Did they refer to dates as B.C.? Or did they count things by being in "The Year of The Reign Of"? How did they know the number of years between events?

Sorry this is such a big and loose question. I love history. All sorts of times and all sorts of places. Unfortunately, in my experience history is so focused on the big events and agents, that many histories start to lose connection to their time and place in my mind. One way I try to keep it grounded is to visualize these events in a basic context of day to day life. This is especially useful when reading about class issues, economic shifts, and the impact of some new technology.

Sadly the best tools I have for creating those images are incredibly unreliable: Visual media (historical movies, documentaries, TV) and my own guess work. What are the best resources and methods for me to develop that everyday context for the big events I'm reading about?

I recentley remember in one of my HS classes that we watched a clip about the history of salt. It talked about how the romans were both paid and fed salt. Did Roman's really eat straight up salt as part of their diet?

The consumption of alcohol is considered haram (Qur'an 5:90), and both coffee and tea were not typically widespread in the region until after the 15th Century. This, in addition to the unreliable safety of untreated water, begs the question of what would your average Muslim be found drinking during this period?

EDIT: Apologies, the question I asked was perhaps to dismissive. Obviously there would have been sources of drinkable water available (from springs, wells & qanats) which probably would have constituted most of people's fluid intake.

However, what other types of beverages would have been available, or indeed permitted, during the period prior to the widespread consumption of coffee and tea?

My impression of him was that he was incredibly incompetent, so why was he in charge in the first place ?

[deleted]

The year of her birth ranges from 1501-1507, and thus her age at her execution was 28-35. How can we not have solid records of the age of a Queen of England? We know so many things about this time period in such detail, but not how old a queen was? This seems very strange to me, and I wonder why there is such a huge range of what her age might have been?

[deleted]

[deleted]

(or Macedonian, Serbian, Herzegovian, Bosnians, Montenegrin, and Kosovan)

Also, how fresh was the civil war in the minds of the American public prior to entering the Great War?

I've seen this book here and there for a while but never got it. Is it worth having a look at?

[deleted]

That old saying “those who don’t understand the past are condemned to repeat it.

I’m watching the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick “Vietnam” and see so many parallels military and socially to today. Why don’t we pay attention to the past?

What was behind this wave of building? Were there technology advances that made these long-lasting stone buildings possible? How were they funded? I know the wool trade was very profitable at that time, but weren't there just a few dozen families in many parishes? Were these churches mostly built in an established village centre, perhaps on the site of an older Anglo-Saxon church?

In case specificity is required I'm more interested in Florida.