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Thank you I did not know that

Cult in this context is not meant in the derogatory sense it is used today. Rather, it refers to the ritual worship of a group. For example, the worship in the Temple in ancient Israel would be referred to as the “Temple cult” even if a majority of the tribes at any time also believed the same.

“…it’s his nine victory, innit?” Was a dead give away to it being from Britain imo

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Perhaps it was a small, insular organization?

Excuse my ignorance but isn't it a tad inappropriate to refer to an ancient religion as a cult? I mean, it may have been a cult by today's standards. Obviously we don't sacrifice things anymore, however to these people in their time this was most definitely a normal practice across many different cultures throughout history. To refer to it as a cult is just a bit inaccurate, in my opinion.

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That's not so much irony as in the fact people rarely live to be 2000 years old.

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Excerpt from the linked summary^1 by study^2 co-authors Melissa Kennedy and Hugh Thomas:

>In the 1970s, the first archaeological surveys of northwest Saudi Arabia identified an ancient and mysterious rectangular structure.

>The sandstone walls of the structure were 95m long, and although it was determined to be unique, no further study of this unusual site was undertaken.

>These structures are now known as mustatils (Arabic for rectangle).

>In 2019–2020, we undertook excavations at a mustatil site called IDIHA-0008222. The structure, made from unworked sandstone, measures 140m in length and 20m in width.

>Excavations in the head of the mustatil revealed a semi-subterranean chamber. Within this chamber were three large, vertical stones.

>We have interpreted these as “betyls”, or sacred standing stones which represented unknown ancient deities.

> 

>Surrounding these stones were well-preserved cattle, goat, and gazelle horns. The horns are so well preserved that much of what we find is the horn sheath, made of keratin – the same substance as hair and nails.

>We found only the upper cranial elements of these animals: the teeth, skulls, and horns. This suggests a clear and specific choice of offerings.

>Further analysis suggests the bulk of these remains belonged to male animals and the cattle were aged between 2 and 12 years. Their slaughter would have formed a significant proportion of a community’s wealth, indicating these were high-value offerings.

>While recording these structures after rain, we noted that almost all mustatils pointed towards areas that held water.

>Current evidence suggests that the mustatils were in use between 5300 and 4900 BCE, a time when Arabia was green and humid.

>However, within a few generations, the ancient inhabitants of Saudi Arabia began to reuse these structures, this time to bury human body parts.

^1 Enigmatic ruins across Arabia hosted ancient ritual sacrifices, Melissa Kennedy and Hugh Thomas, 16 Mar. 2023, https://theconversation.com/enigmatic-ruins-across-arabia-hosted-ancient-ritual-sacrifices-201574

^2 Kennedy M, Strolin L, McMahon J, Franklin D, Flavel A, et al. (2023) Cult, herding, and ‘pilgrimage’ in the Late Neolithic of north-west Arabia: Excavations at a mustatil east of AlUla. PLOS ONE 18(3): e0281904. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281904

One theory is that in the early to mid 20th century California had two factors going for it: lots of rich people (that's where Hollywood is) and a relatively weak presence of organized religion, so you could more easily find rich spiritual people who do not already frequent a church/religious organization.

Another factor is that it's a self fulfilling prophecy, if all cults expect California to be a good starting ground... they're all going to go to California.

Thanks for advice

You might need to pull it apart further. There's a lot of threads with the rivalry for power. Who comes to power as a result of his death? What policies do they enact that differed from Lenin's? How did the Soviet Union change as a result of this? What ideologies were different? How did those that didn't win the struggle for power end up? How did this differ than before, how did this impact future power struggles?

My textbook is asking for two effects on Soviet Union of Lenin’s death, based on my textbook i can think of only one, rivalry for the power, what would the second be? Genuinely lost here

I love the podcast Our Fake History. It dispels a lot of historical myths, and it's very clever and humorous.

One of the most blatant simplifications Caesar entered into his accounts was the Germanic-Celtic divide along the Rhine. Going by his writings, the Celtic & Germanic world were separated by this river. Caesar's motivation here was political. All his actions in Gaul were justified by the alliances with Roman proxies, by it being 'in' Gaul. The Germanic tribes were the 'others', whom he had to keep out of Gaul, but he had no goals beyond the Rhine. Convenient.

In reality, this divide didn't follow a river but was more of a patchwork. Some Germanic tribes most probably did live on the canonically Gallic side of the Rhine and vice versa. What is notably hard here. Is that we can only base ourselves on archeology, and artifacts sadly don't talk. So we are quite certain Caesar is lying/twisting facts here, but it is very hard to get the real picture.

You may be interested in "the Anglo-Saxons, A History of the Beginnings of England 400-1066" by Marc Morris

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Can anyone suggest some books on the gold rush, preferably something that covers the human experience in a western mining town with a lot of anecdotes?

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I have been doing some research into Iron Age Europe and found that most of what the we know of pre Roman Gaul and the celts themselves has been widely based on Caesars writings on the conquest of Gaul. Therefore I was wondering, since he is obviously a biased writer, what are the main things he altered and what we’re the biggest things that we don’t know / are wrong abt the Celts and Pre Roman Gaul?

Why do you think there haven’t been as many notable ones out of Miami or NYC? Between Scientology, the Mansons and Synanon seems like there’s some kind of special sauce.