LIVING HISTORY


From anicent cultural sites to precious ancient artefacts, Europe’s islands are fi lled with historical intrigue and fascinating insights into the past. Words: Nora Wallaya


You’ve trundled the ash-swept streets of Pompeii. You’ve climbed the steps up to the mighty Acropolis — you’ve even welled up when the sun rose for the solstice at Stonehenge. Europe’s ancient pin-ups certainly deserve their hype. Relics of civilisations lost to time, they’ve helped scholars of all disciplines to understand the modern world we live in — from the recently discovered 2,000-year-old Pompeiian still-life painting whose possible depiction of pizza blew the minds of food anthropologists, to the 700,000-year- old stone tools uncovered in a coal mine on the southern Peloponnese peninsula last summer. Due to islands’ natural geographic isolation, they’ve


often developed fl ourishes of fl oral and faunal evolution — Madagascar’s endemic giant, the elephant bird, was testament to that before its extinction. A degree of artistic licence could then be granted to apply that theory to human cultures. On Europe’s islands is where you’ll fi nd evidence of unique civilisations who thrived for many centuries, developing a way of life unlike anywhere else as attested by their food, art, music and languages. Each of these destinations have something to off er


travellers, from military history and culinary heritage, to art history and insights into our ancient natural world.


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