I just realized the other day:
At the time of the crusades (11th - 13th centuries), there existed no maps (in the sense of an actual lay of the land) of europe or the levant. It wasn't until the late 15th century that Fra. Angelico produced his rough outline, and even then it only circulated among the elite (and many of the crusades were 'grass-roots' movements), and only a handful of copies were made. Furthering the lack of geographical knowledge was the fact that migration and trade were limited to very small local areas, and so contact with foreigners would have been near unknown. And YET - tens of thousands of peasants and knights made their way to the holy land to fight their zealous battles. How did they know which way to go to get there???
and then i realized: all churches of the time were built facing east - to face jerusalem and the rising sun/son which that signified. This knowledge would have been passed down from bishop to bishop and church architect to church architect, and it is the only way i can figure the crusaders knew which way to go. And so via oral history from the first apostles to the poor english peasants a thousand years later - knowledge of where the holy lands were was passed down, allowing the zealous to have a vague idea of where they were headed.
Cool!
Made me realize that it would have felt a lot more like a crazy treasure hunt than my GPS-oriented mind had previously painted the picture.
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4 comments:
This is a really cool idea, Ben, but I don't really buy it. For one, I thought trade routes were pretty extensive--Marco Polo made his trip around the same time, and while no doubt some of it was aimless wandering, I think he had a decent idea of how to get where he was going. Barring that, couldn't people have followed rivers? Also, the crusades were drummed up and financed, if not actually fought, by the rich and educated, who probably would also have known how to get there. After all, in 1054 the pope's messengers set out from Rome to Constantinople, and we know how they fared...
dude, what a killjoy!
and the worst part is, you're not even right! Marco polo travelled in the later part of the 13th century - the first crusade set out in the 11th! - and MP is considered the founder of said trade-routes - he didn't know where he was going and that was the whole point! He was exploring! also - there was a HUGE cultural divide between the cold north and the meditteranean nations; There is a HUGE difference, geographically and culturally between rome-constantinople and Paris-Jerusalem. Now although you may be right in that there probably was some communication via envoy amidst the elites, the directions would still have been impossibly vague given the lack of geographic knowledge at the time and a nearly non-existent road system.
ok. so just now I read some wiki pages - apparantly the crusades weren't led by british monarchs with a few frenchies tagging along. hahahahhahaha.
thanks for nothing, Disney history!
i.e. point conceded.
Ha, I totally thought "Man, I'm being such a killjoy" as I was writing that. And I'll concede Marco Polo :)
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