I was wondering this. I had read that Stalin was a major agitator before the Russian Revolution (robbing banks and such). So the group would have obviously become a noticeable threat wouldnt it?

Do any modern people still share DNA with the Sumerians? Did they actually "vanish"? (Wiped out by opposing forces, natural disasters, or something similar.) What really happened?

I mean, obviously the Strait of Bosporus was there the whole time, so wouldn't it make sense for someone to have already taken advantage of the natural strategic and economic bottleneck it represented? I find it hard to believe that the Adriatic to Black Sea and Balkan to Anatolia trade routes didn't kick into high gear until Constantine's era.

The only explanation I can think of is that jealous neighboring polities worked together a la the Trojan War to suppress such proto--Constantinoples before it got really powerful. Is there any record of of something like this happening?

I'm creating a character for a game and I have decided to base them on Scandinavians from the Viking Age. I wanted this character to be relatively superstitious and thought obsessively reading the runes for guidance might be a bit fun.

I wanted to know whether or not there's anything backing up the idea of runes being used to tell the future/divine solutions to problems/so on and so forth. If not, are there any historically verified divination methods that I would be able to use? I'd like my character to be as accurate as possible.

How come all the generals, both in the Allied and the Central powers, seemed to think that the war would be over by the end of 1914?

I keep seeing/hearing/reading this trope in every piece about WW1 that I come across (which is many, this being the centennial), but I have no idea how accurate it is. Was it just propaganda? And if it is accurate, I don't understand how these generals could be so wrong - as if they didn't expect their enemies to have made the same technological advances, or have learned from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, or anything else. Were they delusional? What's going on?

If so, when did it start becoming a higher status food item?

I'm interested in anything that covers past antiquity.

I'm aware that court culture varies as you cross the Europe, so please indicate the region, Kingdom, ruler, dynasty, etc.

I have read that it is related to German, and i have also read (although i could certainly believe otherwise) that one who speaks german can easily understand Yiddish. Is there any truth to that as well?