I just watched "PBS Secrets of the Dead: Sinking Atlantis" where, fortunately, they focused mainly on the Minoans and less on the "Atlantis" aspect. It seems a great body of evidence has built up linking the collapse of the Minoan Empire to a volcanic eruption and a subsequent tsunami, with the Greeks taking over soon after as the only naval power left in the Mediterranean. Are there any other equally supported theories for the disappearance of the Minoans?

I can understand giving an emperor a nice tomb (certainly his successor would want the same treatment upon his own death). I can even understand the careful treatment of his busts and statues and paintings, for posterity. But why divinize them? That seems excessive. It's not like they were a genetic lineage, many of the roman generals were adopted by their predecessors.

I mean, surely the other carriers around were already filled with planes. Did they leave extra space on other carriers for this situation? Did they evenly distribute the pilots among the other carriers?

I mean could they not have used other materials? Was hemp a game changer?

I had this question in response to another posted here, but others thought it merited its own thread.

There are still some remnants such as the Bar Mitzvah and Quinceañera, but rites of passage in general seem to have waned in importance or been restricted to a religious connotation. Currently, a young American is recognized as beginning to turn into an adult at the onset of puberty, but this transformation can take many years to finish and there is never a concrete point at which it is recognized as complete. Has this always been the case, in either America or pre-Colonial Europe? Was there ever a proper rite of passage at all in Western cultures? How does modern legislature regarding the acquisition of individual freedoms fit in?

I know this is mostly fictional. But the idea of who could be taken as a slave was intriguing. Could I be peeled off the street after a night of drinking and sold into slavery? Only foreigners? Only "low" born Romans?

Like, we look back and see a distinctive difference between the 20s and 30s or the 70s and 80s, but I at least have a tendency to think of fashion as only progressing by the century before 1900. So, I'm sure it moved more slowly than now, but could you look at someone in the 1850s and think "Wow, that's SO 1820s..."?

Im looking for some ideas for some resources on the Venetian Republic and specifically its foreign relations or strategies which were employed leading to their longevity / success. Any books or academic articles would be appreciated.

As an example; I have the book the Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire by Edward Luttwak, are there any books along those lines about Venice?

I watched a documentary several years ago that said early fighter pilots--specifically during WWI--had a code. Such as a British pilot running out of ammo and then waving goodbye to a German pilot, as if they were friends and the fight was over. The documentary also called them Knights of the Sky. How accurate is this? Was there an etiquette when opposing forces engaged in dogfights during the early 20th century?

Put another way:

Given the technology of the time, and assuming you were facing an enemy that was using the traditional lining-up of soldiers, what would be the optimal deployment of forces?

I often hear about how much everything changed with the first world war and trench warfare (as one example). Would this have been viable back 50 years earlier? How about modern infantry tactics of the 21st century? Or was the technology of the time too limiting of a factor to use any other strategy?

I was wondering because their have been so many events in Japanese history that could erase these clans and their descendants, such as the Meiji Restoration and even World War Two. Thanks.

This is a re-post from /r/history but this is a serious question I've been pondering about.

I'm only asking this because I know that when these seashells eat microscopic organisms such as algae and store the toxin produced by the algae in their body. Nowadays I'm sure we have modern chemical testing kits or some sort of way to test for the toxins.

I'm just wondering how did ancient people eat seashells back in the day without dying? Or did they simply never know about the toxin and assumed it was another disease or they did a "ingest a little bit" and see what happens?