I recently watched a short Ted Ed video that claimed that the Kievan Rus decided that Slavic Paganism wasnt functional for them enough and decided to convert into another religion and neglected Islam(because of the prohibition of alcohol) and Judiasm(because of their exile of the Holy Land situation) and settled for Orthodox Chrisitianity.

How much truth is there to this? Also what pushed them away from Slavic paganism?

I'm writing my senior thesis paper on U.S. policy towards El Salvador during the Cold War and am having a hard time finding good resources for the prehistory of the conflict. Any help or resources would help a ton thanks!

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Hello /r/AskHistorians ,

I recently went on a university trip to the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford, and stumbled across an interesting set of skulls in a display cabinet. One of them was wrapped with thin and flexible sticks (possibly willow?).

Unfortunately, all I can remember is reading about how a tribe did this to disrespect their dead foes. It's the sort of thing that's very dark, yet also very interesting to me.

I know it's a long shot, but I would be extremely grateful if anyone could provide me with any further information or link me to resources relating to this death ritual or the tribe associated with it. I'm in my first year of my degree, and I would like to research into this as I find it very interesting. Next time I go on a research trip I will definitely record more notes!

Thanks in advance.

there are a lot of downsides to owning slaves

• they are expensive, a good field hand would set you back about 1,200 dollars.

• not only is the initial cost high but the cost of owning one is high too. You have to pay for housing, food, clothes, medicine

• a slave might not work, or be unable to work. If a slave refuses to work then you're out 1200 dollars, unless you manage to sell him. If one dies or is injured and is unable to work you're out of luck .

It seems to me that these problems could be solved by simply hiring Irish immigrant workers instead. You could pay them whatever you want, and if they don't work, they don't eat. If they die, oh well that's no skin off your nose.

I am writing as essay for my history class and because curious if the first production of Medea (431 BC) coincided with a better quality of life for women. At what point did women begin to receive more fair treatment?

The potato famine in the 18th century had a pretty huge effect on the Irish population..but what did they eat before potatoes were introduced from South America?

Hi! I am a newer history student with a degree in Economics. Both disciplines fascinate me. However, lately while reading about the late middle-ages and the rise of the mercantile bourgeoisie I find my self struggling to understand how historians think about economic topics. Historians are very good at talking about "production volumes" and "Trade Balances" but I feel that they do not understand those topics the same way an economist would. An economist would focus on things like alternate cost, how the trade balance itself is maintained or for instance price formation. Historians do not seem to be very good at explaining the mechanisms behind economic phenomena. How can I as a newbie historian approach these topics using my economic knowledge without sounding pedantic to my lecturers (this happened today I think) and at the same time providing useful insight?

Classical period to be exact

From what I have read, it seems as though America's tabks were not that great but what about Russia, Germany and the Commonwealth?

Denmark and Norway was occupied and, to my knowledge, part of the reason for occupying Norway was in order to secure access to the ice free port of Narvik that was vital for shipping Iron Ore to the Reich. Why did they not occupy Sweden as well? Wouldn't this have been a better guarantee for access to iron ore?

I would think a historian would love to have the data we have available now for any epoch.

so are historians preparing to use and collect and sort all that massive data available via internet and social media?