By that, I mean pre-Neolithic revolution. We always hear that it's 20-25, but it t doesn't sound credible since somebody has to raise the offspring. It's most probably with counting the infant mortality, but what about people who survived into adolescence? How old would they expect to live into?

I understand that Louis XIV had the nobility of France live at Versailles so he could keep an eye on them. With all these people living there, it almost sounds like a college dorm. I'm interested in learning what life at the court would have been like for them.

I've read that even some English warriors joined the ranks of the Varangian guard, and that many did so after William the Conqueror successfully invaded England. How would this journey be made? If the warrior managed to make it to Constantinople who'd he talk to in order to join the guard? How would he communicate without knowing Greek? Did being English give him any advantage or disadvantage compared to his Scandinavian counterparts?

I got a chance to fire a few guns a while back, and even with ear protection they are LOUD. The instructor warned us to not take our headphones off at any point as it could cause permanent damage.

So did soldiers in these conflicts have ear protection or did millions of veterans return home with damaged hearing/tinnitus?

Listening to the AH Podcasts about the 'Tarascans' and the Aztec conquest. Extensive rape of the native people by the Spanish is mentioned a few times. How common was this practice and are there any statistics about it? How did they justify these rapes (if at all)? In the Podcast they mention how people like Nuño de Guzmán raped and pillaged western Mexico. How did something like that look? Did the people in Europe know about it? What about the people in Spanish colonies? Was there any kind of outrage or where most people fine with it?

So pre-1603, but further back into the days of clan warfare would be cool too.

Sometimes when I read various explanations for events like the collapse of the Mayan civilization, or the end of the Bronze Age, it seems that the explanations and their assumptions about the conditions of the time would be possible to simulate in a digital environment. But upon googling for this type of study I couldn't find anything remotely related to the use of simulations to test historical theories. Have I missed something and, if not, why aren't such ideas being tested in digital environments?

Say I am a merchant in Rome around 100BC. I ordered a shipment a product from say Greece. On the way, the ship is attacked by pirates and my products are gone. Is there someone I can go complain? What would they do? What would be my recourse in this event?

Nietzsche was painted after WWII as a proto-Nazi and an influence on National Socialism, something that as I recall his translator Walter Kaufmann and others did a lot to argue against in the English speaking world.

But this raises the question - was Nietzsche an influential figure at all in early 20th century German thought? Whatever his relationship to the Nazis, was Nietzsche influencing anyone at all? If so, how was his influence felt - did people read his works directly and completely, or did they read excerpts, or paraphrases, or read people influence by him?

The term Crusade surfaced around 1600 AD. What were the Crusades called before this? Just holy wars?

Seeing as the war occurred between one of their client states and one of its allies, what did the Germans think of two of its "allies" fighting? Did they support a specific side?

In my textbook, it describes the cities of Sumer as having "massive walls" protecting the city. But why were these walls built? I mean, sure, there were enemies and wars, but why would you need more than walls a couple dozen feet high?

More specifically, I am wondering about the English speaking people. I'm curious how different it is from modern English. I realize that this is somewhat of a hard question to answer, but I'm kind of assuming that the texts from the era are not representative of how a working class individual would speak. I can see this being hard to verbalize so if I can be pointed to a video or something of the sort. For example, what would a conversation between a merchant and a buyer sound like? Thanks.

An example-- Anne Boleyn was executed for adultery, incest, and treason when her daughter, Elizabeth I, was a little more than 2 years old. So as Elizabeth continued to grow older still surrounded by her father's court, was she taught that her mother was an adulteress and a traitor to the King? Did she regard her mother as a "bad person" who deserved her death?

In general, were noble or royal children in these situations ever taught anything about their parents and/or feel sadness for their loss? Or were they basically just considered part of the past with little to no regard at all?

My understanding is Robespierre considered private property a concern that took a back seat to the individual right to life and sustenance. Why wouldn't he be a natural ally to the various Enragés factions demanding price controls for bread? Why wouldn't he consider priest and radical agitator Jacques Roux an admirable Republican for his dedication to the poor?

As a child I had a Kiwi camp councilor of Maori descent; he would tell us—frankly terrifying—bed time stories about Maui, etc. One thing that struck me as very odd was that Maui used his grandmother's jaw-bone as a weapon.

Basically: what gives? Why his grandmother's? Does a jaw-bone make a good weapon? I'm having a hard time even picturing how this would work.

All the modern and historical militaries I know about utilize some sort of top-down command structure, like an upside-down tree. Have other forms of organization been tried, and were they at all successful?

I was revisiting the history of Beethoven and I remembered that he dedicated his 3rd symphony to Napoleon only to retract his dedication a few years later after Napoleon became emperor. So I was wondering, how was Napoleon's popularity after his coronation? Did the revolutionaries support another monarchy?

Specifically, 7.62 mm seems to have been quite popular for small arms, as well as 20mm, 37mm (pretty much everyone who ever fielded a cannon), 57mm (UK, USSR, Japan) 75mm (probably the most popular modern cannon caliber), 76.2mm (USA, USSR, UK), 105mm( UK, USA, Germany). I am almost definitely missing a few nations that used those calibers.