I have to write a paper concerning culture (he made the topic very broad on purpose) and I want to discuss how gun powder was used differently in different parts of the world. But is it fair to call gun powder a part of culture? It was technically used as entertainment in China, and artillery elsewhere.... Is artillery use a part of culture?

Our modern address system is ubiquitous, and it's hard to imagine a life without street names and house numbers... at least in the developed world. But how did people in ancient times do the things we take for granted today?

How would you send mail, in let's say the Roman Empire?
How would you meet your Athenian lover who lives far away? How would you arrange to meet up in the first place, without fast communication means?

I can imagine rural areas were chaotic as they still are today in many places. But I'm more wondering about huge well planned cities like Ur, Yinxu, Rakhigarhi, Babylon; Rome, Athens, Alexandria, and even later ones such as Baghdad and Beijing or even Tenochtitlan.

What address systems were used in ancient times, if any, and when did our modern address system arise? I'm basically interested in anything that isn't the modern thing we're used to.

I was under the impression that there was a dialect continuum in northern Germany/Denmark at the time. If so the language of the Angles should be near the middle of the dialect continuum of Jutes and Saxons? Then why is it that when they migrated to Britain the West Saxon dialect and the Kentish dialect are very similar and both are very different from the Anglian dialects?

There is not much information about his military career available online, was Thermopylae the only major battle during his kingship?

I tend to only here of the extinction of native cultures due to widespread infectious diseases brought by European settlers due to zero natural immunity, but are there any documented instances of the opposite: indigenous diseases becoming epidemics among the western populations?

It seems on the one side Phoenicianist Lebanese politics supposes a common united and recognized identity of the Phoenicians and those scholars on the other hand, for example, Josephine Quinn, assert that they had virtually no common identity and thus cannot be considered a real people or civilization.

They seemed to have identified themselves according to their city, true, but so did the Greeks while having a general idea of Hellas. Can we say that these city-states had some sort of awareness of their common language, religion, and geography that united them, or is the idea of Phoenicia a fabrication?

If the goal was extermination, why not just kill everyone or send them to the camps? Obviously NOT saying that's what they should've done.

So I'm writing a scene in my pirate book right now and I tried to do a google search but can't find an answer. How did pirates spar each other during downtime? Did they spar at all? Did they use sharpened blades or were there blunted swords that they used. I have no clue...

This is obviously a broad question. But I'm talking before firearms were invented. Swords and shields, meeting in a field and fighting...Roman, Dark ages, medieval. These historic battles are often depicted in modern media. But how long did they actually play out for? Were they drawn out over hours or over in minutes?

I'm looking for an introduction book on roman and greek engineering. Ideally, something that covers a wide topic and a large period of time. If there is nothing that general, then maybe these specifications might help clarify what I'm looking for.

era: roman late republic/early empire or greek 500 to 300 BCE

topic: military engineering (ships, siege equipment and so on), water distribution systems, architecture

Thank you for your suggestions : )

Edit: spelling

Throughout the 19th century, Ireland and Britain were united under the Acts of Union. This new political entity contained many ethnic groups, including the English, Scots, Welsh, and the Irish. I know today that English, Scots, and the Welsh still fall under the category of being "British" but the Irish largely do not. When Ireland was united with Britain, did people in and outside of the nation consider them "British" or just Irish?

I'm a third of the way through Stephen Kotkin's excellent Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928 and between the years 1905 to 1917, it seems as if Stalin was exiled to Siberia, escaped, recaptured, and subsequently exiled at least five different times, almost always by the Ohranka. After so many repeated escapes and rearrests, why didn't they just execute him? If an answer exists that is indeed exclusive to Stalin, than I'd extend my question to his revolutionary peers, who seem to possess the same pattern of exile, escape, repeat.

I've been looking for books about Nelson as a Christmas present for my Dad (inspired by Jack Aubrey) and would be grateful for expert recommendations. So far The Pursuit of Victory and The Sword of Albion seem the front runners, and was wondering if one of these would be worthwhile or if there are any others I should be looking at? I'd be very grateful for your advice!