I hardly ever post here anymore, but I think you're all really cool and that this is the best sub on reddit by miles.

Today I learned (while compiling some data I've been gathering over the past year) that 95% of spearheads in England buried between c.450 and 550 CE either had heavily worn edges, or (much more common) were made to look like they had been heavily used (but were actually pretty new, like this guy).

This fake-antique craze ends abruptly in a generation, around 570. After that, new spears look new again.

It's like how jeggings went from being a weird novelty a few years ago to becoming the new uniform. Only, potentially more violent.

There are also changes happening in iron artefacts' metallurgy and, more broadly, burial practices and social organization during this period, and I do think these are all related.

I was surprised with the best birthday gift ever this morning in the form of an authentic Princess Mary Gift Tin from 1914. I've become sort of obsessed with the WWI gift economy and had long hoped to someday get one of these -- receiving it as an actual gift is a delightful extra.

In lieu of teaching or TAing a class this year, my department assigned me to work at a local museum. This is an excellent idea, and I hope more departments find ways to count public history work as equal service to toiling in the grading mines.

Is there a point in time past which any 'modern dollar equivalent' for prices and wages is foolish? I feel like there is, and it is maybe sometime in the 19th century.

First time post--

I'm a PhD outside the academy, and after a year hiatus, I'm finally getting back to writing on a book about a history of sexuality (generally speaking...don't want to get scooped or nuffin' :) ). I would really appreciate any experience/advice, commiseration, and recommendations for getting into the non-ficition publishing stuff.

A year ago, I sent out a proposal--five agents were interested initially, and I ended up rewriting my proposal three times for one of them before he said, "Nope, thanks." UGH. I realized that my concept just wasn't gelling yet, so after sitting on it for a year, I think I've got a tack that works.

I've also realized that doing it "by the book" and sending out proposals to agents was the slow way of doing this--I know that if I could be referred to an agent by an established author, things could move a lot faster. I guess I'm just intimidated by that--anyone got any ideas about how to swallow the goldfish and just go for it?

Does anyone know if there's a good subreddit specifically about viking history? I always enjoy reading about vikings in this sub, but the questions/answers are not that frequent.

It's finally Friday!

Now I get to tell everyone about my newly active history sub, /r/HistoryAnecdotes! I'll be posting some new ones within the hour, please come check us out :D

Hello! I'm writing a small thing on the characters of the Leeds Ghetto from 1880-1921. I thought I'd post some here in the future. Although I need to edit my first one before posting it, if I try to make it a more regular thing, that should actually make me do some work! It's amazing, the stuff you can find out.

I've got stories about sneaking out to play football on Saturdays, people hiding Plato's Republic in the Talmud when they were supposed to be studying it and the completely awesome apikorsim, from the one who insisted his children all cohabited and had a fit when his daughter had a marriage ceremony, the ones who decided God couldn't possibly be real because they hadn't been called up to synagogue in ages and that was obviously a massive injustice and the ones who told a Rabbi to his face that they were more righteous even if they ate on Yom Kippur. An old grandfather with one of the longest beards in the ghetto who was the best swimmer anyone knew, a man who'd fought the Turks in the Russian army and was believed to be able to bend a coin with his teeth, the kitchen cellar where many Zionists beliefs were born, boxers, forgetful teachers of Hebrew, an economist accused of espionage...and, um, a milkman who's mainly remembered just for being a really nice person. (I've grown quite attached to this milkman and his wife, actually).

Incidentally, I've also been reading about Iraqi Jewish immigrants within Britain and the British Empire, also been doing some wider and much more basic research on their immigrant experiences as a whole, including in Israel and the US. I've been looking at the Jewish immigrant communities in Victorian London and then I heard about the 1940s-50s Iraqi immigrants and got sidetracked. This has of course led to looking at the antisemitism and political situation from post WW1-1952, but frankly I only understand the bare bones and all in context of the Jewish communities of Iraq. Are there any books, sites etc you could recommend which could give me a basic overview of the changing political situations of the early to mid 20th century Iraq?

I was skimming through Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose (which i haven't taken a lighter to just yet) for the first time in a while and found this gem again

If the village was under observation, as it almost always was, men didn't dare go outside during the day. Usually the water was off and the sewers were clogged, so the toilets were soon overflowing. Pvt. Gene Amici confessed "To tell you the goddam truth, I never took a crap outside. I don't believe anybody else did either. We were in the cellars, and we'd shit on the floor upstairs--in the parlor. But [as we advanced] division HQ moved up, and they were finally where we had been in the combat zone. But now it was quiet back there--no need for them to be in the cellars. They could sit in the living room. So they put out a written order. 'There'll be no more shitting in the houses, goddamn it. Use the latrine.'"

So I'm a current sophomore (second year) at an American university and I'm starting to think about study abroad for next year. I'm a History/Philosophy double major but I intend to write a thesis about WWI in the History Department.

My school has a program for a year at Keble College, Oxford, that looks incredible, but I'm having trouble understanding what kind of courses I would be allowed to take. Is there anybody familiar with history at Oxford/Keble that could explain it a little bit more? Specifically I'm confused because it seems like the tutors in Keble specialize in the Renaissance/early modern history, but does that limit my options in terms of subjects to study?

Thanks for any help/clarification anyone can offer!

I'm about 12% (so my Kindle tells me) into Blanning's biography of Frederick the Great. Has anyone else read it? Does anyone have any thoughts? I like Blanning as an author- his writing is lively and humourous, though I suspect some might find his tone a bit irritating.

While looking up some sources on Amazon for my thesis the other day I came across a book that's description perfectly fits what I wanted to do, right down to using similar wording as mine (which was somewhat specific). I obviously plan on getting the book, as it wasn't too expensive, but am now a little conflicted as it may have done what I wanted already, and there is always the issue that I may be seen to plagiarising his work (which is not the case as I never heard of the book until now, not that that's a valid excuse). At worst once I get back home in January and can read the book I'll see how much readjusting I have to do, though it is also good as this hopefully will give me a lot of information I've been struggling to find so far.

I was curious to see what actual historians think about the discovery that there may be another tomb walled off to the side of King Tut's tomb in Egypt. It seems to me like people are just jumping to the conclusion that it's Nefertiti's tomb without much actual evidence.

Do you think it's best that we just leave it alone or should archaeologists start drilling holes in the wall of Tut's tomb to see what's on the other side?

I've been becoming increasingly interested in the rise of modern middle eastern radical Islamic terrorist movements, particularly around the formation of the Islamic State (DAESH).

Unfortunately this obviously falls within the 20 year rule, so I was hoping someone might recommend a good book that dives into the formation of ISIS in a non-Islamophobic or sensationalist way?