HISTORY’S GREATEST CONUNDRUMS AND MYSTERIES SOLVED
COMPILED BY JONNY WILKES AND DANNY BIRD
What happened to the Temple of Artemis?
SHORT ANSWER The Wonder’s long history witnessed floods, enemy attacks and a bloke looking for his 15 minutes of fame
LONG ANSWER “I said, ‘Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand.’” This was how Antipater of Sidon, the Greek poet who drew up one of the definitive lists for the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, described his personal favourite, the Temple of Artemis. The pride of Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey), it attracted people from far and wide bringing gifts for the goddess, seeking sanctuary or admiring the multitude of carvings and statues within its forest of 127 columns.
In truth, this was the third version of the temple. After the first structure was destroyed in a flood, the fabulously wealthy sixth-century BC king of Lydia, Croesus, had a more magnificent replacement erected. This, in turn, ended in ruins too. On 21 July 356 BC, a man named Herostratus set fire to the wooden rafters for no reason other than a desire to be famous. (It worked, admittedly.)
Again, the temple was rebuilt and stood for centuries more, eventually being destroyed for good by the early fifth century AD thanks to raids by invading Goths and Christians looking to wipe out all things pagan. Still, some of the columns lived on to be transported to Constantinople to form part of the Hagia Sophia.
The site of the temple as it appears today
Did medieval peasants have terrible teeth?
Answered by Chris Dyer, emeritus professor of history at the University of Leicester
Medieval peasants had surprisingly good dental hygiene. For example, a study of remains excavated from a churchyard in Wharram Percy, Yorkshire, found that 68 per cent of the individuals displayed signs of tooth decay – rather higher than some other communities at that time, but considerably lower than the rates of tooth decay found in Victorian remains, which range between 79 and 91 per cent. Peasants would not have held much stock in tending to things like toothbrushing and flossing, but although their teeth often bore unsightly calcified plaque, their oral health was surprisingly robust.
One key factor distinguishing them from later generations was their diet. Medieval peasants mainly consumed bread and porridge, devoid of the sugar-laden tr
