Why has Russia dominated the Caspian for so long? In the Age of Sail, Iran had plenty of wood for shipbuilding on the coast. Is the wood not good enough for shipbuilding?en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_H…
A political issue maybe? States based on the Iranian Plateau didn't support shipbuilding in the cities of the coastal plains of Mazandaran, Gilan, and Golestan?
This is the answer I think - sailing up the Volga was hard, and gave everyone upriver a great advantage.
Sikhs in the late 17th century eastern Punjab were riven by internal conflicts. The Sikh guru declares himself the last guru, & that Sikhs would be governed by a council after his death. The goal of this was to unite the Sikhs & defend against Rajputs.
Mughals killed two sons of last Sikh guru after promising safe passage in 1704. Aurangzeb agreed to meet the guru, but died before meeting him. Guru met Aurangzeb’s successor, but died himself in 1708, leaving Sikhs to be led by the council, the Khalsa.
Banda Bahadur led the Sikhs in a 6-year long anti-Mughal rebellion during the chaotic years following Aurangzeb’s death. His backing was mostly from Khalsa supporters, lower nobility, & Jats from E Punjab. Khalsa gave all men who joined the prestigious name “Singh”.
It was a cold, overcast, and wintry day. Someone decided to scrawl "Happy Birthday ❤️ Sun" on the sidewalk in front of a bleak apartment complex.
The local mosque
Administration of the Udmurt Republic building - with the Udmurt flag flying at the same height as the Russian flag. The sheen on the ground is ice - you had to walk carefully to avoid falling.
trying to emulate @razibkhan & @Irkutyanin1 here - both of whom do incredible deep dives into history.
Eric Clines 1177 BC (which has a new updated edition with the Philistine DNA & the climate studies) was main influence on this piece: amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08KKT…
Check out this thread for what I dug up in January. Currently think that R1b-V88 WHGs conquered EEFs in Iberia in 4400 BC, invaded North Africa, swept across Green Sahara, & reached Sudan by 3700 BC before migrating west along Yellow Nile to Lake Chad by 1000 BC.
Copper to Bronze Age Iberia paper discusses the apparent late 4th or early 3rd millennium BC migrations that spread Zagrosian-like (aka Iran_Neolithic or Ganj_Dareh) ancestry around the Mediterranean. Interestingly they explicitly exclude Minoan origin. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
In supplement they guess that ancestry might be from Italian groups. Would have to be southern Italy origin if they are right since Etruscans didn't have the Zagrosian-like ancestry:
While Indo-European male lineages (R1b-P312) in Iberia almost completely replaced of those of their predecessors, about the same number of men & women migrated to Iberia during the invasion(s) in the 23rd century BC.
Punt was a trade partner of Late Bronze Age Egypt, & was located in Eritrea & Ethiopia. The Queen of Punt in mid-1300s BC was portrayed by the Egyptians as short, having a curved spine, & steatopygous.
According to UNESCO African History series, Semites arrived in northern Ethiopia centuries after that queen lived. Not sure how well the UNESCO history holds up though - was published 1981.
In 2500 BC, Ethiopian Highlands were ruled by a race that today is perhaps half the ancestry of the Omotic-speaking Ari people. They had evolved adaptations for high altitude life. science.org/lookup/doi/10.…