33
votes
Accepted
How do historians verify historical claims?
Just like Scientific method exists to prove or disprove scientific theories and hypothesis, Historical Method also exists.
Historians of course cross-check certain claims with contemporary sources ...
- 8,185
22
votes
How useful are mythological king lists and geneologies for historians?
As Will & Ariel Durant's History of Civilization first pointed out to me several decades ago, reinforced by Kenneth Clark's Civilization BBC TV series, history is far more than just the ...
- 72.3k
12
votes
Accepted
How useful are mythological king lists and geneologies for historians?
First I will point out that mythology has an obvious and direct relevance when it comes to the history of ideas, intellectual history, the history of religion and so on. In that sense, no matter how ...
- 18.9k
6
votes
How can one reliably date a carved stone item or structure?
A lot of crafted items can be reasonably dated by how they were made, and what they were made of. How readily available a given material (in this case, stone) is can be influenced by a lot of factors: ...
- 310
6
votes
How useful are mythological king lists and geneologies for historians?
Myths are generally unreliable sources for historic events because there is usually no way to tell where fact ends and fiction begins.
However, they can be a useful source about the culture and ...
- 1,131
5
votes
Accepted
How is historical "average calorie consumption" data from eighty years ago estimated?
These numbers were not measured like "actual calories consumed". But the numbers cited are quite easily "calculated" – for the cities.
From the start of the war for Germany in 1939 ...
- 80.8k
4
votes
Are "I, II, III, ..." versions of archaeological versioning of layers unique to Troy?
Rather than 'layers', the Roman numerals at Troy actually refer to 'archaeological phases', which often means an:
"... occupation level and all associated features that were created into or from ...
- 77.3k
2
votes
Intersection Between Computer Science and History?
It is a little surprising to me that what I think is currently the relevant example has not been mentioned so far (this may be due to the fact that what has been called a "breakthrough" in the press ...
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