From what I remember from school (in Sweden in the 1980's) what we were taught was that there were no non-faked evidence that old sagas about Vikings going to America were based on true events. Was something discovered in the last 30 years that changed historians mind about this, were our books in school already outdated, or do we still not know?

When the German ship "Graf Spee" was out in the Atlantic in 1938-39, to be scuttled in the Battle of the River Plate in 1939, why did it head towards the South Atlantic and not the North Atlantic (where there were relatively more British/Allied ships) to attack Allied ships?

So its known that there was no such thing as a 'viking state,' as in a single nation with vikings. instead it was a group of chief led tribes that didnt really get along well, am i right? how is it, then, that they have similar religions? if they all fight and all were different, how does one define 'norse paganism?"

Classical antiquity is period of roughly a thousand years between the rise of the Greek polis and the collapse of the Roman Mediterranean system, and includes at different times the entire Mediterranean basin and beyond. There are a variety of ways to examine this period, and today this panel will discuss the archaeology, or the material remains, a category that includes the massive monumental temple at Baalbek and the carbonized seeds from an Italian farmhouse. Our panelists introduce themselves:

/u/pqvarus: I've specialized in Ancient Greek Archaeology, my geographic field of interest is Asia Minor (from the Archaic Period onwards) and as a result of my PhD project I'm focussing on the archaeology of ancient greek religion (especially cult practice) and material culture studies.

/u/Astrogator: I've just finished my MA at the department of Ancient History and Epigraphics (my BA was in History, Philosophy and Political Science), and my main interests are in provincial epigraphic cultures, especially the Danube region, and the display of dress on sepulchral monuments (and how both are tied to questions of Romanization and Identity).

/u/Tiako: I am an MA student studying the economy of the Early Imperial Period of the Roman Empire. My focus is on commerce, particularly Rome's maritime trade with India.

However, there is more to classical civilization than marble temples an the Aeneid, and there is more to the period than Greece and Rome. To provide a perspective from outside what is usually considered “classical” civilization, we have included three panelists from separate but closely intertwined fields of study. They are:

/u/Aerandir: I am archaeologist studying Iron Age communities. Currently I am working on a PhD on the fortifications of the first millennium AD in Denmark. Danish and Dutch material is what I am most familiar with.

/u/missingpuzzle: I have studied Hellenistic period Eastern Arabia, particularly specializing in settlement patterns and trade. I have also studied the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean trade from the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods.

/u/Daeres: Hi I'm Daeres, and I have an MA in Ancient History. My archaeological focus is on the Ancient Near East in the First Millenium BC, Bactria, and the Aegean, though I am primarily a historian rather than an archaeologist. I have an inordinate fondness for numismatics, and also epigraphy. But I especially concentrate on the archaeological evidence for Hellenistic era Bactria.

And so with knots cut and die cast, we await your questions.

In the kirsten dunst movie about Marie Antoinette they show her clapping after a performance and getting the rest of the people to clap with her which was apparently not allowed. I read her biography and the author mentions this moment in history but fails to explain it. It's been driving me nuts. Anyone have any ideas?

Was the island of Socotra, now part of Yemen, ever a part of any ancient empire?

I say middle ages because that is the time period I think the show resembles most. If you think that the comparison would be better if referring to the renaissance or even ancient rome feel free to do so.

Someone recently pointed out to me what should have been obvious - the first question in regards to a settlement's location is 'Where go people get water?'. Was all water taken from streams?

If so, does anyone know if this is true for all people in medieval Europe? I've seen some water-transport in a museum in Krawków, Poland, but it only ran through a city and it was pretty primitive. I'm also not sure how old it was - perhaps some centuries, so it wouldn't apply to worlds similar to old Europe.

Was there ever more advanced irrigation? I've heard of Greek-style city irrigation (because apparently the Greeks invented everything), but again, only inside a city - never from a mountain to an area without a stream.

If a well dried up, did the entire associated village/town/city just pack up and fuck off overnight? Where on earth did they go?

Did any civilisation know how to get water through anything else? Bogs, stagnant lakes, the sea, collecting rainwater? I'm primarily interested in medieval Europe, but would love to know if any other civilisations had some tricks which were later lost.

I'm asking as I create fictional, low-technology worlds, and I want to know if every settlement I place on the maps must relate to a water-route, without exception.

Is every route in every country within a day's march of a stream? Did people, even in soggy Britain, ever decline a short path from A to B because there was no water in the middle?

Many thanks for all comments and answers.

It is currently January 21, 2014.

An event that occurred on January 21, 1914 happened exactly 100 years ago, and not a day sooner or later. With the right math for leap years, we can figure out exactly how long ago that was. Can the same be said for 1814? 1614? 1014?

I know there were some changes to the calendar over time. But if we know what those changes were, then we should still be able to track time accurately. So if, for example, we know that leap years were added at a particular time, and a shift of 3 days happened at some other time, etc., then that shouldn't stop us from being able to track dates.

I also expect that it gets harder to nail down specific dates for events as you go farther back, but let's say that you have multiple reliable accounts for an event and that they all agree on a date.

So do we know exactly how many times the sun has risen since the Declaration of Independence? Luther's theses? The Magna Carta? The birth of Ramses II?

From reading Sherlock Holmes I’ve got the impression, that late 19th century England used the expression “two-and-twenty” for “22”. This parallels current practice in Germany, with “zwei-und-zwanzig”.

Was this common pronounciation, or where else did Sir Doyle get that form from? When, and how did this switch? Who promoted one over the other? What did Americans do at that time?

My apologies, if this question should better be placed in /r/AskLinguists.

For more than a century, Russo-Turkish relations could be described as "the Emperor's march on Constantinople." Especially in 1878, when Turkish power was so badly broken, why did the Russians refrain from seizing the city? Why didn't the vast significance of New Rome to such a deeply Orthodox nation overrule the foreign policy risks involved? And why was no further attempt made?

Hit me with everything

As an extension to the question, what factors lead to the Middle East falling behind in science and mathematics after so many mathematical discoveries were made in that region, such as the invention/discovery of algebra?

To me I can never separate Anatolia being "Turkish," even if I know that's not always been the case.

Were the Greeks prevalent there? Would the towns and cities resembled Greece Proper, or was it more of a mix of lots of different cultures? If it wasn't just the Greeks, who else were there? (aside from the Turks later on)