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Town and Garden: Words Across Time

by David Tollen | Sep 3, 2011 | The Neolithic & Latter-Day Prehistory, Linguistics & Philology

The English word “garden” sounds like the Serbian and Russian suffixes grade, grad, and gorod, all of which mean “town.” You see them in city names like Belgrade, Leningrad, and Novgorod.  The word “town,” on the other hand, sounds...

A History of Libya in 7 Bullet Points

by David Tollen | Aug 24, 2011 | Earliest Civilizations in Eurasia, Classical Civilization, The Postclassical Age (Medieval History), The Early Modern Age, The Recent Modern Age

Recent events have many of us thinking about Libya. So here’s a rundown of some of the surprises and highlights from Libyan history: Land of the Berbers: We think of the Libyans as Arabs, and that’s true for most, but it hides a more complicated picture....

The Lost World of Neanderthals, Hobbits, and Other Hominins

by David Tollen | Aug 17, 2011 | Human Origins & the Paleolithic

It seems fantasies like The Lord of the Rings have cornered the market on “multi-species worlds”: on worlds peopled by dwarves, elves, goblins, and other not-quite-humans. Yet history has a claim on the multi-species world too. Or rather prehistory does. For most of...
History’s Worst Governments Had the Most Ideology

History’s Worst Governments Had the Most Ideology

by David Tollen | Aug 13, 2011 | The Early Modern Age, The Recent Modern Age, Current Politics

Ideology is great stuff. It topples tyrants and fires up the citizens to achieve momentous things. But when a government adopts an ideology, it’s grim tidings for those who disagree — and for anyone suspected of disagreeing. Plus, fiercely held ideologies...
Pre-Columbian Cotton Armor: Better than Steel

Pre-Columbian Cotton Armor: Better than Steel

by David Tollen | Aug 10, 2011 | Pre-Columbian Americas, The Early Modern Age

According to Jared Diamond, the Spanish conquered the Aztecs and Incas with guns, germs, and steel. At first blush, his conclusion seems undeniable. But I’m actually not so sure about the steel. If steel gave the Spanish such an advantage in the 1500’s,...
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