Hearted Youtube comments on Dan Davis History (@DanDavisHistory) channel.

  1. This was very interesting! I agree, Cassingham was a hero on his own merits. I saw a documentary that claimed that Robin Hood really came from Yorkshire and could have been two or three men fused into the legend.
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  2. And to think this beautiful culture was almost forgotten forever. I'm upset that I was never taught about them in school, we learn about Sumeria, Egypt, Indus, and the Chinese river civilizations but this is left out, always, eventhough they are just as interesting. Also, I was surprised to hear that there was some coexistence between the Yamnaya and these people, but that obviously didn't last forever, actually it ended relatively quickly
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  3. He would have towered over the 5'2" Neolithic farmer though.
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  4. I am Afghan and the word literally means "Horsemen" in Persian because the Sassanian knew we had the best breed of horses and were excellent breeders. The Proto-Indo Iranians (Aryans) are believed to be the first people to domesticate the horse in the Eurasian steppes, even the oldest chariots trace back to the Sinastha culture in Central Asia where they came from. In Pashtun culture, horses are well revered.
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  5. Thank you, Dan. One reason - of many - that I like your presentations is that you address, either directly or indirectly, the complexity of the different periods you research and study. I, for one, appreciate that approach. ;)
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  6.  @DanDavisHistory  Lets sacrifice somebody to apease them! Indeed I have already somebody in mind :)
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  7. I visited Great Orme a few years back on a whim to fill a spare afternoon without being aware of its importance, and I'm so glad I did. Incredible place and I'm looking forward to watching this video tomorrow. You always seem to do videos on subjects that I have great interest in, Dan! And fantastic videos at that!
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  8. As chariot warfare fan…this is such an interesting documentary. Amazing how much was going on outside of Summer, Akkad and Egypt.I would guess Hammurabi chariots to be like the reconstructed shown. Will watch again.
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  9. I actually visited his castle in Romania when I was a little kid...it was fascinating...very well made video, it's nice to hear some real life stories about my country 🙂
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  10. Total speculation (given the burial situation): these people may have been considered 'undead' on some level. Perhaps many had brain injuries from the original trauma. Loss of memory/concentration, diminished speech and physical coordination could effect a large number of the survivors. Perhaps they felt that the person who came back wasn't all together the same as the one they had lost.
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  11. You were recommended to me by Survive the Jive.
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  12. Both visits (to La bastida, the main city; and La Almoloya, the ruling place) are highly enjoyable. I strongly recommend to do both of them if one is travelling to Murcia region and is into archaeology/ancient history. Cheers from Spain! Un saludo, Mr. Davis. :)
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  13. The cultures that made up the Carthaginian vassal states are very interesting but there's so little said about them. I would love to know more about the Balearic islands culture.
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  14. Boosting this for the algorithm. It's sad how what might seem like commonsense (you get what you need from it's nearest convenient source, not the other side of the planet) is ignored by lots ot people when it comes to our history
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  15. I love the Bronze Age! It's so exotic, not just in the sense of distance in time, but also in how little it's used in our modern media, be it books, films, videogames. Very interesting video, Dan, and I appreciate all the work that went into it, great production value! I also appreciate writing books in such a setting.
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  16. This was really good! You have a unique skill at humanizing ancient life for us.
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  17. Thank you Dan. I am finding this video to be very interesting. I would indeed like to see a video on weights and measures used in various ages. Thank you all of the work that you put into all of your videos.
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  18. I don't know about dogs but wolves mate from January to march or in the late winter. The time most associated with Sirius is the high summer when it reaches its highest position in the southern night sky. Here too you have the connection to heat, fire, burning, or glowing (it was once glowing red). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_days
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  19. My master thesis was on TRB in Eastern Bohemia. I was really fascinated by TRB as well as Bell Beakers while studying Archaeology.
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  20. If I had to guess the Yamnaya provided horses and wagons. To the point they didn't conquer but united whole groups who for centuries could only walk to get information across. So their language became a diplomatic/commerce language.
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  21. I'm so glad Tom Rowsel recommended this channel
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  22. Reminds me of the story of samson, who was known to go berserk, raid and lootrival settlements, and whose power came from not cutting his hair. He only lost his power when he became married and had his hair cut by his deceptive philistine wife.
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  23. dog sacrifice existed among the native Americans. George Catlin described a Sioux ritual. A sacrifice of a companion for sharing friendship. Maybe it goes back to the ancient north eurasians. And thank you for another great video.
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  24. This debunks Arab nationalist who think Horses were first tamed in Arabia (they literally believe that)
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  25. I'm sardinian and I like a lot your video! You could have mention Mont 'e Prama worriors too, but what you said is so well detailed I am thinking you have sardinian blood too! And thanks also because you showed the Nuraghe of my village, Barumini (in the thumbnail too)
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  26. This should be shown in schools. Great content! You're a treasure Dan.
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  27. The detail on horse domestication in the Horse, the Wheel and Language was one of the best parts of the book.Domestication of the horse was the central most important basis for spurring the economy of the steppe people, from what I have read in this and other sources. I think it's what makes the steppe cultures so very fascinating. They were such innovators and this one thing changed the course of all of future civilizations. It's vital to the history of human civilization, so you need to devote enough time to sufficiently explore it.
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  28. Man this gotta be one of your best works. The structure and pacing as we arch across millenia leading up to Sargon and the pay-off 👌👌 You do have "profesional documentary writer" on your resume besides "professional book author", right?
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  29. This is my first time meeting another author who writes Bronze Age historical fantasy! So great to see. I know embarrassingly little about Bronze Age Europe, though. (I mostly focus on the ancient Near East, specifically Mesopotamia.) Definitely going to check your books out!
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  30. The best documentary on William Marshall I have ever seen. Bravo !Why the HELL hasn't Hollywood made a Blockbuster out of this story. Considering the Garbage they usually pump out, this would in turn be Monumental !
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  31. Many of the native peoples here in North America who captured and used the feral horses that escaped from the Spanish, trained and rode them without bits and bridles. They used a leather thong with a loop in the end that was placed in the horse's mouth for steering and control. Other leather straps were braided into the horse's mane for a handhold, and a simple pad and strap were used for a saddle. The person riding the horse invested a lot of time and effort into training it to work with the rider, just like people do today. Different methods, similar results. There's no reason why the ancient steppe people didn't do the same thing. The leathers would leave it no trace being organic, and it was more than likely only some people were of a mind to try the idea out... There's always one guy or gal who says "I wonder what would happen if..." So, I am of the mind that horse taming and riding was early, but the idea didn't exactly spread like wildfire until later
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  32. Stonehenge - not midsummer sunrise, but midwinter sunset. Brilliant series of videos! I'd like to read a story describing the travails of Doggerland people, as they cope with the aftermath of the Storegga catastrophe, and a video of the research that went into it. Any chance, Dan?
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  33. Amazing documentary, Dan, as always. As a Spaniard, I never learned a single word about Drake as a kid in school; just, from the movies, that he was a pirate and a buccaneer. I was surprised by all the parallels between his circumnavigation of the world and that of the Magellan-Elcano (el Cano) expedition 60 years earlier. Both Drake and Magellan faced challenges to their command from high-born people in their armadas due in part to a lack of clarity as to the chain of command, both confronted this obstacle in the exact same spot, the Bay of San Julián, and both ended up eliminating the challengers to their authority (Magellan had two men executed, marooned other two). After the Pacific crossing, both reached the exact same islands, both had the exact same experience with the natives and both gave the island the exact same name! (Magellan called it Isla de los Ladrones: Island of Thieves). I wonder if Drake had available any chronicle of the Magellan journey (if I am not mistaken, Pigafetta’s account made the rounds in Europe) and he may have just confirmed the name he may have known Magellan gave the island. I also wonder if Drake encountered the same troubles with scurvy during the Pacific crossing as Magellan. No one knew about the effects of carrying citrus fruits on board at either time, right? Then, both expeditions stopped at Ternate and acquired great amounts of Clove... I was also surprised of how fast Drake travelled the Indian Ocean and made it back to Europe compared to el Cano (who took 5 months, although he lost the mizzenmast in a storm in Cape of Hope and also went out into the Atlantic to shake off Potuguesse pursuers from Cabo Verde). Both el Cano’s and Drake’s ships spent 3 years at sea, being both brand new when they started, so they must have been equally deteriorated by shipworm. I wonder how much ships and the art of navigation may have advanced in the intervening 60 years... neither one had steering wheel yet, which was introduced in the 1700’s... The whip-staff (or gooseneck? for the rudder?) appears around 1513 in Spain, so Magellan might have already had it in 1518, but I read descriptions in which they seem to have been steering with just the rudder arm (tiller?), as they did at the time of Columbus; by Drake’s time they must have all been fitted with the whip-staff... Although in many modern retellings of Magellan’s trip it is presumed that they used the common log to calculate speed, I believe in 1518 the device didn’t exist yet... but it probably did by the time of Drake... They both had quadrants but not Sextants or Octants (I ignore if the English also used astrolabes like the Castilians)... Regarding the Invincible Armada, I understand that the Castilians meant to bring their infantry on board in Flanders, but weren’t able because the English engaged them in the English Channel (as you describe) and the Dutch blocked access to the Flemish ports (considering the ultimate outcome, if the Castilian tercios had all been on board, they would have drowned and that would have really been a crippling blow to Spain’s grip on Europe). From what I read, after several gunnery exchanges both armadas ran out of ordnance, but while the English were able to re-ammunition in their own coasts, the Castilians were cut off from Spain by the English fleet and from their Flemish safe harbor by the Dutch and became sitting ducks. If the English had previously been hard pressed to penetrate the Castilian hulls, they were now able to fire at a much closer range; then, as you describe, when the Castilians attempted to flee around Scotland and Ireland to save their ships, their armada was shipwrecked by storms. In Spain, of course, we emphasize how few ships were lost to enemy fire and how many to the storms :)
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  34. Holy crap. From my dutch perspective: The odd times from November to new years, the way festivals felt accros Europe, the way so many small customs and practice have evolved and continue to evolve The human experience across so much time and space I can't even I think I can safely say this video has deeply changed my view on life in so many aspects. I wonder what revelations might dawn on me now Idk how much, but I feel this might have a profound impact on my own grand story telling and world building near future projects.
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  35. The fact that he was so highly esteemed despite his disability implies that he was either a hereditary ruler or performed some truly impressive feats in his youth, quite possibly both. But then he may have taken an arrow to his knee, cutting short his adventures.
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  36. Great video. I love the attention you gave to the maps and all the persons' infocards
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  37. Thank you Mr. Davis. Through your presentations I’ve embarrassingly learned more about prehistoric European archaeology from you than from my European Archaeology course in university. That’s not to say I had a bad professor, he was actually very good. But there has been so much more advancement in the field since those days.
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  38. What a man! I'm lucky enough to have lived,worked and retired on his wider Manor! Great man.
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  39. Nice work Dan. Could you make a piece about his mother ? I'm fascinated with Eleanor.
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  40. Thanks from Poland👍🇵🇱
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  41. I was unfamiliar with a lot of the dates for the adoption of horses for combat, therefore I was genuinely surprised at how late in history mounted cavalry were used by the Chinese for instance. Same with the Greek Dark Age - I had always thought that the Greeks had adopted cavalry not too long after the Bronze Age collapse, but it appears centuries after the fall of Mycenaean civilisation for cavalry to become widespread. A very informative and thought provoking video.
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  42. Hi Dan, thank you, that was really interesting. It occurred to me another association between stone hammer/ axes and thunder is that, when struck, they would have emitted a spark. This may have inspired the belief, by stone age people, that during thunder storms, there was a massive bloke in the sky striking an enormous hammer.
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  43. I was wondering how you would approach the enigma of 'The Sea Peoples'. You held it lightly, and didn't force assumptions upon a period that is , as yet , unknowable. Good work. An informative addition to a period of history that retains it's shroud of secrecy.
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  44. Those female figurines are obviously Barbies.
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  45. Another great video! It seems you keep digging up underrated cultures from the time around the Copper Age, like you're laying down pieces of a puzzle that most of us can't see yet. It has been clear to me for a while that the usual few cultures found in classic history books are at best the skeleton of our civilization, that the reality is far richer and more complex. Seeing someone who is far ahead of me in that understanding is quite inspiring!
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  46. This is one of the most intriguing videos you've produced so far. To think that the Terramare culture would've played a major role in the Bronze Age collapse, and were among the mass of the Sea Peoples is highly likely.
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  47. In my opinion those exquisite head gear is all about the recognition of the user. They were all covered by theyr shields an even helmets, so visible head gear would make easy to identifie each individual in the field. Early Bronze Age was the time in witch the "Warrior Nobility" idea seems to have originated in the Mediterranean region, so, being recognized while doing some great deeds in battle could be vital to theyr cultural and social stuctures. Also, receiveing some "divine assistance" would never be turned down, so, they would honor the gods by briging a simbol assossiated with them to battle. Like it was for the samurai, a warrior nobility that rised in Japan much later, that used those crazy "Kabuto" helmets, some of wich had Shinto, Buddhist and, at least one that I have seen, Christian simbols. OBS.: the last one I have only seen one picture on-line, no references associated to it, so I don't know if it is true or a fake one.
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  48. Amazing work. Mining is a tough and dangerous job in the modern day. I can only imagine how hellish it would have been for people in the bronze age. It would be interesting to know what the average lifespan of a miner from that mine would be. I imagine fairly low. Which also brings into question how they would have kept the mine filled with workers. Obviously, raiding for a fresh supply of slaves would have been one way, and they probably did just that. However, I wonder if there was any sort of freeman, adventure situation which would attract people to the mine in a similar manner to the gold rushes of North America. People looking to better their status in life. Although, much of the gold rush was predicated on the idea of staking a claim and therefore owning what you find. I imagine the entire mine would have been owned by one elite family or another. In which case anything found within the mine would automatically belong to the Chief. Whatever the case, it would have been brutal, hard work.
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  49. Thank you for an appraisal of Richard from the perspective of his times.
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  50. Please do a video about Mediterranean Bronze Age sailing ships
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