Recent comments in /f/history
VagueSomething t1_j3g5toq wrote
Reply to comment by WyrdHarper in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
The Vatican hiding such valuable historical information and artifacts should be considered a crime against humanity.
Whiterabbit-- t1_j3g5tgb wrote
Reply to Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
> Scientists had suspected that the calendar, which is tied to cycles of maize agriculture and human reproduction ...
OK. can someone explain to me why maize and human reproduction is on a 260 day calendar?
roffadude t1_j3g2am8 wrote
Reply to comment by HuudaHarkiten in Archaeologists Unearth Viking Hall in Denmark by tangledwebgenealogy
Finnish is not related to Danish so that’s really unlikely. Finnish is related to only one European language.
orsimertank t1_j3fzo3t wrote
Reply to Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
I know more about the Aztecs (Mexica of Tenochtitlan in particular) than the Olmecs, etc., so please forgive the question: is this using the 260 day calendar exclusively, or is it in conjunction with the 365 day calendar?
(For those who aren't familiar, the Aztecs used the 365 day solar calendar and 260 day sacred calendar at the same time, with them lining up every 52 years.)
Xciccor t1_j3fz6q7 wrote
Reply to comment by avidovid in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
Incas were not writing at this point. They had a knot system.
To remind people who are what, Aztecs (Mexico now) were North American in today's term, Maya were also North American, bordering Central America (Yucatán peninsula in Mexico) and the Incas were all the way down in South America in Peru.
Meso American is a weird term that does describe the Aztecs and Mayan people... Historically. But, not the Incas and it doesn't really give you the full picture of what we consider to be located where today--which makes people confused about the differences between the three.
Another quick distinction is that Peru has some extremely old cultures that most likely are the far past ancestral peoples of the Incas (with some cultures being a whopping 5000 years old at Caral), but the Incan Empire itself at its height only lasted about a century before being met with the Spaniards and disease.
Kinda same goes for the Aztecs whose ancestral people were influenced by the ancient Mayans (whose archaic age was 4000 yrs ago), though Mayans themselves also stuck around. Anyway, the Aztecs at their height only lasted about a century as well before the Spaniards and disease.
Mayans were really the older culture out of the three that at least seems to exist as a singular cultural entity between the Incas and Aztecs in archaeological records, their cities seem to have been around for millennia. But unlike the Aztecs, the Mayans had their heyday in the past and were a shadow of their former self in comparison to the newly invigorated and growing Aztec and Incan neighbours.
[deleted] t1_j3fy8kb wrote
WyrdHarper t1_j3fxmzk wrote
Reply to comment by avidovid in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
And a lot that did get preserved just got held in private collections or sent to the Vatican where they’ve been locked away (at least some like the Codex Borgia have been scanned and are now publicly available digitally).
AlgebraicEagle t1_j3fvswm wrote
Reply to Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
That's incredibly exciting!
Ohhh to be part of this research!
TheGreatOneSea t1_j3fs8qt wrote
Reply to comment by shantipole in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator
Worth adding, there was a belief that the pope would continually hold conferences to solve theological issues instead of allowing the pope to more or less run things alone as part of the compromise, but people apparently couldn't be bothered.
snnaiil t1_j3fj0ee wrote
Reply to comment by shantipole in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator
Oh thank you!! Finally a mystery has been solved for me
KindAwareness3073 t1_j3fg42q wrote
Reply to comment by TheGrandExquisitor in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
As an architect I can assure you, ancient architects thought a lot about the sun, for a variety of reasons, but primarily as a source of warmth in winter months. Roman baths and their wall openings were carefully designed to let in direct winter sunlight but not summer.
Edit: there/their
TheGrandExquisitor t1_j3ff7a8 wrote
Reply to comment by KindAwareness3073 in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
Depends. Inside could become very dark even on a bright day. And windows weren't always convenient because pane glass wasn't around the weather could be an issue.
dripstonchruchill t1_j3fea0o wrote
In the west Texas heat, how did your average cowboy stay cool?
KindAwareness3073 t1_j3fdto5 wrote
Reply to Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
Lidar is the real hero of this story. The technology has revolutionized Mezo-American studies.
KindAwareness3073 t1_j3fdksv wrote
Reply to comment by cld1984 in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
In much of the ancient world getting enough sunlight was not the problem.
shantipole t1_j3fa838 wrote
Reply to comment by snnaiil in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism
The short version is that the popes for a while moved the court to Avignon, in France. This made the Romans (as is citizens of the city) very upset and the Cardinals elected "Roman" pope under duress. Then they went to France and elected a French pope. And then a church council in Pisa which was supposed to solve things elected a third pope.
Eventually, the Pisan and Roman popes got together and worked it out, which the French pope people eventually accepted.
cld1984 t1_j3f8kom wrote
Reply to Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
I never considered it before, but seeing them mention hundreds of structures set up to facilitate astronomical observations makes me wonder if, before the advent of time measurement devices, other buildings were positioned based at least partly on the Sun and Moon.
Like, would the local shop position his building so the sun shines through his front door right when he plans to open. Of course this would be at different times during the year, but maybe it could work.
I dunno though. Seems like a lot of work for convenience.
ThorDansLaCroix t1_j3f4wre wrote
Reply to comment by ubermeisters in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
You get social benefits for longer.
notatuma t1_j3f4bf3 wrote
Reply to comment by jabberwockxeno in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
This answer is so thorough and final the dude deleted his Reddit account lol. Well done.
ubermeisters t1_j3f431c wrote
Reply to comment by ThorDansLaCroix in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
same amount of life experience just so be older? no thanks. I don't want to be old anyway, let alone live extra long? Ill pass on 50 years of diapers thanks.
ThorDansLaCroix t1_j3f3tjh wrote
Reply to comment by ubermeisters in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
You would live more years though.
thinklikeacriminal t1_j3f2ao1 wrote
Reply to comment by ubermeisters in Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
That much closer to collecting social security.
avidovid t1_j3f2anf wrote
Reply to Earliest evidence of the use of the Mesoamerican 260-day calendar, ‘centuries earlier than its previously known use in textual records,’ revealed by the orientations of newly-uncovered ruins along Mexico’s southern Gulf Coast by marketrent
The Spanish did the world an enormous disservice by burning the records of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations, among others. These civilizations knew some serious stuff about agriculture and astronomy, it would be marvelous to better understand the genesis of their knowledge and society.
HuudaHarkiten t1_j3g9qjv wrote
Reply to comment by roffadude in Archaeologists Unearth Viking Hall in Denmark by tangledwebgenealogy
> Finnish is not related to Danish so that’s really unlikely.
I wasnt implying it was. We have a lot of loan words.
> Finnish is related to only one European language.
Two, actually. Estonian is related closely, Hungarian not that closely.