I asked this in a lot of places and never received a satisfactory answer:
How do I recreate a dead civilization in a visual medium?
Let's say I want to make a comic in some ancient historical/prehistorical setting, how do I reconstruct the civilization? I can hardly even find a book that describes anything material (common garb, building construction) from very scrutinized areas and periods like medieval France or England. Customs and mentality are almost as rare, at least in common folk.
Short of double majoring in archeology and history, learning how to gather knowledge from scratch what do I do?
I kind of get why Hollywood sucks at historical depictions now, the costume and environment guys have fuck all to work with.
>>1146643
PS I realize there isn't a lot of sources for describing the mindset of an Egyptian peasant and the like... but for fuck's sake, at least some kind of speculation? Do Historians not care about that sort of stuff?
>Their language form the basis for every European language since the bronze age
*Cough cough cough COUGH COUGH COUGH*
>>1146723
You in turn forget Finno-Ugric.
I knew nobody would help.
>>1146875
I am sorry OP, that pic related just triggered me.
What are you looking to do with the information?
http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/pw/ancient-history-magazine/
ancient warfare has a ton more issues, probably some good stuff in them but its focused on warfare, naturally. hope this helps, they're a good buy.
>>1146643
There are books about archaelogy.
And about history of mentalities.
>>1146987
I wanted to make a 3D environment of some ancient culture and put it into a graphics engine. You know, walk around a 4000 year old village, ogle the wooden spoon collection over the fireplace, the blackened rafters etc. Maybe even make a game demo with it. I started wanting to find something on Yamna or Corded Ware, but at this point I'd take whatever.
>>1147240
Yes, archeology books. Almost all of them focusing on describing the unearthed remains, assigning them to a culture and cataloging them, not using all the already established knowledge to reconstruct a civilization.
>And about history of mentalities.
Name your favorite one.
>>1147009
I like them name dropping some useful book titles on Sumerian history (again warfare tho).
>>1146643
>That pic
Lactose tolerance comes from continuing to consume dairy after infancy, not from genetics. If Chinese or Indian people live in the west they aren't lactose intolerant whereas they do tend to be in their countries because they don't eat much dairy.
Only seems like Native Americans have true lactose intolerance.
>>1147659
I think there are two conflated qualities under the umbrela term: being able to properly digest dairy and being able to eat dairy w/o vomiting all over everything.
>>1146643
Indo-Europeans don't exist. There are three different civilizations, the italo-celtic, the germanic and the slavic
>>1150314
It's a linguistic group and it obviously exists, retaining similarities from Iberia to India.
>3 groups!
>not knowing about Indo-Iranians, Armenians etc. etc.
You're not qualified for this thread.
>>1146643
Start looking at abandoned ancient sites to get some ideas on basic building techniques. Skara Brae, Gobekli Tepe, ancient Minoa, Harappa etc. spring to mind. There's a lot of variation, but those sites are fucking *ancient*, and if you want an idea of what ancient civs/dead civs were capable of, that's a good start. Orkneys have a bunch of sites like the above, ancient neolithic stuff.
As for reconstructing specific dead civilizations, look at the cultures that are around them if there's better documentation available, as they were sure to influence or have been influenced by said dead civilization. Also look for carvings, engravings, paintings etc, they usually carry images of what those people looked like and what they imaging themselves to look like. There may also be contemporary descriptions, like Tacitus describing ancient Britons. Customs and mentality are practically impossible to know unless there's some sort of foreign documentation for them; the best bet imo is to look at the successor cultures and strip away things which are obviously more recent influences to try to get at what they looked like before. If there are myths and stories which survived from those civilizations, you can use those, as they will typically espouse the values to which that society strove for.
>>1147659
>Lactose tolerance comes from continuing to consume dairy after infancy, not from genetics
No, it's genetic.
>>1150370
Those you mentioned aren't European. I forgot the Greeks, though.
The linguistic group doesn't exist.
>>1150414
Yes it does.
>>1146643
The hardest thing is depicting ancient buildings and places as they were then, rather than how they look in the present.
For example, the Pyramids were at one point covered in marble and had hold caps, but those were looted away over time. The Parthenon, along with most other Greek buildings, were painted with bright primary colors, but those faded away to give us the "gleaming white marble" look we know today. Even relatively recent events may get skewed in this manner - the uniforms of the Confederacy in the Civil War weren't uniformly grey, for example.
>>1150414
>Indo-European linguistic group doesn't exist
Holy shoot there bud you sure are a smarty.
>>1150399
Only in some people, for most people it is acquired. If you're exposed to dairy all your life and still intolerant then its genetic.
