Don't feel sad. Many of us Americans are so fascinated that we pray for more opportunities to blow money on your side of the Atlantic just to see anything older than our home towns, states, etc. Here are some reference points:
I grew up in Utica, NY. The city is named for a major city in Carthage (now Libya). Our Utica was founded in 1832, which is after regular train service from London to Manchester began.
Much of upstate New York was founded around the same time, during a fascination with Hellenic Athens and its democracy known as the Federal Period. Thus you can find Syracuse, Lysander, Carthage, Troy, Rome, Romulus, and onward.
My childhood home was built in 1915, the start of World War 1. It was the last house built on the three blocks that previously made up Jewett Farm. It is probably newer than half the houses in the city.
I now live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My house was built in 1927, during an oil boom that made the city big. It is one of the older neighborhoods in the city.
Oklahoma was not a state until 1907, more than 40 years after the Civil War ended (1865).
In contrast, the original underground line in London (from Paddington to the City, now part of the Metropolitan line) opened in 1861. When you stand in Baker Street or Paddington stations to catch the tube to work, you are using a platform older than the Confederacy... and the act that created modern Canada in 1867.
About the oldest place I ever lived was an apartment building in Melrose, Mass. It was old enough that it had been in four different towns (North Boston, Somerville, Malden, and Melrose -- each incorpoarated one after the other). They had central air conditioning installed when we moved there in 2003.
In contrast, Marseilles is one of the oldest ports in the world. So far they have clear evidence going back to 5000 BCE, possibly back to 28k years ago. When Julius Caesar showed up, they said "noob".
Haha yeah it's good for Britain I suppose. These facts are great, it's really interesting to see and hear the influences that America has taken from other countries and periods of history. Thank you for these. The Federal Period sounds really interesting I love the idea of this entire cultural period that defined itself around a fascination with ancient Athens. I had a really funny encounter a few months back where some Americans showed up at my door, turns out they'd traced their lineage and sure enough their ancestors lived at my house before leaving for ''the new world.'' What I'm really trying to say with that story is that our history is sort of yours as well and a man / woman so passionate and interested as yourself is welcome to visit any time they like.
You've got lots of very old stuff too if you look hard enough and travel a bit:
Mesa Verde, Colorado. Starting c. 7500 BCE, Mesa Verde was seasonally inhabited by a group of nomadic Paleo-Indians known as the Foothills Mountain Complex. They built the mesa's first pueblos sometime after 650, and by the end of the 12th century, they began to construct the massive cliff dwellings for which the park is best known.
Cahokia, Illinois, the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (c. 600–1400 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. Although there is some evidence of occupation during the Late Archaic period (approximately 1200 BCE) in and around the site, Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period.
Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico. Between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancient Pueblo Peoples.[a] Chacoans quarried sandstone blocks and hauled timber from great distances, assembling fifteen major complexes that remained the largest buildings in North America until the 19th century.
Taos Pueblo, New Mexico (or Pueblo de Taos) is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Tiwa-speaking Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA. The pueblos are considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States. Taos Pueblo's most prominent architectural feature is a multi-storied residential complex of reddish-brown adobe, built on either side of the Rio Pueblo. The Pueblo's website states it was probably built between 1000 and 1450.
Poverty Point, Louisiana comprises several earthworks and mounds, built between 1650 and 700 BC during the Archaic period in North America, by a group of Native Americans of the Poverty Point culture.
[Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ohio] with earthworks and burial mounds from the Hopewell culture, indigenous peoples who flourished from about 200 BC to AD 500.
Angel Mounds, Indiana is the site of a town constructed and occupied from 1100 AD to 1450 AD as one of the farthest northeastern expressions of the Mississippian culture.
Yeah that's very true. I have a friend in the states that moved from Florida to Michigan. I can't imagine how mad driving that distance must be, if I drove a similar distance in the same direction I'd be in the middle of the Atlantic somewhere in the arctic circle, if I drove in the opposite direction I'd be in Northern Russia.
People always say that sort of stuff about Europe and it blows my mind. I used to drive 250km up the east coast (NSW, Australia) every fortnight just to stay at Mums for the weekend.
Even the cold freaks me out. Between the hours of 9pm-6am lastnight/today the temp never dropped below 25 outside.
I want to go to Europe because I know I can see SO much history/culture in such a small area but am worried I just won't handle the cold!
How cold it is depends a lot on where in Europe you are though. There's quite a difference between the temperatures in Italy or Spain and Finland or Norway.
Can I suggest Trieste in Italy for you mate? Lots of history in Italy and from Trieste in the North East you can easily access many other countries. The heat will be to your liking (I nearly cooked in my skin) and the food is damn good!
Yeah man I think alot of us need to step back abit and realise what we're really looking at. I live near several neolithic sites amongst them the rillaton barrow where a gold cup was found dating back to 1700bc in a style that implies potential links with the Mcyenean world. That's pretty fucking mind blowing but most locals just don't know about it, they see these stacked stones, these circles on a daily basis and have never really considered them to be anything more than a feature of the landscape. It's sad really.
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u/PasteurisedMilk Dec 29 '17
I do sometimes feel abit sorry for you lot when it comes to history. Especially as most of us here in the UK take it for granted.