A really interesting inquiry was this one from r/cavetroglodyt asking about the return of a human skull being specified in the Versailles Treaty. I was impressed to see r/Carionis post a detailed and sourced answer; it was the skull of a Sultan Mkwawa who rebelled against the Germans in German East Africa and was killed, and whose skull had been taken away to Germany for measurement. The British thought it would be good to get it back to Africa, but the Germans had lost track of where it went.

Now I wish John Buchan had written it up...." well, it's a rum go, down there, and we're trying our best to help these people, steer them onto a proper path. But , dash it, if we could only get that skull back, it would make our work so much easier. So, see here, Hannay, we're getting you into Berlin. It's a pretty awful place right now, with these Freikorps fellows about, but we simply must have that skull if we're ever to win the tribes over to our way....."

Rundown of the week:

• /u/iphikrates answered "Why were cavalry forces (seemingly) always so small in Classical Greek armies? Wouldn't the inflexible hoplite phalanx be incredibly vulnerable to flanking movements from cavalry?" and on "Did Greek hoplites thrust overarm or underarm?"

• TRB1783 answered "I know that the Civil War armies were said to make a miserable show to Europeans, but how did the Continental Army perform by European standards?"

• /u/the_alaskan answered "How did US politicians in the time of Abraham Lincoln fund their campaigns?"

I really enjoyed /u/llosa's answer on "What was a legionnaire's standard ration during Julius Caesar's time?" Short and sweet, but informative.

I enjoyed reading answers by /u/Chamboz on attitudes towards non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire, and on criticism of the Early Modern periodisation.