Short Answers to Simple Questions | March 04, 2020

by AutoModerator

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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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corruptrevolutionary

The Greeks and Romans were big statue people but the later Byzantine religious art tradition was entirely mosaic in nature; Was this an active decision to separate themselves from their pagan statue worshipping past?

Turkeys2TurkeysCrust

I've never read a micro-history in book form, but I would like to. Is The Cheese and the Worms all it's cracked up to be? I would like something that engages with the historiographical context of the topic at hand, and interrogates, directly or indirectly, that historiography specifically and the historical method more generally. Also, I am much more interested in pre-industrial settings - beyond that, I have little geographic or temporal preferences. Please recommend anything you have enjoyed!

reverseswang

In Natasha's Dance, Orlando Figes says that Fathers and Sons should really be called Fathers and Children, seemingly that's a more literal translation from the Russian. (Amusingly in the Penguin copy I read, Fathers and Sons was advertised under that title in the back.) In my entire life I have only ever seen the book referred to as Fathers and Sons. Why, if Figes is correct, did English language translations go with "Sons"?

deseven

There are many writings/engravings on Theodosian walls in general and little to no information about them. But this particular one caught my attention because it looks like it's something important, yet i failed to find anything about it. What does it mean?

photo (the quality is probably too bad for direct translation, but that's all i have)

location

netowi

Can anyone point me to good books about the Finland-Swedes, preferably in English?

Triestohelpyoutoday

How much did the legality of queer people vary over time in Western Europe, particularly the British Isles? Did it vary significantly over time (in terms of legality / tacit acceptance) and how much variance was there between MLM and WLW? Thanks.

caudicinctus

Did Soviet career executioners in prisons like the Lubyanka and Sukhanovo use hearing protection during indoor executions during the Great Purge? Or did they just take the auditory damage over and over again daily? Are there any known cases of executioners with documented hearing loss?

ChemicalSand

What was the British/American term for men who did not join the military in WWI? In France, for example, it would be "Pékin."

Goat_im_Himmel

Yuri Gagarin parachuted out of Vostok 1 while 7km in the air, a detail hept hidden for years as the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale required the spacecraft to land with its passenger to be an official spaceflight. Does he or Alan Shepard hold the official FAI record for first spaceflight then? Did they invalidate it after this was revealed, or let it stand?

WoodlandSquirrels

What was the punishment for kinslayers/patricide in greece 300-400 BCE? Were there cases of acceptable killing of family, eg. someone killing a relative who had killed their family?

Mick-Songer

When was the music video for I Want To Break Free by Queen released? All I can find is song release and filming dates, but not the actual debut of the video

OmegawOw

There is a popular saying "Is this really the hill you want to die on...".

Which is the hill that the most people have died on and what battle or battles contributed to that ?

TheBrodsterboy

My question is....who was the tallest non pathological FEMALE giant? How tall was she? How strong was she?

IAmASeeker

In WWII, I assume that Nazis didn't call the British and Americans "der alliierte" or "verbündete".

So how did German media (and other nations allied with them) refer to what the Americans called the Axis and Allied forces?

Stainonstainlessteel

How many people died in the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1991 because of the communist regime? I have found a lot of estimates for Stalin, but few for his successors. I know the number of deaths drastically increase, but what the number actualy was?

squidthong

when was the "new england lighthouse" aesthetic? I'm thinking early 20th century but I'd like to narrow it down or see if I'm completely off...

RinWD

Here are computer models of two artillery pieces, presumably of WW1 or WW2: https://imgur.com/EepYgtK

Would anyone be able to identify the artillery pieces depicted?

SpoiledPlatipus

Hi there! I am looking for the price of a knight saddle in High Middle Ages; a magazine I read, without a source unfortunately, claims stirrups were more valued than swords - it is understood the importance of the saddle's design evolution for the purpose of mounted warfare, but was it really that valuable? Thanks!

Ontas

I was reading a bit about the Chichimecs and saw the "señorío de Tonalá" (I don't know how it's called in English, Tonallan Tlahtocayotl) mentioned as neighbours of Caxcanes. I'm completely lost because if these people beat the Zapotecs when settling around Jalisco, but the Zapotecs were in Oaxaca, with the Tarascan empire right in between and all the Nahuatl people who would form the Aztec empire also in between in central México, then how is that possible? What am I missing?

Thanks in advance, I know I always get really confused with timelines with the different Mesoamerican people, migrations and what not, so that might be it, but still it just doesn't seem right.