Things that don't belong in Pre-Columbian Europe...

Ermm.... when is pre-Columbia?

Seems an odd way to mark it but what the hey. I didn't know telescopes were invented in South America.

And white wedding dresses started here when Queen Victoria wore one. I don't know about anywhere else.

Nikweikel said:

...but always seem to find their way into novels anyway.

1) Tomatoes.
2) Potatoes.
3) Hummingbirds.
4) Chocolates.
5) Cinderella carriages.
6) Birthday parties/birthday presents.
7) White wedding dresses.
8) Pockets in clothing.
9) Telescopes.
10) Platinum

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Hummingbirds? I can safely say I've never seen them turn up in Historical Europe in a novel.

And hummingbirds aren't native to anywhere in Europe even now, aren't they?

And there are mentions of birthday celebrations in the Bible, aren't there?

Nikweikel said:

It wasn't. But it wasn't invented before 1492 either.

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But why specifically 1492? You could pick almost any year and find an anachronism in one book or another.

mirandashell said:

And there are mentions of birthday celebrations in the Bible, aren't there?

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The Romans were known to throw extravagant birthday parties. I'm sure they weren't uncommon in European culture across history.

Wouldn't have thought so. Especially amongst the rich.

The thing is though.... these anachronisms are pretty well known and you don't see them that often in historical fiction. In films maybe cos ... you know... not all studios do their research. But in books not so much.

What on earth are you reading?

Nikweikel said:

I picked it simply because a lot of stuff was introduced into Europe at that time: tomatoes, chocolate, coffee, tabacco, pineapples, etc...that you can be certain didn't exist before then.

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Coffee is the odd one out in this list because it wouldn't have been in the pre-Columbian Americas, but some Europeans might have been familiar with it.

Oranges; the sweet kind. Oranges would be rare in general back in those days, and the ones you could find would taste more like lemons.

Corn. Native to americas.

I was dragged right out of an otherwise splendid story set during the American Civil War by a reference to the 'gene pool'. No. Just no.

Nikweikel said:

I picked it simply because a lot of stuff was introduced into Europe at that time: tomatoes, chocolate, coffee, tabacco, pineapples, etc...that you can be certain didn't exist before then.

Really, I just wanted to start a simple thread on anachronisms but with so many settings, and so many anachronisms, it would get unwieldy pretty quickly.

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Didn't the Romans bring Tomatoes with them when they settled/conquered Britain?

As to tobacco, I think it depends on how the writers are defining tobacco as many things were smoked...

thothguard51 said:

Didn't the Romans bring Tomatoes with them when they settled/conquered Britain?

As to tobacco, I think it depends on how the writers are defining tobacco as many things were smoked...

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Tomatoes are South American, so it's unlikely! The word tobacco is from the Caribbean, so it would be anachronistic to use it even for something other than the Neotropical plant.

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

There are other anachronisms too. The one that threw me was the reference to a lady in South America going to collect peacock feathers for indigenous capes. Peacocks are Indian.

Yeah, thothgard, I hate to tell you, but there was no tomato sauce anywhere on the Italian peninsula pre-Columbus.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal