Recent comments in /f/history

pf30146788e t1_j19usvi wrote

Reply to comment by Lord0fHats in Discovery of 1,000 previously unknown Maya settlements challenges the old notion of sparse early human occupation in northern Guatemala (ca. 1000 B.C.–A.D. 150) by marketrent

Correct much of this isn’t really new to people who have even been in these areas for a while. The locals will even tell you there are ruins here or there, and that nobody is doing anything with them. But if he wants to get the funding for professional archaeology, he needs to bring it to the masses as a “discovery,” but in reality none of this is new.

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J_G_E t1_j19rrz2 wrote

Reply to comment by 2Mike2022 in How did the Romans manage to arm most of their soldiers with swords? by Horror_in_Vacuum

>The Romans always fortified the camps they made and a short sword could be used to aid in digging cutting post even firewood if needed.

I know this may be a shock, but the romans has invented the axe, and the shovel.

what you're saying is roughly on par with saying that an F1 racecar can also be used for towing a caravan,

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its_raining_scotch t1_j19muos wrote

Reply to How did the Romans manage to arm most of their soldiers with swords? by Horror_in_Vacuum

There’s a lot of articles about ancient Roman pollution due to large scale resource extraction and industrial output. Ice cores from glaciers are able to show the signature of the Romans due to how much wood they burned in order to run their empire’s production of goods.

There’s a story told by a Roman writer, I can’t remember who, about what it was like seeing a town in Spain that was set up to produce iron goods on a mass scale. They said you could see a haze in the distance as you approached and that there weren’t any trees left. When you got closer it became a sort of hell scape with everything covered in soot or ash and the sky was a dark orange. This was all from how many blacksmiths were working their fires and producing iron goods, so you can imagine the scale.

The Romans took their production to this level and had many towns like that one, so that’s how they were able to outfit their armies with swords and everything else.

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AshFraxinusEps t1_j19llj2 wrote

Reply to comment by Lord0fHats in Discovery of 1,000 previously unknown Maya settlements challenges the old notion of sparse early human occupation in northern Guatemala (ca. 1000 B.C.–A.D. 150) by marketrent

>Hansen has been arguing the need for increased archeology in this region for nearly 20 years

Let's be honest we should do that for more of the world in general. But yep, the South American civilisations haven't nearly been chronicled enough

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McGillis_is_a_Char t1_j19kim7 wrote

Reply to Bookclub Wednesday! by AutoModerator

Could anyone recommend a book about Renaissance Eastern Mediterranean diplomacy and spycraft? I have recently read Agents of Empire by Noel Malcolm(an excellent book especially if you are interested in the role of Venetian subjects in the Balkans in Eastern Mediterranean politics), and would like to know more.

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