19
votes
Accepted
Was Celtic society promiscuous?
The perception that the Celts were promiscuous seems to be based on, at least in part, ancient writers’ interpretations of marital relationships and / or a superficial knowledge of Celtic customs and ...
- 108k
15
votes
Accepted
Did iron age Britons still use the "ritual" sites built by their neolithic predecessors?
That is a really good question. The truth is that evidence for any sort of "cultural continuity" is scant.
One word of caution though. I generally hesitate to use the word "ritual" in an ...
- 77.2k
10
votes
Accepted
When did Aurochs (large wild cattle) become extinct in Britain?
According to Five thousand years of livestock in Britain Biological Journal of Linnean Society (1989), 38: 31-37 :
There may also have been some interbreeding between domestic and wild
cattle in ...
- 3,544
9
votes
Accepted
Are there examples of stone age cultures living in proximity close to iron age cultures without adapting to metal use?
If we look at sub-saharan Africa then the times for categorising these "ages" are a bit shifted and stretched compared with Asia, Europe and North-Africa.
Metal-using Africa Farming ...
- 80.8k
8
votes
Accepted
How common / uncommon was sword-vs-sword combat on ancient battlegrounds?
I can think of at least one place where it would have been common.
Roman infantry were typically equipped with short-swords which they used once combat got down to hand-to-hand. Of course their ...
- 122k
8
votes
Accepted
What was the strategic importance of Judea?
Judea has always been a key part of the "land bridge" that connects what we now know as the Arab world, specifically north Africa and the Middle East.
In biblical times, Judea was the gateway by ...
- 104k
7
votes
Accepted
Is there any historicity to the concept of Ghost Fences / Walls?
'Ghost walls' is a concept that is used in archaeology. But maybe not just so fanciful as in these historical fiction books:
Meanwhile, trial trenches at the north end of the adjacent long and ...
- 80.8k
7
votes
What was the strategic importance of Judea?
The area had multiple claims to fame.
From a strategic viewpoint, it connected the Tigris and Euphrates basin to the Nile basin, as already mentioned by Tom.
It was also part of the fertile crescent,...
- 22.9k
7
votes
Have there been any notable battles fought with steel vs. bronze weapons?
Also check out Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify China (same man who's tomb has the terracotta army surrounding it). The Qin province sent forth massive armies using bronze while a lot of the ...
- 71
6
votes
What age were these Britons in A.D. 43?
This is a community wiki. Feel free to add and / or improve on this answer.
As Semaphore noted in his comment, "the information simply isn't there for a lot of cases" but here are some estimates or '...
6
votes
Accepted
What is the definition, usage, and etymology of “Sandy ware”?
Sandy Ware is a type of medieval (and earlier) pottery with enough quartz sand mixed in with the clay for it to be visible in the fabric of the pot. The sand acted as a temper which helped bind the ...
- 77.2k
3
votes
Accepted
Are we now living in an Automation Age?
The very concept of "Age of" is flawed. If one hears phrases like stone age or dark ages, which are almost about the only two ages an historian would use seriously, you have instantly negative ...
- 80.8k
3
votes
Are we now living in an Automation Age?
As I say elsewhere:
many interrelated issues seems critical now, but we will know which were truly important only when this period ends
First, Atomic, Jet and Space "ages" are continuing now ...
- 27k
2
votes
Early history of prime numbers
Mathematicians are better at mathematics than at history, and have perpetuated an error concerning what Euclid did. They frequently state in textbooks and elsewhere that Euclid's proof that there are ...
- 3,383
2
votes
Have there been any notable battles fought with steel vs. bronze weapons?
I'll add some metallurgy information to complement the answers.
There are several different kinds of steel. The basic one, which is iron and carbon, has different behaviors depending of the % of ...
- 4,819
2
votes
Is there any historicity to the concept of Ghost Fences / Walls?
Never happened. Celts regarded heads as trophies, they were considered important enough to show guests when they arrived. They had a similar place as trophy heads of modern hunters.
There were a ...
- 687
1
vote
Are we now living in an Automation Age?
The Anthropocene is a proposed designation of our current epoch characterised by significant human impact upon the earths geology and ecology; it includes but is not limited to anthropogenic climate ...
- 2,610
1
vote
What is the definition, usage, and etymology of “Sandy ware”?
Sandy ware would be a reference to pottery or other ceramics such as glassware.
As the name suggests, that would be a reference to containers or other goods to which sand was added in the production ...
- 104k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible