The dig is over. It was a rather tumultuous season in terms of results (fortunately not politically tumultuous like last year when a war broke out and we had to flee the rockets). We tried to find the main north-south Roman period street (aka the Cardo for all the Romanists out there), and thought after last season we had is nailed. Turns out we not only don't know where it is, everything we thought we knew about the Roman city plan is completely wrong. We aren't even sure about anything in the Roman period after this season, so that's fun. In other news, we might have more Iron Age marketplace that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 604 BC. That's pretty cool. Also, we found this season the earliest occupation in the area, a late-Chalcholithic-Early Bronze occupation featuring bell-shaped pits cut into a paleosol and a square feature beside them. Cool stuff. All in all it was a fantastic season, and now we have to do the hard work to get everything ready for publication (because that's what separates good archaeologists from Indiana Jones). You can recap our adventures at http://digashkelon.com/blog

Here is a bit of a mind blowing fact: it is often claimed, for example in Ian Mortimer's Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England, that class would be inscribed on the body by things such as greater height, greater health, longer lives etc. For example, in this famous image the status of the wealthy boys is shown not merely by their clothes and posture, but also their height and healthier features (of course this is a stereotyped image, but it illustrates a point). This makes sense: wealthier people had access to more an better food, less body destroying labor, and can retreat from the city during the disease ridden summer.

This is true, but taking a broad view of history, only to a point. Egyptian royal mummies have about 8 cm height differences, and Mycenean kings and commoners vary by perhaps 6 cm (there might be genetic factors here, however, and these are both super edge cases). And these are pretty extreme examples--the variation among classical Maya cities is only about 2 cm, which is similar to High Medieval Europe and early modern France. And then it leaps again with industrialization, with variations like 13 cm for 1790s Prussia and 16 cm in 1800s London (I'm really simplifying the data). So the norm is consistent but not terribly dramatic differences in height until the 18/19th centuries, when the upper class is able to dramatically convert their social position into greater health.

But here is the fun part: they still lag Paleolithic hunter gatherers! Granted I am committing a cardinal sin in comparison bone length of different populations, but it is still striking that the average height of Aegean male hunter gatherers was 175 cm. For comparison, the average height of the modern American male is...about 175 cm. The average height of an aristocratic Prussian officer was 164 cm.

It's your Friday favorite, Better Know an Historian! And this week we get out in the field with /u/textandtrowel, listen to some nice music, and learn about a most curious cultural practice of the Medievalists of Kalamazoo...

Some happy news, and a bit of a plug:

The latest volume to contain some of my work was finally published a week or two ago. A book, this time: a new collection of essays about the development of British fantasy writing in the aftermath of the First World War. Interested parties can check it out here, if they wish -- mine is the one about alternate history writing.

This seems a good place to shameless plug an excellent museum event I try to do every year: the annual First Person Night at Knox's Headquarter's State Historic Site. The event imagines a birthday part for General Henry Knox on the eve of the Continental Army's artillery regiments marching south to join the main army and their recently arrived French allies outside of New York City in June 1781.*

I'll be playing Cadwallder Colden III, grandson of New York's last royal lieutenant governor and the family's one more-or-less well regarded Patriot. I'll be playing him as a man with legitimate grievances against the Patriot authorities, whose loyalty to the Revolution is quietly suspect - my father is in exile in British-held New York City, and my brother fights alongside many of my cousins in loyalist regiments in the British army. My family's home would have likely been confiscated if not for my father-in-law, Continental Congressman John Fell, vouching for me.

The event runs from 5-8 this Saturday, and is always a good time. I encourage anyone within driving distance of the Hudson Valley to stop by.

*Why do we hold an event set in early June in late July? It takes that long to train the staff well enough that they won't fall on their faces when trying to do first person.

I visited the Inreung in Seoul - the tomb of Sunjo, king of Korea for 34 years (1800 and 1834) who did a shitty job of being king for most of those three decades, and his queen, Queen Sunwon, who was regent twice and did an even worse job as regent than her husband as king. Despite the various faults of its occupants, the tomb complex is still a fantastic place and also one of the easiest Joseon tombs to get to for a foreigner.

I'm on mobile and Imgur isn't helping so I can't upload all the pics, but here's one: the dual staircases leading to the Jeonjagak, the shrine to Sunjo and Sunwon. You might notice that the staircase on the left is by far more carefully made, with the stone arch and all. The staircase on the right is literally just...stairs. So you might expect that the left staircase was for the king.

Nope. The Joseon tomb is the territory of the spirits of the deceased, and there the reigning king is strictly subservient to the tomb's dead occupants. So after passing the Red Arrows Gate (the gate to the complex) the king must dismount from his palanquin and walk the rest of the way to the Jeongjagak. For the Inreung there are two paths leading to the shrine; one elevated one, and one lower one. Again the king walks on the lower path, and the higher path is reserved to those carrying the ancestor tablets and other such things. And of course when entering the shrine, the more elaborate staircase on the left is for the ancestor tablet and such, and the king goes on the much less remarkable staircase on the right.

The shrine is decorated with depictions of clouds. The engravings on the archs of the right staircase are also about clouds. What does this all mean? Well, the shrine this becomes a metaphor for Heaven, for the celestial realm. Again Sunjo is not coming to his descendants - his descendants are coming to him.

The site is also imbued with fengshui importance and a plethora of mushrooms, but I know little about fengshui and less about mushrooms.

Did the protestant reformation have an effect on the european fish industry?

So,am I the only one frustated at the controversies about Indian history: 'DAE SECULARIST-MARXISTS' or 'DAE HINDUTVA FOLKS'?

Could you recommend me some stuff on Indian historiography?(I already have stuff by Edwin Bryant on that controversy).

A cub of an animal from Arunachal Pradesh.

Any one has stuff regarding North-East India?

Let's continue the movie and TV discussion we had last week. /u/International_KB made a great point about how some staged scenes--the French commando attack in The Longest Day hold up really well--and concurred with our earlier point that Saving Private Ryan was a bit of a game-changer for amping up the violence in war movies. He(?) rightly compared it to the contemporary The Thin Red Line (Marines on Guadalcanal) that is really a different kind of thing.

I've been trying to think of other very violent war films from this period, say, 1990s forward (20-year-rule WHATEVER). One I thought of was Braveheart; can anyone else think of any? What about Gladiator and The Patriot? Were those significantly more violent than previous films in their genre?

/u/Tiako also pointed out that Hollywood directors began taking cues from Asian filmmakers in the violence department, as they had been doing that for a while. Does anyone know of any examples? Maybe we could find them on Netflix, or even just some clips to check them out.

Today is my actual birthday. In honor of that what is the coolest (in your opinion) fact about July 24th that you know? (i.e. On July 24, 1237 the siege of BlahBlah was lifted because camal caught on fire and the besieging army laughed so hard they gave up the siege.)

I hope this is permitted, but a question I've long wanted to ask everyone here is--What are your thoughts on historical fiction in book/movie/TV form?

Do you think that even inaccurate portrayals are worth something if they ignite interests in the subject matter? Or do you feel that a lot of it just perpetuates some of the same tired misconceptions? Should we demand more accuracy, or be grateful because without historical fiction many people wouldn't even KNOW about a lot of events or individuals from the more distant past?

A reminder that July 27th (this Monday) is the anniversary of the Korean War Armistice (July 27th, 1953). The Korean War is largely labeled as "The Forgotten War," in part because it is rarely thought of or gains the historical remembrance that World War II and the Vietnam War receive.

As of May 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs records that there are over 2 million living veterans who served in the Korean War. If you know one of these veterans, please take the time to listen and record their story if they are willing to share it. Take this weekend to learn about the Korean War and the Korean Peninsula in remembrance of those who fought in or were affected by The Forgotten War.

If you are looking for any Armistice Day memorials or remembrances near you, I am willing to help you search.

I'm finally finishing the essays I promised to my editor at Chicago six months ago! It's the latest I've ever been on anything! Hooray for being late! Ugh. And yet, when I sheepishly contacted them, their response was "you're earlier than most." Why is being heinously late so accepted these days? Not that I'm complaining, but now I feel like a jerk for really scolding my own collaborators on things. It's not like grant deadlines are as forgiving.

I'm perhaps prematurely worried and overly apprehensive about dealing with archives with heavy requirements for publication (gifted copies required, obtaining permission for quotes, etc.)

Does my dissertation count as a publication? Or should these worries wait until I have a book contract?

I’d appreciate hearing any tips or experiences.

Is there a related AskHistorians subreddit with historians who can give research advice on academic questions, such as paper writing or book suggestions for research? For example, I'm looking for a few good books on Judaism in Lithuania for research on a philanthropist, and it would be quite a boon.

I'm trying to convert a paper I did for my bachelor's for submission to a conference, and I'm looking for some advice there. I've tried talking to my former adviser, but he recently retired so I'm not expecting too much to hear from him because he frankly deserves a quiet retirement!

so superlate but i noticed we have very very few historians with flairs about the french revolution. any idea why that is?

It's a few days late, so I hope somebody sees this, but does anyone else see loose parallels between Gaius Gracchus and Bernie Sanders?

Am I drawing at straws here?

Good morning everyone, can anyone recommend any books on the ancient civilizations of Mexico? I would love to know more about the first settlements in Mexico (Olmec?) and more.

If anyone could also recommend any books on the Japanese Jōmon period or Yayoi periods I would be very grateful.

+/u/User_Simulator /u/agentdcf

Can I finally make jokes on here!?

Can someone please recommend me a couple of books to read?

I am looking for one about the Silk Road as I am going to be arriving in Xi'an, China (the so-called end of the Silk Road) in a couple of days time and would love to know more about this awesome trade route.

Secondly, I'd like a book about Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, as I am going to be hitchiking through Mongolia in a fortnight. I did a module at university that included the Mongol empire, but unfortunately I have lost my reading list!

Any recommendations would be much appreciated, and preferably ones that I can download either through iBooks or Kindle for my iPad, as my access to good historical books in English is very limited at the moment!

Thank you!

When US pro-capitalist conservative Fukuyama called an end to history in 1992, was he taken seriously by any academics?

sidenote can a mod clarify rules on trivia seeking?