I was hoping someone might have material showing what happened to the remains of the "300", and if the remains of Leonidas ever actually made it back to Sparta, or if they are still there?

Recently I stumbled across this idea of 'Ecological Amnesia' that basically states that over generations we forget about how much better the environment actually used to be. For example, I'm used to walking into a park and maybe only hearing 3-5 birds tweeting, but my grandparents would find it strange that there aren't 10 birds tweeting.

This made me think, how much better would the environment have been for a peasant living in medieval Europe? If they travelled to our time period and walked around a forest, would they be freaked out about how few fauna and flora there are?

Was watching a play-though of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and I noticed even the title of the game is written in this flowing calligraphy. How did this type of text associated with 16th century Christian monks become synonymous with 90's gang culture in major US cities?

I would like to know the approximate frame of time in which a military would no longer issue it's rank-and-file soldiers weapons specifically for hand-to-hand combat, such as pikes and swords. (I'm not counting bayonets in this, since I know bayonets were standard issue and are still used today).

For the purposes of this question, let's not count officers carrying swords or sabre-wielding cavalry either. I am aware of the existence of the pike and shot style of combat, but a significant component of this tactic would be soldiers whose main weapon was a melee weapon such as a pike or halberd.

For further clarification, I'm thinking more of European armies when posing this question although I'm open to answers that pertain to armies from anywhere. At what point in time did armies no longer issue pikes or swords to its regular infantry?

May be too simple a question for this sub, but it’s bugging me. I remember reading or hearing about a British doctrine in which the Royal Navy was expected to be more powerful than the next two navies. What’s the doctrine called or did I make it up?

i have to write a thesis on 2 subjects (self chosen) which is history and maths, but im stuck trying to find an interesting person to write about that is both not too complicated math whise and relatively easy to link to the historical period he/she lived in. my thoughts currently are Ramanujan (but his math works might be a bit too complicated for me) or maybe some anchient greek mathematicians (but those are a bit overdone) another option is to maybe do it on something like the enigma machine which is easy to link math to history with. so please hit me up with any interesting subjects you guys know of, just name is fine.

I appreciate this is complex but I am struggling to understand in full a solid definition of postmodernism. My go to would be Lyotard, that it is a critique of the modern, not a historical epoch, and a rejection of meta-narratives. Yet still, I only feel about 60-70% sure what this exactly means. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi all,

My father is a white South African and married a Dutch woman, resulting in me, also white. When I tell people I am South African the question ‘why aren’t you black’ or ‘where are you really from?’ pops up quite often.

My last name is possibly German, if you view the word separately, but I can image that in 1650 it was a Dutch last name as well. Right now it’s just a South African last name.

My main question is what is the chance that my ancestors where slave traders? I often tell people as reply to the questions above that my ancestors might have been slave traders from The Netherlands, but no one has a clue. It would be nice if I could give these people meaningful answers instead of a vague answer.

Thanks in advance!

Repost of interesting question by u/LaBitedeGide

"I was reading Shin Buddhism: An Introduction by Takfumi Hirose, a Shin Buddhist priest and former professor of Buddhism at Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University. He claims in the book that before the Pureland Buddhist preaching of Shinran (founder of his branch), Buddhism was purely an elite religion. However, I have also read that from the time of the Emperor Tenmu, it was a requirement for every house to have a Buddhist alter and every region to have a Buddhist temple where sermons and festivals occurred. Is this claim a sectarian jibe at pre-existing religious structures or was popular Buddhism really non-existant before Shinran?"

Were there coffins? Were they thrown overboard, cremated? Thanks!

I recently relistened to Dan Carlin's "Blueprint for Armageddon" and he does touch on how many of the troops suffered from "shell shock", or as we now know it a form of PTSD. And of course we have quite a bit of knowledge about PTSD from all subsequent wars.

But I'm curious, especially with WW1 and the nature of the battles sending thousands and thousands of troops to their deaths to gain a few inches of ground at a time, or sometimes just trying to kill as many people as possible as a metric for victory, did the commanders or generals ever become overwhelmed and suffered from any form of PTSD as a result of their orders?

For example, at Verdun there were something like a million casualties with no tactical or strategic advantage taken by either side(please correct me if this is wrong). I cannot imagine being the person ordering those soldiers to their deaths on such a scale and not being deeply effected by that for the rest of my life.

I’ve been looking deep into Chinese history from about the 1890’s to 1949, and I find it hard to get a scope on how many warlords there were during the Warlord Era. I can reliably find info on most cliques (ie; the ones in the major provinces) but I’m assuming there have to be some more “minor” warlords that weren’t totally lost to history.

Today, the popular perception of Al-Andalus is that of a tolerant centre of arts and learning. But I can't imagine that this is what 15th century Spanish academics and public alike would have viewed the Moors. How has perceptions of Al-Andalus evolved? Furthermore, what's the current academic discourse among historians regarding Al-Andalus?

I had read that one of the main trade items involved the European "purchase" of slaves in Africa was alcohol in one form or another; was liquor still a major commodity after the slave trade was abolished?

When you see a relatively condensed explanation of Roman history a lot of time between the establishment of the empire and the adoption of Christianity is ignored. There were plenty of civil and external wars and changes in politics and economy but they aren't considered that important. However, you always hear about Diocletian. And I fail to grasp why is he the most important person in 3 centuries. He made a grand reform but it didn't outlive him, didn't it? So what am I missing, why is he considered so important?

If the USA didn't warn the cities in advance of the bombings, then almost certainly some non-Japanese people were caught in the blast, right? Were any of them from Allied countries? How did their leaders react to the USA's murder of their citizens?