began under Dharanindra, the eighth Shailendra king, who ruled from 770 to 800.

The rule of the Shailendra dynasty is known for temple construction and the flourishing of classical Javanese art. Though much of their power was based on their maritime power, they also relied on agriculture, especially rice cultivation in the fertile Kedu Plain where Borobudur is located. Other remarkable temple complexes built on Java in the 8th and 9th centuries are the Buddhist temples of Sewu and Kalasan, and the massive Hindu temple compound of Prambanan.

Answer: dated printed book

On 25 June 1900, Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovered a large cache of documents sealed into one of the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, a renowned Buddhist site located on the Silk Road in the Chinese province of Gansu. Though the priceless documents found in the "Library Cave" and other nearby caves were mostly manuscripts, among them there were also some woodblock-printed texts - one of which was a copy of the influential "Diamond Sutra" bearing a date corresponding to 11 May 868. This text, which contains a dialogue between the Buddha and a senior monk, was originally written in Sanskrit, but has been translated in the languages of the East Asian countries with a tradition of Mahayana Buddhism. Now in the British Library, the dated copy of the Diamond Sutra found in the Mogao Caves is a scroll about 5 m (16 ft) long. Besides the date, the book also bears a colophon at its inner end, stating that the work was created by Wang Jie "for universal free distribution" - the first explicit public domain dedication in history.

Woodblock printing was probably invented during the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD), and was influenced by the spread of Mahayana Buddhism in China. Most of the earlier specimens of printing on paper, however, date from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Though the carving of the blocks was a labour-intensive process that required a lot of skill, the method allowed the production of a large number of impressions. The invention of movable type in 1041 did not impact the popularity of woodblock printing for a long time. What caused its decline, however, was the introduction of European engraving techniques in the 18th century.

Paper had already been used for centuries for book-printing in China when the Diamond Sutra was created.

Answer: smallpox

Also known by the Latin name of Rhazes, physician, philosopher and alchemist Abu Bakr al-Razi (ca. 865 - ca. 925) was one of the most influential figures of the Islamic Golden Age, particularly in the field of medicine. He produced a large number of writings on many subjects throughout his career, some of them of monumental proportions, such as the medical encyclopedia "Al-Kitab al-Hawi" (translated as "The Comprehensive Book on Medicine"), which includes his treatise on measles and smallpox.

Written when al-Razi was serving as chief physician of the Bimaristan (hospital) of Baghdad, and based on his first-hand experience, the 14 chapters of "A Treatise on the Small-Pox and Measles" describe the symptoms of smallpox, and establish criteria for diagnosing the disease - which were used until the 18th century. Though the origin of the disease was explained by a theory of fermentation of blood (viruses being still unknown at the time), most of al-Razi's observations are true to reality - including the fact that, although in their initial stages smallpox and measles may have similar symptoms, each of them also had specific signs that enabled a physician to make a correct diagnosis.

Al-Razi's views on medical matters were extremely progressive for his times, debunking some of the theories that had been widely followed in the past. He was particularly vehement in his condemnation of charlatans that traveled around the countryside, peddling their fake medicines and miracle cures. He also wrote one of the first medical manuals dedicated to the general public, bearing the self-explanatory title of "For One Who Has No Physician to Attend Him".

Once one of the most lethal infectious diseases, smallpox was eradicated at a global level in 1980. It is one of only two infectious diseases to have been eradicated so far - the other being rinderpest, a disease of cattle and wild ungulates.