What questions do you have about stuff from History, or am I the only one?

[EverySongbirdSays]

Hi all, HQ here. We're moving this thread over to History Club now where Songbird will be starting a Part 2 thread for more History quizzical shenanigans

The main history thing I've been pondering for the last couple of days since the weather shifted is the history of clothes.

So... how did Early Man manage in the winter, how did they make clothes out of animal skin?

After that, I understand that clothes production as we know it today began with the industrial revolution.

But how did people manage for clothes you know before we had cotton or machinery

How/when did we realise you could knit wool to make a jumper?

I'm sorry if it's a bit of a stupid question

Has anyone got any stupid questions I might know the answer to ?

Maybe they were designed through evolution to last as long as they were needed given the diet we ate and the average lifespan backaways? We're a split new species after all.

How long did most people live 1000 years ago?

"I don't think that any other mammal has such painful teeth?"

Horses have some pretty painful tooth problems.

Guinea pigs and rabbits can die from untreated dental issues.

Dogs and cats routinely have to have their teeth cleaned and removed due to decay.

So I doubt it's just us.

"that's one thing I like about Poldark- the characters ride cobs!"

I've never given that a try - I might, just for the horses, rofl

When Philippa Gregory's White Queen was on tv, many of us were gleefully picking holes in it, and someone came on and said actually the horses were one of the few things they had got right. Apparently PG is keen on horses and had insisted.

cozie - 1000 years isn't long enough to see effects of evolution. People did die sooner, but the same is true 200 years ago, too. It's high infant morality that really brings down average life spans.

People do live much longer now than 200 years ago - medical care is much better, general health is much better. But, through history, people who got good healthcare and diet, and who didn't get ill, did live a long time. There are plenty of medieval people who make it to their 70s and 80s, just as we do.

I'm from NI we learnt about Charles and Cromwell. 1st year of secondary school was the battle of hastings and castles, 2nd year was Charles and Cromwell, 3rd year was WW1 4th and 5th WW2 and the cold war I didn't pick history for a level so I don't know what was covered then

do horses and guinea pigs have pain when their teeth come through? I think all rodents need to keep gnawing to stop their teeth getting too long, and it can be hard to keep up with the needs of a domestic animal.

Someone told me that horses mouths are a silly shape and they also have a naturally sweet tooth, so can have bad teeth problems - not sure if that's true or not...

You're right, LRD. Perhaps I should have said 10,000 years ago, though? (1,000 was just a figure picked out of the air.)

Back to regnal names, I think that idea of Charles taking George in honor of his grandfather was something that he or others possibly floated when the Queen Mother was alive. I think he will be Charles. He has always been known by that name and as his reign is likely to be short, I think he will want the continuity of using the name he has been known by his whole life. Also, I think that William and Kate choosing George for their son is an indication that Charles won't be George.

Because of the way horses graze, their teeth can form painful 'hooks' that can cut the inside of the mouth and impair feeding (if bad enough).

You can also tell a horse's age by its teeth, which is where the phrase 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' comes from.

My question is about the surname Plantagenet, did it become Plant as I would have thought it wouldn't have been very popular in Tudor times?

The surname is from the Latin name for broom.

Eggs! My husband and I often wonder who was the first person to think - "Oh, see that thing that just came out of the chicken's bum? I'm going to take it, break it into a bowl, whisk it up, cook it and then eat it. And I shall call it an omelette!" I mean, would YOU take that risk?!

"It's high infant morality that really brings down average life spans."

PFBs?

Animals eat eggs, so wouldn't have been much of thought. We may even have eaten them raw before we had thought, as such.

Some natural selection may be detectable over 2000 years:
biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/07/052084
(academic genetics paper)

As there wasn't so much sugar about to cause tooth decay before the last few hundred years (though it's thought the increase in carbs with the advent of agriculture to a lesser extent affected teeeth) people wouldn't have had so many problems with tooth decay early enough to kill them off before they reproduced. They would have also been eating tougher foods in childhood which meant their jaws more often grew big enough to accommodate wisdom teeth.

Something else that may interest you guys (warning, although often fascinating, some articles may be gross or gory): blog by an archaeologist about motherhood in prehistory:
motherhoodinprehistory.wordpress.com/

Surnames:

How come in England there are lots of Johnsons, Robertsons, Robinsons, Thompsons etc, but I've never heard of a Henryson, Arthurson, Paulson or similar variations on "CommonName'sSon"?

Harrison is probably a derivative of Henryson.

There might have been other variations but a number of family names simply ceased to exist after WW1 when the last male to bear that name was killed.

I don't think Arthur was ever as common a name as Thomas though there are a few Arthursons if you Google. I think it probably depends which names were popular at the point when surnames were becoming a thing for ordinary people.

I was reading something recently about veterinary history and it said the average working life of a Hackney cab horse was 4 years.

I knew a Paulson family a one point. I don't know if Poulsen is a spelling variation or entirely unconnected.

Well Paulson is a name (thinking of the hedge fund manager!), maybe Harrison and Harris come from Henry given it used to be pronounced Harry / Herry?
I think I read that at one point in medieval times almost all men were called John, Thomas or two other names which I can't recall.

Oh, that's interesting about jaws and wisdom teeth. I wondered about that!

There were a lot of opportunities for rarer names to die out between the establishment of surnames and the present. Some of the Christian names we think of as common weren't as popular in medieval times, I've a feeling Paul was one of those. Meanwhile, there were popular names most contemporary people have never heard of, such as, off the top of my head, Haimo, which became Hammond(s). There is a big new book about British surnames recently published, has had a lot of attention in the press, I'm sure you'd find some answers in there: Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland

Meant to ask before, does anyone know where to find the full 1970s Iron Age / Living in the Past series? There are plenty of copies of the one off follow up documentary on Youtube, but not the main episodes. I'd rather like to see the 90s sequel again too... have been wanting to watch the original ever since that was first on.

William/Wilson?

Yes in Elizabethan times (Ian Mortimer book) over half of men are John, William or Thomas.
Over half of women are Mary, Elizabeth, Agnes, Joan or Margaret.