Seems there were a lot of churches active in Constantinople during the middle ages. Granted, not all of these were active at one time and "medieval Constantinople" stretches over a thousand years, but what determined where Average Joe Constantinopolitan went to for services? Did people attend their local community churches? (was there such a concept)? Who went to masses at Hagia Sophia? Was it just reserved for the higher echelons of society? Did people go to services at some churches for some events and others for others?

Did the Orthodox churches in the city have any sort of hierarchy (aside from the Patriarch?)? Were masses uniform in any way (I know there's a liturgical calendar, but were there any attempts to unify the contents of, say, homilies?)

I'm sorry for the bazillion questions. This is a topic I'm finding myself suddenly particularly interested in learning more about.

I'm interested in books that explore economic, military, cultural, and spiritual relations between these peoples.

Of particular interest are the Nez Perce, Chinook, Apache and other western Native peoples. I want to learn more both from their perspective and the government's.

Who are the best historians to read on these subject? And what works in particular should I explore?

At first, I assumed that throwing spears were treated much like musket shots - as a single ranged attack that hopefully does a good amount of damage before melee is necessary.

The almogavars lead me to question this assumption, especially regarding people like the welsh and the vikings who apparently used an abundance of throwing spears.

Edit: Apologies for making the worst typo of all time in the title

The German and American armies both had large numbers of half-tracks but how were they use? Were they mainly an offroad supply truck or were they an artillary hualer?

Were they used to assualt locations or did the just drop the infantry off and pick them up after the assualt?

In general how is the trend of hair throughout the history both for men and women?

I've recently been watching Paul Freedman's "Early Middle Ages" course videos on YouTube and had a question about monastic life during the medieval period. Freedman mentions that a couple of members of Merovingian dynasty were offered "the scissors or the sword", that is, take monastic vows or be put to death. Anecdotally, I've also heard stories of people being sent to a monastery (or more often, women sent to a nunnery). I was wondering if the practice of using monasteries as a quasi-prison was common, and if so, did anyone ever flee or escape from a monastery? What would happen to such an escapee if they were caught? Were there different categories of monks within the monastery, differentiated between the "prisoners" (if one can use the term) and those there of their own accord? Thanks in advance for any responses.

So, this is really a two part question. First, what would 30 tons of salt get me? And second, what would this sum be the equivalent of, roughly, in U.S. dollars. Like, would this be enough for me to live in opulence for the rest of my life? Or would it be more like I could live without working for about a year or two?

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I imagine most of us in the Western world consider things like nature, art, etc. beautiful. And I'm sure there must be certain overlap between Western and Indigenous cultures, but I imagine there were probably some big differences in what was perceived as beauty pre-European colonization.

this might be the most unpleasant thing I've ever asked in this sub

Like a Private Pyle from Full metal jacket in Ancient Rome?

Obviously asking for range/consensus guesses.

Hey,

I just finished 'The Case for Israel' by Alan Dershowitz and I really enjoyed it but I can't find much about how accurate the book is, historically. I assume it's historically sound but on the off-chance that it isn't, I wanted to ask.

Thanks!

I'm beginning to be interested in Central and South American history, and I have a few other follow up questions based on the topic.

Follow-up questions:

• I heard from a TV show about a certain, ancient, Mayan pyramid ruins in a spot in Belize, and it was basically a massive pyramid with 3 smaller pyramids on top of it. It was mentioned that from those pyramid ruins, there would've been a massive city stretching from a radius 8 miles from very direction from those Mayan pyramid. So, would such cities of that size (or close to that size of a city) persist in the Mayan civilization until the Spanish Conquistadors landed?

• What weapons would the Mayans have used? (clubs, daggers, etc.?) Did their weapons advance when the Spanish arrived? (e.g. trading firearms).