Answer:
7. Far-right white supremacist ideology is on the rise in Europe, North America and Australia. It appeals to a racist notionwhereby many white supremacists see themselves as members of a “pure” race that is at risk of dilution and contamination.
Science does not support the idea of pure races with ancient origins. In the past few years, genetic sequencing of ancient and modern humans and related species has given us a flood of new information about how human populations have evolved.
The evidence reveals a history of ongoing genetic mingling, due to interbreeding between different populations and even species. Humans from different groups had children together, and even with Neanderthals and members of other now-extinct hominin species.
This mingling occurred constantly in the long process of human migration across the globe. Europeans inhabit one region of a large genetic continuum and are no more or less “pure” than any other population.
8. decline of the Roman Empire during the fourth century CE largely resulted in widespread political and economic chaos in western Europe, which endured for the better part of four centuries, a period that, not surprisingly, is referred to as the Dark Ages.
The social chaos, incessant warfare, plagues and general economic instability during that period resulted in a marked reduction in gold mining in the region.
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Because of the significant decline in gold production, the precious metal did not circulate to the extent it had circulated in ancient Greece and Rome. Thus, the inability to use the precious metal as currency compelled the Early Medieval kingdoms to use poor-quality copper-based coinage to conduct small-scale trading transactions.
Only in the Byzantine-controlled areas – basically what was left of the Roman Empire after its collapse in the west – were gold coins still used for trade.
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Any gold that was mined during that period tended to be accumulated in hoards – usually the king’s – and was used for gifts and bribes, and to buy expensive goods.
Gold was also held in high regard by the dominant Catholic church, which considered it a symbol of eternity and light. During the Early Medieval period, it had little material value for the church but was used to visually represent the religious value of its most important objects, including crowns, altars, reliquaries and bibles.
While gold declined in importance during the Early and High Medieval ages, at least as a form of currency, it was swiftly replaced by robust silver coinage. From the eighth century onwards, silver coinage was used widely across Europe as the main form of currency.
Europe was richly endowed with silver-bearing ore deposits, the mining of which was particularly prevalent in Medieval Britain.
Unfortunately, the adoption of silver coinage largely coincided with the Viking Age, which was a period of much pillaging and looting.
Indeed, from the eighth century onwards, the coastal regions of northern and western Europe, as well as Great Britain and Ireland, were subjected to waves of raids by Vikings, whose chief prize was silver coinage.
In fact, it is estimated that some 400 t of silver was either looted or extorted by the Vikings from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms alone.
By 880 CE, the Vikings had looted Europe’s coinage so effectively that they killed the ‘silver goose’.
After the coastal areas of Europe had been looted to exhaustion, power centres inevitably shifted toward the inner regions of the continent, particularly towards south-east Germany.
The shift in power was given considerable stimulus when, in 938 CE, an enormous silver-, lead- and copper-bearing orebody was discovered at Rammelsberg, in eastern Germany. The deposit proved so rich that the mine continued producing well into the modern era, closing down in 1988, after celebrating its 1 050th anniversary.
Rammelsberg became the single most important source of silver, lead and copper in central Europe during the Middle Ages and, because of the phenomenal tonnages that were yielded from that mine, silver coinage, once again, became increasingly prevalent.