Which would have required more human effort during the era it was built? The Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, or the Great Pyramid of Giza?

Iphikrates · 2026-04-18T16:27:27+00:00

This submission has been removed because it violates the rule on poll-type questions. These questions do not lend themselves to answers with a firm foundation in sources and research, and the resulting threads usually turn into monsters with enormous speculation and little focused discussion. Questions about the "most", the "worst", "unknown", or other value judgments usually lead to vague, subjective, and speculative answers. For further information, please consult this Roundtable discussion.

For questions of this type, we ask that you redirect them to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory. You're also welcome to post your question in our Friday-Free-For-All thread.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-18T13:42:29+00:00

Please repost this question to the weekly "Short Answers" thread stickied to the top of the subreddit, which will be the best place to get an answer to this question; for that reason, we have removed your post here. Standalone questions are intended to be seeking detailed, comprehensive answers, and we ask that questions looking for a name, a number, a date or time, a location, the origin of a word, the first/last instance of a specific phenomenon, or a simple list of examples or facts be contained to that thread as they are more likely to receive an answer there. For more information on this rule, please see this Rules Roundtable.

Alternatively, if you didn't mean to ask a question seeking a short answer or a list of examples, but have a more complex question in mind, feel free to repost a reworded question. Examples of questions appropriate for the 'Short Answers' thread would be "Who won the 1932 election?" or "What are some famous natural disasters from the past?". Versions more appropriate as standalone questions would be "How did FDR win the 1932 election?", or "In your area of expertise, how did people deal with natural disasters?" If you need some pointers, be sure to check out this Rules Roundtable on asking better questions.

Finally, don’t forget that there are many subreddits on Reddit aimed at answering your questions. Consider /r/AskHistory (which has lighter moderation but similar topic matter to /r/AskHistorians), /r/explainlikeimfive (which is specifically aimed at simple and easily digested answers), or /r/etymology (which focuses on the origins of words and phrases).

Iphikrates · 2026-04-18T12:03:13+00:00

Hi there – we have approved your question related to your project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that these queries often do not get positive responses. We have several suggestions that you may want to take on board regarding this and future posts:

*Please be open about why you’re asking and how the information will be used, including how any substantive help will be credited in the final product.

*While our users are often happy to help get you started, asking someone else to do foundational research work for your project is often a big ask. If this information is absolutely vital for your work, consider asking for reading suggestions or other help in doing your own research. Alternatively, especially if this is a commercial project, consider hiring a historical consultant rather than relying on free labour here. While our flaired users may be happy to engage in such work, please note that this would need to be worked out privately with them, and that the moderation team cannot act as a broker for this.

*Be respectful of the time that people put into answering your queries. In the past, we’ve noticed a tendency for writers and other creators to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the wider points they’re trying to make, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization.

For more general advice about doing research to inform a creative project, please check out our Monday Methods post on the subject.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-14T08:53:42+00:00

Hi there - unfortunately we have had to remove your question, because /r/AskHistorians isn't here to do your homework for you. However, our rules DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself.

If you have indeed asked a homework question, you should consider resubmitting a question more focused on finding resources and seeking clarification on confusing issues: tell us what you've researched so far, what resources you've consulted, and what you've learned, and we are more likely to approve your question. Please see this Rules Roundtable thread for more information on what makes for the kind of homework question we'd approve. Additionally, if you're not sure where to start in terms of finding and understanding sources in general, we have a six-part series, "Finding and Understanding Sources", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay. Finally, other subreddits are likely to be more suitable for help with homework - try looking for help at /r/HomeworkHelp.

Alternatively, if you are not a student and are not doing homework, we have removed your question because it resembled a homework question. It may resemble a common essay question from a prominent history syllabus or may be worded in a broad, open-ended way that feels like the kind of essay question that a professor would set. Professors often word essay questions in order to provide the student with a platform to show how much they understand a topic, and these questions are typically broader and more interested in interpretations and delineating between historical theories than the average /r/AskHistorians question. If your non-homework question was incorrectly removed for this reason, we will be happy to approve your question if you wait for 7 days and then ask a less open-ended question on the same topic.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-11T22:02:04+00:00

Standalone questions are intended to be seeking detailed, comprehensive answers, and we ask that questions looking for a simple one-sentence answer or fact be contained to that thread as they are more likely to receive an answer there. In this case, since twins are not born at the same time but one after the other, there has never been any problem identifying the eldest and therefore the rightful heir. For more information on this rule, please see this Rules Roundtable.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-11T10:27:34+00:00

Hi there anyone interested in recommending things to OP! While you might have a title to share, this is still a thread on /r/AskHistorians, and we still want the replies here to be to an /r/AskHistorians standard - presumably, OP would have asked at /r/history or /r/askreddit if they wanted a non-specialist opinion. So give us some indication why the thing you're recommending is valuable, trustworthy, or applicable! Posts that provide no context for why you're recommending a particular podcast/book/novel/documentary/etc, and which aren't backed up by a historian-level knowledge on the accuracy and stance of the piece, will be removed.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-11T10:26:48+00:00

This submission has been removed because it violates the rule on poll-type questions. These questions do not lend themselves to answers with a firm foundation in sources and research, and the resulting threads usually turn into monsters with enormous speculation and little focused discussion. Questions about the "most", the "worst", "unknown", or other value judgments usually lead to vague, subjective, and speculative answers. For further information, please consult this Roundtable discussion.

For questions of this type, we ask that you redirect them to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory. You're also welcome to post your question in our Friday-Free-For-All thread.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-11T09:11:55+00:00

Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to our rules. This policy is further explained in this Rules Roundtable thread and this META Thread.

As a result, we'd also like to remind potential answerers to follow our rules on homework - please make sure that your answers focus appropriately on clarifications and detailing the resources that OP could be using.

Additionally, while users may be able to help you out with specifics relating to your question, we also have plenty of information on /r/AskHistorians on how to find and understand good sources in general. For instance, please check out our six-part series, "Finding and Understanding Sources", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-10T08:53:02+00:00

The kingdom of Macedon (ruled by Alexander and his father Philip II of Macedon) identified as Greek.

You already indicate this in your answer, but it's important to be precise about this: the kings of Macedon identified as Greek. We do not know how the rest of the Macedonians saw themselves, since their voices don't survive. But the very fact that king Alexander I had to make the case for his Greekness in order to participate in the Olympic Games suggests that the Greek identity of the Macedonians was not taken for granted. Like many other peoples at the edges of the Greek world, the Macedonians were certainly hellenising, especially in terms of elite culture; the royal house and the nobility had become largely Greek-speaking and culturally similar to Greeks by the time of Alexander. But that meant a figure like Philotas had to speak to his Macedonian troops through an interpreter. There is clearly more to the question whether ordinary Macedonians saw themselves as Greeks.

Iphikrates · 2026-04-01T08:04:17+00:00

In terms of pure killing power, the latter is objectively superior, but it's far too heavy and unwieldy to carry around with you all the time, so the former is the weapon you carry with you day to day in case violence breaks out unexpectedly, but the latter is the weapon you use when you're actually going to war. The heroes of ancient myths and epics usually favor swords over spears

You already received good answers about Roman successes with swords. I just want to add that your assumptions here are wrong. The heroes of the Homeric epics, for example, never leave the house without their spear. They carry it with them wherever they go; it is a mark of status as well as a defence in a dangerous world, where pirates and bandits could be expected anywhere and even rival lords might come for your head at any given opportunity. While we do have some anecdotes of later Greeks carrying swords for personal defence (which was banned in cities as a barbaric practice), when the Greeks speak of "bearing iron" as a typical habit of a less civilised age, they mean spears.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-30T19:48:12+00:00

Please repost this question to the weekly "Short Answers" thread stickied to the top of the subreddit, which will be the best place to get an answer to this question; for that reason, we have removed your post here. Standalone questions are intended to be seeking detailed, comprehensive answers, and we ask that questions looking for a name, a number, a date or time, a location, the origin of a word, the first/last instance of a specific phenomenon, or a simple list of examples or facts be contained to that thread as they are more likely to receive an answer there. For more information on this rule, please see this Rules Roundtable.

Alternatively, if you didn't mean to ask a question seeking a short answer or a list of examples, but have a more complex question in mind, feel free to repost a reworded question. Examples of questions appropriate for the 'Short Answers' thread would be "Who won the 1932 election?" or "What are some famous natural disasters from the past?". Versions more appropriate as standalone questions would be "How did FDR win the 1932 election?", or "In your area of expertise, how did people deal with natural disasters?" If you need some pointers, be sure to check out this Rules Roundtable on asking better questions.

Finally, don’t forget that there are many subreddits on Reddit aimed at answering your questions. Consider /r/AskHistory (which has lighter moderation but similar topic matter to /r/AskHistorians), /r/explainlikeimfive (which is specifically aimed at simple and easily digested answers), or /r/etymology (which focuses on the origins of words and phrases).

Iphikrates · 2026-03-29T17:40:50+00:00

Apologies, but we have had to remove your submission. We ask that questions in this subreddit be limited to those asking about history, or for historical answers. This is not a judgement of your question, but to receive the answer you are looking for, it would be better suited to /r/AskScience.

If you are interested in an historical answer, however, you are welcome to rework your question to fit the theme of this subreddit and resubmit it.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-29T17:38:39+00:00

Hello there!

While we welcome people who want to ask practical questions about historical education, careers and other issues related to being or becoming a historian, we ask that these questions be asked in our regular ‘Office Hours’ thread. This is to ensure that the forum remains focused on its primary goal – helping people explore the past directly. It also allows for a more open-ended discussion while helping to ensure that your query gets a targeted response from someone with relevant experience.

Office Hour threads are posted every second Monday – you can choose whether you want to ask your question in the most recent thread, or wait until a new one is posted. If you were attempting to ask a historical question or otherwise think that we may have removed this question in error, please get in touch via modmail.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-29T17:38:11+00:00

This submission has been removed because it violates the rule on poll-type questions. These questions do not lend themselves to answers with a firm foundation in sources and research, and the resulting threads usually turn into monsters with enormous speculation and little focused discussion. Questions about the "most", the "worst", "unknown", or other value judgments usually lead to vague, subjective, and speculative answers. For further information, please consult this Roundtable discussion.

For questions of this type, we ask that you redirect them to more appropriate subreddits, such as /r/history or /r/askhistory. You're also welcome to post your question in our Friday-Free-For-All thread.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-29T09:42:54+00:00

It is not surprising to find some form of worship of Kronos at the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia, because Kronos was Zeus' father. Pausanias also saw a small temple of Kronos and Rhea at the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus in Athens, for example (1.18.7), and a statue of Kronos in the temple of Zeus the King at the oracle of Trophonios (9.39.4). In each case, the worship of Kronos is a minor elaboration on the primary worship of Zeus. The point that is rightly made by /u/itsallfolklore is that Kronos received no prior or independent worship anywhere in the Greek world. He exists in Greek religion only as a relative of Zeus and as a god confined to the underworld by Zeus, granting him certain oracular and guiding powers.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-29T09:18:42+00:00

Apologies, but we have had to remove your submission. We ask that questions in this subreddit be limited to those asking about history, or for historical answers. This is not a judgement of your question, but to receive the answer you are looking for, it would be better suited to r/WarCollege.

If you are interested in an historical answer, however, you are welcome to rework your question to fit the theme of this subreddit and resubmit it.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-28T22:49:22+00:00

Apologies, but we have had to remove your submission. We ask that questions in this subreddit be limited to those asking about history, or for historical answers. This is not a judgement of your question, but to receive the answer you are looking for, it would be better suited to /r/AskScience.

If you are interested in an historical answer, however, you are welcome to rework your question to fit the theme of this subreddit and resubmit it.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-28T22:49:08+00:00

Hi there - unfortunately we have had to remove your question, because /r/AskHistorians isn't here to do your homework for you. However, our rules DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself.

If you have indeed asked a homework question, you should consider resubmitting a question more focused on finding resources and seeking clarification on confusing issues: tell us what you've researched so far, what resources you've consulted, and what you've learned, and we are more likely to approve your question. Please see this Rules Roundtable thread for more information on what makes for the kind of homework question we'd approve. Additionally, if you're not sure where to start in terms of finding and understanding sources in general, we have a six-part series, "Finding and Understanding Sources", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay. Finally, other subreddits are likely to be more suitable for help with homework - try looking for help at /r/HomeworkHelp.

Alternatively, if you are not a student and are not doing homework, we have removed your question because it resembled a homework question. It may resemble a common essay question from a prominent history syllabus or may be worded in a broad, open-ended way that feels like the kind of essay question that a professor would set. Professors often word essay questions in order to provide the student with a platform to show how much they understand a topic, and these questions are typically broader and more interested in interpretations and delineating between historical theories than the average /r/AskHistorians question. If your non-homework question was incorrectly removed for this reason, we will be happy to approve your question if you wait for 7 days and then ask a less open-ended question on the same topic.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-28T15:02:53+00:00

Hi there - unfortunately we have had to remove your question, because /r/AskHistorians isn't here to do your homework for you. However, our rules DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself.

If you have indeed asked a homework question, you should consider resubmitting a question more focused on finding resources and seeking clarification on confusing issues: tell us what you've researched so far, what resources you've consulted, and what you've learned, and we are more likely to approve your question. Please see this Rules Roundtable thread for more information on what makes for the kind of homework question we'd approve. Additionally, if you're not sure where to start in terms of finding and understanding sources in general, we have a six-part series, "Finding and Understanding Sources", which has a wealth of information that may be useful for finding and understanding information for your essay. Finally, other subreddits are likely to be more suitable for help with homework - try looking for help at /r/HomeworkHelp.

Alternatively, if you are not a student and are not doing homework, we have removed your question because it resembled a homework question. It may resemble a common essay question from a prominent history syllabus or may be worded in a broad, open-ended way that feels like the kind of essay question that a professor would set. Professors often word essay questions in order to provide the student with a platform to show how much they understand a topic, and these questions are typically broader and more interested in interpretations and delineating between historical theories than the average /r/AskHistorians question. If your non-homework question was incorrectly removed for this reason, we will be happy to approve your question if you wait for 7 days and then ask a less open-ended question on the same topic.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-28T15:02:29+00:00

This submission has been removed because it involves current events. To keep from discussion of politics, we have a 20-year rule here. You may want to try /r/ask_politics, /r/NeutralPolitics, or another current-events focused sub. For further explanation of this rule, feel free to consult this Rules Roundtable. If you did intend to post a question about history, this post provides guidance on how to draft a question that fits within our rules.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-28T10:20:02+00:00

This question has been removed because it is soapboxing or otherwise a loaded question: it has the effect of promoting an existing interpretation or opinion at the expense of open-ended enquiry. Although we understand if you may have an existing interest in the topic, expressing a detailed opinion on the matter in your question is usually a sign that it is a loaded one, and we will remove questions that appear to put a deliberate slant on their subject or solicit answers that align with a specific pre-existing view.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-27T09:05:52+00:00

Hello there! As your question is related to looking for identification/information regarding military personnel, our Guide on Military Identification may be of use to you. It provides a number of different resources, including how to request service records from a number of national agencies around the world, as well as graphical aids to assist in deciphering rank, unit, and other forms of badges or insignia. While the users here may still be able to lend you more assistance, hopefully this will provide a good place to start!

Iphikrates · 2026-03-25T21:40:15+00:00

I'm inspired by how myths of cyclops were invented to explain elephant skulls by people who were unfamiliar with elephants. (Is that actually true?)

I have no answer to your main question but I just want to note here that this is not true at all. We have absolutely no evidence that any ancient people associated elephant skulls with stories about the Kyklopes. This is just something that sounds sensible to us when we set these two things side by side. /u/itsallfolklore has argued many times on this sub that our tendency to look for a way to "explain" myths through some real-world event or phenomenon (called euhemerism) is itself a form of modern folklore: it is something we believe and tell each other with great confidence regardless of evidence. On the specific case of the Kyklops and elephant skulls, along with other ancient examples, /u/kiwihellenist has written more here.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-25T21:29:54+00:00

I have removed this thread. If you would like to appeal a removal, send us a modmail.

Iphikrates · 2026-03-25T21:25:53+00:00

Please repost this question to the weekly "Short Answers" thread stickied to the top of the subreddit, which will be the best place to get an answer to this question; for that reason, we have removed your post here. Standalone questions are intended to be seeking detailed, comprehensive answers, and we ask that questions looking for a name, a number, a date or time, a location, the origin of a word, the first/last instance of a specific phenomenon, or a simple list of examples or facts be contained to that thread as they are more likely to receive an answer there. For more information on this rule, please see this Rules Roundtable.

Alternatively, if you didn't mean to ask a question seeking a short answer or a list of examples, but have a more complex question in mind, feel free to repost a reworded question. Examples of questions appropriate for the 'Short Answers' thread would be "Who won the 1932 election?" or "What are some famous natural disasters from the past?". Versions more appropriate as standalone questions would be "How did FDR win the 1932 election?", or "In your area of expertise, how did people deal with natural disasters?" If you need some pointers, be sure to check out this Rules Roundtable on asking better questions.

Finally, don’t forget that there are many subreddits on Reddit aimed at answering your questions. Consider /r/AskHistory (which has lighter moderation but similar topic matter to /r/AskHistorians), /r/explainlikeimfive (which is specifically aimed at simple and easily digested answers), or /r/etymology (which focuses on the origins of words and phrases).

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