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How serious did academics take the Norse settlement of North America theory before the discovery of the settlement in the 1960’s?
Was it a given without evidence or a crackpot theory?
What's a good source of now-written-down histories of pre-Colonial Australia? Something more rigorous and sourced than a blog with dreamcatcher gifs on it.
I'm imagining a cross-referenced source of stories where it would have the source of the story, references to variations found elsewhere in Australia, and maybe what a given concept or event is believed to refer to, e.g. the specific Wurundjeri story which is referred to for Port Phillip Bay being dry land at an earlier point, and how it relates to the Boon wurrung story of the same.
Do we know specifically how Stalin's agents doctored all those photographs to remove 'traitors to the party' from them? Like what methodology did they use? Cause I've been looking at a few of them and they're fantastic 'photoshops'.
According to this article a Maria Sibylla Merian was the first person to show definitively that eggs hatch into caterpillars, which eventually turn into butterflies. This can't be true, can it? The Chinese must have known about it before, with their silkworms and stuff. Was Merian the first person to prove it in the Western world? Or according to the scientific method? Or is there something else the article is not telling us?
Watching Zulu (1964). Was heat stroke a large issue for British Colonal Troops? Their uniforms look stifling and are obviously so because they remove them for manual labor. Is that because of the heat or to keep them neat?
I recently read Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel after seeing it cited on AH, which is about technology in the European middle ages. In the last or penultimate chapter there is a line relating the Portuguese exploration in Africa to the demise of Nordic Greenland. This seems overly causative and I'm wondering if this is thought to be a thing, or just speculation by the author.
The west coast of Africa was reconnoitered by a series of imaginative voyages in which the caravels turned the prevailing winds to advantage by first sailing well out into the Atlantic, then angling back to the African coast, where the few river mouths and inlets were one after another discovered. Trading with the natives netted gold, slaves, and elephant tusks. These last quickly captured the ivory market from the walrus tusks of Greenland, whose Viking colony, hard hit by the Black Death and a prolonged cold wave, gave up and retreated to Iceland
How did Aaron Burr feel about Hamilton's death? Remorseful? Unmoved? Something else?
What could be the oldest date that 1/7 = 0.142857 and who could have calculated it first?Is it correct to say the Indians, in a period non older than 1200 BC?
I see the Egyptians had fractions but no place-valued system, so they couldn't have done it.Babylonians had place-value but their was a sexagesimal system. Although it seems they also used a decimal system.Could the Babylonians come up with 1/7 = 0.142857?
If not them, somebody else could have make that division before the Indians?
Who invented the heavy iron plow that revolutionized agriculture in medieval Europe?
Regarding sir John Franklin lost expedition:
How did people in 1800's cities deal with snow? Horse-drawn plows? Salt? Just keep walking on the packed snow?
Truly how old is the Wu Xing? Taoism is said to have used it but there is no claim the practice created it. How old is the Wu Xing?
So I tried asking this as a separate topic and didn't hear much so I'm asking here.
As a math person, I'm looking for subproblems in history that are amenable to statistical/data science modes of attack. I enjoy history and math and am looking for ways to blend the two.
Was Stalin scarred by smallpox? He doesn't appear so in most photos, but I have seen this one pop a couple of times.
Did the Aztecs do sacrifices publicly or only between priests?
Is there a place to find military spending by branch and project per year from 1915 through 1975?
How was the weather during the evacuation of dunkirk? I would like sources for the weather during the Dunkirk evacuation. I am working on a project where I focus on how the way the movie "Dunkirk" stylizes the sea, any weather reports detailing the windspeeds from the time would be appreciated.
The wikipedia article for Watergate mentions the reaction from China. Here's the passage.
Chinese then-Premier Zhou Enlai said in October 1973 that the scandal did not affect the relations between China and the United States.[127] According to Thai then-Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj of Thailand in July 1975, Chairman Mao Zedong called the Watergate scandal "the result of 'too much freedom of political expression in the U.S.'"[128] Mao called it "an indication of American isolationism, which he saw as 'disastrous' for Europe." He further said, "Do Americans really want to go isolationist? ... In the two world wars, the Americans came [in] very late, but all the same, they did come in. They haven't been isolationist in practice."
If Mao did say this, what was the point he was making, and what does American Isolationism mean in this context? After Vietnam was China still perceiving American policy as isolationist ideologically if in practice?
What are some good, reliable sources in English on the 1806-1813 Russo-Turkish War and on the Ottoman palace coups of 1807-1808?
Additionally, if Selim III, Mustafa IV, and Mahmud II all died during the aforementioned coups, was there a backup heir to the throne? If I remember correctly, those three were the only men of the Ottoman dynasty left.
What happened to excess war material (planes, guns, uniforms, tanks, etc.) produced by the United States after World War 2? Was it sold to other countries, dismantled and scrapped?
Why is Isabella I of Castile sometimes referred to as Isabel and sometimes as Isabella? Is one anglicized or something?
Did the Imperial Japanese Army/Navy have a dedicated landing craft prior to the invention of the Daihatsu in 1937? If so, what was it?
What was the underlying cause of the Great Depression? I know there are a ton of answers but I want to hear some arguments for specific reasons.
Book recommendations for Chinese books on the Warring states period? I'd like to kill two birds with one stone and work on my vocab and learn about the history at the same time.
Could anybody please recommend a readable history book about the origins of courts and courtly culture?
I’ve just watched Mary Queen of Scots and was amazed by how personal the conduct of diplomacy and national politics were. I’d like to read more about what the court of a medieval king, duke, or earl would have looked like, how this world came about and how it was maintained.
What's a good example of where historians/archaeologists have found a piece of any historical evidence (primary source) and it was interpreted wrongly by them, but only later they had found their interpretation was wrong?
Can you recommend any book regarding how Gutenberg printing press changed mass communication "which permanently altered the structure of society"? I am looking for something more on a dry/academic side of a spectrum.
Which piece of terminology came first? "Sperm whale" or "sperm cell"?
Was the Franco-American Alliance the last military alliance for the USA until the WWII?
Are American presidents with lots of political experience more effective (on average) in achieving their policy goals?
In what year(s) did Cicero not have a case as a lawyer?
For a short 50-80 page book I'm writing (monolingual Latin) I want Cicero to be the defendant of the accused, a plebeian sicarius, assassin.
The prosecution is led by a 16 year-old boy and his 50 year-old father.
I want this to be historically accurate. E.g. It would be weird if Cicero were to work on this case while in exile / during the Catiline conspiracy. And that is why I ask you, fine historians:
In what year(s) did Cicero not have a case to work on as a lawyer? Preferably before he became consul.
Thanks in advance
Why would a Civil War era African American serve in the war and have an alias on their pension?
Can you date works from the 9th century using the author's year of death if the publishing date is not available? For example, if an author wrote a book and it is uncertain when this book was finished or published, can we date the book to the time of the author's death (say, 880 CE)?
I think this question is probably worthy of its own thread, but the ideas are so broad that I'm not really sure how to phrase the question. So I'll try it here, and maybe I can learn just enough to improve it.
Speaking broadly, what was the ancient Greek perception of nature? How did they discuss it, and how did they see themselves within it?
I'm asking less of a cosmological question and more one of social perceptions. Did a concept of the "natural world" exist, and how did they articulate that concept? Was the natural world an irrational force to be fought, tamed, and conquered, or was it something orderly with which humans must live in harmony? Was humanity viewed as distinct from the rest of creation, or just another animal?
It's hard to separate emotional or social perceptions about nature from cosmological beliefs, but I'm trying to keep the focus narrow, because I feel the scope of the question would balloon astronomically if cosmology was explored beyond what was directly pertinent (nymphs and other nature spirits being an example of pertinent cosmological ideas).
While I have heard the relationship with humans and the gods discussed, I have not heard much about the relationship between the Greeks and the world their gods created. I would hazard to guess that this is because no relevant sources have survived, or at least an insufficient number - but I hope I am wrong.
Why wasn't operation valkyerie reported from WW2? It was well known by many people
Was Napoleon a liberal or conservative?
