Questions tagged [ancient-history]
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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Earliest evidence of objects intended for future archaeologists?
In modern times, it is not unusual for people to wonder what, if anything, will archeologists of the future (human or otherwise) will learn about our civilization from various artifacts we leave ...
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229 views
When was the first recorded example of a race competition in human history?
Individuals in a race compete with another or others to see who is fastest. But when the race competition was invented? It is reported that races were popular in the ancient Olympic games: (see https:/...
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Question on names in ancient Rome
I'm writing a novel set in 268 AD and the character is called Marcus Piavonius Victorinus, one of the many upstart military emperors during the Crisis of the Third Century. I've heard that by this ...
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1answer
166 views
How old is the practice of a woman accompanying another woman to the ladies restroom? [closed]
I am curious to know how old is the practice of a woman accompanying another woman to the ladies restroom.
I assume that this practice began in America and Europe when indoor plumbing and indoor ...
4
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1answer
267 views
Did the “ancients” use lead plates to prevent pain in their knees?
While reading The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, I came upon the following line:
Just before tea I told Nantz the anecdote of the ancients using lead plates to prevent pain in their knees, the ...
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6answers
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Fermat's statement about the ancients: How serious was he?
I am extremely interested in the idea that there was a period in time when, at least in the west, people looked upon the ancients (Romans/Greeks) as possessors of wisdom that had been lost. Fermat ...
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1answer
156 views
What is the etymological origin of the Marsi, the ancient Italic people?
The English Wikipedia article does not provide any etymological explanations on the demonym. The Italian article, which is marked as "recommended", points the name's origin to the Italic deity Mamerte,...
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Did ancient Romans anticipate the fall of Rome?
Background: The Fall of Rome
The Roman Empire collapsed as a political entity in several stages during the 5th, 6th, and 7th century CE. Specifically, these are:
the crossing of the Rhine by the ...
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2answers
391 views
Why didn't slaves just leave? [closed]
How did ancient cultures keep their slaves from just walking away? Record-keeping in these societies was quite poor. Even if paperwork did exist stating that someone was a slave, the next town over ...
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1answer
247 views
What did the ancient Eastern world think of the ancient Greeks?
The opinions of the Greeks the Eastern world which notably included the Persians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Indians and Egyptians are known to all. They elaborated at length through their literature ...
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1answer
162 views
Why did the ancient Romans kill deer so often? [closed]
I've heard that they killed deer for tools and food,but why always deer?
they also killed other animals, but why deer most of the time?
was there some sort of benefit?
many books say," they do it for ...
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2answers
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Why do very old arts (paintings, sculptures) look pretty inaccurate and abstract? [closed]
I have been looking at arts from different archeological periods (40000BC up to now). One pattern that I noticed consistently when looking at arts from different periods is that the accuracy of such ...
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1answer
192 views
Demonym for someone from the kingdom of D'mt
D'mt is a little-studied kingdom which lasted from the 10th to 5th centuries BC, in Eritrea and Ethiopia. For further information, you can look here and just about nowhere else.
The civilization is ...
8
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1answer
208 views
In Classical Athens, what did the portico of the archon basileus look like?
In Plato's Euthyphro, Socrates and his titular interlocutor meet at the portico of the archon basileus - or chief archon. I've been looking for an image of the portico but had no luck so far, and am ...
4
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0answers
165 views
Was early Mari Sumerian or multicultural?
Mari was a multicultural Semitic and Sumerian city in central Mesopotamia. Despite its rich history during the historical period, I have found almost no discussion of the earliest period. This was ...
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3answers
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Micromanagement before the modern era?
We read a lot about the problem of micromanagement today, particularly in examples of failed leadership. And Google Ngram Viewer shows the first occurrences of the word in the 1970s.
Did ancient (...
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2answers
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European Life Expectancy Comparable? Now or When?
Question:
Was their ever a people in European history where life expectancy was similar to Now? 21st century? 70+ years of age? Average or Median?
I realize conventional wisdom would inform us ...
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1answer
112 views
Is the entire history, we read, accurate? [closed]
In today's era, having great advanced technologies, we get many rumors. So how can we write the historical facts so firmly.
We talk about ancient personalities, their quotes, their lives, etc. so ...
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1answer
245 views
what ended the Islam golden age [closed]
please answer the question I will check back in a few days and thank you all.
I have tried every website I could find and this is the last one on the list and I hope to get a result
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0answers
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What evidence do we have to claim the Ancient Romans kept African grey parrots as pets?
The book Birds: Myth, Lore and Legend by Rachel Warren Chadd and Marianne Taylor states:
[...] The Ancient Romans, who kept both Rose-ringed Parakeets and African Greys (Psittacus erithacus), right,...
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1answer
140 views
What are some of ancient maps created from a single perspective?
Years ago I read that other civilizations had maps like that of the Herodotus, naming lands or peoples according to cardinal directions but without referring to them as continent or ethnicity.
But ...
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2answers
245 views
On the Ezana Stone, who are the black and red people that the Ethiopian king was referring to?
On the Ezana stone, the Axumite (modern day Ethiopia) king wrote in Ge'ez, Sabaean and Greek to describe his victory over the Kasu (Kushites) and Nuba (Nubians).
He mentions the black and red peoples,...
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1answer
472 views
What was the image of Jhwh before it was almost erased from history?
Clay tablets found in Mesopotamia tell us that Adam was an earth god. In Genesis Adam was demoted to human status probably to make a monotheistic text possible.
Did Jhwh have an image (idol) before ...
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2answers
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What was the function of the walls of Jericho?
The walls of old Jericho have been dated to around 8000bc. This is thousands of years before the nascent civilisations of Babylon and Egypt built similar fortifications and thousands of years before ...
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2answers
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How long ago was the yo-yo first used as a weapon?
How long ago was the yo-yo first used as a weapon?
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2answers
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What's the most ancient known example of a woman challenging feminine gender roles?
One example of that would be the goddess Inanna from Sumerian pantheon. She rejected to live as her culture felt a woman should live, namely, bear and raise children, do the housework, etc. In most ...
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1answer
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Hyrcanian Burial Practices
In Cicero's Tusculan Disputations (book I, section XLV), he remarks:
It is customary with the Magi, to bury none of their order, unless they have been first torn by dogs. In Hyrcania, the people ...
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1answer
698 views
Is a wheel older than a wall?
I caught a snippet from the president’s remarks. He was talking about the wheel and how it is older than the wall.
Is there historical fact to back such a statement? Or the other way around?
5
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1answer
422 views
What was the condition of women in “primitive societies” around the world?
In Book I, Chapter IV of "An Essay on the Principle of Population" (6th edition, 1826), Thomas Malthus states how terrible the condition of women was among "savage societies" (to which he meant ...
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0answers
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Is the Prologue to Eunuchus the earliest recorded defense of literary fair use?
In Eunuchus by the Roman playwright Terence, there is a prologue penned for the explicit purpose of justifying the author's reuse of existing characters. In a section, the author identifies some ...
3
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1answer
374 views
Which groups of people were awake at night in antiquity?
I've come across claims that prehistoric people didn't get much sleep, which seems to be extrapolated from observations of existing primitive cultures. I'm wondering whether there's something more ...
3
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1answer
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What do historians infer about the world view of the ancient Egyptians based on the prophecy of Neferty?
Here are some excerpts of Neferty's prophecy
Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 17- to 21
Utterly destroyed are those times of happiness at those basin lakes,
with men set to slitting fish, ...
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1answer
187 views
Are there any famous people who died from cancer before 1800? [closed]
Cancer was described by the ancient Egyptians by 1600 BC and, much later, by Hippocrates and then Celsus during the early empire. Cases were diagnosed but there is no mention of people who were famous....
3
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1answer
86 views
Where did Cimon spend his time while in exile?
The Athenian statesman Cimon was ostracised from Athens for ten years (461-451 BC), after the Athenian expedition led by him and sent to help Sparta during the helot uprisings was dismissed by the ...
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1answer
276 views
What’s this odd hat/crown and is it related to Baal?
So I was looking at a history book and it was set in ancient Egypt, in the temple of karnak. They were talking about how their were doors only the pharaohs and priests were allowed in, and how they ...
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0answers
121 views
What is the latest case of employment of Cretan archers in Antiquity?
It is known that Cretan archers were widely used (presumably as mercenaries) across Mediterranean by Greek armies and were occasionally included in Roman armies of Republic and of Imperial period. I ...
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1answer
294 views
Is there any evidence in history to suggest that there was a Melanchro (dark-skinned) population in Colchis as claimed by Herodotus?
On Quora, I encountered a variety of unsourced claims on this subject which I will list below
There are accounts of Black Colchians:
In 522-443, a Greek poet named Pindar described the ...
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0answers
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Codex A for Herodotus' Histories and questions about discovery of the fragments of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri
This question is related to this one: Where can I find the primary source for Herodotus' Histories?. Thank you to everyone who provided information there. That really helped!
I have some ...
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2answers
342 views
Earliest Traces of Slavery
The earliest example I know is from Sumer. That would be the earliest example of institutionalized slavery, because that's (one of) the earliest forms of urbanized civilization. However, what's the ...
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Where can I find the primary source for Herodotus' Histories?
I'm looking for information re: the primary source for Herodotus' Histories.
The two primary sources on the Wikipedia page for Herodotus Histories both trace back to Godley’s translation. Godley's ...
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1answer
272 views
What's the most elaborate ancient mechanism?
I'm playing the latest installment of the Tomb Raider, where you uncover secrets of ancient Incas and Maya. The game is full of huge stone doors that open only when you go through an elaborate ...
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1answer
205 views
What is the earliest depiction of a crane?
Various sources on the internet - such as Crane (machine), A History Of The Crane and The sky is the limit: human powered cranes and lifting devices - state that the Ancient Greeks were the inventors ...
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1answer
118 views
When were the first heating apparatus used for bathing?
If in the Odyssey they already washed themselves with warm water prepared on fire, why didn’t the athletes in the loutrons of the palaestrae do the same? They used cold water, which is ineffective for ...
3
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1answer
197 views
Are there any documented cases from ancient or medieval times of someone escaping captivity by cross-dressing?
In 1642, at the beginning of the English Civil War, the Irish Royalist Daniel O'Neill escaped from the Tower of London where he had been imprisoned by the Parliamentarians by
tying bed sheets and a ...
2
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1answer
160 views
Why is Anubis given a scarf in some representations?
Two links containing images of Anubis with scarf;
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis_Shrine
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anubis
In some representations Anubis wears what seems to be a scarf. ...
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4answers
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Cultural understanding of Penelope's suitors
In the Odyssey, Penelope is courted by 108 suitors, who camp out in her house/royal court indefinitely, behaving badly, while she delays them. I'm having trouble understanding the historical and ...
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1answer
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Where can I find high-resolution images of these Sumerian tablets
I've looked around quite a bit and couldn't find them. Looking for sketches, and a bonus images of the tablets, of the following Sumerian documents:
Kesh temple hymn (maybe that is in here, not sure)
...
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4answers
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Did foreign language phrase books exist in the ancient world?
I am finding out about the ancient equivalent to modern foreign language phrase books, used in conversations. Such as a medieval Italian-Latin conversational book, or an ancient English-French ...
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0answers
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What was the early understanding of static electricity shocks?
What was the common understanding of electric shocks caused by static electricity in the ancient world and middle ages? I'm talking about the shock when you touch something on a dry day for example.
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5answers
463 views
A magic system at least partially based on the real-world cultural history of magic?
EDIT: Just to clarify, when I refer to magic, I am referring to the supernatural variety, not the stage variety.
PREFACE: It was recommended to me that I might try and have this answered by the ...
