So from what I understand brothels were pretty prominent during medieval times and contraception didn't exist as we know it today. So the big question is how did prostitutes avoid getting pregnant?

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Pretty much what the questions suggests. How did people record the year before we started using the birth of Christ as a reference point? Was there a standard way of doing it across a broad population or did it differ between civilizations?

So I've been curious about this one. This is probably as much a question about the historiography as about the history itself.

The Anglo-Normans were the folks (largely Normans) who crossed over from Britain in 1169 and conquered large chunks of Ireland in the Medieval period. They spread things like stone castles and towns across the areas they ruled, before their control weakened in the 14th century (I've heard it connected with the Black Death) and "native" Irish lords reasserted control. The Anglo-Normans nevertheless remained a major political force until the Tudor period, at least.

So my question is: how long did they remain a distinct group?

Normans as Normans (and explicitly not Saxons) seem to have disappeared from England really within a couple of generations. Did a separate identity persist longer in Ireland? Do concepts such as "Anglo-Norman", or "Old English" have more to do with a modern (19th-20th century) nationalist reinterpretation of Irish history (meaning they are seen as something apart from the "native" Irish, even if they assimilated to being "more Irish than the Irish themselves")? Did they retain Norman French as a language? Or speak English dialects like the Yola and Fingal dialects? Does it even make sense to speak of Anglo-Normans as a group outside of aristocratic circles?

Do you know any actual accounts and stories of the Chinese who sold or bought or consumed Opium during that period of time?

I'm trying to find some for my history project, I will cite you when I'm done.

I'm curious as to how the Ivies became known as the Ivies and how the schools decided who was in and who was not. They're not all the oldest schools in the US (because William and Mary and UVA aren't considered Ivies), and they weren't in a historical educational consortium together (at least, not that I know of). So how did a bunch of seemingly random Northeastern schools become known as the Ivies, and how did they come to be known as the most prestigious schools in America?

Why not answer to Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, or even a city in Aksum?

This is about the classical cuisine from Europe. Classic dishes etc. Why is French and Italian cuisine so much more relevant then any other cuisine to this day ?

When I say fail I mean not grow further than what they did.

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia!

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Come share the cool stuff you love about the past! Please don’t just write a phrase or a sentence—explain the thing, get us interested in it! Include sources especially if you think other people might be interested in them.

AskHistorians requires that answers be supported by published research. We do not allow posts based on personal or relatives' anecdotes. All other rules also apply—no bigotry, current events, and so forth.

For this round, let’s look at: Relationships between people and animals! Tell me about cats and medieval anchoresses; tell me about a specific horse and its favorite rider. One dog, many dogs...let’s hear the stories!

Next time: Monsters!

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It's listed after Sargon of Akkad so I'm assuming it is the part of the list which is more or less historical.

Did the Byzantine Empire send "recruiters" to Scandinavia and England or did the members make their way to Constantinople themselves, having heard of the job opportunity?

From Wikipedia: “This 4 May surrender would become effective at 8:00 am on 5 May; so Dönitz ordered all ships involved in Operation Hannibal to undertake a covert final evacuation voyage, while also unilaterally ordering all U-boat actions to cease. One crew in the evacuation fleet refused to set sail; so Dönitz ordered the ringleaders to be arrested for mutiny, tried by summary court martial, and shot.”

What’s the story behind those German mutineers?

Probably this was already asked. Then I'll just read the existing answer.

As mentioned in the title, that's my question. Seeing how people at our time having troubles distincting those things I wonder if there is any methodology being developed at the moment so that historical records about our time and probably future time will actually reflect something that really happened and what will actually constitute the fact. Will the fabricated facts be labelled as "fake" or will it be like two equal "accounts" of some hapenning. Or will it entirely depend on how good the fake was. I am sure there were already in the past attempts to make "fakes" and probably given a significant amount of time - it is much easier to see the whole picture. But is there some kind of tool that historians have in order to distinct real and not fake.