tidbits cross time
May. 2nd, 2025 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliNew Haven and Connecticut were separate colonies until two regicides were known to have taken refuge in New Haven. (A third had managed to conceal that he was there, having prudently changed his name immediately on arrival, but the other two had gone first to Boston under their real names.) Charles II merged New Haven with Connecticut as punishment.
When pony-breeding was introduced to India, in marginal and hilly regions where the inhabitants already herded sheep, goats, and cows, it produced not only massive horse fairs, but also changes in pilgrimage routes as people took in a pilgrimage on the way to or from the fair.
When Chinese merchants offered silks in Rome during the sixth century, the Romans showed them their mulberry orchards
Many peoples in Southeast Asia, who do not have formal states, have legends that they had writing once, and they either lost it or had it stolen from them.
When talides, a gold ore, was found near Kalgoorlie, they were taken for pyrite, and used to pave the streets. The streets really were paved with gold.
In Korea, the sons of concubines were of lower status than the legitimate sons through wives, unless the concubine's sons were formally adopted with their name written in the family registry.
The Roman Empire was already suffering from decreasing population when the Justinian plagues hit, meaning they did not recuperate as societies usually did.
In China, dropping chopsticks to the ground was held to disturb the buried ancestors.
In pre-Euro Italy, postage stamps were often used to make change.
Donkeys were ridden before horses, and the earliest writing did not distinguish between horses and donkeys.
During the English Civil War, many arguments turned, not on religious arguments and objections, but on the Norman Conquest, holding it was the imposition of tyranny on English freedoms. The American Revolution would later take this argument up again.
Pizarro's forces were about 170 men when he attacked Peru. These men were not soldiers; they used the term "soldier" to apply to a mercenary who got paid regardless of outcome. Their rule was "no purchase, no pay." Exactly like the "no prey, no pay" formulation of pirates.
The first attempts at creating breeds of horses centered around color. The steppe horse breeders knew that India was not a good selling place for piebald horses, where China liked dappled gray. Gaits, strength, speed, and sturdiness were quickly added.
Ancient Roman letters are filled not only with accounts of the writer's health and inquiries about the other's, but with reproaches for the other's not writing about his health. Given the unhealthy conditions of Rome, it was only to be expected.
Eighteen shillings of British money could be changed in 19th century China to seven-two pounds of strings of cash coins, which required coolies to carry.
In the ancient kingdom of Sintashta, the funerals of the great had chariot races. Then the winning team of horses would be sacrificed, the meat handed out to the mourners, and the heads and forelegs burned with the dead.
The Rothschilds achieved their fortune in part by using homing pigeons to communicate. Despite all the difficulty of lugging pigeons from their home to where you wanted to get messages from.
Silk was used as currency in China. About ten times as much silk was used as money than was used for clothes.
Tacitus recounts that equipping a young man with a shield and spear in Germanic tribes was the equivalent of donning a man's toga in Rome.
When a librarian found a copy of an early book printed by Johann Mentelin around 1472 had inky cat footprints on it, he asked about for other editions to see if there were more with like damage. One owner wrote back that while his book showed no cat footprints, it did have substantial damage from rodents gnawing on it.
The Chinese fenghuang was originally merely an immortal bird. The habit of translating it as phoenix has, however, caused the importation of the tale of burning itself and being reborn periodically.
It is common practice for Jews to cover all the mirrors in the home while sitting shivah immediately after a death. The first rabbis to write of this were from Hungary, Romania, and Transylvania. Many Christians in the Balkans also remove or cover up mirrors after a funeral.
Korean ghosts of tiger victims would help tigers claim more victims; ghosts are just spiteful.
Ivan the Terrible claimed descent through the female line from Genghis Khan. He and his successors aspired to be the White Khan -- White being the color of the West in steppe iconography.
In both paintings and movies, it is commonplace for the person "looking into the mirror" to have the reflection be visible to the viewer. This is impossible, as if the angle of the mirror is such that a viewer can see the person, what the person would see would be the viewer.
China's wars with steppe raiders generally began in disaster because in peacetime, they did not keep up the necessary level of activity in their cavalry, to the detriment of both riders and horses.
Great Britain's lead in the Industrial Revolution was heavily worn down by its country gentleman ethos. An MP complained, in the late 19th century, that German manufacturers raised their sons to be better manufacturers than they were, they did not send them to public schools to become idle gentleman. Then, in Germany, the aristocracy was closed. A merchant could not aspire to become gentry. Likewise, in the United States, there was no aristocracy, and a manufacturer was socially acceptable at the highest level of society, and so did not have to aspire.
In the Roman Republic, it was a crime against the majesty of the state to hold a party on a day of public mourning. This turned into a crime against the emperor when the empire began.
China did not move definitively into the Iron Age until they discovered means of controlling air flow that let you pour iron in liquid form from the blast furnace.
One reason why the Inca conquered much of what is now Peru was to control trade in coca leaves.
Britain was a source of tin during ancient times, but Julius Caesar found that he could get little information about the island by questioning the tin merchants. Later, when Emperor Claudius actually conquered it, he only attempted the regions that were using coins.
The Mongols kept raising taxes because accounting was for lesser men, and they lost about 80% of their tax revenue through corruption and bribes. That included the annual levee in men, maidens, and artisans.
When pony-breeding was introduced to India, in marginal and hilly regions where the inhabitants already herded sheep, goats, and cows, it produced not only massive horse fairs, but also changes in pilgrimage routes as people took in a pilgrimage on the way to or from the fair.
When Chinese merchants offered silks in Rome during the sixth century, the Romans showed them their mulberry orchards
Many peoples in Southeast Asia, who do not have formal states, have legends that they had writing once, and they either lost it or had it stolen from them.
When talides, a gold ore, was found near Kalgoorlie, they were taken for pyrite, and used to pave the streets. The streets really were paved with gold.
In Korea, the sons of concubines were of lower status than the legitimate sons through wives, unless the concubine's sons were formally adopted with their name written in the family registry.
The Roman Empire was already suffering from decreasing population when the Justinian plagues hit, meaning they did not recuperate as societies usually did.
In China, dropping chopsticks to the ground was held to disturb the buried ancestors.
In pre-Euro Italy, postage stamps were often used to make change.
Donkeys were ridden before horses, and the earliest writing did not distinguish between horses and donkeys.
During the English Civil War, many arguments turned, not on religious arguments and objections, but on the Norman Conquest, holding it was the imposition of tyranny on English freedoms. The American Revolution would later take this argument up again.
Pizarro's forces were about 170 men when he attacked Peru. These men were not soldiers; they used the term "soldier" to apply to a mercenary who got paid regardless of outcome. Their rule was "no purchase, no pay." Exactly like the "no prey, no pay" formulation of pirates.
The first attempts at creating breeds of horses centered around color. The steppe horse breeders knew that India was not a good selling place for piebald horses, where China liked dappled gray. Gaits, strength, speed, and sturdiness were quickly added.
Ancient Roman letters are filled not only with accounts of the writer's health and inquiries about the other's, but with reproaches for the other's not writing about his health. Given the unhealthy conditions of Rome, it was only to be expected.
Eighteen shillings of British money could be changed in 19th century China to seven-two pounds of strings of cash coins, which required coolies to carry.
In the ancient kingdom of Sintashta, the funerals of the great had chariot races. Then the winning team of horses would be sacrificed, the meat handed out to the mourners, and the heads and forelegs burned with the dead.
The Rothschilds achieved their fortune in part by using homing pigeons to communicate. Despite all the difficulty of lugging pigeons from their home to where you wanted to get messages from.
Silk was used as currency in China. About ten times as much silk was used as money than was used for clothes.
Tacitus recounts that equipping a young man with a shield and spear in Germanic tribes was the equivalent of donning a man's toga in Rome.
When a librarian found a copy of an early book printed by Johann Mentelin around 1472 had inky cat footprints on it, he asked about for other editions to see if there were more with like damage. One owner wrote back that while his book showed no cat footprints, it did have substantial damage from rodents gnawing on it.
The Chinese fenghuang was originally merely an immortal bird. The habit of translating it as phoenix has, however, caused the importation of the tale of burning itself and being reborn periodically.
It is common practice for Jews to cover all the mirrors in the home while sitting shivah immediately after a death. The first rabbis to write of this were from Hungary, Romania, and Transylvania. Many Christians in the Balkans also remove or cover up mirrors after a funeral.
Korean ghosts of tiger victims would help tigers claim more victims; ghosts are just spiteful.
Ivan the Terrible claimed descent through the female line from Genghis Khan. He and his successors aspired to be the White Khan -- White being the color of the West in steppe iconography.
In both paintings and movies, it is commonplace for the person "looking into the mirror" to have the reflection be visible to the viewer. This is impossible, as if the angle of the mirror is such that a viewer can see the person, what the person would see would be the viewer.
China's wars with steppe raiders generally began in disaster because in peacetime, they did not keep up the necessary level of activity in their cavalry, to the detriment of both riders and horses.
Great Britain's lead in the Industrial Revolution was heavily worn down by its country gentleman ethos. An MP complained, in the late 19th century, that German manufacturers raised their sons to be better manufacturers than they were, they did not send them to public schools to become idle gentleman. Then, in Germany, the aristocracy was closed. A merchant could not aspire to become gentry. Likewise, in the United States, there was no aristocracy, and a manufacturer was socially acceptable at the highest level of society, and so did not have to aspire.
In the Roman Republic, it was a crime against the majesty of the state to hold a party on a day of public mourning. This turned into a crime against the emperor when the empire began.
China did not move definitively into the Iron Age until they discovered means of controlling air flow that let you pour iron in liquid form from the blast furnace.
One reason why the Inca conquered much of what is now Peru was to control trade in coca leaves.
Britain was a source of tin during ancient times, but Julius Caesar found that he could get little information about the island by questioning the tin merchants. Later, when Emperor Claudius actually conquered it, he only attempted the regions that were using coins.
The Mongols kept raising taxes because accounting was for lesser men, and they lost about 80% of their tax revenue through corruption and bribes. That included the annual levee in men, maidens, and artisans.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-03 10:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-03 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-05-16 11:58 pm (UTC)The Mongols kept raising taxes because accounting was for lesser men, and they lost about 80% of their tax revenue through corruption and bribes. That included the annual levee in men, maidens, and artisans.
Welp. No wonder the excellent administrator Mongol character in She Who Became The Sun is ready to tear out his hair (less over the tax irritations than the lack of respect for his accounting abilities).
no subject
Date: 2025-05-17 04:32 am (UTC)(Drew Hayes dedicated one volume of Fred the Vampire Accountant to the accountants who had told him how much Fred means to them.)