Unanswered Questions
1,445 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
16
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417
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Are there any references to entombed animals in ancient India?
The 13th century Hindu philosopher Arulnandi Shivacharya wrote a work called the Shiva Jnana Siddhiyar, which among other things contains a refutation of Buddhist philosophy. In this excerpt, various ...
13
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0
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720
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Was Heisuke Yanagawa really censored out in photos, and why?
Heisuke Yanagawa (柳川 平助) was an IJA Lieutenant General who commanded one of the main armies in the Battle of Nanking. He would have been one of the generals photographed marching into Nanking. I've ...
13
votes
1
answer
525
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Did Arabs actually raise a red flag on the dome of their commander's marquee during the Haraam months?
This answer to the question What is the purpose of putting a red flag on the dome of Hussain ibn Ali(as)'s shrine? states that if Arabs were at war with each other, during the Haraam months there ...
12
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334
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What does this lapel pin signify?
Metal with painted areas. Center area has an insignia. I have checked online at several places with no luck.
https://i.stack.imgur.com/YR0Iz.jpg
Palm sized. Gold sunburst cross 0°. Superimposed gold ...
12
votes
1
answer
649
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How much did a sword cost in AD 1000 Constantinople?
Qualifications:
Obviously, swords vary in quality. Ideally, I would like to know what a standard army issue sword would have cost, if I bought it privately. But I realised we may only be able to ...
11
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0
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422
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Does Patonce Cross symbol have any record of use in Hungary?
Hungary introduced new 10000 HUF notes that contain a symbol I couldn't relate to Hungary's history. There were no official notes known to me why they use Patonce Cross on Hungarian notes.
And here ...
10
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0
answers
343
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What prevented Southern Rhodesia from acquiring Dominion status?
Southern Rhodesia established responsible government in 1923. The next step, in general, was for a colony to be granted Dominion status (e.g., Newfoundland). What prevented Southern Rhodesia from ...
10
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0
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550
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Do any of the commercially produced Hinton cubes still exist?
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, British mathematician Charles Howard Hinton developed a system for visualizing the fourth dimension in his books “A New Era of Thought” and “The Fourth Dimension”. ...
10
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673
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What is this old dual-disc metal object with a spindle? [more pictures added]
[Updated: There are now pictures of both top and side views. Scroll to bottom of post to see the side views.]
While sorting through family artifacts, I found a black metal two-layer disc with a long ...
10
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0
answers
219
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Was Voltaire actually present at the British Raid on Lorient in 1746, which was attended by David Hume?
Voltaire wrote a satirical account of the raid at which Hume himself was personally in attendance with General St Clair. However, it is difficult to find out if Voltaire was actually an eyewitness ...
10
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421
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How did the Belgians issue ID cards with ethnicity to women in Ruanda-Urundi?
I've read about how the Belgians issued ID cards to the inhabitants of their colony Ruanda-Urundi (later independent under the names of Rwanda and Burundi):
Indeed, the Belgian colonists classified a ...
9
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174
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Was silent reading or reading aloud the norm in pre-modern (esp. Tang through Ming eras) China?
Many scholars argue that in ancient Greco-Roman culture, reading aloud was the norm, as seen in examples like Augustine's Confessions, where Augustine sees someone reading silently and sees this as ...
9
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112
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Who was Ribeiro Pacheco, Portuguese journalist in colonial Mozambique during the 1960s/70s?
I am stuck in the search for information about Portuguese journalists in colonial Mozambique and would like to ask for help. I've asked the question already on /Historiaemportugues/ on Reddit, and was ...
9
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677
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What is the origin of this quote from the Book of the Dead, "May he journey in the Boat of a Million Years"?
At the beginning of the book The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson is a quote from the Book of the Dead:
Labelled as 18th dynasty, and translated as:
May he go forth in the sunrise boat
May he ...
9
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213
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Did China repay Soviet grain aid?
The Sino-Soviet rift/split is a complicated issue. But there can be little doubt that it was complete by mid 1963, when the «Polemics on the General Line» were released by the Chinese Communist Party.
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