Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Something that always gives Beachcombing a kick is to run across an archaeological discovery from three or, preferably, four centuries ago and try and understand what on earth our ancestors…

…and opium have been found in antique tombs. There were certainly drugs around then ‘back in the day’. But the worrying thing about this particular discovery was that tobacco and…

…Europe is the pivot in western history and the suprising fulfilment of the sterile dreams of the Renaissance. Christian Europe suddenly found itself able to match its own opinion of…

…to what Europeans believed several centuries ago, but this goes way beyond anything even the most demented European peasant got up to! It’s probably politically incorrect to point out that…

…of western Europe. Fingers crossed… Beach has gathered several of his favourite history articles sent in below with huge thanks to readers. However, other good offworld stuff included David Cameron’s…

Beach continues to enjoy pickpocket stories. This one was told of James White (skinny White) a pickpocket, who died in 1895 and who was ‘the cleverest pickpocket in Europe’. His…

…place at Portmahomack in Ross-shire (Scotland): the Tommies trumped that by some thirty years though. Is 1915 the latest zombie-proofed burial recorded for Western Europe? drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com…

…type of Negro) who inhabited South Africa when it was first discovered by Europeans, and who still exist in the south-western part of that continent, like the European and Asiatic…

…The European Union did not end war in Europe. The desire to end war in Europe, particularly on the part of the French and Germans, made the European Union possible….

…in many British newspapers. Great excitement was caused in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel on Friday morning by the discovery of the remains a number of children covered over by a…

Beachcombing noted in this place a month ago – death-dealer of Kovno – that an important new book on Germany’s wartime atrocities is coming out: Hitler’s Foreign Executioners: Europe’s Dirty…

A rather off-the-wall post reflecting on some of the imagery used in the last few days as the UK begins its long, hard crash out of the European Union. While…

…[this would later be changed to ‘75% Russia’] Bulgaria Russia 75% And so less than a year before the end of hostilities millions of Europeans were condemned to the gulag…

…Italians at this date created: the first publicly-owned companies; they pioneered insurance; they opened the first proper European banks; they invented the cheque book; they rejigged the legal codes to…

…by goblins! The myth seems to have arisen because a nobleman, wishing to have a state-of-the-art castle, brought in masons and other experts from Europe, resulting in sophisticated architecture the…