Ancient History Archives – THE PAGE TURNS

May 22, 2026May 23, 2026

Decoration Days

The tradition of roses and the military go back 2000 years to the Romans. Annually, the Memorial Day Flowers Foundation hands out over 120,000 roses and carnations in Arlington National Cemetery (U.S. Army photo by Rachel Larue)

This coming weekend is Memorial Day weekend, officially an observance to honor fallen soldiers but unofficially the beginning of the summer. We have Congress in 1968 to thank for creating the Uniform Holiday Act, which turned many of our solemn, meaningful observances into convenient three-day weekends, perfect for getaways full of clogged traffic leaving town and home improvement projects that I don’t have enough time to finish because I didn’t start until Monday. On the other hand, the garage could use a spruce up…

I’ve never been able to warm up to Memorial Day, and trying to put my finger on it, I think it’s because of the hypocrisy. To the extent that there’s a typical saying besides “Hot Dogs Half OFF!” or “Beach is Open” or “Maybe there’s a frontage road around this mess…,” the speeches come from politicians determined to shape the idea of sacrifice into a battering ram to justify more use of force. It doesn’t help that every single American war in my lifetime has been about the elite in the US sending the have-not soldiers into places we should not be, but of course that’s not the fault of those in uniform, thank you for your service. (Don’t get me wrong; I would rather have a military than the alternative.) It just too often makes me think of those Jackson Browne lyrics:

I want to know who the men in the shadows are,
I want to hear someone asking them why,
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they’re never the ones to fight and to die…
Jackson Browne “Lives in the Balance”

Still, perhaps in penance for not sufficiently appreciating the sacrifice because of politicians’ crocodile tears, I can offer up a little historical journey. Not why America created Memorial Day because all those bot-churned quasi-stories will trace it to the Civil War. Instead, my question is was putting flowers on military graves always a thing? How did other, older cultures used to celebrate their dead? We’re one of the few cultures that only observes this for one day and restricts it to people in the military.

Meanwhile lots of other cultures, historically, set aside time to remember those who passed before us, especially family members.

April 28, 2026April 28, 2026

Y is for Yemen

And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not. And King Solomon gave unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
(I Kings 10 v.1-13)

Yemeni/Saban woman holding a sheaf of wheat. Tombstone carving. Wikimedia

She came up out of the desert, perfumed and oiled with the spices of her land, draped in pearls and precious gems, carried by a dozen muscular men who put her down gently as a feather. Although she bowed to grant him his due, in his kingdom, he took her hand and bowed his head in return, as she was also a great ruler, not just of a fine city but also of the whole of the legendary Saba to the south, spanning desert, water, and vast fields. They say the gardens flourished there, behind great walls with strange carvings that spoke of the reign of even older, mightier kings, of plagues, and of uprisings crushed like the flower of their incense trees.

Fast Facts

Named for: Arabic, either yamn, “blessed” or ymn, “to the right of Mecca.
Capital: Sanaa
Long/Lat: 15.2 N/44.1 E, 8900 miles or 19 hours east of Castro Valley
Population: 32.7 million or 48 CVs
Size: 176,000 sq mi or 1000 CVs
Avg temp in April: 79 F/26 C
Median household income: $12-15,000
Ethnicity: 93% Arab/2% Somali
Main industries: Oil, sorghum, qat. The region is too unstable to harvest much frankincense or myrrh, though Yemen remains a key source.

Yemen is another “only” country in Arabia–the only “Y”–just as Oman and Qatar were the only “O” and “Q.” Is there something about this place that gives rise to unique names, or is it just the language?

April 25, 2026April 25, 2026

V is for Vatican City

Fast Facts:

Named for: Vagitanus or the vagiti, the cry of a baby (Etruscan, maybe)
Capital: The Pope’s house at One Pope Lane
Long/Lat: 41.5 N/12.2 E, 6200 miles or 12 hours east of Castro Valley
Population: 882 and not a single cardinal more or less. 1% of CV.
Size: 0.19 sq mi, 1% of CV.
Avg temp in April: 70 F/20 C, very pleasant
Median household income: $20,000? but stats not published. Free room and board.
Ethnicity: Not published, but likely more diverse than expected. Only one religion, though.
Main industries: Proselytizing. Plus the merch!

Vatican City was originally a swamp. It’s located on the less breezy side of the Tiber, near Rome’s original arch enemy, the Etruscans. It was named either for a baby’s cry or for auspices drawn by the way birds fly or the way a liver appeared, which was (ironically) a significant part of Roman religious practices. Still, it was a marsh, dismal and ominous. Like the Bayou–popes were born on the bayou (with apologies to CCR).

Unlike some of these other countries, you probably have heard of it because it’s a Jeopardy question. What’s the smallest country in the world? Vatican City is also a true enclave, a country entirely contained within another country, along with San Marino and Lesotho and almost Eswatini (remember letter E?) It should not seem so strange for Vatican City to be its own country, considering that Rome itself used to be a “country,” not to mention an “empire” that would span more than 40 countries today if it still existed.