/u/AbouBenAdhem's posts
What are the origins of church bells (or other bell towers that were rung to summon a community)? Did they originate in medieval Europe, or were there similar town bells in ancient Greece, Persia, or elsewhere?
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Classical sources describe western Eurasian nomads living in covered wagons, while medieval sources describe eastern nomads living in portable tents. Was this a regional difference, or did all Eurasian nomads shift from wagons to tents in the early Middle Ages?
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The first recorded contact between China and Central Asia was during the Han dynasty (139 BCE); but the name of China in Central Asia was derived from the earlier Qin dynasty. Does this imply unrecorded contact between Qin and Greco-Bactria, or did the Han call themselves “Qin” to foreigners?
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If the Greeks painted over their statues anyway, why did they generally choose pure white marble for sculpting? Were there parts of statues left exposed?
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When Europeans first arrived in the Americas, did Native Americans generally regard them as a new type of people categorically different from the other nations they were familiar with? Or were they just seen as a particularly unusual tribe among other tribes?
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The Confucian classic Book of Documents describes a method of policy-making combining five inputs—the king, the ministers, the people, and two forms of divination—with a list of how to resolve discrepancies between them. Was this method commonly used in imperial China?
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In Roman sources, it seems like “nationality” was primarily defined by laws and customs—and that this sense persisted at least into the early Middle Ages (e.g. the “Danelaw”). But by the modern era, nationality is usually defined by language. When did this redefinition occur?
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When the Parthians and Kushans first conquered the easternmost Hellenistic kingdoms, they retained elements of Greek culture (like art and language). What was life like for actual Greeks in those empires?
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On what principle did the Romans divide their empire into provinces? Did they try to give each province a comparable population? Or comparable income? Or comparable troops needed to defend?
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