I'm wondering what kind of of product was used in the 18th century. I understand wigs were a sign of wealth, but what did your common colonist use. Did they slick their hair with some sort of greese or beeswax?

Hello, long time browser, first time poster.

I have been curious about the origin of the blonde hair blue eye phenotypic traits of the northern Iraq Yazidi people. To my understanding, these traits have only evolved once in northern Europe. So my question is, is that true? Are the yazidi blonde hair blue eyes the result of the same genes as northern Europeans?

If so, Is this though to come from the general spread of light hair/eyes across eastern Europe? Or is this a result of specific voyages by the vikings, which are known to have made it to northern Iraq. Are the yazidis known to have blue eyes before the viking age, or are there no records of this?

Thanks.

I'm trying to understand the scale and scope of time involved in human history, if by human we mean modern humans as biology would classify us. From what little I know, it kind of seems as if the era since we began recording human history coincides with, well, lots of rapid change, pretty much constantly.

But our species history prior to the development of writing systems and methods of recording history--was it all quite slow and relatively uneventful by comparison, or does it only seem that way because we haven't got people's written, documented accounts of their lives?

Hi! I am working on a game set in the Middle Ages, but I am pretty much clueless about any kind of sword fighting (which obviously is a big part of the game). If anyone could tell me about different sword fighting moves and their names, I would really appreciate it.

I grew up in california, I have never been to the south or have any bias for or against them, when we learned about the civil war it was less about slavey and more about state rights. Now all I hear is slavery is the only thing that the civil war was about. I would really like for a expert on the civil war to chime in. I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I've seen pictures (although potentially biased being based on a street in a city which might attract the jobs that require suits) where all the men are in suits.

Were some of those suits really bad suits, so the less well off could afford them?

How many suits did a poor man typically own? How did they keep a small number of suits clean all the time if they were poor?

Thanks.

After some initial research, I can see that the new boundaries were announced in March 4, 1790 by the National Constituent Assembly in order to dissolve local loyalties and unify the country. That summer, the revolution began.

My question is - what was the process of redefining the boundaries? Were officials sent into the countryside to survey the land? How disruptive was it to the local peasantry? Given the purpose of breaking up loyalties (presumably) between feudal peasants and their historical lords and land owners, were the peasants happy or angry?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions for reference material. So far it's been google searches, and given the huge amount of information available, it'd make things a lot easier to have some direction.

Thank you very much.

The first words uttered on the moon were not about an eagle landing, but "contact light". The first characters sent over anything Internet-like were LO (system crashed before the full LOGIN) and I've heard that the first message sent over transatlantic cable was something very technical about voltages.

What usually gets into the history books is stuff like "the eagle has landed" or the first telegram sent over the cable, but not these technical firsts.

Do we know about any of the others since the beginning of the industrial revolution? Like, first TV broadcast - was it a test pattern of some kind? First cellphone call must have been something in a lab for sure. First text message, etc.

I always hear about the amazing fertility of North Africa, yet today most of it is arid. What exactly happened between Antiquity and the modern age that made North Africa what it is today?

Roman names seem really confusing. For example, we often refer to Gaius Julius Caesar as Caesar when his family name was Julius. And then all the rules seem to get thrown out the window with the emperors. And then the Eastern Roman Empire was Greek-ish.

Castration in societies without knowledge of infection, sterilisation, germ theory or anaesthetics sounds like a hideously risky procedure. Do we have any idea of the number of men who died during castration or from complications?

(Western Europe, anywhere from the middle ages to the early modern period.)

I know the standard answer is "sex lol," but what about single people and all of the men and women that didn't have that option for various reasons? Was it generally seen as a time to actually get out of bed, light candles, and get work done - or was it just a short period of waking in which you'd do some thinking, then go back to sleep? Are there any primary sources concerned with conduct that made recommendations about it?

Also, was there a name for this space between sleeps?

We were discussing the development of castles in western Europe in class, and couldn't come up with a satisfactory answer for why the Normans seemed to excel at stonework so quickly, compared to the other states in the region, considering they didn't bring much knowledge of it when they settled.

Was it a result of learning these methods through trade in the Mediterranean? Did they happen to bring in a skilled mason from elsewhere in Europe?

I have a friend that swears up and down that this is true. I can't find any evidence on Google, and think that the insertion of ashes into the forging process would only pollute the materials.

If done, did the insertion of ashes act only as a ceremonial ritual, or did it help in the steel making process?

If possible, I'd like to hear about whether these Nazid repented (in a religious way) after the war. It's interesting to think that some Nazis were also supposedly followers of a religion that preaches love and peace. I don't understand.

From the Cambridge World History of Human Disease, , Section VII.7 "Disease Ecologies of Europe" by Stephen R. Ell (1993):

"[in the ancient world], the disease picture here suggests societies with significant overpopulation expanding into new territories and experiencing few major epidemics, until a point was reached when exposure to infectious epidemic disease began a process of demographic decline and cultural retraction."

For example, Hannibal invaded Italy commanding an army of around 40,000 mercenaries. These men had marched through Spain, across southern France, over the Alps and into northern Italy. At Cannae, it is suggested that Rome had 48,000 troops and 6,000 cavalry against Hannibal's 35,000 troops and 10,000 cavalry.

Compare that with the armies at the Battle of Pavia (1525), where Francis I was captured. It also involved a foreign army invading Italy over the Alpine passes. The battle involved 17,000 infantry and 6,500 cavalry (French army) and 19,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry (Spanish - Imperial forces).

"Just as the greatest generals of the ancient world gave insights into disease demography, so also does the career of Napoleon Bonaparte, with which we may end this brief discussion of the eve of the Industrial Revolution. At the time of Napoleon, we again see armies in the field numbering in the hundreds of thousands of men."

What is the modern opinion of this population v. disease analysis ?