Imperial Women in Byzantium 1025-1204 by Barbara Hill (1999)
Is it just me, or are academic book covers trying too hard to reach new audiences?
u/Cu77lefish — 8 hours ago
u/Veritas_Certum
r/skeptic r/AskAnthropology r/FromSeries r/TerribleBookCovers r/Armor r/BreadTube r/Hema r/byzantium r/OpenAussie r/OrthodoxMemes r/Archaeology r/VideoGameAnalysis
Viktor Antonov’s secret inspiration for Half Life 2 & Dishonored
Bulgarian art director Viktor Antonov is arguably one of the most well known designers in the modern video game industry. From Half-Life 2 to Dishonored, his distinctive and arresting style has left a unique mark on every game he has touched.
This video describes Antonov’s artistic vision and inspiration, focusing in particular on the most influential source for his distinctive architectural imagery, a source which Antonov never seems to have revealed publicly.
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Timestamps
00:00 Start
00:07 Introduction
03:38 Antonov's artistic background
07:48 Anarchitecture
15:26 Lebbeus Woods: outsider architect
29:06 How Antonov adapted Woods
44:13 Neomechanical Tower & Twelve Monkeys
48:10 After Lebbeus Woods
50:44 Conclusion
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Media credits & sources.
u/Veritas_Certum — 3 days ago
▲ 24 r/skeptic
Exposing fake Incan history #1
Megalithic Mysteries is a Twitter account and YouTube channel promoting pseudo-archaeological narratives about history, such as claiming there is no evidence ancient Egyptians could have built the pyramids, and asserting the structures which Incan records say they built were in fact “beyond their capabilities”.
In his video The Ancient Mystery The Spanish Tried To Bury, published on 9 January 2026, Megalithic Mysteries claims the Spanish could not believe humans had built the Incan structures at Sacsayhuamán, attributed their construction to demons, tried to destroy them with cannons, then tried to hide them by burying them.
He further claims the Inca could not have built these structures since they did not have the necessary technology, and instead found the structures already complete on their arrival, repairing, maintaining, modifying, and building on top of them.
This video is the first in a series showing none of these claims are true. Megalithic Mysteries fails to mention all the historical evidence which contradicts him.
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Time stamps
00:02 Introduction
01:11 Were the megaliths carved with precision?
05:22 Did the Spanish believe the walls were made by demons?
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Tony Trupp's excellent article on Incan construction methods & history.
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Media credits & sources.
u/Veritas_Certum — 3 days ago
▲ 72 r/FromSeries
After three and a half seasons of this I have to wonder, do they really want help or not?
For children supposedly in desparate need of assistance, they seem bizarrely insistent on keeping people clueless about how to help them. If they can't even figure out that three and a half seasons of simply grunting "anghkooey" isn't getting anyone anywhere, what use are they?
>!I found it telling that even Tabitha is getting sick of them, not that it helped.!<
>!Tabitha: Stop speaking in riddles!!<
>!Boy in White: <speaks in more riddles>!<
>!Jade was equally frustrated at his younger self spouting cryptic nonsense, though at least his vision provided something in the way of an intelligible contribution. !<
You know why the monsters are winning? Because they actually take the time to communicate clearly and effectively with the people they manipulate.
More seriously, I'm really hoping From doesn't drop into LOST territory, because it seems to be heading determinedly in that direction. Something which drew me into the series at the start was the way people actually realistically communicated with each other, sharing their knowledge to help get things done, but from about season three it seems people stopped doing that, and all the important content is being thrown into a mystery box to be addressed at some undetermined point in the future, if it's addressed at all.
u/Veritas_Certum — 9 days ago
▲ 53 r/AskAnthropology
Do anthropologists regard Indigenous creation stories as useful sources for scientific insights into the universe?
I spend some time reading and investigating the claims of various alternate historians and pseudo-archaeologists, in particular claims of Indigenous people having advanced scientific knowledge embedded in their traditional narratives, especially their creation stories.
I've provided below a much-discussed example, the claim that the Dogon people had advanced astronomical knowledge thousands of years before it was discovered by "Western science" (yes I hate the term too).
I regard this particular claim as thoroughly discredited, but there are dozens of such claims aired in the alt-hist/pseudo-arch communities, and since they often source them from (often idiosyncratic), interpretations of anthroplogical literature, I thought I would at least steelman them by asking if professional anthropologists take a particular view of these ideas.
Here in Australia there are Aboriginal oral traditions estimated at 7-10,000 years old which have been credited with recording accurate large-scale environmental changes, such as this one, so there seems to be the potential for this kind of information to be recorded accurately over deep time.
Additionally, I often see the argument made that if Indigenous people such as the Aboriginal Australians were watching the stars for 60,000+ years, it's logical for them to have built up a far superior understanding of astronomy than so-called Western science, which has barely been studying it for 2,000 years.
Over the deep time for which various Indigenous cultures have existed, there has been plenty of opportunity for them to determine the size and shape of the earth, solsticies, various solar and lunar alignments, the birth and death of stars, and the precession of the equinoxes, so it's at least plausible that this information could have been discovered and recorded accurately, and mathematical knowledge such as primes, Eurler's Number, and calculus don't seem to require any specific technology, just a lot of sitting around and thinking.
Do anthropologists have a particular position on whether a creation story may record accurate information about, for example, the Big Bang, quantum physics, astronomical events, and other scientific knoweldge commonly thought to have only been discovered in the last 500 years or so?
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u/Veritas_Certum — 10 days ago
▲ 0 r/Hema
Do HEMA clubs typically have harnischfechten equipment rules?
I've been a member of a couple of HEMA clubs, but never one which did harnischfechten. Is it typical for HEMA clubs to have harnischfechten equipment rules such as:
- A specific minimum level of historical accuracy, including the harness meeting the physical dimensions of extant armor, each item of the harness belonging to the same region and a specific narrow time period, and item thicknesses within the ranges of extant armor
- A specific material standard, to ensure the harness is only made with period-available metals
- Individuals fighting must both be using harness which was historically synchronous, so someone in early fifteenth century harness can't fight someone in mid- to late fifteenth century harness
- Weapons must be of period accurate weights and dimensions
- All combat must be based on specific period sources, such as fechtbuchs
- All rulesets must be historical rulesets used in the same period as the armor
u/Veritas_Certum — 25 days ago
▲ 21 r/Archaeology
How pseudo-archaeologists create conspiracies
Dan Richards runs the YouTube channel DeDunking. He’s a self-described alternative historian and pseudo-scientist, and he has a tendency towards conspiratorial thinking, which is common in the alternative history community.
- "As you have no doubt guessed by now, I AM AN ALTERNATE HISTORIAN. As a matter of fact I HAPPILY CALL MYSELF A PSEUDO-SCIENTIST, as I form a hypothesis, research it enough to satisfy myself, and then put that claim out into the world. By not following the same rigorous processes that an archaeologist would, I AM ENGAGING IN A FORM OF PSEUDO-ARCHAEOLOGY.", DeDunking, “Open Letter to Society for American Archaeology President #archaeology #psychology #alternatehistory,” YouTube, 8 July 2024
In this video I explain how Dan created a conspiracy theory that important evidence for the age of the Great Pyramid is being suppressed, in an attempt to substantiate his own belief that the Great Pyramid is much older than the date range established by mainstream archaeology.
This video uses Dan as an example of how pseudo-archaeologists rely on conspiracy theories to compensate for lack of evidence for their claims, and how they leverage these conspiracy theories in an attempt to discredit academics and professionals, so they can dismiss mainstream scholarly commentary and replace it with their own pseudo-history.
My sources include a couple of articles on the interaction between pseudo-science, pseudo-history, and conspiracism.
- Moyer, Melinda Wenner. “People Drawn to Conspiracy Theories Share a Cluster of Psychological Features.” Scientific American, 1 March 2019
- Ph.D, Dr Priyom Bose. “From Education to Politics: A Pan-European Analysis of COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Influences.” News-Medical, 27 October 2023
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Time stamps
0:00 Start
00:02 Introduction
02:18 How Dan tried to find the paper
05:06 How Dan created a conspiracy theory
13:45 Dan was wrong the whole time
21:23 How Dan realised his mistake
25:21 Why Dan needed his conspiracy theory
u/Veritas_Certum — 1 month ago
▲ 20 r/Hema
Is it true that "Countless fencing books were burned for being 'ungodly'"?
I found this comment recently.
>Furthermore, dueling was considered to be explicitly a non-Christian activity through much of history. Countless fencing books were burned for being 'ungodly'.
Despite some discussion of the issue I didn't see any sources cited. I also found this comment later.
>Oh here's a fun fact. They would take copies of Capo Ferro and draw religious scenes in the background so that the books wouldn't get burned.
I didn't see any sources cited for this either. I've been doing HEMA for about a decade, and altthough I've always been aware of church disapproval of duels (Fourth Lateran Council, Council of Trent), I hadn't heard of "countless fencing books burned for being ungodly", nor that adding "religious scenes in the background" was a simple way to fool the church into thinking that a fencing book shouldn't be burned.
I'd love to see some sources and scholarly discussion of this issue.
u/Veritas_Certum — 1 month ago
▲ 4 r/BreadTube
The fabrication of Aboriginal Australian history #2 | the rise & fall of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu [12m 38s]
This is the second in a series examining Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu, which claims the Aboriginal people who were the original inhabitants of Australia were agriculturalists with sophisticated engineering, aquaculture, architectural, and botanical knowledge.
This video describes the conservative backlash against the book, how it was defended in popular media, and how professional scholars started raising serious doubts over the book’s accuracy.
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Timestamps
00:00 Start
0:02 Introduction
00:30 Australia's History Wars
03:01 Conservative backlash against Dark Emu
08:11 Dark Emu defended
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Media credits & sources.
u/Veritas_Certum — 1 month ago
▲ 1 r/BreadTube
The fabrication of Aboriginal Australian history #1 | the rise & fall of Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu [10m 47s]
Bruce Pascoe's book Dark Emu appeared to be a step forward in advancing the knowledge of Aboriginal Australian history. Unfortunately it turned out to be built on fabrication. This video is the first in a series describing the how the work's intial popularity was replaced with skepticism after serious academic critique.
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Timestamps
00:00 Start
0:02 Introduction
01:07 Dark Emu’s scholarly predecessors
06:33 Dark Emu’s initial reception
07:27 Dark Emu's rise to fame
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u/Veritas_Certum — 2 months ago
▲ 12 r/BreadTube
Did scientists corrupt this Wikipedia page? anti-science rhetoric from a pseudo-archaeologist [33m57s]
Alternate historian Dan Richards runs the Youtube channel DeDunking. In his video "Archaeologist John Hoopes Corrupts Wikipedia", Dan claims Hoopes has selectively edited Wikipedia pages to make them biased. In particular, he claims Hoopes has corrupted the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis page. But did Hoopes really corrupt this Wikipedia page? I investigated Dan’s claims, and found they were demonstrably false. There’s a lot Dan doesn’t tell you.
See this playlist for other videos critiquing Dan. Note this is a video quoting Wikipedia articles, which are volatile online sources; the articles' content may be different to the quotations seen here by the time you view this video.
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Time stamps
0:00 Start
00:02 Introduction
00:28 Has John Hoopes corrupted this Wikipedia page?
07:54 Does the Wikipedia page use weasel words?
13:34 Where is the evidence Hoopes has corrupted the page?
19:10 What Dan also isn't telling you
31:08 Is Dan a reliable source?
u/Veritas_Certum — 2 months ago
▲ 11 r/OpenAussie
From "Condition of the Aborgines", published in The Argus, 23 November 1877, with some absolute yikes language.
>The commission state that the board for the protection of the aborigines caused a special census to be taken of all natives in Victoria on the 15th of March last, and have thus ascertained a fact of some importance in considering their condition.
>The result confirms the opinion generally held, that their number has rapidly diminished. The total, inclusive of half-castes and those of less close consanguinity, is 1 667, of these 527 are on stations under the board, and the remaining 540 are described as residents of Victoria, but a large proportion frequent both banks of the Murray, visiting sometimes Victoria and sometimes New South Wales, and belong as much to one colony as to the other.
>With regard to those on the stations, it is gratifying to report that considerable improvement has been effected in their general condition, and still larger results may be attained, They dwell in houses, are decently and suitably clad, live with their families around them, polygamy is not known, and marriage to respected.
>They follow employments of civilised people with some regularity - fully as much as can be expected of a race just emerging from barbarism; the vices of drunkenness and prostitution, though not unknown, are exceptional. The young receive sound education in schools, and the great leading truths of Christianity are instilled into the minds of all.
>The stations are six in number, four of these are mission, receiving aid from the Government stores and grants of money for improvements, salaries and all other expenses being provided by the mission. The other two are under the immediate management of the board.
u/Veritas_Certum — 2 months ago
▲ 142 r/Armor
u/Veritas_Certum — 2 months ago