A blacksmith just made me a replica of one of the spearheads I'm studying for my PhD thesis, and I could not be more pleased with how it turned out.

Photos

It's about 10" long, and aside of having a slightly thicker (and honestly, rather more durable) blade than the originals (9mm vs. a more typical 6mm), it's a spot-on reproduction. The original, from Boss Hall, dates to the mid 6th century, and a was a common style (Swanton's type H) across England from c.480-565.

Stabbing things with this totally counts as experimental archaeology, right?

But, more seriously, I have learned things from having this made. The smith was able to explain steps in the process for making this spearhead to me, and some things I thought might matter a lot turn out to be accidents that happen along the way (like the particular shape of the split in the socket). Knowing these things is going to savee me a lot of dead-ends down the road, when I try to compare similarities and differences in intentional (rather than random) design choices as a means of identifying communities of practice / knowledge in which smiths were working and sharing techniques.

I have another blacksmith working on a spearhead made from recycled 19th century wrought iron that is chemically similar to the iron early medieval smiths would have been using. We're trying to see what kind of appearance you get if you, as many early medieval smiths did, weld dozens of small scraps of recycled metal together into a heterogeneous billet. Many of these alloys would be slightly different colors, so the recycling should be visible to the naked eye. I want to know how visible it will be. Will anyone who looks at the spear be able to tell it's made from recycled metal (is this ostentatious recycling?), or will it be more subtle?

I did a little write up over at /r/badhistory about a gold figure I spotted in Pirates of the Caribbean.

This really should have gone in yesterday's Theory Thursday post due to its academic nature, but I was pretty tied up all day. Anyhow, I'm curious if anyone here, especially our flaired users, has advice on evaluating journals.

I was contacted by the editor of a journal, who had read one of my dissertation chapters posted on academia.edu; he asked me some questions relevant to his own research, but then suggested that I submit an article to his journal. I'm happy to do that, because there is a lot of good work in that particular title. But... it's not a very well-known publication. If you search Google Scholar for articles in that particular journal, you can see that they don't have that many citations. There are other journals on the same subject, and the same kind of Google Scholar search turns up papers with several times as many citations. Now, I'm not saying that I should automatically publish in the biggest journal and that I expect to get loads of traffic on my work. I'm an "emerging scholar" but nothing more, and so a smaller journal is probably about my level. But still... I have about three articles worth of material that I could pull from my dissertation and that would work well as stand-alone pieces--and that would still allow me to submit a manuscript version of my dissertation with key components being unpublished. I want to make the most of the work I've done, and get it seen by as many people as possible.

So, how does everyone else go about figuring out how to distribute work through various publications? Looking at my three potential articles, one is best suited for a kind of cultural history of food and consumption, another deals with labor-body-environmental history, and the third would work in a food and commodity chain area.

Another Friday, another update on how my dissertation is going~

https://gunlord500.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/gunlords-dissertation-saga-episode-7-slow-and-steady-wins-the-race/

I almost ended up making a funny little error in one sentence that I fortunately caught early on, but it was still revealing about my thought process, IMO, as I describe in the entry. I thought some might find it amusing~

Disclaimer: We are a strictly secular analytical subreddit with absolutely zero links to any jihadi groups.

Hi there! This is a short message from the mod team of /r/JihadInFocus, introducing our subreddit and inviting you to check us out. We're a highly specific subreddit with a highly specific mission: to aggregate, analyze, read, write, and share information, analyses, propaganda, and academic work centered around the topic of modern* (still working on defining that, but for the moment, the last 50 years) jihadism and Islamic extremism.

For the sake of clarity, we are not the place to post videos and articles about conflicts occurring in the Muslim world, unless it is specifically related to how jihadism affects that conflict. For instance, an article about the war between Syrian opposition and the Syrian government is not an appropriate article for our subreddit, nor one on Syrian or Russian (or American or UK, etc etc) airstrikes in Syria. However an article on the recruitment methods of specific jihadist groups (a working definition will be spelled out as the community comes to a consensus on what exactly that entails, but for the moment- an armed Islamic group that believes in advancing the Islamic cause through militant and violent jihad) or a video/audio propaganda piece from one of those groups would absolutely be appropriate. We aim to aggregate information and collaborate in translating/analyzing that information, or sharing the noteworthy analyses of that information by notable individuals. Here are a few recent examples of what we're aiming for:

• /u/purpleolive writes a well researched paper on the media apparatus of the Islamic State

• /u/alasismk2 writes a lengthy and informative breakdown of the ideological and strategic differences between al-Qaeda's core organization and the Islamic State

• /u/silverlocks-frown shares a piece on the meaning behind the colors of Shi'a Islamist flags and symbols

• raw jihadist literature and propaganda

• analysis by respected academics in the counter-extremism, Middle East/Islamic studies, and IR fields

• questions about jihadism or items related to ti

Jihad and Islamic extremism are incredibly important topics in the 21st century and they are also often incredibly misunderstood. If you're interested in learning more about the ideologies, operational techniques, recruitment, propaganda, or other facets of these groups, or if you're a knowledgeable voice interested in sharing what you know, we welcome you to /r/JihadInFocus to discuss and share information about an increasingly relevant aspect of the modern world.

Good day peoples :) I hope we're all okay. I know that talking about current music isn't strictly anything to do with the sub but Daughter just released their second album, Not To Disappear!!! It's so beautifully ethereal, I'm in awe. If you're interested in my ramblings on the underlying meanings of the individual tracks feel free to read this. Happy Birthday Elena :D <3

Anyways, Yeah I hope everyone's doing well, enjoy your friday afternoons & evenings :)

My question for Books recommendations might be a bit superficial, but maybe some of of you experts have any gems you could recommend regardless.

I am looking for two types of Books at the moment:
A) Interesting Coffee table-type Books on historical subjects. I know this is a pretty broad question and most likely i would be better of browsing through books at bookshops, but so far most of what i have seen around fall under the Category "Luxuries, Pomp and Splendor of the 17th Century and later" which i have little interest in.
In general, i would like Books that have more to over than just pretty pictures, but also at least over a jumping off point if something especially interesting stands out.

B) Atlantes with historical Maps (in both meanings: Old maps and maps of how it was historically). Not much more to say there, honestly. (Atlantes with other neat Maps in it i wouldn't mind either, but that might be out of the Scope here)

Thanks in advance for any recommendations you might have.

/u/caffarelli, I finally got around to emailing the NAA (National Anthropological Archives) about that drawing Adela Breton did of Teuchitlan which the guy from the Smithsonian Institution Archives told me to do way back in September. They told me that in one of the boxes it includes "Notes by Breton from 1902 on Obsidian workings in Hidalgo, Jalisco, and Michoacen, including a small drawing with notes of “Teuchitlan from memory” (totaling 7 pages)".

!!!

I asked for pricing and request forms immediately. I really hope the drawing is the one Breton said she did of the ruins.

Last Saturday one of the classic movie channels ran The Phenix City Story a true story about a corrupt town in Alabama, just across the line from Fort Benning, Georgia, USA.

One of the first communities to reinstate the sale of beer after the repeal of Prohibition, by the mid-1950s Phenix City was known for its gin joints, gambling and bawdy houses and corrupt government. Anyone who paid attention to it knew the town as “Sin City.”

At one point, U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson called Phenix City “the wickedest city in America” after receiving a report about how Fort Benning soldiers had been victimized there. According to author Margaret Anne Barnes, who wrote the definitive history of Phenix City, Gen. George Patton once threatened to take his tanks from Fort Benning to “mash Phenix City flat” because of the “atrocities committed against his soldiers.”

I wrote an article about the murder of a politician who had vowed to clean up the town and because the movie was broadcast, my long-forgotten article started getting some hits online.

In the spirit of Shameless Self-Promotion, I am providing a link to that article, "The Fall and Rise of Phenix City".

I'm playing Zeus, and one of the requirements to upgrade your people's housing into more luxurious digs is to have a working water supply. In the game, you build a water fountain, who will then send out water carriers who will roam your city, supplying the people with water.

So my question is, is this how the ancient Greeks living in cities get their water? I mean yes, this is a game and all, but it sounds reasonably realistic enough; if you're a middle class Greek citizen, why bother sending your slave to the nearest well when the well can come to you for a few drachmas?

For those of you interested in the Second World War, I would strongly recommend reading 'It never snows in September by Robert Kershaw'. It looks at Operation Market Garden from the German side and provided me with much more insight then other material I have had my hands on.

For all you historians interested in Afghanistan and its ongoing conflict, we incite you to join us at /r/AfghanConflict! We're working on the wiki (will contain mainly post-soviet history) so bear with us!

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the name Suez means/comes from. I know the canal is named after the place nearby. My Greek father always thinks everything is Greek, and he says Suez is derived from the name of the Greek god Zeus but I desperately want him to be wrong. Help me out