Ancient history was from the beginning of recorded history (c. 4000 B.C.) until the fall of the Roman Empire (c. A.D. 500).
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237 views
Was the Minoan civilization warlike?
Generally, is believed that the Minoan civilization on Crete was peaceful and their culture was more like a culture of peace than a culture of war.
But I've read an article lately ...
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1answer
176 views
Did the Romans “copy” their political system from the Greeks?
This is an outgrowth of the discussion here. My sense is that the Romans developed their system autochthonously, probably with some influence from their Etruscan neigbours and one-time-overlords.
...
7
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1answer
102 views
How did ancient armies keep the route of supplies to their battlefield?
How did ancient armies like the Romans, Greeks, Persians, Chinese or even at later times like the Arabs and Mongols keep the route of supplies going to support their armies marching through the vast ...
7
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3answers
528 views
What was the first known war in history?
Not the first instance of warfare, which surely predates recorded history, but of an organized war between civilizations. For the purposes of this question I'll define a war as:
Defined scope: the ...
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1answer
281 views
How far into the past was significance ascribed to the Golden Ratio?
I think everyone knows about the golden ratio or the divine proportion (I got to know more about it after reading the wikipedia article on it). It's present everywhere in nature and also in the human ...
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1answer
123 views
What is the history of standing armies in India?
Specifically, the points I am looking answers to are:
1) What is the first recorded instance of a standing army in the Indian subcontinent.
2) When did it become a general practice to have standing ...
6
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4answers
687 views
What is the oldest road in the world that has been in continuous use?
My suspicions are that a road in Rome, Italy, likely has a strong claim, or perhaps a road in Egypt. It just needs to be a road that has been in continuous use for traffic, whether it was some form of ...
6
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4answers
159 views
Resources on the History of African Civilization
I was wondering if anyone might be aware of any good resources on the history and development of African civilizations? I will of course be seeking council from the Most Wise and Great God Google, ...
6
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1answer
124 views
When were the different stories of Hindu gods written?
I'm a Hindu by religion. And I really respect my religion like I respect others. But from my childhood, I'm listening a lot of stories about Hindu Gods and Goddess which are interrelated to each ...
6
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1answer
150 views
How were war elephants used against cavalry?
In this question: How do war elephants fight? it was mentioned that horses tend to dislike elephants, so it is effective against cavalry. How does this work in practice? I don't imagine it would be a ...
6
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0answers
81 views
Did Hannibal start the Second Punic War prematurely?
IN 221 BC, Hamilcar, Hannibal's father, made a peace with Rome that divided Spain north and south between Rome and Carthage. The latter got the larger "piece," the area shaded in green on the map ...
5
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2answers
121 views
Who was the first woman ruler?
I've found that speaking of the first woman ruler in history, most common materials (like Wikipedia or Britannica) point at the Egyptian pharaon Hatshepsut, living in the 16th century BCE. As a source ...
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2answers
238 views
Are the Ramayana and Mahabharatha exaggerated stories or pure fiction?
I would like to know the opinion of historians on the Ramayana and the Mahabharatha. I can accept that they are excessively exaggerated and glorify people as Gods, but are they totally fiction? Do we ...
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1answer
167 views
Who first wrote about deafness?
Aristotle referred to the sense of hearing in his work "The Problems". He correlated hearing with the capacity of learning, he believed that the sense of hearing was the most important in order to ...
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1answer
124 views
Did the Carthaginians have the option of sending Hannibal to Sicily?
Sicily was a major focus of the First and Second Punic Wars. The first Punic war ended with Carthage handing over major grain-growing areas on the island, and the port of Lilybaem to Rome as spoils of ...
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2answers
421 views
How often did city-destroying floods happen in Mesopotamia?
I keep seeing Mesopotamia described as a floodplain, and I'm finding inklings of evidence that some cities in ancient Mesopotamia were actually destroyed by floods. But how common of an occurrence ...
5
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1answer
225 views
What is the most widely accepted theory on the ancient “Sea Peoples”?
There are many theories as to who they are the wiki has SIX.
What is the most widely accepted theory on who the ancient Sea Peoples are?
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75 views
Legendary visits by Alexander the Great
There is a story about Alexander the Great visiting Jerusalem. This story is not supported by other sources, as far as I know, and so is probably not literally true (it may well reflect some ...
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4answers
139 views
Monotheism/Atheism in Polytheistic societies
I would like to know if there are any documents telling us how common (or if it even existed) among people in polytheistic societies (like ancient Greece, Rome, etc.) it was to believe that there is ...
4
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2answers
156 views
Is there a majority viewpoint for the fall of the ancient Egyptian civilization?
This article on the end of the ancient Egyptian civilization posits four different points at which the civilization ended:
Is it the definitive end of native Egyptian rule (at least until the 20th ...
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1answer
131 views
Are there any independent historical records of ancient Persia allowing freedom of worship for the Jews?
Starting from this claim that the king of Persia respected the Jewish' God.
http://niv.scripturetext.com/daniel/6.htm
The only surviving text is the Jewish text.
Are there independent sources of ...
4
votes
1answer
109 views
Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
The various cultures of the Ancient Near East spoke a wide array of languages and we know that there was plenty of communication between cultures. We even have a language like Akkadian that served as ...
4
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1answer
143 views
Chart of total gold in possession of humans
Where can I find an approximate chart of total mass of metallic gold in possession of humans by centuries starting with Neolithic?
I also would like to see this detailed by civilization/culture.
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1answer
360 views
Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas and the Science
For someone who is born in India, some of the few mythological stories we watch on tv/hear from our grandparents are Ramayana, excerpts from Mahabharata or other Vedic stories of gods, the vedic way ...
4
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1answer
141 views
Literacy in the classical world
How literate was the ancient world? I'm particularly interested in the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians in, say, the first few centuries BC. It's hard to find authors willing to give an explicit number, ...
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2answers
145 views
When were the lictors abolished?
I wonder when the institute of lictors was abolished in the Ancient Rome? Who was the last emperor to have lictors as companions?
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1answer
68 views
Who came up with the name “Peloponnesian War”?
If I understand correctly, Thucydides actually called his book just History. If that is correct, then at what point did it become known as History of the Peloponnesian War?
EDIT: Here is how he ...
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2answers
52 views
How early did restrictions on hunting start?
Today in the US you can only hunt certain game during certain seasons. In medieval England, only certain people were allowed to hunt deer and boars. Legal restrictions on who could hunt what, where, ...
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1answer
123 views
Cannabis in ancient Vedic Soma, are there any sound historical proofs?
Michael Wood says in his documentary The Story of India first episode:
Soma is still used as a medicine in Central Asia. The active element in
the plant is ephedrine, and the effect that it has, ...
3
votes
1answer
174 views
Who is the most ancient Indo-European who is known by name?
Who is the most ancient historical Indo-European who is known by name?
In other words, is it Pythonos, king of Kussara (17th century BC) or are there more ancient figures?
3
votes
1answer
154 views
What was the origin of the Classical Antiquity culture?
I many times heard a version that the advances of the Ancient Greek culture were in fact borrowed from Egypt or the Middle East. I will not buy this. Classical Antiquity civilization had a lot of ...
3
votes
1answer
25 views
To what extent the Jewish theatre of the late Antiquity resembled the Greek one?
Sometime ago I had watched the film Agora by Alejandro Amenábar Although the film's idea is impressing, it stroke me with some suspicious historical details. For example, the Christian monks are ...
3
votes
1answer
129 views
Tarim Mummies origins and theories separating fact from fiction
Is there any conclusive evidence of where the Tarim Mummies originate from?
What were these "westerners" doing in China?
The theories I have heard are that they are the fore bearers of the Kazaks or ...
3
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0answers
63 views
Changing troops in first line during battle [closed]
I remember Caesar in De Bello Gallico mentioning Romans changing fighting/resting troops in some siege defense while Celtic attackers didn't do this and lost the battle because of it (it was somewhere ...
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2answers
178 views
Oldest Code of Law? [closed]
King Hammurabi of Babylon was known for his "Code of Laws." Is his the oldest Code of written law that still exists today? If there is an even older code of laws, perhaps one not still in use, who ...
2
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2answers
435 views
Is there any corroborating evidence for the story of Sadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?
Is there any historical evidence from the Babylonian or Persian side corroborating the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego found in Daniel chapters 1-3? What is the general state of records of ...
2
votes
3answers
114 views
Historical use of alcohol as a source of clean water
I've heard that there were two common methods to disinfecting water in the past: boiling water or turning it into alcohol. Presumably, those in the East relied on boiling water, while those in the ...
2
votes
2answers
142 views
What was the ancient Jewish pantheon?
I have read that before the invention of monotheism, the Jews worshipped multiple gods of which traces remain in various texts. So I wonder whether it is possible to reconstruct it and what the gods ...
2
votes
3answers
183 views
Which is the oldest language in the World? [closed]
I want to know which are the oldest languages in the world? And within those, which is still in use?
2
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1answer
53 views
Roman aristocrat with slave assassins named after him?
I remember reading a few years back that there was a particular Roman strongman who had a very intense way of dealing with enemies.
He had dozens of either slaves or former slaves (freedmen), but I ...
2
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2answers
71 views
Is there any history magazine like “Foreign Policy” for politics? [closed]
I'm a college student. I'd like to read a history magazine (online preferred) that relates to History in the same way that "Foreign Policy" relates to Politics or "The Economist" relates to Economics. ...
2
votes
1answer
132 views
Did the Latins see the Etruscans as a plague?
I've read that Latins considered the Etruscans as a plague. However, it seems that the Etruscans (being peaceful merchants) were more civilized and educated than the Latins.
2
votes
1answer
13 views
What did the Phoenician sailor trader eat?
I am not a historian my self, but I like to read history, ancient history. I am reading now about Phoenician civilization.
I noticed in Wikipedia :
the Phoenicians were the major naval and trading ...
2
votes
0answers
39 views
What were the relative contributions of oral & literary education in 5th century BCE Athens?
I've read an article about Plato's Academy and how knowledge was spread in Athens in the middle of 5th century BCE. It was thought that knowledge was spread through speaking (orally). But some ...
2
votes
2answers
86 views
What were the origins of democracy?
I realize that many people say that Athens is where democracy started, but is there any solid proof that it was the first? On Wikipedia, it is stated that:
there is evidence to suggest that ...
2
votes
0answers
110 views
What's the name of the (false) assumption that people in past ages were less able to reason? [closed]
In arguments involving past decisions or tradition, people frequently blow off a claim to tradition by using the (false) assumption that people in days gone by, or even ancient history were less able ...
2
votes
1answer
129 views
Is there a known society without cult of love?
Was there ever a society in which sex was viewed either as a functional necessity, duty before the gods or pleasure without any admiration of love?
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4answers
282 views
Can the new testament be a valid historical record on the real life of Jesus? [closed]
I was reading this article and assuming the data provided by the website correct I came to my mind as to how historically valid is the testimony of the life of Jesus in the new testament is as the ...
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2answers
73 views
What does “the anointed of the Lord” mean?
While reading the Cyrus the Great in the Wikipedia, I found the mentioned sentence in this paragraph:
Cyrus the Great respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered.[13] It is said ...
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2answers
119 views
History of the Levant and Israel - 2000 BCE to the bronze age collapse - where to find info?
Where can I find information about the period 2000 BCE - 1300 BCE in the Levant with focus on Caanites and (possibly) proto-Hebrews?
Period from the very beginning of the tribal organization of what ...
