I'm intrigued by the Rhodesian notion that there was no 'civilised' society on their land before european settlement. It's a claim that's too wild to not have been built on some sort of observations that could have supported it.

Since civilised is a weasel word, let's say I mean that I am interested in the structure, location and extent of control of organized social entities larger than the level of village that developed in the region. This includes ideological entities, such as gods, myths and currencies, i suppose. 'Technology' is always included in definitions of 'civilised', but I think the means of propagating technology is more important to the definition than the technologies themselves. How was information disseminated, justified and verified in pre-colonial southern africa? How effective were these mechanisms?

I'm going to bound this question geographically - south of the Congolese rainforest and the great rift valley. However, this is off the cuff, and I am interested in hearing about effective and proper geographical organizations for southern africa as an area of study.

Also, I'd like to problematise starting a response with 'we don't know much about the history of this temporal/spatial region'. Whether or not it is valid, it functions as a polemical support for an argument that pre-colonial southern africa was more civilised than the evidence supports, which, irrespective of what tricks if any colonial historians played, is bad science. What do we know?

(I apologize if this is inapropriate for this subreddit; I checked the rules and it seemed to fall into a grey area) I finished reading The Price of Glory, by Sir Alistair Horne, a few days back, and realized that I would like to, before the great Sir Horne leaves us here in the living, write a letter to him saying that I appreciate his writing, its style, clarity, et al. I wondered if anyone has ever written to an author/historian and whether it was successful. Was he/she responsive? Who was it, and what did you talk about, if you'd be willing to divulge. Any general tips for finding the agents or fan addresses for historians?

I was reading about the varangian guard and it was said that some swedish laws prohibited the inheritance of land if someone was in "greece" (their word for the byzantines). When reading about the varangians, it seems that the world was pretty connected back then. I mean if Swedes had information about available jobs in Constantinople, thats pretty impressive. Could the same be said about the rest of europe? Or was it all an informational backwater zone?

I know we've had questions before regarding who the builders of Teotihuacan were, but I'm looking for a bit more specific detail:

I've heard - both here and in classes I've taken - theories which suggest that the builders (or at least the elite ruling class during the city's height) may have been speakers of an Oto-Pamean language, or alternately Totonacs and Nahua. I assume these assumptions are based on historical linguistic data and/or archeology. I'm interested in knowing what evidence we have, how strong it is, and whether it gives us any strong consensus in the field, or a current leading candidate, for the ethnicity of the city's builders/elites.

(As a note, I'm aware it was a multi-ethnic city at least at its height. I'm guessing that the elites are though to be largely from the same ethnicity, based on other multi-ethnic polities of the time, but feel free to correct me if that's wrong. I'm also aware that the the time period involved is such that modern notions of, say, Otomi self-identification probably don't apply - but any thoughts are appreciated.)

Attending middle school and high school in Texas during the late 90s and early 00s, we were taught that states rights was the primary cause of the American Civil War. In fact, answering "slavery" on the multiple choice test question was marked wrong.

I realize that many factors (economic, political, social, etc.) played a role, but what was the primary cause and would the Civil War have occurred without the slavery issue?

Are there any maps of trails and villages around south georgia, north florida, alabama? I can goto the courthouse but they have no maps that date back that far. I know where I live now used to be one huge county, but no maps of any roads or trails.

Basically, how do we know that we aren't just reading a historical version of Monty Python ?

I've heard this story before and was wondering if there is any truth to it. How would the situation play out when the army reached a village or city?

A couple days ago, I did a tour of Turku Castle, where the guide showed off a very short bed (it looked to be less than 1.2m long) in one of the the medieval bedrooms of the castle. She said the bed was so short because they used to sleep in a half-sitting position. I can't recall precisely what time the room was supposed to be showing off, but based on the rest of the tour, I'd guess roughly early 15th century.

I tried to Google around to research more about it, but I can't find much concrete information about it, just speculation and naysaying ("people weren't much shorter then: it's a myth!", "people didn't sleep half-sitting then: it's a myth!", "the beds weren't actually shorter: it's an illusion!")

First of all: is this true? Would a nobleman in a castle in that area have slept half-sitting? How widespread was this practice of having short beds so that you would sleep half-sitting?

If it is true, do we know any rationale for why people slept half-sitting? The guide said they believed their soul could escape through their mouths if they slept flat on their backs, but I'm sceptical.

Finally, why and when did the practice of sleeping half-sitting end?

Was intruiged by a scene in kingdom in heaven where Saladin gives one captive knight a cup full of ice to drink, froma chest. I Have also read a book by Conn Iggulden about the life of Julius Ceasar, where a roman nobleman have huge blocks of ice brought to his home i northen italy from the winter in north (scandinavia, i think). I wonder if it was possible and common in times as ancient Rome or Middle ages to produce or store ice for some times without it smelting? (In Conn Igguldens book they ship blocks of ice that weights several tones wiht carriges then store them in a deep cold cellar, and they then remark that they need to use it soon (dont remember if it was within hours, days or weeks). Is this possible and if so how did they stop it from melting?

I think beeing able to threaten people by pointing a loaded crossbow at them would have been a pretty new thing as you can't effectively do it with a bow or other ranged weapons from that period. So was this really used and were people like guards or criminals armed with crossbows for that specific reason apart from other advantages like easy use and power?

Greetings esteemed scholars. I was wondering if one of you fine gentlepeople knew why the Netherlands and Belgium have such a comparatively high population density and also how long that's been going on. Since when have these countries been densley populated?

The question came to mind after a recent /r/europe thread in which I noted that Denmark (excluding Greenland), being slightly bigger than the Netherlands and having much the same climate and landscape only has one-third of the Dutch population.

Belgium too is quite densely populated so I assume the two phenomenons have a cause in common.

What can you tell me about this? Where does it come from, how long has it been here?

Someone suggested it had to do with the rich soil and the good location for a trade port which made it a very wealthy and thus populous area and while that suggestion does sound very plausible, I'd like to know more on the subject, so thanks in advance!

If this breaks the current events rule, please feel free to delete it but I figured this population density rather pre-dates 1994.

It seems so weird to me that once upon a time a family up and decided; we're building a castle and having subjects! Who's in?