Did they have any special cares for it? Did they just carry it in a common pouch? Was there anything invented to carry gunpowder and avoid it getting wet or to just make it more stable?

I have been fascinated by the Polynesians because they were superb sailors despite their ships being incomparable to the ships European countries would build. I’ve been wondering how could they possibly be this good at travel it just is hard to comprehend for me.

In many cases, when archaeologists reached a tomb, they found that it had already been extensively damaged by robbing. It is also said that these robbings did NOT take place in the modern era. Who were these premodern robbers who had the knowledge to know where the tombs were and how to get inside them?

My introduction to /r/AskHistorians came from a comment onto which I stumbled from /r/All. It was a massive, detailed, three-comment write-up of armored train usage on the Eastern front in WWII.

I never, ever would have thought to ask a question about that subject, but it was a delightful read and I was very grateful that someone asked the question that lead to it. It makes me wonder how many other potential goldmines like that are out there from the passionate contributors on this forum, lacking the question that could lead to their discovery.

Could we have a contained space where someone with a great deal of niche knowledge would be free to talk about it and share their enthusiasm about the subject? The usual rules and standards for sourcing would apply. I might not think to ask, but I would probably enjoy reading a detailed write-up on the methods of elephant husbandry by early Indian farmers or something equally unlikely to come up via standard question.

Actually, although it's a meta post, if anyone would like to talk about the early domestication of elephants, please do so.

And finally if anyone remembers that armored train thread, please post it in the comments because I would love to read it again.

I’ve heard some laypeople argue that she was black, but it also seems to be a somewhat politically charged topic. Are there varying accounts in the literature?

I mean they lost manpower, pilots (which is hard to train) and planes? Wasn’t it a bad strategy in the long run?

Hi,

I'm a student who is going to be writing a 4000 ish word paper which requires the use of sources prior to Hellenistic Greece. The question, though not entirely formalized yet, is as follows : "How did cult behavior influence the shift in portrayal of Dionysus from Mycenaean to Hellenistic Greece?" I have access to JSTOR, and have found some great articles about Linear B on there, for example. Unfortunately the Mycenaeans were an overly organized people that didn't keep particularly many records outside of practical & legal applications. At least that's what I found from my research so far. I do know, however, that there are mentions of the original 12 Greek gods traditionally included in the Pantheon. I just am unsure of where exactly to find this.

Thank you so much for any help/advice on gathering valuable sources!

Was this just a crazy idea or was it seriously considered?

When discussing the aftermath of battles, we always hear about the tactical outcomes. If we hear about casualties, it’s usually little more than a number in a box.

Some battles had hundreds of thousands of deaths. All of those corpses had to end up somewhere but what actually happened to them once the fighting ceased?

I know Americans had the Graves Registration services and Germany had protocols for burials, but I can only find handbook-like level of detail. How closely did soldiers actually follow these rules? How quickly did the process take? Did most countries bring the bodies home or did they use on-site mass graves? The nitty-gritty of what happened doesn’t seems to have many primary accounts, especially in the Pacific Theater.

My grandfather was a WWII veteran and he never liked to talk about these types of experiences but I feel like this is an important part of what actually happened in the War.

Apologies if this is a stupid question, which it very likely is seeing as I'm about to sleep and I can't think straight right now, but both the ancient Greek empire(?) and ancient Roman empire had a huge impact on today.

So my questions is specifically about the capital cities, in Athens there's really only a select few ancient ruins to see, while in Rome it seems that every other corner you turn there's an ancient ruin. Why is that? Was ancient Athens a lot smaller than I think it was, or has it just happened that almost everything except for the few ruins it has now have been destroyed, while Rome has so many well preserved ancient ruins you lose track of them. I'm pretty sure Rome has like 40+ ruins you can visit

Can someone recommend a book in the style of "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" that covers the time from 1945 to roughly 1990? I.e. about the H-bomb research and tests, the arms race and the cold war.

Title.

Reason I ask is because I know sailors were low in the social hierarchy, and I wonder if stigma was associated with their work songs.

You all do brilliant work and I am grateful for that, but I am just curious.

Edit: Delighted by all the response. Your contributions make this one of the best subreddits, thank you for that.