This question focuses on nails, but could be expanded to the rest of personal hygiene. Like for nails, did they just grow absurdly long nails, or like break them via rocks? How did they shave anything pre-metal? And did they wipe their butt after taking a dump or just live with the itch?

Related question- Are there any records of highly religious individuals refusing to take up arms against the Pope in such wars?

In my school, and from what I've heard many others, the belief systems of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism are "lumped together" into one unit and studied as a whole. This got me thinking a little bit about the similarities between each of them, and why they are grouped together (past the fact that they occurred around the same time in around the same places)

From what I've learned, Confucianism and Taoism have some striking similarities simply because they were both founded during the Warring States period as a way to reconcile the government, although they took different approaches as to how to accomplish that. But Buddhism, while it is a philosophy of life, deals with life and death more than government.

So, discounting the geographical similarities, are Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism more similar than different, or the opposite?

The Torah contains commandments related to worship, personal relations, and support for social welfare programs. It is this last group that I'm interested in.

For example: "At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied" - Deuteronomy 14:28-29

and

"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God." - Leviticus 23:22

While many of the commandments have listed penalties for violations, I'm not familiar with any biblical passages for failing to tithe or observe similar social welfare actions. Do we know if these commandments were enforced by the courts of ancient Israel? If so, what was the penalty for failing to observe these commandments?

Classic Greek cities used a leisure class of men to call upon in times of war, and they had to provide their own equipment. Indeed, ownership of equipment seems to be a requirement to be a citizen. This also seems to be true in the Roman Republic (until reforms came in)--service was owed by men of certain classes, who were required to provide their own equipment.

This seems to be similar to how being a knight functioned in Europe. So is this a fair statement? If not, what am I missing?

Prohibition gets a lot of attention in popular history, but at the time the U.S. faced many serious problems and threats, not least the Great Depression. Would someone neither a temperance advocate nor a bootlegger have noticed the change very much? In what ways? How did the repeal compare in coverage/magnitude to other events of the day?

I'm currently working on a research paper on the life of free blacks during the pre-emancipation years. I have been able to find several sources that show what life was like for free blacks, but not many that show the specific laws that applied to them.

I did find that many Black Codes in southern states after the civil war allowed for blacks to own property but I am specifically looking for pre-antebellum rights (late 1700s-1850's) for free blacks. It appears that this is a bit of a grey area as manumission was not a largely held practice in the south.

I've been checking out home brewing and winemaking videos on youtube, and all of them stress the importance of disinfecting all of your equipment and work stations before production. All of them also use fancy non-rinse disinfectants that I assume are recent inventions.

Did winemakers disinfect their equipment before we figured out what bacteria was? And what did they do to prep their equipment?

Edit: thanks for the replies! Learned disinfecting and sanitizing are two different things, and that this sub cites some pretty sick sources!

Hello everyone.

Recently my Grandfather sadly passed away and I've always been curious about his time in The Black Watch, namely, his Regiments time in Cyprus.

I'm curious about the history of the Black Watch and what there goals where in regard to Cyprus, Regiment life while there and general life for the soldiers.

This is my first time posting here so I'm sorry if I've missed a rule or left anything out.

Thank you in advance

[deleted]

[deleted]

What is the history/historicity of the Islamic religious significance of Al Quds/Jerusalem?

Today, Muslims all rank Jerusalem as the site with the third greatest religious significance after Mecca and Medina. Was that always the case? Was that the case prior to the emergence of the Zionist movement?

I have read claims from pro-Israel political partisans that Al Quds was not nearly so high on the list of significant Islamic religious locations prior to Zionism, and that its significance as a religious site to Muslims grew in large part as a reaction against the perceived encroachment by Jewish "others".

However, I always bring all the skepticism I can muster to any and all claims that have anything to do with the Middle East. Of course pro-Israel partisans would like if it was the case that the whole Muslim connection to Jerusalem is an exaggeration. I do not take this claim for granted.

I also don't find the claim so dubious as to be dismissed out of hand: I am familiar enough with the history of the Palestine region that I know that it was mostly a rural backwater that few of the wealthier Muslims cared to visit before the emergence of Zionism. Even the Arab aristocrats that owned most of the land in Palestine mostly lived in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, or elsewhere, and rarely if ever visited. This contrasts to Mecca and Medina which Muslims from all over the world have always traveled to visit. Additionally, I find in my anecdotal experience that most Muslims are under the mistaken impression that Al Quds is mentioned in the Quran, and it isn't, so there is at least that manner in which many Muslims have a mistaken impression of the prominence of Jerusalem in their religion.

This should be a simple and objective question. Out of all historical documents written before ~1890 referring to Islamic religious sites, where do they place Jerusalem/Al Quds on the list of importance or significance?

I read and watched the psychological thriller Fatherland and the plot of the book centers around the Nazis trying to conceal the Final Solution on the eve of President Joe Kennedy's state visit to the the Reich in 1964. In this alternative universe the Nazis won, yet they were still insistent on keeping the Final Solution a secret. So my question is what was the end state for the Nazis?

The (brief) Wikipedia entry cited heavy fog and the secrecy of the Japanese evacutaion, which give me the impression that it is biased towards the allies (failure due to factors out of their control). Were these the only factors? What exactly went wrong?

Are there non religious documents or evidence that talk about Jesus?