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Some questions people have just don't require depth. This thread is a recurring feature intended to provide a space for those simple, straight forward questions that are otherwise unsuited for the format of the subreddit.
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Academic secondary sources are prefered. Tertiary sources are acceptable if they are of academic rigor (such as a book from the 'Oxford Companion' series, or a reference work from an academic press).
The only rule being relaxed here is with regard to depth, insofar as the anticipated questions are ones which do not require it. All other rules of the subreddit are in force.
Is George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London considered an accurate portrayal of working class/underclass life in the interwar period?
Did the Hospitallers ‘require’ beards in the same way the Templar and Teutonic Orders did?
Did Early Modern Jesuits have tonsures? (This is the question that haunts my dreams.)
Stefan Zweig in his 1942 book 'Brazil: Answers From the Future' states this in the introduction:
in the novel of a well-known English author, I was amused to read of the hero being sent to Rio de Janeiro to learn Spanish
What author/novel might this be?
In the valley of the kings, were tomb entrances hidden once finished or has time merely concealed them with debris leading up to now?
I read that scams indicated am additional chamber in king tuts tomb, a few years ago, why is there any delay in opening it and investigating?
Has any Egyptian tomb been found that, up until now, has not been robbed in some way? Untouched since internment?
Did the Maya have a cursive form of their writing system like Egyptian hieratic?
If 'last rites' were considered so crucial in the Middle Ages, what was done during wartime? Did this expectation and practice fall entirely by the wayside out of necessity, or did priests pick through a battlefield after a fight was over, trying to find the mortally wounded?
What were the ranks of officers in Edo Period Japan, in hierarchical order?
In 1400, what was a Florentine florin worth in present-day USD?
Not sure if this is the best place to ask this, if it isn't could you please point me to the right place. My family has this patch, which was found in a box in the ruins of a building in post-WW2 Germany. Does anyone know what it represents?
Is Bill Clinton related to the fourth vice president, George Clinton?
Why did Serbian nationalist (specifically the Black Hand) assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand? Everywhere I read it implies that you know something that you should know something to know this other something.
Were Russian serfs lower than peasants? Were they generally free but had to do farm work or were they actual slaves? Also, could they own guns?
The Articles of Confederation provided for the states to send between 2 and 7 delegates to Congress. How did they come up with these arbitrary numbers? 2 and 7 just seem very arbitrary.
before gravity was discovered/understood, how did people reference/explain the fact that most things would fall to the ground? especially in areas/times that knew/believed that Earth is round?
did persian had a law that required man to sweat every day?
Why didn't Babur attempt the conquest of Samarkand, his life long obsession, after he consolidated his Indian empire?
Is there a trustworthy list of all wars in human history?
Or at least the big ones?
Where can I find French and/or German (or Imperial) censuses? Are there are any province, or even sub-province level, survey of French/German populations any time from 1300-1850?
Could someone possibly explain, as you would to a small child, the mechanics of two phalanxes meeting on the battlefield? Or are there any accurate pieces of artwork/cinema/re-enactment that would help visualize it?
I know that they were armed with spears/pikes and shields, and I know that it wasn't just a massive shoving match, but - if two sides have giant stabby weapons of the same length and neither side chickens out, what would happen? How avoidable is getting instantly speared? Did they lock their arms or was there more active stabby-stabby motion? Did they try to aim around the enemy's shields or did the shields get pierced through? What happens if your spear gets stuck? When soldiers in the first line fell did the people in back just walk over them? While the front line was doing the stabby-stabby, did the soldiers behind just... wait? I'm so sorry, I'm having a hard time picturing it. /o\
