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A comment on The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Roots of Mycenae. Parent comment

Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by keeganjw on Thursday January 05, 2017 @01:03PM (#13329593)
What cultures and times peak your interest? It's a broad, deep, and wonderful rabbit hole to go down. I'd say, follow what you find interesting. Chase the subjects and times that interest you. Wikipedia's a great place to run wild. Other than that, try to find some definite books on the subject you want to learn about. Documentaries are also an excellent and fun way to learn. Maybe a history class at a local college.
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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by sophacles on Thursday January 05, 2017 @02:03PM (#13330267)
On top of that, I'd recommend reading through r/AskHistorians posts. History is such a broad field, that it's overwhelming, and since it's so broad you find a lot of dry, broad coverage for "beginners". A lot of the folks over at AskHistorians are experts in their (sub)fields so you can find in-depth answers on small things. For me that helps make it "real".

Here's an example of one that stuck in my memory recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5f86lb/what_...

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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by itp on Thursday January 05, 2017 @01:26PM (#13329834)
I can't tell you (yet) exactly what interests me. I'm definitely concerned about my poor mental model of human civilization, particularly pre-classical Greece. I'm looking to start with something of an overview and then figure out what rabbit holes make sense!
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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by Steko on Thursday January 05, 2017 @04:30PM (#13331594)
Relevant Ask Historians books sidebar here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/books/europe#wik...

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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by keeganjw on Thursday January 05, 2017 @01:55PM (#13330170)
Hmmm, maybe the book Guns, Germs, and Steel would be an interesting start. It's a beefy and detailed book, but interesting. Definitely a broad overview. Also, I think the made it into a movie. That might be more digestible.

I've always like Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast. He covers a broad range of subjects but they're ways great!

Ancient China is also really awesome to learn about. It's not studied so much in the west but they had some extraordinarily advanced civilizations and cities well before those in Europe. Japan, Egypt, the Middle East all have pretty mind-blowing histories.

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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by irrational on Thursday January 05, 2017 @03:13PM (#13330927)
He says he's "particularly [interested in] pre-classical Greece" but you recommend Guns, Germs, and Steel. I'm wondering why since the later is much more relevant to modern history (by modern I mean post 600 AD) than pre-classical Greek history.
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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by pjc50 on Thursday January 05, 2017 @04:24PM (#13331539) 

    The isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!
    Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
    Where grew the arts of war and peace,
    Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
    Eternal summer gilds them yet,
    But all, except their sun, is set.
-- Byron

Pre-classical Greece is about the earliest period of the "West" we have good documentation for, and is tremendously "romantic" to study. However beware of thinking of Greece as the wellspring of civilization; this will lead you to overlook the Arabic and Chinese civilizations.

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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by Amezarak on Thursday January 05, 2017 @09:42PM (#13333494)
Do you have any recommendations for reading about Arabic civilizations? I was under the impression that Arabia was, until Mohammed, an unimportant, remote backwater, vastly overshadowed and sometimes controlled by nearby (sorta) empires - Egypt, Rome, Persia, Sumeria, Lydia, Akkad, Babylonia, Assyria, et cetera.
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Re:The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Ro... by Florin_Andrei on Thursday January 05, 2017 @01:39PM (#13329979)
How far down the rabbit hole? Want to start at the proto-indo-europeans?
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