Book notes: The Year 1000

By Valerie Hansen.

This book caught my eye at Secret Garden books.

Pretty much as advertised, the book takes you on a tour of the world in the year 1000. The epilogue gives the inspiration for the book… the author noted a confluence of significant world events around the year 1000 and wondered if they might be related. It turns out the world was becoming connected by exploration and trade routes.

My biggest takeaway from this book is an epoch in time in which to compare other history. I knew about Ghengis Kahn but couldn’t tell you when he mixed it up on the Asian Steppe, now I have some context to remember it was around 1200. It’s impossible to remember most of the detail in this book on a single reading, but it paints a compelling picture about what life was like in that time.

There aren’t many written accounts from that time. Some are spoken stories that were written down hundreds of years later. “To judge the reliability of such accounts, the best method is to compare one report with the other available sources and form an opinion about whether it rings true.” (p16) Much of the book takes this approach: giving an account and then listing what evidence exists to corroborate. An example is the Norse sagas that describe their discovering America in 1000, along with evidence such as the bronze ring-headed pin dug out on Newfoundland in the 1960s, and paintings of blond warriors at Chichén Itzá on the Yukatan Peninsula.

You better join a warband and get some slaves, because everyone was doing it. Islam had laws requiring you free your slaves eventually, so they were in constant need of more slaves. The idea of The word slave comes from the Eastern European “Slav”. The first evidence of anyone thinking slavery was a bad idea came around 1750.

Other interesting tidbits:

• There were 250 million people at the time.
• China was the most advanced country, with 100 million people.
• There was a sea route from the Persian gulf to South China.
• “Bluetooth” wireless technology was named after King Harald Bluetooth, who united Denmark and Norway (briefly).
• Take a drink anytime a breast is slapped with a sword or the Chinese discuss aromatics. ;-)