I'm interested in what it was actually like to be a trader in India and Africa. What were the different types of job? What sort of side trades were made? What was the day to day life like? I want the boring details as well as the romantic details. What were the pitfalls of buying Tea or Coffee? What sort of things were imported and where did they go and how were they delivered? Where did traders live? In communes or alone? How much money did they make at the low end and the top end? What sort of corruption occurred? Did traders bring their families? etc.

I see some websites stating it began in 480 after Thermopylae and Salamis, yet others say it began in 500(499ish) with the first Ionian revolts. Is this a serious dispute, or just ignorance?

Also this percentage would have surely changed during the various dynasties.

Are there any figures/databases for this?

Thanks.

We know that European mercenaries have been active in African countries in the 20th century but were there any recorded cases of Africans employing European mercenaries before Africa was fully colonised in the late 19th century?

The British had colonies all over north America, so how essentially did they end up becoming two separate countries and not one big colony?

For example the ancient Romans and Greeks had an aristocratic society with electable positions for much of their history. When the monarchy was abolished (or any time really) were there any people in favour or opposed to republicanism that made reference to the hierarchy of the gods as part of their argument?

One man's inventions responsible for defending a city against a besieging army for 2 years seems highly romanticized.

I ask after seeing so many archers in games, book, etc., like Fire Emblem having little armor or no armor. So, how much armor should be expected for a Medieval European archer to use?

I read that when the Johnsons moved into the White House, they had some conflict with the Kennedys' White House Executive Chef, René Verdon, because they had rather "Texas home cooking" tastes (e.g., barbecued spareribs).

The last straw, allegedly, was when the Johnsons asked for a cold garbanzo bean puree.

Was this just hummus, but the journalists writing about the incident in 1965 didn't use that word because they thought that not enough Americans would know what that was? Or is there some home-spun Texan garbanzo bean puree that evolved independently?

I tried Googling a bit, with some stuff like "'lyndon johnson' hummus," "texas garbanzo puree," and some other combinations, but didn't find anything illuminating.

I always notice that pirates have a close relationship with parrots. Video games, movies, and pop culture all seem to have this as a staple for a classic pirate.

Why are the two so closely related? And also, were parrots easily accessible through trade networks, etc?

And did he ever try to write another book?

This question might be difficult to answer for some cultures that did not establish much permanent housing, such as the Aboriginal Australians, but I was wondering if the idea of a haunted house is something that appears in all cultures and time periods, and what the cultural mythology about them might be.

Paging /u/snickeringshadow

I am not looking for carvings on a wall or cave art. I am looking for the oldest known "written" document. Be it papyrus, or even a stone tablet. When did written language become, well for lack of a better term, portable? (transportable maybe?) Thanks for any responses.