This might just be a Monday morning shower thought, but I'm aware that there has been an occasional tendency to reuse burial spaces in history, and I was wondering if Europeans made a practice of reusing or appropriating Native American gravesites.
This might be more of an r/AskArchaeology question, but I'm curious if we have any evidence - either physical evidence from latrines or historical records - that books were used as sources of toilet tissue, and how widespread the practice was. It seems like an odd idea in hindsight that rural areas after mass printing should be that lacking in toilet paper compared to pre-industrial alternatives.
More specifically, what cultural and lifestyle adaptations were made by people living in Florida to keep cool and survive during the hot summer months?
I presume that antisemitism was rife in the 19th century United States in general, but was it particularly notable in the CSA? Were Jewish citizens particularly persecuted in the CSA compared to the Union, or were there comparable prejudices on both sides of the war?
I'm vaguely aware that there were wide-ranging trade networks for goods across North America before European contact in the late 15th century, but I'm less well-read when it comes to the movement of people and information along those same networks.
So I know Cahokia lasted for several centuries, and there might have been some overlap between the last period of occupation and the founding of Tenochtitlan. Do we have any evidence that the inhabitants of the one metropolis knew about or were in communication/trade with the other?
One of those sleep-deprived shower questions. I sort of assume that Native Americans originally tapped maple trees for their sap, and that Europeans learned using it as a sweetener from them, but I'm less clear on how it came to be a staple for pancakes/flapjacks.
I'm thinking primarily of US and British militaries; it seems like there were a fair number of beards and moustaches in the American Civil War and that shaving became more prominent around WWI. I heard once that this was due to the need for gas masks, but I don't know if that's genuine or something made up after the fact. Was it following the particular style of a given period, or did it have a hygiene aspect?
Not looking for an ethical argument, I'm more interested if there were specific historical incidents which shaped the language of the conventions or inspired the emphasis against "no quarter."