What things in history defy most viewpoints of history, yet are true? For example, there is a Christian people in the middle east that continued to exist as a small minority with a separate language and shared heritage even after centuries of Muslim rule. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_people)
Anything like that, that seems to defy logic.
Easter Island heads aren't a real mistery.
The island used to be full of wood which the natives used to lever the rock with.
The fucks chopped all the wood and eventually had wood wars (huehue) until they had to leave the island.
>>39327
How is a group of Christians surviving in a Muslim nation that surprising? They'd be guaranteed a semblance of toleration as 'people of the book'. Egypt has a population of Coptic Christians, Zoroastrians are still a thing in both iran and India, hell there's a remote tribe in Pakistan that claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great's soldiers and follow a pre-Zarathustran Iranian religion.
I'm having that tribe as my one BTW
>>39414
how in the shit did they leave the island?
they probably lived there for a fuckton of time, did they actually make boats and just flee to what today is the Chile?
>>39327
>Assyrians
The existence of Indian Syriac Christians is twice as crazy, since they spawned from those Assyrians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Thomas_Christians
Also Kaifeng Jews:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaifeng_Jews
While we're on the subject of crazy mixes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman-Arab-Byzantine_culture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontresina#History_and_name
"The city was first mentioned in medieval Latin documents as pontem sarasinam in 1137. In 1237 it was mentioned as de Ponte Sarraceno and in 1303 as ponte sarracino.[3] Some historians translate it as The Bridge of the Saracens and see in it a reference to a tenth-century Arab invasion of the lands that later became Switzerland."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraxinet
"Fraxinet or Fraxinetum (Arabic: فرخشنيط Farakhshanīt or فرخسة Farakhsha, from Latin fraxinus: "ash tree", fraxinetum: "ash forest") was the site of a 10th-century fortress established by Muslims at modern La Garde-Freinet, near Saint-Tropez, in Provence. The modern Massif des Maures ("plateau of Moors") takes its name from the Muslims of Fraxinet."
>>39327
>For example, there is a Christian people in the middle east that continued to exist as a small minority with a separate
That is not an anomaly, Lebanon used to be a majority Christian country until the Jews kicked all the Palestinians out, the historic trouble in Lebanon (Beirut) are centered around Christians against the Muslims.
>>39554
this, in theory muslims are tolerant of infidels but the problem is certain imams pushing their warfare through the region
>>39642
they tied ropes to the backs of giant sea turtles
>>39327
That's nothing, OP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyarab_people
>>39414
They never left the island.
Deforestation was a result of rats and the needs of cooking.
>>39554
>a remote tribe in Pakistan that claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great's soldiers and follow a pre-Zarathustran Iranian religion.
the burusho? they have nothing to do with alexander's soldiers, they speak an isolate language (that might be distantly related to yeniseian languages of siberia), only modern macedonians claim they're descendants of alexander's soldiers because ALEKSANDAR MAKEDONEC
I'm not saying it's aliens...
>>39753
This reminds me:
"The Jassic (Jász in Hungarian) people were a nomadic tribe which settled -with the Cumans- in the Kingdom of Hungary during the 13th century. Béla IV, king of Hungary granted them asylum and they became a privileged community with the right of self-government. During the centuries they were fully assimilated to the Hungarian population, their language disappeared, but they preserved their Jassic identity and their regional autonomy until 1876. Over a dozen settlements in Central Hungary (e.g. Jászberény, Jászárokszállás, Jászfényszaru) still bear their name."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasz_people
The biggest Chinese historical anomaly:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Sepoy_Rebellion
>>39327
How does that defy history?
Islam isn't the boogeyman you see on Fox news. They allowed religious minorities to exist. In fact they preferred it in the early Islamic empires.
>>39642
>>39642
apparently, there was a civil war between two fractions; the descendents from the original inhabitants and some newcomers( I believe they were called the long-ears and the short ears). The long ears, the orginal builders, lost the war and were exterminated. The short ears were the people that the dutch met, and they didn't have any knowledge on the building of the statues left
>>39327
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island
man made, layered pit that no one seems to be able to dig into the bottom
>>40202
Is this the island from that History Channel show?
>>40235
Okay, it is. Stupid me.
>>40539
>The existence of a Sotadic Zone was an hypothesis of the British Orientalist and explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890). He asserted that there exists a geographic zone in which pederasty (romantic-sexual intimacy between a boy and a man) is prevalent and celebrated among the indigenous inhabitants.
>the part of the country where I live is in the Zone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloistered_rule
The notion of having to abdicate in order to rule as the power-behind-the-throne is so counter-intuitive.
>>39327
Christians living in the middle east is about the least surprising thing imaginable. You know its a middle eastern religion, right?
Now this is the real shit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel
>>40821
Wow that is pretty fucking bizarre.
>>40821
And between the Heian and Sengoku periods, nearly every head of a major buddhist temple in the capital region was chosen from among Imperial princes appointed to that position, becoming Buddhist priests termed 法王 (Dharma King or Dharma Prince), often returning to court when it was time to serve. In particular, leadership of the Tendai sect and Enryaku-ji Temple was passed on from prince to prince.
That's like every archbishop in England being a royal prince, and the Prince of Wales being pope of the Church of England.
Most Emperors had dozens of sons to fill those positions obviously. During that period, one imperial princess was also always set aside to be cloistered at the Ise Grand Shrine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiō
It's unsure whether it actually existed, or is just a tall tale based on the known Anglo-Saxon migration after the Conquest but I think it's still interesting regardless
>New England (Latin: Nova Anglia) was a colony allegedly founded in the mid-to-late 11th century by English refugees fleeing William the Conqueror. Its existence is only attested in two sources, dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, the French Chronicon Universale Anonymi Laudunensis and the Icelandic Játvarðar Saga. They tell the story of a journey from England through the Mediterranean Sea that led to Constantinople, where the English refugees fought off a siege by heathens and were rewarded by the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus. A group of them were given land in the north-east of the Black Sea, reconquering it and renaming their territory "New England".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_%28medieval%29
>>39770
I know, hence why I said "claim to be"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanzibar#Before_1498
"Persian traders used Zanzibar as a base for voyages between the Middle East, India, and Africa. Unguja, the larger island, offered a protected and defensible harbor, so although the archipelago offered few products of value, the Persians settled at what became Zanzibar City ("Stone Town") a convenient point from which to trade with the Swahili Coast towns. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first Zoroastrian fire temples and mosques in the southern hemisphere."
>>39327
Alexander's Veterans who settled in Bactria created an Indo-Greek Kingdom of Greek Buddhists.
Another bunch of Alexander's Vets moved even further: settling in the Ferghana Vallet in what is now Tajikistan and established city states and tiny Indo-Greeky kingdoms in the Silk Route. One of these is known only by its Chinese Name: Dayuan. From the Chinese word "Great Yuans (Yuan = Persian Yunan = Meaning Ioanian = A.k.a Greeks)."
Dayuan was an on and off friend of the Han Dynasty but during the Xiongnu War, China needed horses badly and Dayuan bred impressive stallions. Initially Chinks offered to buy but when Dayuan limited the number, they went mad and sent an army to get those horses.
Dayuan lost that war ("The War of the Heavenly Horses.") but the Chinese were impressed of the bravery of one Nobleman whom they call "Jinmi" who held a breach in the walls of Dayuan. They captured him but treated him with the utmost respect.
Dayuan was eventually invaded and occupied by the Yuezhi Steppe Nomads.
>>41419
>>39327
In addition, what is now Xinjiang, China used to be occupied by the Kingdom of Khotan. A Kingdom of erstwhile Indo-Iranians who became increasingly sinicized due to contact & influence with/from China.
And Khotan therefore looked like a Civilization of whiteish people pretending to be Chinese.
Pic related; their King.
>>41092
Nova Anglia probably refers to the Anglo-Saxon lords and soldiers who joined the Varangian Guard after the Norman invasion.
They likely brought their families along and after service in the Guard they were given some land to settle in the vicinity of Crimea.
>>41396
"In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman.
In 1832 or 1840 (the date varies among sources), Said bin Sultan moved his capital from Muscat, Oman to Stone Town in Zanzibar City."
"Until around 1890, the sultans of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the Swahili Coast, known as Zanj, which included Mombasa and Dar es Salaam."
Ironically, Oman conquered Zanzibar from the Portuguese less than two centuries after the Portuguese had conquered Muscat, the capital of Oman.
>>40932
It can even be more bizarre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemba_people
>>39327
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyarab_people
Hungarians that live on the Nile descending from an Ottoman army that settled in the area. Their name's even an accidental pun.
>>39327
There was a group of ancient Jews that somehow ended up on the Eastern Chinese coast and chilled for a thousand years.
>>39327
Some Nuragic bronze statuettes represent sub saharian animals like antilopes and chimps
I think everyone is aware of this, but Madagascar was colonized by Austronesians, and its inhabitants still speak a Malayo-Polynesian language.
>>41720
In fact, Malagasy is the most widely spoken Bornean language, thus overshadowing Borneo natives.
>>41661
Kaifeng Jews
On the topic of weird things:
The welsh discovered America:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc
>Madoc, also spelled Madog, ab Owain Gwynedd was, according to folklore, a Welsh prince who sailed to America in 1170, over three hundred years before Christopher Columbus's voyage in 1492.[1] According to the story, he was a son of Owain Gwynedd, and took to the sea to flee internecine violence at home. The "Madoc story" legend evidently evolved out of a medieval tradition about a Welsh hero's sea voyage, to which only allusions survive. However, it attained its greatest prominence during the Elizabethan era, when English and Welsh writers wrote of the claim that Madoc had come to the Americas as an assertion of prior discovery, and hence legal possession, of North America by the Kingdom of England.[2][3]
And to make this even more surreal; meet the welsh indians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madoc#Welsh_Indians
>On 26 November 1608, Peter Wynne, a member of Captain Christopher Newport's exploration party to the villages of the Eastern Siouan Monacan above the falls of the James River in Virginia, wrote a letter to John Egerton, informing him that some members of Newport's party believed the pronunciation of the Monacans' language resembled "Welch", which Wynne spoke, and asked Wynne to act as interpreter. The Monacan were among those non-Algonquian tribes collectively referred to by the Algonquians as "Mandoag".[27]
>>41593
Posted already desu
>>41712
Also this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_pit_of_Garlo
>>39554
Speaking of Alexander the Great, his expedition into Asia has a pretty huge impact on Asian culture that most people aren't very aware of: Buddhist art.
Before the presence of Alexander and his soldiers, Buddha wasn't represented in art. The influence of Greek art and statues is what started representation of Buddha in art. It's even called Greco-Buddhist art, and it's not entirely dissimilar from iconic Asian religious art.
Also, there are some people who claim that Asian martial arts are descended from Greek pancration and boxing that Alexander's soldiers introduced to Asia.
>>41476
Yeah, that seems to be the default view, though the idea of Anglo-Saxon refugees creating another England is pretty cool.
Also speaking of Borneo
>The Chinese kongsi federations of Southeast Asia, also known as kongsi democracies or republics, were political entities that functioned like self-governing states.[1] They were formed from the unions of mining kongsi (Chinese: 公司; pinyin: gōngsī), commercial organizations consisting of members that provided capital and shared profits.[2] By the mid-nineteenth century, the kongsi federations were the only states governing western Borneo
>Commercial kongsis are common in Chinese diasporic communities throughout the world, but the kongsi federations of Borneo were unique in that they were sovereign states that controlled large swaths of territory.[3]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongsi_federations
>>41712
Celtic tribes emulated African animals in their artwork that had never been seen, but taken as queues from Greek. Over time they looked more and more cartoonish (lions looked more like weird dogs) or stylized.
Art has a funny way of moving through culture via trade and travel.
>>41972
>Also, there are some people who claim that Asian martial arts are descended from Greek pancration and boxing that Alexander's soldiers introduced to Asia.
They are wrong then
1) People errywhere fight.
2) If by Asian Martial arts you mean the unarmed fighting styles that came out of India and into East Asia (i.e. Kung Fu), that was born from the Pati Fighting Sreni.
In Ancient India, every trade has a guild called a "Sreni." Initially, they were mostly groups of artisans or merchants specializing in a specific artifice, service, or wares.
Part of being a a man of commerce is a danger. Your caravans get robbed, your business is raided by brigands, and so on, so the Sreni started training bodyguards and including them in the cooperative. Over time, these bodyguards eventually became Sreni guilds themselves, and became known as Sreni guild fighters, another professional arm of a Raj's military.
The Sreni Fighter Guilds are commercial guilds who do only one thing: fight. In peacetime, the Sreni Fighters are hired by merchants to protect them and their businesses and caravans, by law enforcement as hired muscle when they make an arrest, by temples to guard artefacts, or basically anyone with fucking money can hire them.
Singular guilds claim specialties of fighting and marketed them as their specialty martial art. Some skilled in cqc, some in archery, and so on.
>>42054
so basically trade-federations?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGoUpTDnZCo
because fuck you colledge kids, that's why
>>41828
Hell, you're right. Alright, lemme try to step up my game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmykia
A MODERN Russian Republic that is majority Buddhist due to settlement by Mongolians and other Central Asian nomads who had been converted. It is the only place in Europe where Buddhism is the majority.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Oblast
Yet another Russian federal subject, notable for being the only other state entity aside from Israel to have Judaism as an official religion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakure_Kirishitan
Formerly Japanese Christians that practiced in secret due to the ban by the Shogunate on Christianity, a small number of them still exist that practice very old and syncretic Catholicism outside of the Catholic Church proper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Couronian_colonization_of_the_Americas
Describes a brief history of a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to colonize in the Caribbean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarascan_state
Mesoamerican rival to the Aztecs that notably used metal in tools, decorum, and weapons. The Aztec were using wood and volcanic glass.
>>42138
>>41587
>>41859
Another weird fact:
A recent study (2013) of 71 ancient Swedish bronze objects dated to Nordic Bronze Age, revealed that most of copper utilized at that time in Scandinavia came from Sardinia and the Iberian peninsula.[33]
Reminder that Zheng He once conquered Sri Lanka during one of his "diplomatic" voyages, just because he could:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming–Kotte_War
>>41467
>literally OG sinoboos
>>42351
The or the first Weeablords
>>41712
That could easily be a macaque.
>>42300
Another one: first evidence of melon cultivation in Europe inbronze age Sardinia
Da: Diego Sabato , Alessia Masi , Caterina Pepe, Mariano Ucchesu, Leonor Peña-Chocarro, Alessandro Usai, Gianna Giachi, Chiara Capretti, Gianluigi Bacchetta, Archaeobotanical analysis of a Bronze Age well from Sardinia: A wealth of knowledge, Plant Biosystems, 2014, DOI:10.1080/11263504.2014.998313.
Abstract. In 2008, during a rescue excavation in the Sa Osa area, near the town of Cabras (Sardinia, Italy), a Nuragic settlement was discovered. The excavation revealed numerous pits, wells and structures dug by the local communities between the Early Copper Age and the Iron Age. These structures were interpreted as elements of a settlement mainly involved in primary production. The most remarkable structure is Well-N, radiocarbon and archaeologically dated to the Late Bronze Age (fig. 1), which has yielded large amounts of waterlogged plant remains, animal and fish bones and pottery. Despite the limited set of samples, the combination of macro-remain and pollen analyses in this unique context provides important information useful for exploring not only local subsistence systems but also human impact on the surrounding environment.
Grapes and figs are the most abundant remains together with other fruits and edible vascular plants. Remains of melon and mulberry were identified being the earliest remains of these two species for Western Europe. Their presence may confirm early trade between Nuragic people and the eastern Mediterranean and/or African coasts. Intentional selection of wood suggests practices associated to the collection of raw material for specific technological demands. The presence of intestinal parasites in the pollen record points to the possible use of the well as a cesspit, at least in its later use, and this is one of the earliest evidence of this type of structures in prehistoric contexts.
>>41467
Who is rug?
>>42456
True, but the antilopi are weird
>>42497
Another one
>>42520
What is this, an ancient ashtray?
>>42597
They have found around 157 Nuragic bronze votive boats, mostly in Sardinia but some also in continental Italy, mostly in Etruria (in some burials of nobles).
According to some theories some of them could have been used as oil lamps.
>>40932
Ethiopia has actually been a mostly Christian nation since ancient times, funnily enough.
>>42174
>implying europe doesnt stop at the black sea...
>>42993
Europe ends on the Urals.
>>42993
It's the Urals, dog.
>the Holy Roman Empire, Qajar Dynasty, and several Khanates were still around during the American revolution
>>43066
>>43030
>implying Philip Johan von Strahlenberg didnt claim Europe ended at the ural mountains so he would be released from his imprisonment at Tobolsk
seriously read into that
peter the great would imprison and release cartographers and almost every single one would then claim that russia was part of europe after their release
I still believe in the traditional method of separating continents by waterway
>>43407
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere they lived in Europe once as well. Wouldn't be so strange considering lions lived here once too.
>>43030
and the ardennes
>>43402
Wouldn't that make all of Europe and Asia a single super-continent?
>>43402
I believe that continents shouldn't be separated because of politics. Eurasia is a continent, Europe is a region.
>>41467
That's not really anomalous. Central Asia, including Xinjiang, used to be the homeland of Indo-European peoples. The Tocharians, for example, were Indo-Europeans who introduced horse-riding and iron working to China.
![Lion_distribution[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/mUf5xWb.png "Lion_distribution[1].png")
>>43436
They definitely lived in Greece, but it's unknown if they lived anywhere else in Europe.
Heracles' was often depicted wearing a lion's skin
>>43503
Reintroduction of lions in Europe when?
This seal died around the time of Genghis Khan.
>>39688
> Pontresina
holy shit never knew that. I went there skiing very often.
>>43480
>>43491
yes, eurasia is the true continent, but "europe" used to be defined this way (roughly, with some variation depending on cartographer)
Hindu schools of thought included at least one sect of hedonistic fedoras:
"Charvakas rejected many of the standard religious conceptions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, such as afterlife, reincarnation, samsara, karma and religious rites. They were critical of the Vedas, as well as Buddhist scriptures.[53]
The Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha with commentaries by Madhavacharya describes the Charvakas as critical of Vedas, materialists without morals and ethics. To Charvakas, the text states, the Vedas suffered from several faults – errors in transmission across generations, untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. The Charvakas pointed out the disagreements, debates and mutual rejection by karmakanda Vedic priests and jñānakanda Vedic priests, as proof that either one of them is wrong or both are wrong, as both cannot be right.[53][54]
Charvakas, according to Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha verses 10 and 11, declared the Vedas to be incoherent rhapsodies whose only usefulness was to provide livelihood to priests. They also held the belief that Vedas were invented by man, and had no divine authority.[54]
Charvakas rejected the need for ethics or morals, and suggested that "while life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt".[55]"
Many other sects were also non-theistic and materialistic, though not quite as virulent as the Charvaka.
>>43710
Why did Peter care about an arbitrary designation of 'European' land?
Moscow, St. Petersburg and other important Russian cities are already in the earlier interpretation of Europe, why does he care about Uralic land being European?
During the Middle Ages, one part of Europe called Frisia, located in present-day Netherlands, escaped feudalism somehow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_freedom
A bunch of Muslim heretics held power over the entire Arabian peninsula for decades, they even sacked Mecca and desecrated the Kaaba, just because.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qarmatians
>>43710
I would prefer the old way, really. Don't get what Peter was so salty about.
>>43710
>>43807
Sorry, thought I uploaded the second version Imade, the Blue is one of the other accepted lines and the geen was a variation of the red
St petersburg would be placed in Asia on red-green and blue
notice where St petersburg would be in that one (right where
>>43917
I dont know why I started typing twice....
>>43555
When it's as warm as it was one thousand years ago.
>>44002
One thousand years ago was cold as shit in Europe.
>>43932
Okay, I guess i get him now.
>>41419
>being so badass that even after being captured, you get treated like a king
>>44069
also st petersburg was created in 1703 and made the capital in 1713 while there was debate over where europe ended
that way even if red line and the ural mountains didnt become the line for europe he would get his european capital city
>>43559
And this gecko died 54 million years before the emergence of the human being.
What's your point?
>>44002
I guess you are referring to the Holocene Climatic Optimum (9,000 to 5,000 BP) or to the Medieval Climatic Optimum (950 to 1250 AD).
In any case, we're heading to similar conditions very soon.
>>41972
Recent scholarship has actually challenged this notion that the Buddha didn't appear in art before the Greeks.
Most surviving pre-Greek artwork in India showed the Buddha as footprints and so on to reflect his passing from the world.
>>44811
there still is a distinction of work that just "suggests" Buddha to outright depiction
