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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1answer
64 views
Is there a commonly-accepted book or a site that explains the history-of-everything? [closed]
I don't know if i am allowed to post such question however i want a e-book or a site where i can start to understand the civilization and how it started. i mean i know a lot of ancient historic ...
-3
votes
0answers
107 views
Is there parallelism between Aztec cannibalism and ingestion of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ that Catholics practice in their Communion ritual? [closed]
As is well known, recent studies present Aztec cannibalism within the basic debate in anthropology between "materialists" and "idealists," and it seems that it is difficult to definitively prove ...
13
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2answers
124 views
Babylonian tablets
The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive writes
Two tablets found at Senkerah on the Euphrates in 1854 date from 2000 BC. They give squares of the numbers up to 59 and cubes of the numbers up ...
9
votes
0answers
140 views
Has history mistreated Nero?
Nero is (wrongly) "known" as the Emperor who "fiddled while Rome burned." But he did kill a number of prominent people, including his own mother. He is treated by much of history as a psychopath, and ...
6
votes
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 ...
1
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0answers
54 views
How could ancient people determine the winter solstice was occurring?
How could astronomers in the ancient world determine that the winter solstice was occurring? According to whoever edited the Wikipedia article on the winter solstice, it's too hard for modern ...
2
votes
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
votes
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 ...
16
votes
8answers
3k views
Why is Dravidian history ignored?
Whenever I read an article on ancient Indian history, I see people only writing about the Indus valley civilization and the Aryans. But what about Dravidians? Didn't they exist even before the Aryans ...
10
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2answers
403 views
Evidence of diets that were exclusively vegetarian
What evidence, provided by archaeological anthropology, is there in regards to diets that were exclusively vegetarian by choice from Ancient history (4th millennium BC) to Classical antiquity (5th ...
7
votes
1answer
505 views
Was there human sacrifice in ancient Crete?
Excavations on the hill of Kydonia, near Chania in Crete, where the third largest palace of the Minoan civilization was, revealed a small area fenced by rocks in the yard, with many animal bones and ...
5
votes
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 ...
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?
9
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2answers
661 views
Who is the earliest recorded person?
Who is the earliest person recorded in history? Whose fame has survived the greatest amount of time to come down to us today?
8
votes
3answers
169 views
At the Battle of Zama, was the Roman army more “native” than the Carthaginian?
At the battle of Zama, which army had a higher proportion of native troops? Within the context of this question consider troops to be either "native" or "mercenary". Native troops serve out of ...
14
votes
3answers
309 views
How severe were the casualties in ancient/medieval battles?
I've heard that in most battles prior to the introduction of gunpowder weapons, the casualties were usually very low (around 5% even in long battles) prior to the moment when someone's formation was ...
9
votes
3answers
273 views
Did the Celts really go into battle naked?
Yes, this of-repeated tale was reported by the Romans all the time, but it sounds a lot like rumor. Stuff the victors write about their former enemies, "they were so stupid, they went into battle ...
3
votes
2answers
51 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, ...
5
votes
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
196 views
Did the Gallic army besieged in Alesia conduct itself well when expecting relief?
During a Gallic revolution against Rome, a Gallic army of some 80,000 men took shelter in the fortress town of Alesia, where they were besieged by some 50,000 Romans under Julius Caesar. (His army may ...
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 ...
-4
votes
2answers
203 views
Are there other ancient human rights (surely in its ancient consept) documents like the Cyrus Cylinder (c. 500BC)? [closed]
Wikipedia says:
"The Cyrus' Cylinder gained new prominence in the late 1960s when the last Shah of Iran called it "the world's first charter of human rights".[90] The cylinder was a key symbol of ...
26
votes
5answers
1k views
Which came first: Polytheism or monotheism?
It seems a common position that monotheism tends to evolve out of polytheism. Wikipedia offers a few historical examples of this.
However, many polytheistic religions seem to have monotheistic ...
2
votes
3answers
113 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 ...
8
votes
5answers
282 views
Is there any documentation regarding the use of war elephants in battles?
Does anyone know of any battles where war elephants played either a major or decisive part in the victory of whoever had them? As far as I know, they were mostly used for the fear factor and were ...
1
vote
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 ...
0
votes
0answers
73 views
Can the Quran be a valid historical record on the real life of Jesus? [closed]
Followers of Islam claim that the Quran accurately describes the life of Jesus, however, their motivation for saying this is religious, because they generally believe that the Quran was dictated to ...
4
votes
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 ...
4
votes
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 ...
1
vote
0answers
31 views
Were there rules about the number of retainers for the Achaemenid Empire?
In Rome, magistrates (and later the emperors too) each had a fixed number of lictors, according to the rank of the office they held. Is a similar regulation of the number of retainers according to ...
1
vote
0answers
27 views
What were the major objections that Augustine had with Jerome's translation of the Septuagint?
I was having a discussion with someone who insisted that one of the major reasons I thought that Augustine objected to Jerome's translation of the Septuagint was completely not true. He argued that ...
1
vote
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 ...
7
votes
2answers
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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votes
1answer
46 views
Nymphodorus of Syracuse
Is there an online version of his history? I am actually trying to assemble some information about a slave rebellion led by one Drimakos and Nymphodorus is one of the ancient writers who mentioned ...
4
votes
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 ...
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
90 views
Ancient Civilization in non-Egyption Africa? [closed]
Is there any evidence of ancient civilization in central and south of Africa? Were there any ancient cities, such as Timbuktu, Benin, or Zimbabwe for which there are scientific tools or other ...
7
votes
2answers
200 views
Is there a civilization that never believed in God in the ancient times?
I'm not obviously talking about small groups or individuals but about an actual civilization that never believed about the existence of a supreme essence.
Is atheism just a modern concept?
7
votes
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.
...
0
votes
1answer
83 views
Who invented the first flag?
According to this:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080601134907AAk4hjl
,but he didnt mention nation.
anyway what colors was it,and when it is used.
22
votes
3answers
480 views
Why the Romans were unable to conquer Germania?
Emperor Augustus ordered his army to subdue the Germanic tribes in what is modern Germany. This was promptly achieved and by 6 AD the Romans controlled Germany up to the river Elba.
The Romans were ...
13
votes
1answer
299 views
What is the state of the art historical analysis of claims that Carthaginians discovered America?
The Carthaginians, and the Phoenicians in general, are renowned for their seafaring abilities. There is evidence for their circumnavigation of Africa, and strong evidence for the fact that Hanno the ...
5
votes
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 ...
7
votes
3answers
527 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 ...
11
votes
3answers
144 views
Historical/legendary/mythological accounts that turned out to be true
Reading Herodotus' Histories, one is often baffled by passages like (3.102):
{102} [...] Indians [..., of the North] make expeditions for the gold. For in the parts where they live it is desert on ...
7
votes
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
votes
2answers
386 views
Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian?
This questions has been confusing me for a while. Was Alexander the Great Greek or Macedonian? He was born in Pella, Macedonia, but is he considered Greek? Do nationality and ethnicity mean different ...
4
votes
1answer
140 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, ...
7
votes
1answer
143 views
How big were the biggest elections during the ancient era?
According to this question - Why did non-monarchic rule meet with so little success in ancient China?, elections in the ancient era were mostly conducted in city-states, due to feasibility, logistical ...
12
votes
1answer
217 views
How many hours per day did a Sumerian farmer sleep?
I wonder about the life-styles of the inhabitants of ancient civilizations. As a particular case, if we consider the era of Sumer, what are the significant diversities compared to rural life today?
