I have a book called "The first cities" by Dora Jane Hamblin. In chapter five, page 104 in my edition, it includes a sumerian love song, and I'm struck by how sex positive it sounds.

I can't write the whole thing here, but I'll include a couple of notable passages:

Husband, the loved one of my heart,

your beauty is large, sweet like honey

I think it's quite clear this passage refers to a penis and semen, and in case you had any doubts there's also this passage:

You have captivated me, please leave me trembling before you

husband, I want you to take me to the nuptial chamber

Here she clearly wants her husband to give her an orgasm

But I think the most sex positive passage in the whole song is this one:

Husband, you have enjoyed me

tell this to my mother, she will give you many rewards,

and my father, he will give you good gifts

Today in most cultures telling a couple you "enjoyed" their daughter would be almost unthinkable. The notion they would you give you rewards or gifts for having sex with their daughter is completely absurd

And the poem goes on with several other lines about how horny the author is and how much she wants to have sex with her husband

Does this song really reflect how Sumerian people thought about sex?, or is this song an outlier?

Simple question, would like some help finding information on how the Norse people tended to, bandaged, cared for wounds etc. I'm writing a historical fiction character and would like to be as accurate as possible.

In the P. D. James detective novel Shroud for a Nightingale, recently serialized in the crime drama Dalgliesh, the climax of the plot ends up turning on the fact that one of the victims recognized one of the suspects in a nursing as an escaped war criminal who administered lethal injections to captured POWs during the War. Is this simply dramatic license at play, or is it rooted in actual historical events?

(Vikings, or indeed any historic peoples known for being physically strong in battle.)

If I do any kind of moderate physical exercise, I will be very stiff and unable to run the next day, unless I have properly stretched before and after.

It seems like it would be a big tactical advantage in battle to have warriors who were fully warmed up and stretched beforehand, in order to be able to fight again sooner.

Is there any evidence that cultures like the Vikings did so?

Best books on the American Gilded Age (1877-1896)? Really looking for something more political than social. Please don't recommend White's The Republic for Which it Stands. Barely made it through a third of the book before closing it. I'm interested in American history from the vantage point of the White House, not a chapter on the meaning of "home" in the 1870s.

I try to play the scenario in my mind like an extremely long wall that’s barren with exception of a couple lads just kind of sauntering up and down the battlements praying no savage, blood-thirsty barbarians come-a-climbing.

What would it have been like in reality, so close to the last time there was a manned presence (I basically read this to be around the year 410). I imagine these dudes hadn’t been “paid” in years, by this point.

But the balls and loyalty they must have had. Incredible.

We all know of the venerable line of battle, used throughout 1650-1850, with large ships of the line pouring broadsides into eachother till one side struck their colors. Likewise the galley fights of Roman times till the 15th century, focused on ramming and boarding, are something we can all visualize.

What about that middle period, from 1500-1650? Caravels, carrack, and early galleons all were dominated by huge fo’c’sle and aftercastle architecture, and mixes of forward facing chasers and broadside Guns, but were also ridiculously top heavy.

How did these ships fight, both in single ship actions as well as in fleet battles?

So basically what it says on the tin. Having watched a YouTube video recently on Russia (The Origins of Russian Authoritarianism by Kraut) I've found myself interested in Russian history, especially imperial Russia history, from the time of the Mongols up to the Russian Revolution. Any recommendations? Books don't need to cover the entire time period, I'm also interested in in-depth books on certain areas of Imperial Russian history, although books covering the entire period is appreciated. Thanks!

In class the topic was medieval times since we were reading Romeo and Juliet, and after one of the students mentioned something she started talking about how being obese in Medieval times was the beauty standard, since it basically meant you were rich enough to overeat. And that most men back then found overweight women very attractive compared to skinnier women.

To my knowledge, and to grossly simplify what a friend told me, in the past there were skinny, "Plump", and obese women, and men prefered "Plump" women since they were more likely to survive childbirth and were also attractive. I'm not sure if she's confusing plump for obese or not, or which one of them are in the wrong, which is why I'm asking.

She also mentioned how Juliet was probably 12, and she said that most men, regardless of how poor they are or how little power they had, would be marrying and having kids with underaged girls. I do know this happened, but my question is was it really all men doing this, or wanting to do this? I can't exactly find it but I remember a history expert on TikTok debunked a meme making fun of it saying only rich people and royalty did it, that both the boys and girls were ~ 5 years or less apart, and that they don't have kids until the late teens or early adulthood. IDK whos wrong, I'm just asking.

I saw this in a Korean drama and am looking for more information: a person is wrapped in a straw mat, then beaten with clubs. This was presented twice in the series I watched, once as a form of torture, but the other time it was done to a person suffering from mental illness (what we'd probably describe today as being catatonic, though the portrayal isn't precise).

According to Google, this practice was called meongseok-mari (멍석말이) and was abolished in 1769 by King Yeongjo. However, the same source said that it lingered as a popular punishment for rape and incest, and another article (with no sources at all) stated that this is a punishment parents in Korea commonly used for disobedience as recently as 50 years ago (I can't find anything else to back up this claim).

I'd like to know how commonplace this punishment was, how it was viewed by people during the late Joseon period (1700s roughly, around the time it was abolished), and if it was really practiced routinely as a punishment for children and not just criminals. I'm particularly interested to know if it would be normal for a mentally ill person to be treated in this way during that time.

In general the view on sex seems to be inconsistent with some sources saying Nahuas were intense prudes with sex not being tolerated unless you were married and over 20 years old while other sources say the they were "deviants" with sexually charged rituals and customs.

Some sources say they pushed marriage hard, but other sources say that was not true and the region had "holy" prostitutes that filled a holy role in the philosophical and religious thought without marriage being needed.

What exactly was the relation between sex, love, and marriage in Nahua thought?

I was wondering if any of you out there have secondary sources regarding MKUltra. Struggling to find good ones on jstor. In need of about 3 more for a thesis. (Summaries of the sources would be ideal because I don’t have access to a lot of databases)

I've been trying to understand the Muslim world for a while now, and I've read about Madrasas, the libraries in Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate and in Cordoba in Al-Andalus and been trying to picture what was it like to live in a Muslim region during the middle ages as opposed to living in Europe.

I've found conflicting information, from people claiming that Muslims where some of the most literate and educated people on the planet at the time, to others saying the only things they taught were the ones strictly necessary to understand the Sharia and everything else was banned.

I'm mostly trying to understand when (if ever) Europe surpassed the Muslim world in technological and scientific advancements.

If anyone here could point me in the right direction to authors or articles and/or give me an answer, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

Ps: For reference, I'm saying "Middle Ages" to refer to anything from the Rashidun Caliphate to the Ottoman Empire in the 16-17th century. Anything from that time period is what I'm looking for.

Full disclosure: this question was inspired by Neil Gaiman's recent efforts to get the Museum of Modern Art to credit Tony Abruzzo for drawing Drowning Girl on its page for Lichtenstein's piece.

I'm having a difficult time finding good books on this specific topic. Any suggestions?