1 Answers 2014-09-30
In this /r/worldnews submission, user /u/getlaidanddie linked to a blog post describing a trip around the Aral Sea taken by a friend.
In the second part of the blog post, they come across burial stones that supposedly belonged to nomadic tribes from the area. Some of the stones have what appear to be pretty basic symbols and the post author suggests that that might indicate the tribal affiliation of the deceased.
Then there's another headstone engraved with what appears to be Arabic writing, and the author suggests that
If the script is Arabic, then it could be written in Karakalpak language as it was based on Arabic script until 1928
My question, beyond just trying to get any resident expert to talk about the history of these sites and the people who created them, is about the use of a graveyard -- if the Arabic script stones represent a different culture from the more 'simply' engraved ones, does that suggest that a burial site was reused by non-contemporaneous civilizations? In the context of the steppes, where you'd figure there's plenty of space, and you wouldn't have to bury your people next to other people if you had religious qualms about it, does that mean these people didn't have religious qualms about it?
Or is the basic assumption wrong and these were all the same people and the difference in the headstones is due to some other reason?
Here are links to all the relevant images from the blog post
Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 | Image 4 | Image 5 | Image 6 | Image 7
"Arabic" Image 1 | "Arabic" Image 2 | "Arabic" Image 3 | "Arabic" Image 4
Link to Part 1 of the post, if anyone is interested
If the sub rules require me to ask a clearer question -- what were the determinants of a common burial location for a people/culture who did not live in any one place?
Thanks in advance for any responses.
1 Answers 2014-09-30
From this r/BadHistory thread. Having just finished The Sleepwalkers and The War That Ended Peace, German ambitions don't appear to have been expansionist. Certainly the military had offensive plans (like practically every other European power), but I don't recall reading that German aims in WWI were to incorporate Belgium/northeastern France into the Reich. What am I missing?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
The Mongol conquests steamrolled over many theatres, ranging across China, Manchuria Korea, Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia, Eastern Europe, and all lands in between. Genghis Khan can't have been everywhere at once, so which wars did he oversee personally?
How did he choose which wars to command personally? The newest? The most lucrative? The most delicate? Or did he simply rotate through them all to ensure the entire empire kept his authority in mind?
Did he simply kick back and let the loot roll in after uniting the steppe peoples, or did he continue to command armies himself? Did he travel with a personal elite army or did he simply take command of whatever army was already on the scene?
Did his personal touch have a noticeable impact on the outcome/conduct of those campaigns? When Genghis Khan was not present, were his generals using military doctrines and occupation policies devised by the Khan himself, or did they each have their own style of conquest?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
In fact, it seems like a few people that Henry VIII sent to death said something to the effect of "I ask the king to forgive me." A quick google search shows that Wolsey and Cromwell said words to this effect. Was this good etiquette? Or tradition? Or just plain submissiveness in the face of mortal terror?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
It seems like with all that free time Buddhists wouldn't be the only people who would start working out after their daily commune with the divine.
1 Answers 2014-09-30
Previous weeks' Tuesday Trivias and the complete upcoming schedule.
High fives and hugs all around y’all! No man is an island, and today I want to celebrate history’s greatest and most inspirational (or terrifying?) examples of teamwork: people working together to do some great stuff. Duos, trios and more-os are all welcome.
Next week on Tuesday Trivia: Did you know October is Family History month? Of course you did, and you’re pumped about it. Well next week it’s an open thread for all your family stories. The no-anecdotes rule flies out the window and you can finally unload grandpa’s dubious war stories at AskHistorians.
3 Answers 2014-09-30
I've recently read some accounts of occupying British forces turning Congregationalist churches into stables and otherwise having a dim view of the Colonists' religion. What were the main differences, and what role, if any, did this play in driving a wedge between the colonies and England?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
Reading a couple of journal articles on counter-insurgency and Mao, obviously, gets quite a few mentions. One article mentioned in passing the ideological split between Moscow and Beijing and I'm interested in learning a bit more.
Thanks!
1 Answers 2014-09-30
After the Winter and Continuation war and their co-belligerence with Nazi Germany, why was Finland simply not invaded and turned into a puppet state?
I understand that they lost territory, had to pay reparations and were required to drive the Germans out of their territory but even those seem like mild consequences compared to what one could expect from Stalin's Soviet Union.
7 Answers 2014-09-30
1 Answers 2014-09-30
For my German class, I'm doing a presentation on the HRE. I have a few resources already in English, but I'd also like to cut my teeth on academic German. Can anyone give me some titles on good, recent scholarship on the HRE, preferably in German? (Although more English would be fine as well.)
If time periods are needed, the two that I'm most interested in are the origins under Charlemagne, the Ottonian Empire, and the relationship that the HRE had as a whole with Austria.
1 Answers 2014-09-30
I recently made an assertion to a friend which I now believe was incorrect.
I know that Germany believed the war would be over quickly (before Christmas 1914). After reading an essay on the Central Powers' strategy, I am beginning to believe I misinterpreted it. I thought (and told my friend) that each belligerent believed the war would end quickly and thus mobilized in preparation for an advance. However, nobody flinched. Instead, each side kept waiting in vain for the other to go on the offensive, resulting in defense buildups (trenches). After reading more about the war, I learned that Germany did indeed go through Belgium to attack France.
So is my original assertion incorrect? If so, how/why did the factions rely so heavily on trench warfare?
EDIT: thanks to all for the input. It's fine if people have called me out, since I came into this thread assuming I was wrong from the beginning. I've only just begun to learn about WWI (high school failed to enlighten me on most historical topics).
4 Answers 2014-09-30
1 Answers 2014-09-30
Who were the wakou/wokou who raided the coastline of China, Japan, and Korea? Were they Japaneses, or Koreans? Where did they come from; were they former sailors? Fishermen who turned into sea banditry? What were their lifestyle? Were there any major trades that got disrupted by their presence?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
1 Answers 2014-09-30
Three 10min episodes have been released. The densest representation of facts is the in third episode, with a lot of dramatization of the people involved, so that would be the easiest to skip to if indeed there's anything wrong (though I'm still interested in all of it if possible).
1 Answers 2014-09-30
They would need wood for the yurts, carts and weapons, but steppes have little to no trees. Did they have to trade for it?
2 Answers 2014-09-30
Privacy and communication are a much debated topic nowadays, and I'm wondering whether it has always been the case, or if we've come to expect privacy in our communication only recently.
The telegraph, I assume, was a fairly technical way of communication, with intermediaries along the chain. Both trivial and sensitive data was communicated through it, but with so many people handling it "in the open", were people expecting the communication to be private, or did they know that at least some strangers would read it? Did they mind?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
We all know that they probably did it because of their fear that the communist aligned ANC might abuse it. But did they admit it?
1 Answers 2014-09-30
What actually happened to Juana Pabla Carrillo, mother of Solano López? It seems she was flogged on the San Fernando ´trials´, but I can´t quite put my finger on it...
Much appreciated.
1 Answers 2014-09-30
2 Answers 2014-09-30
