What's the Deal With Garden Eels?
From Nation, For Nation - Pulse of the Nation
Robyn Slain Will Make Your Head Spin
How Jim Thorpe Went From Olympic Athlete To Quaint Pennsylvanian Town
Jim Thorpe was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States. Also a professional baseball player, Thorpe played six seasons for the New York Giants. In 1954, a Pennsylvania municipality renamed itself after the all-American hero and bought his remains, despite Thorpe never residing in-or even visiting-the town.
Born on May 28, 1888, in present-day Oklahoma, Jim Thorpe was one of the most successful all-around American athletes of the 20th century. At the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, he won two gold medals, one for the decathlon and the other for the classic pentathlon (in which he won four of five events). When being awarded his medals, King Gustav V of Sweden told Thorpe, “Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world.”
However, only a year later, Thorpe was stripped of this honor after an investigation conducted by the Amateur Athletic Union revealed that he had played semiprofessional baseball from 1909 to 1910, disqualifying him from Olympic competition. Many people believe that Thorpe was deprived of his medals due to his ethnicity. It wasn’t until 1983 that the International Olympic Committee officially reinstated Thorpe’s medals and even that came at a cost-he was (and still is) listed as co-champion, rather than the all-out winner.
Thorpe passed away on March 28, 1953, at the age of 65 in Lomita, California. After his funeral in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and unbeknownst to his family, Thorpe’s third wife, Patricia Thorpe, shipped his body to two small Pennsylvania towns after hearing that they wanted to attract more tourists. The towns “bought” Thorpe’s body, built a monument in his honor, merged, and renamed the municipality Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. Thorpe had never lived in or visited the town, although he had attended an industrial school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 100 miles west of the borough.
In 2010, Thorpe’s son, Jack Thorpe, filed a federal lawsuit against the municipality. He wanted to have his father returned to his homeland of Shawnee and be buried closer to the family. In the lawsuit, Jack cited the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and claimed that the arrangement between Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and his stepmother went against the wishes of the family. In 2013, a district judge ruled against Jack’s favor, stating that the borough amounted to a museum under the NAGPRA and was legally bound. In 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the judge’s ruling, stating that the borough was not a “museum” and therefore could not legally be in possession of Thorpe’s remains. The court of appeals called the judge’s ruling “absurd.” In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case, ending the legal proceedings for good.
Today, Jim Thorpe remains at rest in his namesake town. The monument site contains his tomb, a marker depicting his legacy, and two statues of him in athletic poses. The gravesite rests on soil from Thorpe’s native Oklahoma and from the Stockholm stadium where he competed in the 1912 Olympic games.
Although the borough originally bought Thorpe’s remains to generate more business, it didn’t seem to work out. Instead, thousands of tourists visit Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, every year for the area’s art festivals and outdoor recreational activities. Sadly, the memorial largely goes unnoticed.
→
From Globe, For Globe - Pulse of the Planet
The vikings had a soft spot for furry companions!
More than 1,000 years ago, Vikings sailed west toward England with their pets onboard their ships, according to a new study published in the journal PLOS One. And when they died, the Vikings built a massive funeral pyre, cremated the animals alongside their human companions, and interred the remains in the same burial mounds.
Together in Life and Death
Researchers examined Heath Wood, a cremation cemetery in central England, and uncovered animal and human remains dating back to the ninth century A.D. The Vikings put the human remains into a giant funeral pyre and set it on fire before raking the remains and removing pieces of bone, lead author Tessi Löffelmann told Live Science. “I find this intriguing because that means there was no clear separation between animals and humans any longer - everything kind of became part of the same thing, something new,” she noted.
What made these cremations particularly interesting was that during that era in England, most people were burying their dead. This would have made the Viking funeral pyres quite a spectacle. They were gigantic, ablaze for several hours, and visible for miles.
Löffelmann noted, “I imagine that this whole event would have lasted well into the night, and the light would likely have been seen from nearby Repton.”
Bountiful Burial Mounds
The Vikings invaded England’s southeastern coast in 865, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In the 1940s and 1950s, archaeologists discovered nearly 60 burial mounds in Heath Wood near the village of Repton. They analyzed 20 of the mounds and uncovered swords, shields, and human remains. Researchers also found evidence of sharp force trauma. In one burial mound, they found the remains of an adult and a younger person alongside bones from a dog, horse, and what appeared to be a pig.
The chemical analysis of the bones is notable because it revealed that the animals and one of the adults were not native to England but rather Scandinavia. These findings indicate that the Vikings brought their animals with them to the west. It’s evidence that during the late ninth century people and animals migrated from Scandinavia to England. The animals could have been used for transportation, food, and companionship. There may have also been other types of animals in the burial mounds, but it can be challenging to identify them in cremation graves.
Digging a Little Deeper
Löffelmann explained, “I think that the horse and the dog certainly were companions but am less sure about the rest of the animals,” she said. “We know that animals were intricately woven into the mythology of Scandinavia at the time.”
It’s possible that the remains belonged to members of the Viking Great Army; however, Viking archaeologist Cat Jarman, who was not part of the study, told Live Science that Heath Wood radiocarbon dating points to a time period up to the 10th century, which is after the army’s raids, suggesting “an ongoing migration well beyond the historically recorded Great Army movements.”
→
Referred by ripleys.com - where the world’s most extraordinary stories are discovered and celebrated.