askhistorians

Title	Upvotes	Mark as read	Favorited	Rating	Add to a list
Why does Mary have a boob ray and monkey slave in this Renaissance era cosmological diagram?	2716
The ancient Christian writer Justin Martyr (~150 AD) argued that skeptics should just go to Bethlehem and look at the tax records. Would the Roman government have reasonably retained tax / census records that long?	1931
Are there any folk tales or legends that might be cultural memories of the last glacial period?	1556
Did the Wiggles have counterparts in the Middle Ages? That is, were there people in the European Middle Ages who specialized in entertaining children in particular?	1511
Lawrence Sheriff, who supplied groceries to Queen Elizabeth I, was apprenticed to a London grocer for seven years. What did grocers do in those days that required such long training?	1144
Prior to Tolkien, did "fandoms" exist that demanded an internally consistent canon of literature describing wholly fictional worlds?	576
In the time of guilds, were there goldsmith or brewer equivalents to the "hipster barista" fashion? Like you'd see someone wearing particular (non-uniform) clothes and say "Oh there goes a fishmonger in his hip fishmonger hat!"	302
The ancient Christian writer Justin Martyr argued around 150 AD that skeptics should just go to Bethlehem and look at the tax records. Would the Roman government have reasonably retained tax / census records that long?	244
Do we have any historical writings from the last survivors of doomed colony, kingdom, or city that ended organically (i.e. not via warfare)? How did they cope with their demise?	241
In 1794, France abolished slavery. Eight years later, in 1802, France un-abolished slavery. They are the only nation in history to do so. What's the story there?	180

« < > »