So a google search shows that the Sami are considered the indigenous people of Scandinavia, and supposedly they're Europe's only official natives. However as far as I've understood it, Finno-Ugric peoples (to whom the Sami belong) arrived in Europe from Siberia well after the Indo-Europeans/Aryans, who most Europeans descend from. So what's the truth?

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Naomi Novik's excellent recent novel Spinning Silver features a Jewish family working as moneylenders in a village with no other Jews. The nearest Jewish community is in a city a full day's ride away.

The setting is ambiguous (its a fantasy novel, so not literally set in any real time/place), but it's reasonable to guess it's Lithuania in 1708-9 during the Great Frost.

As a fantasy novel, I'm not expecting it to perfectly reflect the reality of Jewish practice in early 18c Lithuania, but I'm curious to the extent that it does.

Would standard Jewish practice in 1708 Lithuania require the head of this household to live near a minyan for daily or weekly prayers? Or was it unremarkable for Jews to live outside of Jewish communities for business purposes?

Novak's novel includes an intermarriage between a Jewish girl and a gentile, officiated by a rabbi but (seemingly) without the gentile converting to Judaism. How likely is it that such a marriage could have found a rabbi willing to officiate?

What books would be good source material on the role of women in post Roman pre Norman Brittain?

I’ve always loved The Odyssey, but I’ve never understood how Odysseus could be king if his father is still alive.

Thank you in advance to anyone who can shed some light.

There have been a lot of times when this topic comes up in conversation or in a college class, and it feels like there are always people who think it was a terrible mistake.

The perspective I have always learned from books/documentaries/etc is that the bombs themselves are devastating and terrible (as can be seen in the museums with all of the firsthand imagery/accounts) but that it was the right decision because a mainland invasion would have caused even more death, and the Japanese would have never surrendered. Is this not the case, and what I’ve learned is just meant to make the events seem a little less terrible?

So, a friend was telling me about these 7 books that were in the ark of the covenant, wich gave Solomon its wisdom and changed his mind about religion, evolution and such. But I can't seem to find a single thing about this on the internet. Which makes my bullshit radar go off obviously.

Anyone here ever heard something about this?

During the French Revolution lot of heads got chopped off at the Place de la Revolution and as a law student I started to wonder that is it known what were the grounds of the death sentence for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette? Did the Revolutionary Tribunal hold a trial or any official sentencing for them?

The wiki page for the Cambodian Genocide says that 100% of Cambodian Viets were killed. Did the Khmer Rouge prioritize their genocide, and if so, why were they targeted?

I've seen reference to George Martin (of Beatles fame, not Game of Thrones fame) stating that Hitler and the Nazis " used ultra low range sound waves on crowds where Hitler was appearing, then shut them off right before he appeared, so people would associate the good feeling that came with not being exposed to the sound waves with Hitler." I cannot seem to find any credible source documentation to prove this statement- just repeating of the quote, along with another reference that Goebbels set a frequency all music is set to now. Has anyone heard this statement and found evidence to prove that they did this?

Doing a miniresearch for uni and I went for the code of chivalry, what it exactly entails, origin, whether it was followed and such.

I'm looking for sources! Books, documentaries, anything goes.

Thank you all.

I've read about the misconceptions around the Bombing of Dresden. Casualties, the reasoning behind the bombing, etc. And I learned that many of these untrue claims originated from Nazi propaganda directly after the bombing. But many of these claims are now taught in western schools and widely believed. How did what started as literal Nazi propaganda work it's way into schools?

Was there any point during the timeline or history of hominid/human evolution, before we homo sapiens sapiens evolved, in which there were at least 3+ multiple hominid/proto-human species living in the same area of land (or over-lapping areas) at the same time? If so, how many millions of years ago and which area(s) of land exactly?

The early American colonies enacted various witchcraft laws - as evidenced by the witchcraft trials and executions in Salem, Massachusetts and Connecticut - and I know New England had a Vampire Panic in the 19th century - but were there ever laws passed on the books regarding vampires in the same way as witches?

I am trying to understand other countries solutions to territorial disputes and compare them to the aftermath of the Pacific war.

I recently discovered Peter Freuchen's journals and I'm absolutely enthralled. I'll be damned if it doesn't light my fire.

Are there any other cool famous explorers with damn-good autobiographies? Any autobiographies from just all-around funky fresh history folk?

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Seems like a relatively small state. How were they able to equip and mobilize their army so quickly after just having been a vassal