Was there a single Celtic term for the continent of Europe before the Roman conquests?

I understand that “Celtic” is a broad and ambiguous term, but here I am speaking of languages commonly classed as Celtic specifically. Was there a common term with descendants across many different Celtic languages to denote the lands north of the Mediterranean Sea before the Roman conquest?

Did the “Celts” even have a notion of these lands separate from the rest of the world? Or even a concept akin to a “continent” that was common to many of their languages? Or did this idea not arrive until the Roman conquests?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Someone recently asked about how Nazi atrocities affected the rank and file psychologically. Do we have any similar accounts from, say, the Khmer Rouge?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Is there scientific evidence that oral tradition can preserve historical facts for a long time, centuries or even milleniums, in an intact state?

3 Answers 2018-09-07

Is there a place for works of fiction in the bibliography of a research paper?

Novels and plays can reflect the period in which they were written, but it also seems like they would be less reliable than academic works, even if neither is completely objective. So I'd like to ask the researchers of the subreddit if there is a serious use in academia of fictional works to support a point, as the author would use essays or other non-fictional sources.

1 Answers 2018-09-07

The decline and revival of pikes

Why did the usage of pikes decline with the Hellenistic kingdoms, then had a revival during high renaissance/Baroque period? What made this weapon useful and useless depending on the era?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Most of Henry VIII’s wives weren’t raised to be a queen consort. What kind of deficits in their education/training would have been the hardest to overcome for a new, non-royal queen?

How would this have effected the spheres queens were supposed to lead or participate in?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

When roman emperor Julian "the Apostate" re-converted to paganism around 360 AC, was most of the roman army already christian? (2nd try)

Sadly I got no answer last time

1 Answers 2018-09-07

How were the Crusades written about from the native perspective? Were the incursions regarded as an existential threat?

The situation seems comparable to the Roman and the barbarians; would the native inhabitants have agreed? Was there a difference between Islamic and Christian perspectives, or were they regarded as outside invaders by both groups?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Why was Jack McCall originally found innocent of murdering Bill Hickok in Deadwood?

I know he was retried, subsequently found guilty, and hanged. Is there any reasoning for him being found innocent originally especially with witnesses and what seems like a clear-cut case?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Unknown Pills and Shots Given to School Age Children-US-1960's

Hello. If this isn't an appropriate sub to ask this I sincerely apologize and would love direction to another sub to be answered.

I was talking to my grandmother about vaccinations for my 6 week old, just bsing, when she told me this anecdote: Every Friday, at school, the children would line up and be given a sugar cube with a pill in it. Then, they would go to another line and be given a shot in the arm. No parents were ever asked permission and they never told the children what they were doing to them. Literally, it was never questioned. This would be in the early to mid sixties.

I assumed the government was just doing human experiments on poor, rural kids in Texas most of which had non English speaking families (only kind of kidding) and then my Pawpaw mentioned they did the same thing in Puerto Rico around the same time. My family is very curious as to what my grandparents had been given and Google didn't really give me an answer so I thought I'd ask you, good people of Reddit. Thanks, ya'll!

1 Answers 2018-09-07

What was the reaction in Scotland to Princess Elizabeth choosing to be Elizabeth II?

How long was her choosing a number that followed an “England only” queen? How long did the reaction if any last?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

My Grandmother (born 1927) and many other people in my neighbourhood in the Netherlands still call Germany "Prussia", even though Prussia wasn't around when they were born. How long did the name survive after unification and are there other places and/or languages where the name is still used?

A little context:

​

My grandmother speaks Old Low Franconian Limburgish as her main language and both "Germany" and "Prussia" have their own names in the dialect, "Duutsjland" en "Pruusses". I've only recently noticed she still refers to Germany as "Pruusses", as do a lot of other older people I know. The reason why I thought it was relatively strange is because not all seniors who speak the dialect refer to the country as "Prussia". A large portion of people just call it "Duutsjland" (Germany) and refer to the people as "Duutsjers" (Germans). It may not be entirely in the subject of "history", but I'm not quite sure where else to ask this question.

Edit: I usually use Low Franconian as a blanket term for the collection of dialects, but it's Limburgish to be more specific as u/Taalnazi pointed out.

2 Answers 2018-09-07

During the Napoleonic Wars, was duelling illegal or just discouraged in the British Navy?

I have been watching the Sharpe and Hornblower series's recently and noticed a stark difference between how duelling was treated, in the Army, it was banned by Wellington and if you duelled you would be court-martialed, (Which I believe is how Wellington actually handled it).

However, in Hornblower, I noticed that more duels were issued, and it seemed like a common way to deal with arguments. Warnings only being "you may die".

Did the Navy have rules regarding duelling or was it still considered illegal?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

What calendar did they use in Pre-Islamic Arabia?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Himmler recorded in his diary that the men of the SS Einsatzgruppen assigned to mass murder were "finished for the rest of their lives... either neurotics or brutes". What do we know about the actual psychology of rank-and-file SS after the war?

2 Answers 2018-09-07

18th Century dueling rules in England and Ireland as presented in the movie Barry Lyndon

The plot of the 1975 Kubrick film Barry Lyndon, a period drama set in the 18th century around the time of the Seven Years War, is bookmarked by three pivotal shooting duels. The first two, taking place in Ireland, have the two duelists take their places and fire at each other simultaneously.

The final duel that takes place in England, however, features a different procedure: instead of firing simultaneously at the count of three, the duelists take turns firing at each other, with their appointed seconds asking the person whose turn it was to receive fire to vocally confirm that they were ready before their rival would shoot. In the film, this leads to a very long and dramatically drawn out scene.

Does this distinction reflect an actual difference in dueling norms between Ireland and England in the 18th century, or is it merely a device to provide more dramatic scenes for the film? In case it's relevant, all duelists in the film are nobles or landed gentry. Additionally, the movie is based on a book published in the UK in 1844 titled The Luck of Barry Lyndon. I haven't read the book and can't give specifics about it, but it appears from looking at the Wikipedia plot synopsis that the final duel of the movie Barry Lyndon is not part of the book's plot.

Edit: One additional thing that I forgot to mention is that the first duel takes place sometime in the 1750s, the second around 1760, and the third in 1787 or so.

1 Answers 2018-09-07

When the Vikings discovered the new world why did they not spread disease like the other Europeans?

Or did they and it is just not mentioned? If so why?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

What Are the Travel Licences in Beatrix Potter's Pigling Bland?

Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913) is a story about two anthropomorphic pigs (Pigling Bland and his brother Alexander) who are sent to walk themselves to market because their mother can no longer afford to feed them. As the pigs are sent off, the narrator (presumably Beatrix Potter) says:

"Here are two licences permitting two pigs to go to market in Lancashire...I have had no end of trouble in getting these papers from the policeman."

They run into a police officer who asks for their licenses. Pigling Bland's brother has misplaced his, so the police officer takes him back to the farm:

"Where are your licences?" said the policeman... Alexander’s nose lengthened visibly, he had lost it. "I had one, indeed I had, Mr. Policeman!"

"It's not likely they let you start without. I am passing the farm. You may walk with me." "Can I come back too?" inquired Pigling Bland. "I see no reason, young Sir; your paper is all right."

Finally when Pigling Bland helps another pig escape from captivity, they are stopped by a human on the road who demands to see their licences and is suspicious that the name on one of the licences does not match the gender.

In many of Potter's stories animals are allegorical for lower class humans. Would humans have needed licences like these to travel within England at some point? Or are the licences themselves allegorical, or just a useful plot device?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Why doesn’t the iron cross have as much of a negative connotation as the swastika in the US?

Fairly often, you’ll see an iron cross used as a logo for clothing companies, motorcycle clubs, etc. Just wondering why it isn’t strictly used for Nazi-stuff like the swastika is.

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Why did the Victorians name their children weird names such as "Jubal Early," "Vestal Coffin," "Pleasant Unthank" or "Euthanasia Meade" ?

Any reason behind this trend? What started it? What ended it? Was it due to a different sense of humor about life then? Would the names have sounded equally epic back then, or was this sort of thing relatively normal?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Pope Pius II reportedly sent a letter to Sultan Mehmed II, which included among a plea to convert to Catholicism, an exhaustive refutation of the teachings of Islam. What exactly did this Pius say, what were his main arguments?

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Why did the Prague Spring fail but the Velvet Revolution succeed?

Became very interested in this topic after a recent trip to Prague.

Please provide sources so I can read more. Thank you.

1 Answers 2018-09-07

Was there actually a historical difference between "shock" cavalry and other types of cavalry like in Total War games?

I've always wondered what exactly the difference is between "shock" cavalry and other type of cavalry. In Total War games, one basically does more "morale damage" than the other, but that makes me wonder: why would it be different from one horse colliding into you compared to another horse colliding into you? What exactly separates a regiment of "shock" cavalry vs. "heavy" cavalry vs. melee cavalry. It seems to me like there are really only differently armoured melee and ranged cavalry types. Is there really such a big difference between how much "shock" one unit of cavalry can do vs. another when basically they're both doing the same charge into a group of people?

How much more "shock" can shock cavalry do compared to non-shock cavalry in real life?

1 Answers 2018-09-06

India just legalized homosexual intercourse. What are the cultural, political, and religious influences that lead to it being banned?

A common response is to just say "it's the British's fault" and be done with it, but that doesn't explain why it remained in place for so long. Hinudism (which is, admittedly, not just one thing) has scriptural references to homosexuality and ancient forms seem to have been very sex-positive.

3 Answers 2018-09-06

I'm a female computer (someone who performs calculations by hand) sometime between 1700 and the advent of modern electrical computers. How much mathematical training do I have and where did I study?

Also, what is my typical career path and advancement options? Other than NASA, where might I work? How does society view my job? How does getting pregnant/having children affect my career?

1 Answers 2018-09-06

⯇ 2413 / 7255 ⯈

Back to start