This Week In History News, Feb. 10 – 16

Published February 15, 2019

Study shows Native American genocide caused ice age, Hitler's paintings go up for auction, text reveals medieval nun fled to "pursue carnal lust."

Genocide Of Native Americans Left So Much Untended Land That Earth’s Climate Cooled, New Study Shows

Native Americans Hunting

PixabayAn oil painting by John Stanley depicting Native Americans hunting, 2013.

Scientists from University College London posited that the European colonization of America that resulted in the mass death of Native Americans actually caused the Little Ice Age.

According to the study, the Native American genocide, often referred to as “The Great Dying” not only reduced the continent’s population by countless millions but subsequently allowed global temperatures to fall drastically.

Discover more about the Little Ice Age here.

Hitler’s Signed Artworks, Including Nude Drawing Of His Niece, Went Up For Auction

Adolf Hitler Sitting On A Table

Wikimedia CommonsAdolf Hitler at his Berghof residence in the Bavarian Alps. 1936.

Nuremberg’s Auktionshaus Weidler recently held an auction unlike any other, as more than 30 autographed paintings and drawings by Adolf Hitler were offered up to the highest bidder.

The pieces were largely comprised of watercolor paintings and range from around $150 for a drawing of a little town’s monastery to $51,000 for a landscape painting of a village by a lake. One other notable inclusion is a nude drawing of Geli Raubal — Hitler’s nice.

Read on here.

Medieval Nun Faked Her Own Death To Escape Convent And ‘Pursue Carnal Lust’

Angel And Nun

Pexels

Committing to the lifelong pursuit of being a nun and living in a convent is one that requires extreme commitment — particularly in the 14th century. For Joan of Leeds, a rather rebellious English nun at St. Clement’s Nunnery in Yorke, a change in pursuits required extreme measures — namely, escape.

Archivists at the University of York recently uncovered Joan’s fascinating backstory while translating and digitizing 16 registers of York’s archbishops used to document current events between 1304 and 1305.

What they found was a tale of intrigue and admirable cunning, as Joan faked her own death by creating a dummy “in the likeness of her body” and placing it among actual corpses before running away.

Dig deeper here.

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All That's Interesting
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Established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together a dedicated staff of digital publishing veterans and subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science. From the lesser-known byways of human history to the uncharted corners of the world, we seek out stories that bring our past, present, and future to life. Privately-owned since its founding, All That's Interesting maintains a commitment to unbiased reporting while taking great care in fact-checking and research to ensure that we meet the highest standards of accuracy.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.