AskHistorians

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I read a time travel story once that had a bit in it set in 1250BC Olmec country. When the Olmec crops are described they're all mixed together, with squash vines growing around maize stalks and what not, rather than in separate plots. Is that really how Mesoamerican agriculture worked?	50
in 1313 would most people (as in everyone, not just the upper class and/or literate) in England have heard of king Arthur?	50
Were the stories in the Arabian Nights actually widely known in Arabia during the Middle Ages?	50
if you were an English peasant in 1100 (after the Norman conquest) would you life likely be in anyway substantially worse or different than it would have been if lived in the same place 100 years before (before the Norman conquest)?	50
At the time it happened did the Japanese media report the Russian revolution as a negative event?	50
When the Vikings showed up in (what is now) Eastern Canada would the natives there have already had bows? If "no" why didn't they adopt it from the Norse?	50
You know that scene at the end of Empire of the Son where all the abandoned British kids are lined up so there parents can try to identify them. Was that really how they went about reuniting families after the war?	49
You know Pythagoras Theorem. 1000 years ago would many/any thinkers in the Far East (particularly china or japan) have been aware of it? If "yes" were they getting it from some original source unrelated to Pythagoras?	49
Most of FAQ threads about bow & arrow technology say it didn’t become widespread in the Americas until a thousand or so years ago. Why didn’t the Olmecs or Mayans invent the bow independently long before that? They were complex agricultural/urban civilization but lacked something so basic?	49
There's an episode of ST:TNG where Picard tells Wesley that before Marco Polo most people in Europe didn't know whether or not China really existed. That's not true ....right?	49

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