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The History Blog
Personal blog · thehistoryblog.comhistory
The History Blog is a personal blog at thehistoryblog.com about history. Since 2010, 45 different Hacker News readers have linked it 61 times, most often “Unique Roman game board found in 4th century tomb in Slovakia”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- Unique Roman game board found in 4th century tomb in Slovakia2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-01-08
- Largest Roman wall mosaic revealed under Trajan's Baths2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-15
- Middle schooler finds coin from Troy in Berlin2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-04-17
What Hacker News says?
Someone, in one of these threads a few weeks ago, posted what was claimed to be a movie poster/ad from the same year with his red pants and gloves: https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/22084 If you could verify the timing on that I guess it would go into public domain as well.
Comment linking /archives/22084
on “Disney's earliest Mickey Mouse enters public domain as US copyright expires”Submitted Hittite royal archive found in Turkey as a story · 386 points
HN discussion> And they support RSS! Albeit through WordPress but nobody's perfect As well as Atom, though there's no <link> for it in the HTML: * https://www.thehistoryblog.com/feed/atom * https://validator.w3.org/feed/check.cgi?url=https%3A%2F%2Fww...
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on “Hittite royal archive found in Turkey”Submitted 11,000-year-old sculpture of man riding a leopard found in Turkey as a story · 166 points
HN discussionThe History Blog [1] (a great read daily) has a post today (coincidentally) on a recently unearthed Viking era "hnefatafl" piece, probably a king. Dug up on Lindisfarne, a holy island site off the coast of Northumbria in England. It's a lovely piece of decorated azure glass. The post is worth a (short) read. [1] http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/57805
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on “Board Games of the Ancient World”Submitted Lumière’s Train in 4K as a story · 113 points
HN discussionTwo other points that might be worth further exploration: * There was an article on Hacker News recently about the historical cost of clothing, how it used to cost thousands of modern-equivalent dollars for a shirt. Thus why people wore clothing until it was rags. The cost of clothing and all such goods came down dramatically due to peoples' specialization as spinners, weavers, sewers, tailors, etc. Now clothing is…
Comment linking /archives/1391
on “Academia's 1%”Submitted Gold coins found in Netherlands from last days of Roman Empire as a story · 97 points
HN discussionUrl changed from http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/4587 , which points to this.
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on “Ancient Roman Swiss Army Knife on Display”Submitted Napoleon’s Vision for a New Imperial Rome as a story · 65 points
HN discussionPictures in this article: https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/76901
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on “Largest known Roman mosaic, beneath Baths of Trajan, opens to the public”Submitted Hellenistic cremation burial found in Istanbul train station as a story · 56 points
HN discussionAmazing to see all of the things kids have been finding these days! Middle schooler finds coin from Troy in Berlin https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/75848 ‘It Had Teeth’: A 3-Year-Old Discovers Ancient Treasure in Israel While on a hike with her family, a child stumbled across a 3,800-year-old Egyptian amulet. It will go on display in an upcoming exhibition. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/world/middleeast/…
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on “Girl, 10, finds rare Mexican axolotl under Welsh bridge”Submitted 6th c. B.C. home rewrites map of archaic Rome as a story · 44 points
HN discussionAgreed. I just see a quote of the day and no article. I am sure they try to be some kind of clever. Anyways here is a different source: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/43089
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on “Discovery of Gold Coins Confirm Battle of Teutoburg Forest Site”Submitted Norfolk museum acquires Bronze Age dirk used as doorstop as a story · 40 points
HN discussion> Ok but that means there would be more such objects, for every level before mastery right? What levels of mastery? Roman historians didn't write much about the ins and outs of their metalworking industry so we don't know how intricate the process was but apprentices graduating is rather universal (their teachers get tired of them or die eventually, after all). > And also such objects would be much more rare. Imagin…
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on “The Mysterious Dodecahedrons of the Roman Empire”Submitted Protein analysis finds animal source of bog body clothes as a story · 25 points
HN discussionLooking more carefully at the original image ( http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Emp... ) I can see the mapping of letterforms you made. Thanks for that!
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on “Previously unknown verses by Empedocles found on papyrus”Submitted Man gripping his phallus is oldest known narrative scene as a story · 22 points
HN discussionMight be a limitation of the medium. Mosaics are complicated. This famous "skeleton" mosaic has the proportions wrong as well, even though the artist almost certainly saw some actual human skeletons, and definitely some living humans with their longer arms and smaller heads than depicted :) https://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Ha...
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on “Archaeologists find possible first direct evidence of Hannibal's war elephants”Submitted Massacre of drinking cups at a 15th c. party as a story · 20 points
HN discussionThe History Blog has more : https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/75071 I look forward to the "musicologists" getting to grips with this carnyx and figuring out improvements to the reproductions they make.
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on “Rare Iron Age war trumpet and boar standard found”Submitted Tarkhan Dress confirmed as world’s oldest woven garment as a story · 16 points
HN discussionNot only for a surprisingly long time, but also in surprisingly good condition. For example at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall archeologists have found not one or two, or even ten but over 5000 amazingly preserved Roman shoes that were apparently thrown away into the fortress's moat and survived buried in the mud < https://www.vindolanda.com/Blog/the-curators-favourite-shoes >. Hilariously they're never found a pair of…
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on “Mysterious Victorian-Era Shoes Are Washing Up on a Beach in Wales”Submitted A tale of Visigothic treasure lost and found as a story · 11 points
HN discussionhttps://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/71648
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on “2k-year-old gladiator knife handle found near Hadrian's Wall”Submitted Remains of only building by Vitruvius found after centuries of searching as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Middle schooler finds coin from Troy in Berlin as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Roman Dodecahedron as a story · 3 points
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