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There is written record of Yamatai. We know it was somewhere near Japan, but We still don’t know where it exactly located.

Never understood why folklore gets dismissed so easily.

His voyage led to Spain becoming a super power and the first “global empire,” wherein Spain would hold assets in all hemispheres be they north, south, east, or west. Southern Italy, namely the kingdom of Naples, was already a vassal of Spain’s. Naples was a vassal to the kingdom of Aragon, which King Ferdinand ruled over. When he married Isabel to further the forging of a united “Hispania,” he brought his vassals to the union as assets. Once the conquests of New Spain began the Spanish Empire grew in wealth and power beyond anything that had been seen since the rise of the Western Roman Empire. Regardless, Columbus or Colón as he is known to us, was an agent of Spain and executed the will of the Spanish monarchy.

Could this guy have been damnatio memoriae’d?

You’re technically correct, but given that Columbus sailed in 1492 and discovered islands in the Caribbean, he is generally given credit for discovering the “New World.” At least that was the story when I was kid some 30+ years ago. History gets revised and refined as new sources are uncovered and reconciled with the existing body of literature/evidence. Vespucci came after Columbus on subsequent voyages that aimed to understand the scope of Columbus’ discovery. I am not sure if anyone actually referred to the previously unknown (to 15-16th Century Europeans) lands as the Americas at the time, but it’s a modern convention aimed at making it simple to refer to the lands that would be uncovered as a result of his “discovery.”

Japan had a similar setup with daimyos, shoguns, and the emperor.

Doubtful it's related to Rome, but still an interesting similarity.

A place in NJ is underwater, town bank is the name. It’s been underwater for over 150 years

This got me thinking. There are American folktales about great floods from not very long ago. I wonder how much we can think the catastrophic flood narratives belie a situation in which any major flood was catastrophic just because it happened and was devastating. Maybe we’re now experiencing the same type/level of floods but they aren’t as catastrophic because we have developed the ability to be more predictive and more protective.

I don’t wish to diminish the efficacy of ancient cultures or be chauvinistic about “today’s technology”, but I’m reminded of one explanation of the rise in autism rates being linked better and more diagnostic insights.

After all the centuries, why does it matter?

This is actually where I believe we got the hierarchy for emperors and kings. As in an emperor of a region being above the local kings of the region. For example, Germany after unification was ruled by an Emperor (Kaiser) and he ruled over regional kings like the king of bavaria or Saxony. I am trying to think of a better example but the only other I can think of is the HRE.

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I can imagine that auxiliary goe s back that far and farther

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Each of them coming up with similar stories around the same time isn't so much a coincidence as it speaks to what was happening to the climate at the end of the last ice age.

When I was young I dismissed the Noah's Arc story as just that, some religious myth not worth much thought. But taking a step back and looking at all the other cultures that have similar stories - Ancient Greeks, Byzantines, Mesopotamians, Myans, Chinese, Babylonians, Native Americans, Hindus, etc - there are far too many parallels for it to be pure coincidence.

The Norse skalds recited their sagas as verse so it was easier to remember them verbatim... But they weren't maintaining that oral tradition checksum for 400 generations 😮

From what I have read, Toussaint Louverture had no military experience prior to his role as a leader in the Haitian revolution. He was a very smart guy with a knack for administration, but he wasn’t a soldier. So how was he able to train his troops to fight, and moreover, win military victories?

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The possibilities of what could have been found in the archeological record of Doggerland always saddens me. Tracking migration to the British isles would be amazing.

I mean, there’s a bit of confirmation bias at play here. You only read about cases like this one where it turns out to be accurate, nobody writes articles about all the inaccurate maps or nonexistent geography.

I find it is a huge problem with a lot of modern Brits view of history is that we see the land and sea as a binary situation, somewhere is either one or the other.

Given years of reclamation, dredging, and swamp draining, the historic landscape of the country has radically altered. People just don't get how much used to be alluvium and other in between places.