texts: Is/was it an Indonesian tradition or custom to drink your victims' blood?

texts:
In Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence (2014) (sequel to The Act of Killing [2012]), at least two of the killers speak (rather casually and openly) about drinking the blood of victims. They said it was in order not to go crazy and there was a suggestion that this gave them strength. (I believe these events all take place in Aceh in North Sumatra.)

Is this a "common" Indonesian tradition or custom? Or was this practice peculiar to the events of the mid 1960s?

Googling, I find The Economist reporting on the Sampit conflict circa 2001 that among the Dayaks on Borneo:

  according to tradition, once at war he [a Dayak] must kill someone and drink the victim's blood.


texts: Is the position of women as portrayed in the Mad Men series historically accurate?

texts:
I found similar questions about a game (closed as off topic), a play (7 upvotes) and a movie (9 upvotes) so I am unsure if this is an acceptable question for this SE.

In the Mad Men series, which takes place in the '60 in the USA, woman are generally portrayed as uneducated people only capable of doing simple jobs, cooking and taking care of their husbands.
Is this in accordance to the situation in that time and place?


texts: What was the average percentage of taxes in Europe during the Middle Ages?

texts: I've found a lot about what kinds of taxes existed in the Middle Ages, but couldn't find a source pointing to specific percentages (apart from the tithe, but I don't know how thoroughly it was implemented). I'd like any information, however local or limited in time or scope.


texts: Do busts or statues exist for all the Roman emperors until the fall of the West?

texts:
I recently visited the impressive Hall of Emperors section in the Capitoline museum in Rome. I had assumed that it would display busts of all the emperors of Rome, but in reality it was obvious that a number of them were missing.

Discounting emperors who reigned for less than a year, do busts or statues exist for all the Roman emperors? I'm particularly interested in seeing examples of Aurelian (whose busts I've seen so far look suspiciously similar to busts of his successor Probus) and Majorian.


texts: Was there discrimination against Jewish people at the entrance exams to the most prestigious universities in the USSR?

texts:
The most prestigious universities in the USSR discriminated against Jewish applicants. Tanya Khovanova (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA) wrote:

  This is a special collection of problems that were given to select
  applicants during oral entrance exams to the math department of Moscow
  State University. These problems were designed to prevent Jewish
  people and other undesirables from getting a passing grade. Among
  problems that were used by the department to blackball unwanted
  candidate students, these problems are distinguished by having a
  simple solution that is difficult to understand. Using problems with
  a simple solution protected the administration from extra complaints
  and appeals. This collection therefore has mathematical as well as
  historical value.

Source
Jewish Problems

What value historians attribute to these accounts? I, personally, do never found quotes about these facts in history books. Do you? Please, give some primary reference, avoiding possibly Wikipedia.


texts:
In the the Spanish Empire generally, the royal state and the state church were tightly coupled. One hierarchy supposedly answered to the Viceroy and then the King; the other to the Archbishop and the Pope. Certain racial and educational qualifications were expected of high officials in both. This question is about individual mobility between the two power centers.

At the very end of the imperial period, some creole priests did get into politics: Hidalgo and many others pursued military careers, and Fernández San Vicente was Iturbide's commissioner to the Californias. Creoles were definitely ascendant. I hope to learn whether these specific priests were innovators or part of a persistent trend of political involvement.

Did other New Spanish priests have political careers before Mexico's war of independence (pictured)?


texts: What happened to the colonial estates belonging to loyalists after the American Revolution?

texts: What happened to the colonial estates of the rich, elite Loyalist families after the American Revolution?  I assume they were just broken up and sold off to small farmers to appease some of the land hunger at the time.


texts: Why conceal the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus?

texts: If Alfred Dreyfus was innocent and the people in the general staff knew it, why did they try to cover it up and protect the guilty man? Weren't they concerned that there was still a mole present?


texts: I recently ran across a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother" I was wondering what the context of this quote is. Specifically was he speaking about his birth mother or his step mother, or is it really a Lincoln quote at all?


texts: When studying about the history of, say, Philippines, is it generally better to prioritize the works of Filipino Historians than foreign historians?

texts: Understanding the local culture and language is an essential part of studying a country's history. Does this mean that the works of local scholars, generally speaking, deserves more attention than those of foreign scholars?


texts: Strange jeep-hold cable used during Operation Horev

texts:
The National Library of Israel has just released 100 images about Operation Horev.

Two images show a jeep that holds a sort of cable attached to a balloon or something, or maybe it is just a very straight fixed antenna?

What is this long cable and what is its purpose?

Another view of a possibly different car: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_National_Library_of_Israel,_Nadav_Man_-_Bitmuna_Collection,_Operation_Horev_Golany-002.jpg


texts: How Did The US Justice System Lose Sight of Intent?

texts:
In the USA all that seems to matter is the letter of the law. This example demonstrates how a US law is being used for things it was never intended.

The British Justice System places a huge emphasis on the intent of a law. If a law is made to discourage one activity and you do somthing very similar (in a grey zone) the courts will likely convict you based on the intent of the law. Also if a law was intended to discorage one thing and you do somthing completely different that was not intened to be part of the law, but through some accidental wording includes what you did, the courts will very likely aquit you. Not so in America.

How did the court system in America become so different from their British counterparts with regard for intent?


texts: How did modern border security and crossing bureaucracy develop?

texts: I was trying to read more on how present day border security and administrative framework (passports, visas etc) came into being but to not much avail.  E.g. what was the first modern border crossing?  What countries first started issued travel documents, passports and visas?  What factors lead to the framing of border security as is?


texts: Post-war plan for Nazi Germany in Russia?

texts:
Do we have any records about what Nazi Germany planned to do if the Soviet Union had surrendered?  I can't imagine they wanted to swallow that entire country whole, all the way to the Pacific.  They'd have no troops left for fighting the war in the West and South!

Therefore, I assume they would have followed the pattern they set in France, taking some territory themselves and setting up a Vichy-equivalent for the rest.

Is that assumption supported by German documents available at the time?  If so, do we have any idea what the bounds/specifics of the puppet state would have been?  And if not, are there any indications of what Hitler's plan was for Russia after she surrendered?


texts: What changed Japanese attitude to POWs in inter-war period?

texts:
I have read this excellent answer in which @Semaphore provides sources confirming that German defenders of Tsingtao were treated very well during World War I, which even lead to some tradition in local community.

In World War II Allied POWs (prisoners of war) were treated very badly. There are many examples (one, two, three, four, etc.)

What factors made the Japanese to change their attitude towards POWs?

I was taught it was because they felt surrender is a shame, so a POW loses his honour, he is not a man anymore, so he can be treated as a slave. But Germans of Tsingtao did surrender. It was 20 years earlier than WW2, so the honour-tradition in Japan should be stronger then.

Was it because world-wide brutality and totalitarism (like in Nazi-Germany or Soviet Union)? Or were there other factors?


texts: Have fashionable hair lengths ever been reversed from their current styles?

texts:
Has there ever been a time or a culture in which fashion/tradition strongly favored men with long hair AND women with short hair during the same period?  There are plenty of instances of both having long hair or both having short hair, and obviously modern Western fashions tend toward men with short hair and women with long, but I can't think of a situation where those two were reversed...

Can anyone think of one?


texts: When were capital punishments suspended during the Rashidun caliphate?

texts:
The wikipedia entry about Rashidun Caliphate says:

  Various Islamic lawyers do however place multiple conditions, and stipulations e.g. the poor cannot be penalised for stealing out of poverty, before executing such a law, making it very difficult to reach such a stage. It is well known during a time of drought in the Rashidun caliphate period, capital punishments were suspended until the effects of the drought passed.

When did this drought happen? When did the authorities suspend capital punishments?


texts: What happened to the Wehrmacht after the German surrender?

texts:
Wikipedia tells us, that:

  Following the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht, which went
  into effect on 8 May 1945, some Wehrmacht units remained active,
  either independently (e.g. in Norway), or under Allied command as
  police forces.[59]

So between May 1945 and September 1946 the Wehrmacht still existed. As far as I know, some units served directly under allied command e.g. as police units  (and some continued to due so even after the official dissolution of the Wehrmacht as newly formed organizations).

However, while there still was a Wehrmacht, what did the units do all day long? How were they fed? Paid? When they disarmed themselves, how did they acquire the necessary supplies (e.g. fuel)? How was discipline and authority maintained? Were Wehrmacht units allowed to defend themselves? How did the command structure between the allies and the remainders of the Wehrmacht work? What did a typical, say division commander, due to fulfill his orders (and how did these orders reach him in the first place?).

I assume that there is a whole lot of source material here (starting with written orders, files, letters etc.), but I cannot find anything.


texts: Is the scarlet letter 'A' a real historical thing?

texts:
I've heard someone say something like:

  It's not a scarlet letter, it's not a mark on your forehead you keep for life.

Obviously this was said in terms of permanency of a badge of shame, or redemption.

The Scarlet Letter was a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1850. Two of the definitions I found seem to give this novel as the origin of the term:

  a scarlet letter “A,” formerly worn by one convicted of adultery.
  [1850, Amer.] Random House Kernerman Webster's College
  Dictionary

  a scarlet A worn as a punitive mark of adultery History and
  Etymology for scarlet letter from such a letter in the novel The
  Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne Merriam-Webster
  Dictionary

This one however marks the term as being a historical one:

  (Historical Terms) (esp among US Puritans) a scarlet letter A formerly
  worn by a person convicted of adultery Collins English
  Dictionary

The novel The Scarlet Letter is set between the years 1642 to 1649 in the predominantly Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. The story focuses on a married woman who gives birth to a daughter by another man through a love affair. She is condemned to wear a scarlet letter 'A' as a mark of shame for being an adulteress:

  She is required to wear a scarlet "A" on her dress when she is in front of the townspeople to shame her. The letter "A" stands for adulteress, although this is never said explicitly in the novel. Her sentence required her to stand on the scaffold for three hours, exposed to public humiliation, and to wear the scarlet "A" for the rest of her life.
  The Scarlet Letter, Wikipedia

I'm wondering if this is historically accurate, whether a woman was forced to wear this mark or something like it to shame her in such cases.

Also, in any case, I take it that the expression derives from the novel from 1850? What I mean is that even if this scarlet letter was a real thing I'm guessing it entered our language through the popularization of the novel.


texts:
Undoubtedly, the largest empire in the existence of human history was the Mongol Empire, once a hodgepodge of warring nomadic tribes from Central Asia before banding together under the banner of Temujin, better known as Genghis Khan.

But what was the key to the Mongol Empire's size?  Was the horse, the most ideal creature to use for long-distance travel, the exclusive reason?  Or were there other factors involved?


texts: Why weren't the Egyptians attacked on sight in the ancient Battle of Megiddo?

texts:
In 1457 BC, Thutmose III and his army had to pass the mountains to reach Megiddo. He had three passes he could go through, one in the North, called Jokneam Pass, and another pass in the South, called Dothan Pass.

The enemy army was stationed at the end of these 2 passes, right behind the mountain. So Thutmose III decided to take the third (and most risky) pass through the middle of the mountains, called the Aruna Pass. This route would take him through the mountains and directly to the south of Megiddo itself.

Thutmose III's scribe said that the pass was so difficult and so tight that they had to disassemble the chariots and carry them with them and that in some areas the troops had to walk in single file.

In any case, no matter what route Thutmose III's army took, there was an empty space between where they emerged from the pass and Megiddo of, at most, 2 Kilometres (1.2 Miles).

How come Thutmose III's army was not seen by the people in Megiddo? The Egyptian army took 7 hours for the last man in the army to pass the mountain!

Did the rebels really not leave any garrison behind?
How did the citizens and the people inside Megiddo itself not see the Egyptian army? Knowing that Megiddo is located on top of a hill, so they could have easily seen the army from the comfort of their homes.
A quote from the inscriptions:

  Behold, when the front had reached the exit upon this road, the shadow had turned, and when his majesty arrived at the south of Megiddo on the bank of the brook of Kina, the seventh hour was turning, measured by the sun.

  Then was set up the camp of his majesty, and command was given to the whole army, saying: "Equip yourselves! Prepare your weapons! for we shall advance to fight with that wretched foe in the morning."

So after 7 hours for the last man in the army to go through the mountain, they actually camped there. How come?!


texts: I know I've seen it somewhere before. But can't for the life or me remember who this sculpture is of?  Any help would be greatly appreciated. .


texts: How many surface ships have reached the North Pole?

texts:
I realize that the nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika (Soviet Union) reached the north pole on August 17, 1977. However, I would like to know of any other ships that have also reached the North Pole.

[edit]

I realize I should probably have specified Geographic vs. Magnetic North Poles, but either is nice especially if specified.


texts: Are there instances where collective farming has actually brought benefit to the population

texts:
I was reading a few articles about population growth and famines and thereby discovered that some of the recent famines where caused by government policies, among which I read at least twice (USSR and China) that collectivisation played a major role in decreasing farming/labour efficiency or at least crop distribution efficiency.

So here comes my question: are there instances where collective farming has actually brought benefit to the population of an area (not necessarily in terms of crops throughput, but more in terms of wellbeing)?

Also, have there been instances where communal dining has brought a increased efficiency of food usage, as opposed to the over consumption induced by this policy in the mid 20th century china?

I thought maybe rural societies or  at least more decentralised (maybe more primitive?) communities might have had a better chance to benefit from such measures, but i have found little information in regard to farming and cooking policies of, let's say, the Amish people for example.


texts: What did the word 'unconstitutional' mean to Americans prior to the Revolution?

texts: I'm reading about the Townshend Acts on Wikipedia, and it says that the American colonists rejected any taxation because it was unconstitutional. Were they referring to a specific document, like the Magna Carta?


texts: How much would it cost to bribe a prison warden in New England in the year 1800?

texts:
The value of money from one decade to another is a very confusing topic - in my opinion, anyway.

For instance, something called the CPI Inflation Calculator states that $1 in 1800 was the equivalent of $19.98 today. Check it out:

https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1800?amount=1

And yet the daily wages of, say, an artisan, was about $1, according to this:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112104053548;view=1up;seq=181

... which, according to the information on some websites, would have bought him four pounds of coffee or three gallons of whiskey.

According to the TV comedy Honeymooners, a bus driver working in New York made $40 per week in the 1950's. The Inflation Calculator I mentioned earlier claims that in 1955, $1 was the equivalent of $9.39, which would make a New York City bus driver's wages less than $400 a week before taxes.

Like I said, this is all very confusing.

Now, my question is:

In the year 1800, how much would an affluent lady pay a New England prison warden in order to be allowed to see her lover in private and out of turn?


texts: Did Native Americans ever fight the indigenous people living in Mexico before Europeans arrived?

texts:
From elementary school, my history teacher used to talk about the fighting between native American tribes. Then, later in the semester, we would briefly discuss the rise of Aztecs, Olmecs, Mayans, etc.

However, I never noticed any one make any connections between them. So, throughout my life, one question that has always stuck to me since then was: did the North & Central American Indians ever fight?

I never heard anyone ever bring this up and, since finding this site, I am intensely curious to see if anyone knows

I'm up for any information you guys have but I am particularly interested to know

How often did they fight?
Did they have any meaningful effects during that time?
What did each think & feel of the other, North vs South? (I realize they probably didn't think this way but throwing it out there)
What military tactics did each side used?
Was there any kind of cultural shock when meeting?
Any names for the wars/battles they had?
Any books, websites, etc that talks more about it?

Anyway, waiting with anticipation for people to help scratch this long term itch. Thanks in advance!


texts:
The blog post Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names – With Examples claims that:

  There was an isolated culture in which
  no one had names – they referred to everyone in relative terms, such
  as “my mother’s eldest sister”.

Is this true? Which culture is the author talking about?


texts: Who did Mussolini meet after Hitler, on arrival to Germany after rescue?

texts:
Mussolini was flown to Germany after the Gran Sasso raid.

Who does Mussolini meet, after Hitler, in this video: https://youtu.be/zAWEoe1SwLs?t=24

What does the narrator say, in German? What does it mean?


texts: Which languages would be most useful in Europe at the end of the 19th century?

texts:
If I were a tourist planning to visit all the major cities in Europe, which languages would be most beneficial for me to know? Nowadays, the answer would be straightforward, as many people in Europe speak English as their secondary language. Maybe throw in some German and French, and you should be fine.

But if this were my question, I wouldn’t ask it here. (I would just google the answer). I’m interested in the prevalence of languages in 19th century Europe, specifically the end of the 19th century. I know that travelling abroad wasn’t as common back then as it is today. But I assume that there were still a lot of people who travelled the continent on a regular basis, be it for political, scientific or economic reasons.

That’s why I would like to know which languages would be the most useful in order to get by in 19th century Europe. I assume that most working class people only spoke one language. So it might be relevant to know which languages were learned by educated people at that time.

I tried to research this topic on my own. Unfortunately, I only found information about the current situation in Europe, no historical data about languages in general. Specific knowledge about the development of English and French at that time were available, but not in the context of other European languages.

I presume that English is still a strong contender for number one language, but I think other languages have a good chance as well. I also included languages like Latin in my research, which had more significance in the past. So, to sum up my question:

Which languages were the most useful for travelling Europe in the late 19th century?

As suggested in the comments, I will narrow my query down to one specific scenario. The person in question would be a diplomat or trader and travel the continent on a regular basis. Doing so, he or she would meet many educated and influential people. The main mode of transport would be by train and he or she would spend most time in capitals or other big cities, not in rural areas.


texts: Why did Galileo decide to flame Fr. Grassi over the latter's theory of comets, making sure to lose the Jesuits’ support?

texts: Grassi's Disputatio was a rather tame work, which presented his theory of circularly orbiting comets in a non-definitive fashion. It should have pleased Galileo, given his prejudice in strictly circular orbits, so why on earth did he instead decide to assault the Jesuit with his worst vitriol claiming they where just atmospheric reflections without having observed them? (A thing Grassi had done)


texts: Did Anglo-Saxons make use of large-scale, non-military Roman ruins?

texts: There are plenty of examples of the Anglo-Saxons using Roman ruins as part of their defensive and domestic architecture (i.e. Alfred building burhs that incorporated some Roman walls and roads). I am wondering how (or if) the Saxons dealt with more large-scale Roman ruins, especially theatres, which are often large and obviously built for a specific purpose. I'm curious if they avoided them, demolished them, repurposed them, etc.


texts: How were immigrant doctors and nurses sponsored in 1960/1970s?

texts:
Original Post
I understand President Johnson passed Immigration Act of 1965. And there was shortage of Doctors and Nurses in the United States during 1960s, 1970s.
People in countries such as India immediately made their kids study medicine so they become Doctors and immigrate to the United States (I have first-hand knowledge of this)
But I am unable to find information on who sponsored these Doctors from abroad. Did the hospital where they did medical residency sponsor them? Or there was no need for sponsorship?
I'm trying to search google (hec, I even asked Indian community forums), but I unable to get an authoritative answer.
Clarification
For instance, if husband wants to sponsor foreign wife, he files affidavit of support form, then another form to petition, if I understand correctly. Since foreign doctors did not come by spouse visa, how where they sponsored. Did they buy plane ticket to USA and say, "I am here!"


texts: What was the sentiment regarding government control of railroads in Gilded-Age America?

texts:
I know this is a bit of a broad question, but what did leading thinkers and the American public think about government control of railroads as they were coming into widespread use post-Reconstruction?

I've heard two different stories: that there was demand for the government to own railroads and that there was pressure only for regulation of railroads. I'm sure they were both around to some degree, but was one more dominant than the other?

Even if you don't have a definite answer, I'd appreciate any hints as to where I should look. Quick Google searches haven't served me well in this case. My curiosity stems from all the talk of net neutrality and such, with the government regulating the Internet. I'm in a class which is currently studying the Gilded Age and we've talked about the emergence of railroads a great deal. I'm wondering how the public handled a groundbreaking technology like railroads compared to how we're handling the Internet today.


texts:
In both fantasy and science fiction, from books, movies, games and tv shows, slave armies are a concept that is used pretty often. A well known example of this is the Unsullied from Game of Thrones. Some works use slave armies in Roman settings. However I wonder, was this ever used in history?
The concept seems really weird to me. By creating a slave army you have just given the slaves all they need to kill their masters and break free. They have all the weapons they need, and they've gathered up a large number of slaves in the same place.

I don't see how anyone that owns slaves could ever allow slaves to hold weapons unless you have a much bigger force to keep them in check. So were slave armies ever used in history? And if so by who and when?


texts: In historical slave societies, what jobs were left over for poor free laborers?

texts:
And what laws or institutions sprang up to deal with them?

Slaves have the effect of depressing wages for poor workers. If this has been a universal, I'm curious whether slave-owning cultures have found ways to keep adequate jobs available for the free working class, or otherwise compensate them to avoid social unrest. (For example, like the Roman cura annonae.)
And regardless of state intervention, is there an identifiable trend in what  jobs were left over?

I'm most interested in classical and medieval slave-owning civilizations in the Mediterranean and Near East - apart from Rome, as it was well covered in the question linked above, and in this one as well.

I think this is an appropriate scope for a question about world historical trends, as I'm asking about a very specific effect of slavery rather than the whole institution, an effect that has presumably been more prominent in some societies than others, which could help further narrow it further. But if you think it's still too broad please indicate in the comments and I'll edit the question if I see a consensus. Thanks.


texts: Has the US ever held a referendum? Would it be possible according to the constitution?

texts:
Many western countries (Switzerland more than anyone) now and then arrange referendum about issues like membership in the EU, or keeping or abolishing military conscription, or whether or not to shift from driving (cars) on the left hand side to the right one instead.

Has there ever been a referendum (the people's direct majority vote without any middleman elected) in the US? Since I think not, is there any one good explanation? On federal or state level.


texts: Did the Moors and Arabs, "Muslims," who invaded Europe, ie "Spain," help the evolution of civilizations of Europe?

texts: Were the Muslims viewed as barbarians similar to the Mongols, and as a people who only specialized in war? Or, were Muslims advanced enough to teach Europe scientific advancements? Did they invent any new science? Did they help world civilization progress?


texts:
In 1846-47 the United States conquered Mexican California, gradually imposing its legal system. Bancroft says the "first jury empanelled" in California was in Monterey in the case of Graham v. Roussillon, September 4th, 1846.

On August 14th of 1847, Pedro Gómez of Santa Cruz was tried and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife, Bárbara. Before this case, was anyone else tried for murder in U.S. California?


texts:
This London Enemies List 1775 has come up in American Revolutionary War research regarding Paul Revere and other revolutionaries. I believe it is a document of some sort and find a referenced source (picture above) in David Fischers book Paul Revere's Ride written in 1995.

The London Enemies List seems to be compiled by Tories who put names of Loyalist rebels on a list.

Im not sure why it has a date next to it either, was there multiple versions released each year? Was this a private list or something released in a newspaper in London or America?

Basically: what is the document that says they are on this list?


texts: Why did monarchy become common practice after the fall of Rome?

texts:
Why did the government of most nations after the fall of Rome and the beginning of medieval age turn to monarchy?

Before the fall of Rome most nations seem to be organized after different model and few seems to embrace the practice of one person with absolute power. The Rome had Senate and/or an Emperor. The Greek (some at least) had democracy for free men. Germanic nations had councils or a chief that was part of a confederations. So how did we go from a system of so many different government types to monarchy dominating Europe?


texts: How effective were longbow archers against plate-armored infantry?

texts: It is quite common knowledge that longbows most likely did not penetrate the plate armor worn by the French chevaliers at Poitiers and Agincourt. However, how effective were these longbows in hampering the fighting ability of the French foot knights when they reached the English lines? Indeed at Poitiers Peter Hoskins in In the Steps of the Black Prince insinuates that the battle was won by Anglo-Gascon discipline, NCO experience and French incompetence but not the English archers. However, did the longbow archers play a big part by disrupting their foe's formations, wounding soldiers and making it harder to swing with arrows lodged in your armor?


texts: What (else) happened July 1st 1858 in London?

texts:
I'm looking for sources of information freely available online about happenings in London the day July 1st 1858 (besides the famous Darwin-Wallace presentation, that is.)
I have found copies of the front page of The Times, but they are almost illegible and mostly full of advertising.


texts: What is this symbol in a financial record from Wisconsin, USA, in 1860?

texts:
I am trying to read some records about wages in Wisconsin in 1860 (the data is from the Social Statistics schedules of the Decennial Census). I cannot read the record from Milton, Rock County, Wisconsin. Specifically, I do not understand the entries in columns 42 and 43. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me what this symbol that looks like an f means.

Source: The US Census Office, 1860, Wisconsin, Rock County, The Town of Milton, Schedule 6 (Census of Social Statistics). This specific record was made by Assistant Marshal Hiram Taylor.
I successfully read the entries for the other counties in the same state. The normal values for column 42 (Average day wages to a carpenter without a board) were $1.25-2. The average for column 43 (Weekly wages to a female domestic without board) were around $0.75-1.5
Edit (Sept. 11): added source.


texts: Did the British Army burn any capitals other than Washington?

texts:
It has been written that the British invasion of Washington, and the burning of the Capitol, White House, and other public buildings, was in retaliation for American raids in Canada which caused the destruction and looting of public and private buildings there.  A point favoring this view is that the British left the city while it was still burning and did not attempt to hold it.

My question is whether the British, in its wars with other countries, prior to or contemporary to the War of 1812, had ever burned down government building in the capital cities of its enemies as a means to break their enemy's will to fight?


texts: Given the direct involvement of tech companies has there been any strikes over tech companies’ participation in surveillance culture?

texts:
Google employees have staged a mass strike over sexual harassment. This obviously fits into a tradition of labour disputes and is a conflict over contemporary mores.

However, the article does mention that 'deep issues' are at work here without going into specifics.

My interest in the era of the internet is with surveillance technology. It's uses, misuses and abuses. Given the direct complicity of tech companies in building the infra-structure of surveillance, I'm curious as to whether there is a history of labour disputes with management over this?

There's no tag [history-of-surveillance] otherwise I would have listed this under it.


texts: Which cannon could fired this Austrian brass shell case (Berndorf 1910 R)?

texts:
I would like to know which cannon could have fired such a shell and what does the R stand for? Was it fired in WWI?

The dimensions are as follows: length 58 cm, width at the base 9.5 cm, and width at the top 8 cm. Are they rare?


texts: Is 529 the largest simultanious death penalty verdict ever?

texts:
Recently Egypt made headlines by sentencing 529 people to death in a single court verdict.

I've seen a lot of talk both in the media and online about this being the largest single death penalty sentence in "recent history". However, I haven't seen any reference to one larger. In fact, the only one of even comparable size I've seen mentioned was 152 sentenced in a single case in Bangladesh in 2009. However, even that was a bit different, in that it was a military trial of an entire military unit for mutiny.

This verdict seems kind of horrible to a lot of people, but I think it would be useful to put an actual bound on it.

So the question is, have there ever in fact been documented court cases that sentenced more than 529 civilians to death at once? If yes, what was the most recent?


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What did Ostian script look like? I've seen some drawings in Origin of the Serif and I'd like to learn more. But when I tried googling I wasn't able to find anything: all I got were false positives.

The example on Figure 212 of Catich's book shows a Roman majuscule A and N, which are described as Ostian inscriptions of the year 75. Both are in the Vatican Lapidary Museum.

Compared to Trajan, the height-width ratio of the letters is smaller. The right leg of the A is very thick, with a very long exit serif.


texts: Why was Johannes Blaskowitz indicted at the Nuremberg High Command Trial

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Johannes Blaskowitz was a German General during WW2. He committed suicide in 1948 while being tried as a war criminal.

His action during the Polish offensive seem rather counter to this, to quote wikipedia:

As a traditional soldier, Blaskowitz kept a firm control on the men under his command in their dealings with civilians, Blaskowitz was opposed to the Army committing war crimes with the SS. Between November 1939 and February 1940 he wrote several memoranda to higher command, in which he detailed SS atrocities in Poland, their effects on Wehrmacht soldiers, and the insolent attitude of the SS to the army. However, his protests produced no condemnations of such behavior, and merely earned him the enmity of Hans Frank, Reinhard Heydrich, Heinrich Himmler, and Adolf Hitler, while Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl dismissed them as naive and "uncalled for".[1]

*Commander-in-Chief Walther von Brauchitsch forwarded Blaskowitz's first memorandum to Hitler on 18 November, who launched a tirade against Blaskowitz, denouncing his concerns about due process as "childish" and poured scorn on his "Salvation Army attitude".[2] As a result, Blaskowitz found himself placed on a blacklist, and he was relieved of his command on 29 May 1940.**

[1] Robert B., Kane (2002). Disobedience and conspiracy in the German Army, 1918-1945. McFarland. p. 161. ISBN 0-7864-1104-X.

[2] Kitchen, Martin (2008). The Third Reich: Charisma and Community. Pearson Education. p. 247. ISBN 1-4058-0169-7.

So my question is was the justification for his inclusion in the Nuremberg Trials based on anything more than his rank in the German Army?

Because it seems to me he offered no more complicity than being in the German Army and remaining in it with at least some knowledge of what was going on (which seems a bit of an expansive definition of a war crime?). Is there any evidence that he endorsed the SS actions and had some other non-humanitarian for forbidding army troops from participating (seems unlikely given his complaint letters)? Or maybe there is evidence of disciplinary action taken by him against SS troops in the field?


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Is there any known pre-twentieth century history of the tomb of Sidi Rezegh?

A variant spelling is Sidi Rizq from سيدي رزق at 31.8287°N, 24.1345°E in Al Butnan province, Libya near Tobruk and Al Adm.

The place is famous for the battles around it in 1941.


texts: Where is this possibly WWI Eastern European military uniform from?

texts: This family members picture is a mystery. I would like to be able to know what country and military unit this uniform is from. I think is is eastern Europe around World war 1 era.


texts: Why was the standoff on the Ugra river the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia?

texts:
This is a very layman question, since my only source of knowledge is Wikipedia. I'm sure there are works that cover this subject in more details, please mentioned them in your answer.

Wikipedia says:

  The Great stand on the Ugra river marks the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke in Russia.

It also says:

  On October 28 [1480], Ivan gradually started to pull his armies back to Kremenets for winter quarters. Akhmat waited for reinforcements until November 11 and then turned south. Among other reasons for Akhmat's retreat was the possible threat of Crimean, Nogai or other attacks on his unprotected home base, a common problem in nomadic warfare. As Nikolai Karamzin wrote in his "History of Russian State", "It should have been an odd image: two armies ran away from each other, not pursued by anyone".

So Akhmat retreated alright, but that also was the end of the yoke for some reason. How did that happen and why?


texts: Which battles of WWII did the cracking of Enigma decisively influence?

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Having just watched The Imitation Game, I am curious about the influence of the cracking of Enigma on the outcome of WWII.

Which battles did the information decoded by Enigma influence?  Which battles would likely have been lost without the cracking of the code?


texts: What was the standard pistol used in Yugoslavia during WWII?

texts: I've looked into the firearms used during WWII, but I can't find what pistol was used by Yugoslavian infantry men at the time. What did they use?


texts: Did the legal principle of conflict of interest exist in the 17th century?

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17th century Europe saw many trials related to Catholic-Protestant disagreements. Was the legal principle of conflict of interest operative at the time, so that for example the same person could not be the source of a denunciation and at the same time a legal expert called upon for an opinion?

I would be particularly interested in the trials of the inquisition in Italy.

Apart from the issue to what extent laws concerning "ambidexterity" (mentioned in the answer) were actually followed, I am also interested in what type of (canon) law existed at the time. The scenario I am thinking of is slightly different from ambidexterity. Suppose person X initiated a denunciation (or in more favorable modern terminology "whistle-blowing") concerning person Y. Can person X himself be appointed to sit as a judge or offer expert opinion on the ensuing case involving Y stemming from X's whistle?

Note. An instance of such conflict of interests dates from 1632-1633. Melchoir Inchofer was chosen as one of a panel of three theologians appointed to assess Galileo's work, the others being Agostino Oreggi and Zaccaria Pasqualigo. In addition to this overt task, there is in the papers of the Congregation of the Index an anonymous denunciation, referred to as EE291 in the literature. The EE291 dates from 1632 and is in Inchofer's hand. One of the key accusations is Galileo's alleged non-conformity to Canon 2 of Session 13 of the Council of Trent. Additional details can be found in this 2018 publication in Foundations of Science.


texts: Why was 17th Century England a particularly supportive place for groundbreaking thought?

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Issac Newton, John Lock, Robert Hooke, Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon...etc.

Was 17th century England somehow more conducive to excellent new ideas or was it no more outstanding than the rest of 17th century Europe?


texts: Are there pictures expressing anti-occupation sentiment directed at British Forces in Germany before 1990?

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Researching the history of the British Army of the Rhine it seems difficult to locate pictures of certain aspects regarding the German view of these times and troops. The Rhine Army or Rhine Garrison was an occupational force in Germany from 1945–1994, with slight status modifications over the years, notably in 1955 and 1994, though still present on German soil today, now renamed to British Forces Germany.

Some examples for these sentiments as reported from the German as well as from the British side are in one German magazine: Schindluder gespielt (1950) Eine Rabiate Antwort (1958), „Wir sind die halfforgotten Army“ (1977), Briten raus! (1991)

There were stickers, signs and (little) posters on cars or in shop windows, especially in bars which signaled that British soldiers should please abstain from entering. These were in the form of a Union Jack and some accompanying text in English. This kind of behaviour was to be found wide-spread at least throughout the 1980s, very possibly much earlier.

These posters, signs and stickers existed at least in the surrounding areas of where the 7th Armoured Brigade was stationed. Other areas with similar posters on display were presumably to be found in or around these out-of-bounds areas, which would be the likely source for one of the phrases used.

Prior research:  Searching for British-German relations from below there are several documents and documentaries, from both sides, celebrating the friendship of both nations expressed by amiable social relations between soldiers and the locals. These are evidently not showing too much of the problems and tensions that were surely present and documented in written words.

One such poster and the raising tensions is evidenced in this article from 1992, but only mentioned in the online version, not depicted:

  Plakate mit "Tommy go home"

Going for the origianl article scan reveals this late example from 1992:

That is a poster used by an official "citizen initiative", founded in 1987, when this variant was designed. This variant was used for example in September 1990, when this initiative blockaded a train transport with fresh tanks and forestalled the unloading for a few days:

Are there any pictures expressing this anti-occupation sentiment directed at the British Forces specifically from before 1990?


texts: Why some countries have more than one name?

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I know Persian Language, In persian (Farsi) that is an old language we call Netherlands “Holland” , call Germany "Alman", Call Poland "Lahestan", call India "Hend" and etc.

What is the reason and Why these countries have more than one name?


texts: Did the East India Company shareholders get any compensation when the Crown took over in 1858?

texts: If anyone has read the Government of India Act 1858, please tell if the East India Company shareholders got any compensation.


texts: Jerusalem 1187: How would Saladin's army have laid siege to the walls?

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BACKGROUND

In fall of 1187 Saladin's "12,000 professional cavalrymen [and] 30,000 volunteers" arrived at Jerusalem and began a two week siege, assaulting the walls with towers, arrows, rocks, and greek fire.  During the first five days of the siege he attacked the walls around the western wall, from the Tower of David and Damascus Gate. After failing there he moved to the northern wall, where he finally breached the city and obtained a surrender.

Accounts of the siege don't tell us what formations Saladin used to attack the walls, which is unfortunately exactly what I want to know.
My first thought was that I could make a reasonable guess from  accounts of another siege he led in 1188, where his "soldiers advanced in waves establishing a shield wall [...] behind which their archers and crossbowmen kept up repeated volleys of arrows [and then the] assault troops [...] storm[ed] the walls with scaling ladders and ropes." Saladin's army attacked in multiple divisions over the course of the day.

This seems plausible (though if you think it's not then this question changes to why and what is). But even so, it still leaves one big question to my mind.

THE QUESTION

Given the military thinking of his day, what would Saladin have likely done with the rest of his army, in particular the cavalry and horse-archers, as a division of his infantry attacked the walls?

Regarding the cavalry, my first thought was defending the infantry from enemy sorties, but I still don't know where you'd best position them for that, or how feasible it is for such big targets to be riding up to the walls. I also don't know what use if any the famous Turkish horse-archers would be in a siege. Finally, my guess is that Saladin's siege weapons would have been positioned behind his archers at near their maximum range, but I wanted to fact check that. Corrections to my thinking or examples from comparable battles are welcomed. Thanks for your time.


texts: WWII - documents on turn around point in German Foreign strategy - "stop we are not going to pass Finland to USSR"

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I want to find the turn around point in German Foreign strategy:
ok we leave Finland to USSR - stop we would not do it. In documents.

Some of them are there:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=Documents%20on%20German%20Foreign%20Policy%20-%20Series%20D

But I need Vol 10 and it is absent. May be we have more consistent archive on specialized sites?


texts:
What killed Takeda Shingen?

A sniper's bullet?

Illness?

Old wounds?

A combination of the above?  Why is the cause of his death shrouded in mystery?  Did the Takeda try and keep his death secret or conceal the cause?


texts: Why was Hanford, Washington, selected during World War II as the site of America’s first nuclear energy plant?

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In 1942, as part of the plan to manufacture atomic bombs to drop on Japan, the U.S. Army began to seek out a suitable location to build a factory for producing plutonium, necessary for the atomic bomb which was later dropped on Hiroshima.

Then in January 1943, after a years’ search, the U.S. Army decided on the tiny Washington village of Hanford, and began purchasing or condemning 560 square miles of land for the new plutonium production plant. Within a year, the newly government-owned Hanford had become home to 50000 workers.

Why was Hanford, of all the towns in the nation, selected for this vastly important project which led to the Allied victory over Japan in World War II?


texts:
I was looking for some comprehensive histories of Jews in Russia, when I came across Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's Two Hundred Years Together. I had no idea that this book even existed, and am disappointed that it is not available in English translation.

The usual people (Daily Stormer, Occidental Observer, etc) and a variety of supposedly left-leaning, Holocaust-denying and Jew-hating commenters on Amazon have all decided that the reason it doesn't exist in translation is because it is being suppressed. Given the prevalence of trash antisemitism that exists in English, I highly doubt that something written by so eloquent and expressive a writer as Solzhenitsyn would be deliberately withdrawn from the public, but there's no arguing with some people.

Are there any Russian speakers here (or French or German speakers, since it was translated into those languages) who have read this book and who can comment on the nature of its content? How historically reliable is it? How incendiary is it? And are there any plans for a proper English translation? (I say "proper" because the websites I referenced earlier are compiling translations of their own, but I have good reason to suspect they are incorporating passages that Solzhenitsyn himself disavowed.)


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There is a big debate going on in the internet as to whether Kaaba was initially a Shiva temple. The following are arguments from the side of Hindus who support this theory.

Kaaba is derived from Kaabalishwara - The name of Shiva after he took crescent moon on his head. Crescent moon in the symbol of Islam.
The stone that Haj pilgrims embrace is very similar or identical to Yoni of the Shivalinga. They also claim that the Shivlinga itself was removed and inserted in the SE corner of Kaaba.
Practices like Circumambulation of the Kaaba 7 times which is similar to Vedic practice of Circumambulating Pradana Shtalas in temples.
Inscriptions praising Emperor Vikramadithya in the Makhtab-e-Sultania library in Turkey which supposedly proves Vedic influence in Middle-East.
Long standing trade connection between Kerala and Arabia.
The first follower of Islam after the prophet, Malik Deenar came to Kerala and performed conversion of King Cheramal Perumal to Islam.
Pagan Arab Priests of Kaaba and their Namboodhiri Brahmin ancestry.
There is Triad of Godesses in pre-islamic Arabia (Al-Uzza,Al-Lat and Menat) just like Saraswati/Parvati/Lakshmi.
The remains of Medein Saleh are said to have contained multi-armed idols.

Is there any truth to the above claims and many other similar claims in this regard?
References:-

Was the Kaaba Originally a Hindu Temple?
By P.N. Oak (Historian)

http://www.hinduism.co.za/kaabaa.htm

https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/is-the-kaaba-an-ancient-hindu-shiva-temple-confiscated-by-mohammed/comment-page-4/

http://www.quora.com/Is-Kaaba-an-ancient-Hindu-Shiva-temple-confiscated-by-Muhammad-during-raids

http://www.thaliatook.com/AMGG/arabtriple.html

Middle East Archeologist Dan Gibson's take:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0-0Vdnxlqo


texts:
Hideyoshi launched the invasion of Korea in 1592, with the aim of conquering Korea first and using it as a base for eventual conquest of China. As things turned out, although the superior Japanese army made great progress at first (starting from Busan, taking Pyongyang and most of the peninsula in 3 months), they could not advance any further and were pushed out of Korea eventually, in 1598. The way I see it, the Japanese had severe strategic shortcomings that made the stated goals (conquest of Korea and China) wildly unrealistic:

The Japanese navy could not match the Koreans, and thus were mostly limited to guarding the Tsushima supply route, greatly hampering the land advance
They met with strong guerrilla resistance, tying up scarce manpower in defensive operations
Korea was an important tributary state to China at the time, and the latter would not sit idly by

These shortcomings would have been obvious to any competent commander, and Hideyoshi was no slouch. So what reasons did Hideyoshi have to initiate the invasion in the first place? Were there political intrigues, domestic issues, was this a golden opportunity (relatively speaking), or just plain arrogance/stupidity on Hideyoshi's part?


texts: Are there any examples of single combat between kings/generals ending a war?

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I have read various tales of two armies meeting on a battlefield, but rather than fight, the two leaders agree to one-on-one combat, and the winner decides the war, thus saving on bloodshed.

Are there any historical examples of that sort of thing? Are there any examples where it was attempted but the armies went to war anyway? It just seems like such a prevalent myth, and most myths have some grounding in history, but I don't know of any.


texts: Birth by Caesarean Section in Ancient Times

texts:
[I have asked a variation of this question already on the Judaism Stack Exchange, but am offering a broader version of it here.]

According to US National Library of Medicine, the first recorded instance of a mother and child surviving a C-section is from 16th century Switzerland, but is a somewhat dubious tale. Maimonides, who for a time served as one of the court physicians to the Sultan Saladin in the 12th century, writes that the possibility of even the mother surviving such a procedure is exceedingly rare (Commentary on the Mishna, Bekhorot 8:2).

I would like to know under what sorts of circumstances surgeons even attempted this procedure in the ancient world. There are explicit references to C-sections in the Mishna (such as the passage on which Maimonides is commenting, above), so I know that it at least happened as early as the 3rd century, but what I don't know is why.

Did surgeons only perform this procedure because the woman was already dying and because they wanted to save the baby? Or were there enough situations in which women survived as to allow surgeons to risk operating on healthy mothers as well, in a case where the baby was not expected to survive normal delivery?


texts: Would modern aerodynamic design be recognizable to a vehicle expert 100 years ago?

texts: Which is a stronger constraint on vehicle appearance: aerodynamic theory or manufacturing?  If we gave Henry Ford a peek at our modern cars, would he fail to recognize it as a car? Or would it his reaction be "I really wish I could make cars like that on my assembly lines but the technology I have doesn't support it."


texts: What caused Iranians to convert to Shiite Islam?

texts:
Many old Iranians were Sunni Muslims. Even many of top Sunni scholars like Bukhari were Iranians. Also, most Arabs are Sunni Muslims.

What was the historical effects(s) that caused Iranians to convert to Shia Islam?


texts: When did American elections begin to use the ballot?

texts:
The Wikipedia article on the 1788 Presidential election says that people voted with ballots, where a public vote was actually conducted.

In Britain, voting for MPs was done by public meetings. Ballots weren't used until the 1870s.

Did elections in colonial America always used ballots? Or when did they change, and why?


texts:
I'm getting married on Saturday, and I was reflecting on the history of marriage for my speech. In the olden days, marriage was a way to make peace between nations for royals, and to marry into prosperity for the common people. But after years of these political schemes, it has started to be about love, which is discussed in this excellent question: When and why did marriage become about love?
But I'd like to know whether marriage ever ended a war, or stopped a war from starting?
Examples would be great!


texts: What was American anti-tank doctrine during WWII on paper, and how did it differ from in practice?

texts:
What was the prevailing doctrine in the US Army on how to deal with German tanks during WWII? In an ideal situation, what sort of unit (anti-tank infantry, tank destroyers, towed AT guns, etc.) would be responsible for destroying panzers?

Doctrine can also differ quite dramatically from practice in the field. How were German tanks usually disposed of, in practice?


texts: What were the German "general" ranks in World War II?

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The Anglo-American armies share ranks up to "full" (or four star) general. (The German army has ranks equivalent to those armies for non-general officers). The American army deviated from the English pattern with a five star "General of the Army." This rank was created after the Civil War, first award to Grant and then Sherman, enabling them to outrank four star General Robert E. Lee. A "super five" star rank, General of the Armies, was created as a result of World War I for General Pershing who outranked Grant and Sherman (and later five star generals). In 1976, a BiCentennial Congress retroactively awarded George Washington "super five" star rank with effect before Pershing's, making him the most senior U.S. general.

What were German World War II ranks? Is Major General a division commmander, Leutnant General the equivalent of an Anglo-American Lieutenant General? What level is Colonel General? Where would Field Marshal fit on the four or five star continuum? Is there any rank higher than Field Marshal? And is it true the Germany (not just Hitler) never appointed any more Field Marshals after Paulus surrendered at Stalingrad?


texts: What is the name for the very first Polish state likely established around 966 by Mieszko I through baptism of Poland?

texts:
In the year of likely around 966, Mieszko I united all of the tribes occupying a part of today's western Poland through Christianization of it, therefore making Poland an official sovereign state (at that time it was a Duchy though I did not find anything that would indicate that its official name was "Duchy of Poland").
26 years later, his son Bolesław I the Brave, became the new head of state and 59 years later transformed the country to a kingdom, crowning himself a king. From that day on the country during this period was officially called "Kingdom of Poland", but what was the official name of the country before that??????


texts: Are there any shorter works approaching the breadth of Durant's "The Story of Civilization"?

texts: Is there a survey of human history that approaches the breadth of Durant's "The Story of Civilization" that is less than 11,000 pages (i.e. that wouldn't require a lifetime of study)? I'm not a historian, but I thoroughly enjoyed Durant's "The Lessons of History" and would like to read something similar that goes in more depth.


texts: What did the Greeks call their gods while under Roman rule?

texts: I read this question and it made me think. The Romans "inherited" the Greek gods, they just gave them new names, but what happened in actual Greece after the Roman conquest of Greece? Did the Greek refer to their gods with Roman or Greek names? Any other changes in how the Greeks worshipped their gods after the conquest that can be derived from Roman religious influence?


texts: Why can't people on the back of the phalanx "reorient" their shield?

texts:
What do men in the middle of a phalanx contribute?

says that phalanx are vulnerable from behind

So what does people in phalanx formation when they get smacked from behind? They just keep pointing their spears to the front?

Why don't they just aim their spears to the back?

Now, in 5 row phalanx this may be an issue. But in 10 rows I do not see this as an issue.

And what's with the left of phalanx unprotected? They don't have lefties holding shield on right arms?


texts: What impact did Trotsky's armoured train have on the Russian civil war?

texts:
I remember learning about Trotsky's giant armoured personal train at school and how it helped ensure he could quickly travel to different front lines and help lead the Red Army.

I was wondering if there were many sources or speculation on how much of an impact his use of the train had on the war effort?

Whether it was just kinda useful or if the quick and protective transportation aided the fight in a big way

(First question, sorry if I've messed up)


texts: Was the strait of Malacca a potential "chokepoint" during the age of discovery?

texts:
The Strait of Malacca runs between the east coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra and the Malaccan peninsula on the west coast Malaysia and is fairly narrow. It is the most direct route from India to China or the east coast of what later became Indochina.
If a hostile power took control of the Malaccan Peninsula and closed off the strait, (forcing ships to sail around the west coast of Sumatra and the southern part of the Indonesian archipelago), what deterrence to east-west trade would that have represented during the age of discovery (15-17th centuries)?  Would it "merely" have been the inconvenience of a longer route? Or did sailors find such a voyage infeasible (or nearly so), given the sailing technologies and the difficulties of the route at that time? e.g Were the seas of the alternate route "too rough" for carvels or other ships of the time?
(For comparison, e.g. the Cape of Good Hope could be a major chokepoint around Africa, because the seas are not navigable for more than 30-50 miles south of it.)


texts: During 1790-1800, was it legal to pay workers using whiskey?

texts:
As is well known, in frontier regions whiskey was regarded as an indispensable necessity to life, health and happiness, at the point that it usually had to substute for specie as a medium of exchange: as an instance, in a Wikipedia article regarding the Whiskey Rebellion, it is said that "poor people were paid in whisky."

After reading that, I wondered:

How many gallons of whiskey were exchanged to pay a day of work done by a standard worker during 1790-1800?
Was it legal to pay workers using wiskey?


texts: Was there any distinction between the 13 Colonies and the Canadian provinces prior to the American Revolution?

texts: Was there any distinction between the 13 Colonies that became the United States and the Canadian colonies/provinces prior to the American Revolution?  For example, did New Brunswick and New Hampshire have the same status within the British empire?


texts: Was Churchill's "backwards" victory symbol a rude gesture to Hitler?

texts: Churchill was sometimes photographed giving the V-for-victory symbol with the back of the hand to the photographer or crowd. Was this meant as a sly "up yours" gesture to Hitler, or just a less common variant of the gesture?


texts: Why did PvdA and not KVP provide the prime minister in the Kabinet Drees-Van Schaik (1948-1951), despite KVP being the largest party?

texts: In the Dutch General Election, 1948, the largest party was KVP with 32 seats.  Second was PvdA with 27 seats.  Normally the largest party provides the prime minister.  Yet in the folowing KVP-PvdA-CHU-VVD coalition government, the prime minister was Drees (PvdA) rather than Van Schaik (KVP).  Why did the second largest party rather than the largest party provide the prime minister between 1948 and 1951?


texts: What form of cookware did Inuits use in the old days?

texts:
I have read that Inuits used some lamps carved from soapstone for heating (driftwood was too precious to be burned). They got some oil for the lamp from blubber. They used a particular species of moss to make a wick.

But what kind of cooking pot did they use? How they made them?


texts:
Which cultures in South America had writing systems before the arrival of the Europeans?

I may be a little misinformed, but unlike Meso America there were not many cultures in SA that relied on some form of writings.

I know about the Quipus of the Incas, and also know that many hieroglyphs, or at least drawings, have been found all around SA, but do they count as writing systems?

Maybe they had just simple systems that were quickly replaced by the Europeans by cultural and military pressure.

Please enlighten me on this subject.


texts: Why didn't Wehrmacht soldiers refuse to kill civilians?

texts:
Why didn't Wehrmacht Soldiers refuse to execute civilians (and Kids) when it was clear that they did nothing wrong?

I know that they were probably told they're partisans or Jews or something along those lines but still I find it hard to believe that so many soldiers executed them for no real reason.

Also how did those soldiers deal with the stress that obviously comes alongside executing innocent people?

Are there any known suicides or mental breakdowns of Wehrmacht Soldiers after such executions?

How did the generals deal with those refusing to shoot?


texts: Was the custom of covering Kaaba in black cloth adopted during the Fatimid era?

texts:
This answer to Why is the Kaaba covered in black cloth? states that the black cloth for Kaaba a tradition which is continued to-date was adopted by the Fatimids.

Is that correct?


texts:
In the British Isles (and other regions of the world) drywall pens were built for sheep. In England they were called sheepfolds.

What the the advantages of this format over others in common use at the time?

For example as a shelter in a pasture to use for inclement weather? Or a convenient place to put all the sheeps while shearing? I don't know a lot about modern or historical livestock management to get more specific so I like to get an understanding of how they were used in medieval times.

ANSWER
Thanks to Red Sonja, I did a search and found numerous allusion to the historical use of a sheepfold as a means of protecting a herd of sheep during the night from thieves and animals. Something that not stated in Wikipedia or various dictionaries. Or that you get by typing in just sheep fold back in 2014.

This is the clearest article I found.


texts: Has a plague ever caused a civilization to collapse?

texts:
It is a fairly common trope in apocalyptic fiction to imagine a plague to cause modern civilization to completely collapse.  (c.f. Stephen King's "The Stand" ).  But has this ever actually happened in the past?

Looking at the Black Death in Europe, it seems that while the waves of plague obviously had a massive societal impact, it doesn't seem that it directly caused any states to fail.  Emperors continued to rule in Byzantium, popes continued to reign in Rome, kings continued to rule in France and England.

So has a plague ever, by itself, caused complete collapse?  (i.e. collapse into true anarchy without some external force coming along and giving it a push.)


texts: Where was Canterbury College (Oxford) located?

texts:
I hope this is on-topic. I am reading about former Oxford University colleges. For many their historic location in the city is well documented. I just came across one however which is unclear. It is Canterbury College. Founded in 1311, as with other monastic colleges in Oxford (e.g. Gloucester College, Durham College and St. Mary's College), Henri VIII dissolved them, it's land being transferred to the Crown or sold to individuals or other non-monastic colleges.

Regarding the location of the college, Wikipedia (based on this article) states that it was located

  near the church of St. Peter-in-the-East.

This church is located to the East of Oxford, inside the historic (walled) town. But, this area was not empty (see map). Next to the church was St. Edmund's Hall, already funded the previous century. Next to this college was founded Queen's College, and later on New College. The latter article states:

  The site on which the college would be built was acquired from several sources, including the City of Oxford, Merton College and Queen's College.

No particular mention to Canterbury College, which already existed when Queen's Colelge and New College were founded. On the north west side of the church there is just greens and the old wall, already existing when New College was set-up (and that they had since then maintained).

Now, after the dissolution of the monasteries, the site was allegedly acquired by another college, Christ Church. And this college has a quadrangle called Canterbury Quad, which they state:

  Passing in front of the library, you will enter the last area on your visit to Christ Church, Canterbury Quadrangle. Built on the site of the medieval Canterbury College, after which the quad takes its name, ... Shortly after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s, the hall, chapel and other buildings of Canterbury College were acquired for the new Oxford foundation.

Thus, this college claims that the site was in a rather different location of the old city (south). Since it had a hall, a chapel, and other buildings, it must have been sufficiently big to not fit "near the church of St. Peter-in-the-East".

I've tried to search for confirmation of the above claim, particularly looking for an old map of Oxford, but I have not found one. Most of maps seems to be seventeen century onwards (e.g. a famous one here; zoom allowed).

Maybe someone has better access to sources or know where to find sources to settle this issue?


texts: How did Manuel Quezon convince the US to release the Philippines?

texts:
In 1934, the Tydings-McDuffie act was passed by Congress after Manuel Quezon's mission convinced them to grant independence to the Philippines. But in 1934, decolonization was not yet en vogue - France, Britain, et al had many colonies at the time, and the US had a number of other overseas possessions.

What arguments did Quezon make that were so effective at making Congress give away their land?


texts:
How was the Pandidakterion organised?

Wikipedia:Pandidakterion states that the Pandidakterion lacked 'corporative structure'. I do not understant exactly what the corporative structure is and how was the Pandidakterion organised as opposed to the 'corporative structure'.

A more specific question that could be related is whether the corporate structure (or rather Pandidakterion's lack of it) is a matter of legal recognition (being a legal entity, a subject of law as opposed to an object of law, a "person" with rights and obligations by law) and not a matter of its specific organisation (administrative/organisational).


texts: How were newspapers delivered to flats in post-War Britain?

texts:
I am writing a story set in the winter in 1940's London. The first chapter features one main character receiving a newspaper. The building is not very grand; in fact, it's a rather dirty and slightly rundown apartment, very crowded. So I really just want to know:

Did paper boys deliver in bulk to apartments or did they just sell on street corners and
If they did deliver, would they deliver to such a building?

Note, this is post-war.


texts: Have there been any instances of US states trading land, not related to the creation of a state?

texts:
Have there been any instances where one US state has exchanged or ceded land to another US state, subject to the conditions below? If so, what led the exchange?

Conditions:

I'm asking about states, not territories
The exchange or cessation is not related to the creation of a state or territory
It's voluntary
It's not the result of something like a border dispute, due to inaccurate maps at the time of demarcation
It's not the result of a shifting river or other natural feature used for demarcation
It's a "significant" amount of land--so let's say at least a few square miles (I'm more interested in larger land exchanges but don't want to list an arbitrary number here--this is more to exclude the type of exchange where I read that Minnesota gave 20 acres of land to North Dakota in 1961 here.

I couldn't find any examples in a quick look over the wikipedia page on territorial evolution of the US, but perhaps I missed something or the page isn't comprehensive.

Edit:
Perhaps these conditions seem arbitrary, but I'm looking for any cases where, for example, land was exchanged for money or other land which is mutually beneficial for both states, without explicitly limiting myself to those circumstances. This question was influenced by reading about the Toledo War where Michigan gave up the Toledo strip to Ohio in order to gain statehood, but got the upper peninsula from congress in exchange. Maybe there were times when already incorporated states had similar land gain?


texts: Why was Germany not broken up at the end of WW1

texts: At the end of WW1 both Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman empire were broken up, but Germany was left intact, apart from some bits of  territory given to Denmark, France and Poland.  Why did this happen? if Bismark's nation building had been undo, things might have been very different.


texts: How long did it take to copy a Bible during the early propagation of the Christian faith?

texts: Christianity was spread through the apostolic work of people manually copying and translating the Bible in different languages. Considering the style, stylized objects, etc and the resources they had to collect. How long does it take for one man to rewrite it and what resources one needs (paper, leather)?


texts: What were Greek and Roman sails made from?

texts: I have found that Vikings used sails made from wool; can anyone tell me what the sails of ancient Greece and Rome would have been made from?


texts: Dictators who came back through elections?

texts:
Were there any dictators1 who, after being toppled by a revolution or the like, managed to get back to power via what is (or was considered by the norms applied at the time) free and transparent2 elections ?

It's NOT required that the comeback occurs at the first elections held after the toppling.

To make things even easier :

1 - The ruler must be a dictator (no matter how he got there);

2 - (S)he is ousted after a popular revolution (bloody or not, coups NOT included);

3 - A democratic regime, where elections are free, is established;

4 - N presidents took power, where N = 0, 1, 2, ...;

5 - The ex-dictator is allowed to run for presidency and wins elections.

1 : A dictator is a ruler who maintains a total power over a country. It could be a president in a military regime (North Korea), a president in a pseudo-democratic regime (Prerevolutionary Tunisia, where elections results were known beforehand), a monarch (Saudi Arabia) ...

2 : For the sake of this question, every elections where those, who are allowed to vote, can choose the candidate they want, is considered free and transparent. Here, it doesn't matter if the voters were only males, or from a particular race, etc.


texts: Did archers lay on their back to draw bows?

texts:
I saw a movie called "The Hero" from 2002. I know the movie has a lot of artistic scenes, and less to do with reality. In one scene, many of the Chinese archers laid on the ground and used a big composite looking bow.

So far I have found no evidence on this kind of archery, but as a practicing archer I see some sense of this method. First of all, if you use your full body strength with two hands, it could significantly increase the force without investing heavy equipment. Since archers in an army aren't concerned with precise shooting as much as causing heavy damage by shooting an area, the method would make some sense. As I tried to search on the topic, it seems to be fiction. Does anybody know of any source mentioning these kinds of bowmen?


texts: How accurate was rocket artillery in the 18th and 19th centuries?

texts:
In the 1700s and 1800s, how accurate was rocket artillery in Europe (or Asia, if you prefer to speak of her)? Its accuracy is frequently made a joke, that rockets couldn't be relied on to hit their targets even under good conditions.

Was rocket artillery really so woefully inaccurate, that it could only be relied on to scare the enemy? Are there anecdotes that demonstrate troops did rely on their rocket artillery to hit targets (be they infantry formations, forts, or other targets)? Or perhaps there are tests of modern reproductions of 17th and 18th century artillery pieces, that have tested their accuracy?


texts: Was there a Japanese equivalent of the Gestapo during WW2

texts: Colonial Japanese rule on occupied territories has been described as harsh as has been their treatment of prisoners of war. In some cases, this was not a fleeting occupation but one lasting years or decades. Surely, not all of the people in these areas agreed with this treatment and there must have been measures to enforce Japanese laws. There are many parallels drawn with their allies in Nazi Germany. Was there a Japanese equivalent of the Gestapo (or Secret Police)? Did they operate in the Japanese home islands or only in colonial territories?


texts: Who was the general Ivan Tscherniakowski?

texts: I have been reading Ian Kershaw's Hitler 1936–1945: Nemesis. At a certain point, he writes: “On 16 October, the ‘3rd White Russian Front’, led by General Ivan Tscherniakowski, had broken through into East Prussia as far as Nemmersdorf, Goldap”. Who was this General Ivan Tscherniakowski? I did a Google search, of course, but all the results seem to be related with Kershaw's book.


texts: Did Nazi Germany use chemical weapons on the battlefield?

texts:
We all know the famous quote of Sean Spicer:

  "You had someone who is despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons."

He later tried to excuse it using this sentence:

  "But in the way that Assad used them, where he went into towns and dropped them down to innocent in the middle of towns,"

So it leaves me with the question:

Did Hitler use chemical weapons on the battlefield? If so when and where?

Furthermore:

Have there been german casualties - civilian/military - due to chemical weapons employed by german troops on the battlefield?


texts: What would a Roman slave be legally required to do if his master vanished?

texts:
Say that I were a Roman slave around the time of the Empire, perhaps as someone who maintains his villa. I serve my master faithfully and then one day, without warning, he doesn't come home. The day turns into weeks and the weeks turn into months, yet nobody has seen or heard from him.

What would my legal obligations as a slave be in this situation? Would I be required to continue to maintain the villa as though he were still there? For how long? At what point would my legal obligations change because the master has been gone for too long?


texts: M-1 rifle ammo and grenade invasion ration

texts: How many rounds did US Army infantry carry on a beach landing?  One belt of 10, 8 round clips?  two belts?  How many grenades?


texts: Did Northern troops attempt to re-enslave African Americans in Southern plantations during the Civil War?

texts:
In Black Reconstruction in America, W.E.B. Du Bois argues that during the war, Northern troops - in this case under the command of Nathaniel P. Banks - sometimes tried to get enslaved people back to the plantation, and that this plan failed:

Just as soon, however, as Banks tried to drive the freedmen back to the plantations and have
them work under a half-military slave regime, the plan failed. It failed, not because the
Negroes did not want to work, but because they were striking against these particular
conditions of work. When, because of wide protest, he began to look into the matter, he saw a
clear way. He selected Negroes to go out and look into conditions and to report on what was
needed, and they made a faithful survey. He set up a little state with its department of
education, with its landholding and organized work, and after experiment it ran itself.

It's not clear what is Du Bois's source here - perhaps it was common knowledge at the time. Can someone recommend sources that describe these attempts, by the Union, to temporarily re-enslave the freed people on the very same plantations? How widespread was this and how did the North's military elites rationalize it?


texts: Out of curiosity, what salary did Hitler draw as leader of the Nazi Party and Chancellor of Germany?


texts: Does anyone know the name of the student who died during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956? If not, why not?

texts:
I'm reading up on the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and it seems that if that one student hadn't died, the revolution never would have started.

  The revolt began as a student demonstration, which attracted thousands as they marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building, calling out on the streets using a van with loudspeakers. A student delegation, entering the radio building to try to broadcast the students' demands, was detained. When the delegation's release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police (ÁVH) from within the building. One student died and was wrapped in a flag and held above the crowd. This was the start of the revolution. As the news spread, disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital.

Does anyone know the student's name? If no one knows, why does no one know? Was this information kept under wraps by the Soviets?


texts: Why did the Allied attack at Gallipoli fail during WWI?

texts:
The British Navy was the most powerful in the world at the time. How were the Ottomans able to repel the attacking force?

I've read that the Ottomans mined the Dardanelles strait and successfully sunk several British ships, but was that the deciding factor?


texts: Were there opium dens in Russia during the 19th century?

texts: The title says it all. I've tried searching information on opium use in Europe, but I can't find any source that says whether or not opium dens were ever prominent in Russia specifically.


texts: How did the Romans build their armies for the First Punic War?

texts:
The Romans built a great and vast empire, my question is what were some of the military techniques they used to build, train, and use their army? Specifically during the period of the First Punic War.

I know one way was through battle, they would adapt an enemy's formation they liked and that's how they grew. Any other ideas?


texts: What was located at the site of Madison Square Garden in 1850?

texts:
What was located at the site of Madison Square Garden in New York City in the year 1850?

The location is between 7th and 8th avenues and between 32nd and 33rd streets.  I have found an old map with some drawings of what look like buildings at that location, but I can't tell what they are.  On the map, it appears that an Institute for the Blind was kitty corner to the current site of Madison Square Garden in 1850.

The reason I am asking is that I am writing a book which has a scene at this location in 1850 and I'd like it to be accurate if possible


texts: Why did the US drop nuclear bombs on a weakened Japan?

texts: Why did the United States drop two nuclear bombs on the Japanese mainland? It appeared that Japan was ready to surrender.


texts: What was the efficiency of the "Gadget" bomb in the Trinity Test?

texts: I've done a bit of searching and was unable to find what I expected to be a simple statistic. By "efficiency" I mean the percentage of the Plutonium in the bomb that actually fissioned.


texts: When did the Ciboney arrive on Cuba and displace the Guanahatabey?

texts: Finding the answer to this question the conventional way is stumping my Google fu, as many sources describe Guanahatabey and Ciboney as synonymous. I am referring to the hunter-gatherer Guanahatabey, and the Taíno Ciboney.


texts: Was Reagan Disliked By Establishment Republicans?

texts:
From my earliest memory, I've always thought that older Americans thought Reagan was a great president.  Recently, I've seen a lot of people compare Trump - who establishment Republicans detest - to Reagan and even state that when Reagan began he was "the outsider."

Is this true about Reagan?  When he first ran in 1979, was he out of favor by the establishment and viewed as the outsider?


texts: We know that the Spanish Armada was composed of over 200 ships. How did the Duke of Medina exercise any sort of control over a fleet this big with only 16th century technology? Do we know how the ships passed commands to each other and anything about how it was organised? Did this command structure contribute to the eventual shipwrecking of the majority of the fleet?


texts: What were levels of insular migration like in pre-Industrial Britain (1650-1780)?

texts:
I'm looking into my family history, and I'm gradually working my way through the 19th century. The levels of migration up and down the country during this time, at least in my family and from my research, are staggering.

As I work my way back, I'm wondering if these trends will continue pre-Industry ie  1650-1780 and whether people moved around as much during that time period. Are there any stats that show levels of insular migration during this time?


texts: How did the Roman army go from constantly losing battles in the middle of the 3rd century to winning almost everything?

texts:
During the middle of the 3rd century (crisis years) the roman legions seemed to be beaten left and right by the Goths, Sassanians and numerous Germanic tribes.  Then suddenly with the arrival of the Illyrian emperors (Claudius II, Aurelian) a few years later they barely lost a battle.

Militarily speaking:  What happened?


texts: Were there films or literature that lampooned Mutual Assured Destruction made by non-Americans?

texts:
Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 film by American director Stanley Kubrick that lampooned Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

In the 1960's was this film a phenomenon singular to America, or were there other film makers/writers/famous figures overseas that poked fun at the extreme tensions and "perfect rationality" of MAD?  Were contemporaries of Kubrick overseas also lampooning MAD, or was Dr. Strangelove unique in it's dark comedy?  I think my question boiled down is "was there any measurable international reaction to what can be viewed as cavalier Americans making jokes about humanity's demise as they played the active role in that same hypothetical destruction, or did the film have overseas competition in getting a laugh out of the zaniness of it all?"

My research has consisted of googling this question 85 different ways, and I haven't turned up anything interesting, ...probably due to user error.
Thanks for any answers!


texts: What route did the Hindenburg take when traveling from Germany to the U.S.?

texts:
Today's passenger jets travel the shortest (northern) route, which takes them over Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.

However, that's where the Hindenburg would have encountered the Westerlies, blowing in the opposite direction. I don't think it was capable of rising to sufficient altitude to avoid them.

The trade winds blow well south of that latitude. The southern route is considerably longer.

I haven't been able to find any charts so far.


texts: Before modern banking, how did government-issued coins get into everyone's hands?

texts:
At first, this question sounded basic to me, but I couldn't find easy answer in Wikipedia. Since this SE prefers restricted scope, let's limit it to the empires of the 9th-10th century, e.g. the Carolingian Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Abbasid Empire, or the Tang dynasty in China.

My assumption is that the government issued coins (exclusively?), and the coins would be used by its subjects for trade as well as to store wealth. How did the coins that were issued by the central government get into everyone's hands? One obvious way is through government expenditure, e.g. by paying people or buying things, someone other than the government would have coins, who would then pay someone else, and so on.

Was that all? My guess is that government expenditure would be a small part of the total trade, would the coins circulated this way be enough for everyone's trading and wealth-storing needs? Also, how about the corners of the empire, which might not have interacted much with the central government? Since the government collected taxes as well, wouldn't this also cause the money to be taken out of circulation?

Related Wikipedia articles (but none seemed to directly answer this question): Mint, Coin, History of Money.


texts: Were there any major battles between Australian Aborigines and English Colonists?

texts: The English were hostile to most of the natives near their colonies. However, I can't seem to find any evidence as to whether or not the Aborigines partook in any battle against British colonists in Australia. Was there any MAJOR coordinated conflict between the two peoples?


texts: When did waving become a part of human interaction?

texts: When did waving to others to say hello or goodbye first enter the historical record as part of a culturally accepted form of human interaction?


texts: What was the most accurate map of the world before artificial satellites?

texts: How accurate were the maps before the invention of artificial satellites? What was the most accurate map of the Earth before satellites?


texts: Who are reputable historians who study ancient Greece?

texts: I was wanting to know reputable historians who specialize in Ancient Greek Civilization? For example, Bettany Hughes is one, but I would like to know some more.


texts:
What measures (if any) did law enforcement agents take against the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the south after the Civil War?

From what I have read there seems to have been a lot of unrest in that period after the war and the Klan took advantage of it by using intimidation and murder against the black population and Republicans. I imagine there must have been laws passed against the KKK in the years after the Civil War or that there were other groups or law enforcement agents who fought back against them?


texts: The name of a symbolic group of historical christian figures that appear on cathedrals and other imagery around Europe

texts: I know Charlemagne, Alfred the great and Constantine are some of the members of a symbolic small order of leaders who each embody fundamental principals of virtue and chivalry. In this group there is about 5-10 of them (I can't remember the exact number) and their effigies appear on religious sites around Europe such as statues on cathedrals. If anyone knows the name of the collective for them it would be much appreciated.


texts:
I have seen this quote often:

  Chemistry is like cooking - just don't lick the spoon

Sometimes in the version of a parenthesis around the latter part to give it it's sub-humoristic meaning.

Often I can find quote sites that attribute the author to a quote. But this particular one seems to be unknown on many sites (example). Do anyone know the author of this quote?


texts: Why was not Greek alphabet adopted by other languages given the Greek influence?

texts: Most of western languages adopt the Latin alphabet with minor variations. Arabic letters are adopted by quite a few other languages. The same is true for Eastern Europe with Cyrillic letters. Why was not the Greek alphabet adopted by others given the Greek prominence, power, and influence in the old ages? Aside from the sciences, we hardly see any use of the Greek alphabet except in Greece.


texts: Were there any role-playing games in medieval times?

texts:
Note: This might be a bit of a naïve question, but I imagine it is a valid one. I am not a historian.

That is, were there any "standard" activities (with a set of rules or other concrete description), be them board-based or not, that involved acting/role-playing with the intent of mutual entertainment?

Sure, theatrics themselves are very ancient, but are usually intended as a presentation to a public, not for the entertainment of the actors themselves.

So, was any kind of roleplaying game practiced?


texts:
Recently, I came across different medias depicting the same weapon: what looks like a lance blade with a staff of an approximately equivalent length. The most known example would be the spear of Leonidas in Assassin's Creed:

Ancient weapon categorization is a complex topic, especially when you don't even know the name of what you're trying to describe. I don't even know under which category it would fall: neither a dagger, nor a spear or a sword.
I looked around but found no decisive answer: I'm trying to know if this type of weapons existed (and its name if so) or if it's just a pop-culture creation that "looks cool".
Cookie point if you can explain to me what would be its usage (if it existed) as it looks (from a neophyte point of view) rather impractical compared to other, more classic types of weapons.


texts: Trying to identify this famous person. Young Johnny Unitas?

texts: I was told by a friend that it looked like a young Johnny Unitas


texts: Who fixed new year's day as 25th March in 1155 CE

texts:
I have read that New year's day was fixed at Lady Day 25th March from 1155 until the reform in 1752, but I can't find out who fixed it and why, can anybody help?

Responding to the comment by C.G. Campbell, I've forgotten where I read it, sorry, but that's not really relevant -- it doesn't matter if I got the date wrong. In 1750 the New year was officially Lady Day, so it must have been set sometime, so my question is still when and by whom?


texts: What is know about Baal Hammon's Vegetal Crown

texts:
What more is known about the Vegetal Crown of the Carthaginian chief god Baal Hammon?

I've searched for more information about this particular motif but can't find any.

Obviously it can be thought of as a fecundity/fertility symbol, but apart from that, what is it's origin? Are there any examples of other gods having vegetal crowns? Was it inspired by the Modius of the Egyptian goddess Mut? Is there a specific vegetable that is depicted (in the same way that the Acanthus and Palmette inspired certain designs)? Are there examples of pre- or post-Phoenician gods having actual vegetal crowns (and not merely other Modius like that worn by Serapis)?

Vegetal Crown is a term I've never heard of before and came across in the article "Gods, Masks, and Monstra" by Matthew M. McCarty, in the book "Beyond Boundaries: Connecting Visual Cultures in the Provinces of Ancient Rome", pg. 270


texts: What happened to Frederick II's library?

texts: The emperor Frederick II was, among other things, a very learned man who wrote a highly regarded book on falconry. Presumably, he would have had a sizeable library. Is there some mention of his library in the sources? And, going further, do we have some idea of what happened to it after his death?


texts: How many times did the US experiment before dropping the atomic bomb in Japan?

texts:
I know it is at least once. They performed a test called Trinity.

Was it the only one?


texts: Why did the ancient Romans use groups of eight?

texts:
The Ancient Romans had

weeks of eight days, called nundinae,
miles consisting of eight stadia or furlongs, and
their smallest military unit was the contubernium, consisting of eight men.

What was the reason behind this consistent eight-fold division ?

Using only the four fingers of both hands for “counting”1, to the exclusion of the thumbs ?
Computational ease or convenience, based on repeated division by two ?
Or perhaps something else2 entirely ?

1 I am not referring here to some systematic octal counting system, but rather only to an intuitive psychological  inclination of creating small groups of four, five, eight, or ten items, based on the natural arrangement of fingers  on each hand.

2 Including the distinct possibility that it might all be just a simple coincidence.


texts: How was the dynamics of a naval battle in the 17th century?

texts:
I'm curious about the "mechanical" aspects in the course of a naval battle in the 17th century.
To explain better, here are some questions whose answers would provide a text-answer explaining the course of a battle:

What were the distances between the vessels?
Did they have one single burst with all cannons or were they cadenced?
How long did it take from one burst to another (if they were cadenced)?
How long did a battle take?
How much damage could a vessel take (for each of the common types in that age)?
Is there a common number of vessels in a fleet? That is, what is the number of vessels the one would commonly see in a battle, if there were a number?
Is all this related to territory? That is, battles were different in europe, central america, north america, etc.?
What else?


texts: When was the first form of footwear invented?

texts: I am researching into the reasoning behind humans having toes, and as part of that need to know when footwear was first used. By this I mean when did humans begin to transition from bare-foot to "shoes"? When I say shoes, this could be anything from wearing leather strapped to the foot or multiple leaves tied together. Sorry for the short question but I don't know what else need be said.


texts: How do modern historians evaluate Sherman's "Total War"?

texts: A major element of Sherman's march to the sea was his army's burning southern farms and cities. The rationale for what Sherman called "Total War," approved by Grant and Lincoln, was that it would cause rebel troops to desert their units to check on family and home, and "break" the spirit of the Confederacy. Like the rationale for the atomic bomb, it was argued that the tactic would shorten the war and ultimately save lives? Do today's historians defend Sherman's tactic?  Wouldn't it today be a war crime and a crime against humanity notwithstaning?  An acceptable answer will describe what today's historians are saying about Sherman's march in light of 21st century attitudes about war. I DO NOT want opinion-based answers!


texts: Has the U.S. Navy ever commissioned the building of a warship overseas?

texts: Many foreign navies have commissioned foreign shipyards to build warships and submarines for them.  Most recently, Russia purchased to amphibious dock landing ships from France (that sale is currently suspended due to Russia's invasion of the Crimea).  Also, it was reported this week that Australia is looking to foreign shipyards to build it a new class of submarines under the assumption that the Defense Ministry "wouldn't trust [Australian shipyards} to build a canoe."  While it is true that the U.S. Navy has, from time to time, commissioned into the fleet captured war prizes (e.g. some gunboats captured in the Spanish-American War). Also, the U.S. Army, during World War I, purchased tanks and aircraft from Europoean manufacturers.  But unlike its sister services, I am unaware that the U.S. Navy has ever requisitioned a foreign shipyard to build it a warship of any class.  Is that correct?  One period I'm uncertain about is the naval expansion preceding the Spanish-American War.