On Tuesday I was looking up articles on the Capacha culture, an Early Formative (1500-800 BC) group along the Pacific coast of West Mexico. I came across an article titled Distillation in Western Mesoamerica before European Contact. Any claim for pre-Columbian distillation is highly suspect and has been debated off and on for awhile. I myself, was skeptical.

The authors of the article suggested that the stirrup vessels of the Capacha culture could have functioned as stills for distilling fermented material like agave or corn. To test their hypothesis they created 20 replicas of different styles of stirrup vessels. They did an ingenious thing to seal their vessels against water damage by soaking the vessels in leftover nixtlamal water and then slowly boiling them for two hours before firing. I had never heard of this method being used on ceramics, but then I have not been super focused on ceramic creation methods.

With their replicas the researchers put in a 1L of agave ferment in the bottom chamber of the vessel. They used a gourd cover for the top. Attached to the cover using string were small ceramic bowls in which they placed cold water to act as a condenser. As the agave ferment was slowly boiled the alcoholic vabor would rise to the top chamber. The vapor would come into contact with the cold water and condense back into a liquid. After doing 10 trials with a wood fire and 10 trials with a more controlled gas fire the researchers averaged their alcoholic content and found that they reach 20% alcohol after one distillation which is 5% greater than what you can get through natural fermentation.

Now, the researchers don't claim that the Capacha culture actually distilled anything. They merely proved their point that the vessel shape lends itself to the ability of distillation. I very much wish they talked about usewear on their ceramics from doing this and how it differs from other usewear noticed on authentic vessels. I also wish they had discussed chemical markers between the agave ferment and their distilled liquid and whether or not those markers could be tested for in a residue analysis test. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, I suppose.

Since this thread is lightly administered, I'm going to ask something kind of out of scope.

Where are the other subreddits like this? I don't mean in content but in substance. Where else is the bar set high for information? For people to qualify things as opinion and not fact, providing sources and context and perspective? I love it and I want more of it.

Also, I know many of you must be in the pursuit of knowledge in general than just history, much like myself. There's a lot of things I want to learn about in History and this is a great subreddit for it but there's a lot of other things I'm interested in too.

Is there a good place to ask and seek learning resources for things that are not history? For example: I'm extraordinarily interested in poaching and, now that my business is beginning to move in the right direction, trying to prepare myself to do some work to build a non-profit. I want to learn about a million things. I want to learn about drilling for water in Africa, building and flying drones, long range live video, more about specific economies in Africa...

Again, I know this is off topic but I wish there was a place where you could get the information and respectful nature of this subreddit to seek all information, not just history.

Does anyone know of any good texts on Sassanid Persian culture?

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but there were some great posts about history of Pi over in /r/askscience by two of our own flairs, /u/Jooseman and /u/Reedstilt, and I would like to encourage anyone even remotely interested to check it out!

EDIT: Fixed some links

So... books/articles request is okay here?

I'm currently trying to learn more about the cultural history of Syrian people. I've always been interested with the modern-day Mesopotamia and Levant in university, but I've never read much about its history in ancient times.

1. I've been wondering for the difference between the Arameans and Assyrians, particularly in the times of Roman Empire. If I recall correctly Herodotus seem to distinguish between the two, and so did Strabo, but many writers seem to refer both collectively simply as "Syrian people". I've been helped by /u/Daeres regarding them in the more ancient times (1st millenium BC) - can I ask for help here about them in the times of Roman Empire?

2. I've been reading William Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain, in which he traces the travel of the Byzantine monk John Moschos in late antique world. In another reading, I also found a short account of Cosmas Indicopleustes, a traveling Alexandrian merchant in 6th century. I find reading the travelers' perspectives during that time interesting. Still related to my curiosity concerning the history of ancient Levant/Mesopotamia, is there another accounts of travelers in late antiquity that I can read, especially Syrian travelers? Or maybe a review/commentary of their travel and their perspective (like Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain).