Beer has been made for at least 4000 years, but yeast was discovered in a microscope in the 1600s. How was beer made before people knew they had to put yeast into the wort, and what did ancient people think was happening? Do we have any contemporary sources on what they thought caused fermentation?

I know wild yeast is everywhere, but that can often produce off flavors in beer. Was there a lot of inconsistency in early brewing?

I've also heard about brewing sticks that would preserve a yeast strain and would be passed down for generations. Is there any truth to that?

The fact that Americans were taken prisoner is well know but i have never heard of Americans taking prisoners during that war.

Both 'Deadliest Warrior' and 'Weapons That Made Britain' (Mike Loades) focus on enthusiastic descriptions of weapons and warriors.

It's probably a guilty pleasure of mine to directly see what kind of damage a weapon inflicts on some animal carcass.

There are very popular TV shows and Youtube channels which are devoted to that kind of historical study. I don't know of any serious history book (maybe something like The Knight and the Blast Furnace?) or academic that is devoted to the same field of inquiry.

Is the study of weapons or warriors maybe discouraged in academia?

I posted a similar question some weeks ago. I distinctly remember hearing that there's such a thing as the Hostory of human sexuality, albeit not a major academic sub-discipline, I guess. Is there?And if there is, does anyone have any good tips on books. Oh, and why do I ask? Well, it just seems quite random and fun.

I'm doing some research on early modern federal ideas, including the creation of the Commonwealth, and I would love to get my hands on a version of the text that I can read (can't read Polish, unfortunately). My gut tells me that a Latin version, at the very least, should exist somewhere.

On a related note, if someone could point me to English, Latin, or French primary sources on the Old Swiss Confederacy, I would be very grateful.

wondering if there are any experts on the region's history that can chime in on the destruction ISIS is doing. They've destroyed a museum in Mosul and now I'm hearing bulldozed an entire ancient city? I know civilization pretty much started over there. just how bad is it?

So Egypt was unified around 3000BCE, yet the individual kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt existed long before. The main differences I know of are the two crowns which were combined, and different names for gods.

Yet these two areas are vastly different. The delta is this huge lush area, while Upper Egypt is pretty linear. What was this time like for these two kingdoms?

when let's say when Hudson found the Hudson Bay why didn't he claim all of ruperts land when he got there or all of Canada or North America wouldn't it be more useful if you just claimed all the land in the world there's no contention for land and your nation becomes the largest nation in the world is it rules of colonizism because they didn't really colonize when they found the new world and still owning all the land in the world or keeping some rules

Despite speaking the same language, an Austrian national identity was promoted and established which has prevented any attempts to unite with Germany since. Why didn't the Allies try to do this with West and East Germany to try and prevent any attempts to reunify the two countries? Couldn't East Germany be Prussia, for example? Or was it just considered impossible that Communism would ever fall in East Germany and cause the unification of the two?

I was reading some old posts here about the Library of Alexandria, with people commenting on just how many stories people were writing at the time.

Do we know if people wrote public reviews of stories? Have any of these survived? Or do we know of any private correspondence where someone mentions a book they just read or a play they just saw?

I was originally thinking about this in terms of negative reviews. I was curious whether we have any surviving negative reviews (even one-liners like "this guy's play sucks, don't bother with it"), but I'd be interested in whether there were positive reviews as well.

I've been reading about late antiquity and I've noticed that there was a distinction between these two people, apparently the black huns invaded eastern europe and the white Huns attempted a conquest of Persia in 415-420 AD, what were the differences (if there were any) between these two people?

Do we know what round shields were communicating to the enemy and/or peers of norse warriors? Was it intended to intimidate the enemy, show how one could keep up with current trends/fashions, displaying wealth and status, tribalism/group identity or is this motivation unknown?

I'm aware of insane asylums throughout history but are psychological disorders more common nowadays or is it just that people are more aware of them?