Group items tagged

"horseplay

prisoner's bas

Checkers

bob for apples and go on hunts

cockfights and bullbaiting.

"King of the Bean," where a small bean would be baked inside bread or cake, and the one who found it in their portion would be crowned king of the holiday feast.

wrestled, swam, fished and played a game that was a cross between tennis and handball.

Chess was widely popular and often a source of gambling entertainment;

Dice were easy to carry and were played in all ranks of society, even among the clergy.

Some games played during the Middle Ages, including bowling, prisoner's base, blind man's bluff (also called hoodman's blind), and simple "horseplay" are still played today.

both in the traditional format and in a simpler version played with dice.

Checkers were a popular pastime, as was backgammon. Children wrestled, swam, fished and played a game that was a cross between tennis and handball. Medieval knights would incorporate training in recreation, performing gymnastics and running foot races.

Spectators in the Middle Ages were often drawn to cockfights and bullbaiting.

recreation for most adults was drinking in the local tavern.

villagers would bob for apples and go on hunts in the surrounding f

orests,

if the castle lord permitted.

Hawks were trained to hunt game birds and every medieval castle had a falconer, assigned to train young birds for this sport.

Medieval Christmas games included "King of the Bean," where a small bean would be baked inside bread or cake, and the one who found it in their portion would be crowned king of the holiday feast.

rta's powerful army is ready for war. Athens knows that it cannot defeat this army ... but it has a Navy and Sparta does not. The year is 430 BC. Poliphus and his family from Athens and Sparcus and his family from Sparta are thinking about the future. They each have different points of view!! Cool site!

Government Sparta had its own system of government which was very different from the other city states. Rule was shared between two kings, the Gerousia and the Assembly. Most citizens Spartans were either Perioeci (citizens who paid taxes, served in the army and were protected by Spartan laws) or Helots (people from lands conquered and ruled by Sparta who had no rights).

"I promise on my faith that I will in the future be faithful to the lord, never cause him harm and will observe my homage to him completely against all persons in good faith and without deceit." -A Typical Oath of Fealty

There have been challenges to the caste system from the time of Buddha,[25] Mahavira and Makkhali Gosala. Opposition to the system of varṇa is regularly asserted in the Yoga Upaniṣad-s and is a constant feature of Cīna-ācāra tantrism, a Chinese-derived movement in Asom; both date to the medieval era. The Nātha system, which was founded by Matsya-indra Nātha and Go-rakṣa Nātha in the same era and spread throughout India, has likewise been consistently opposed to the system of varna.

There were three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6000), the council of 500 (boule) and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, but running at least on some occasions up to 6000). Of these three bodies it is the assembly and the courts that were the true sites of power — although courts, unlike the assembly, were never simply called the demos (the People) as they were manned by a subset of the citizen body, those over thirty.

Only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens. The percentage of the population (of males) that actually participated in the government was about 20%. This excluded a majority of the population, namely slaves, freed slaves, children, women and metics. The women had limited rights and privileges and were not really considered citizens. The restricted movement in public and were very segregated from the men. Also disallowed were citizens whose rights were under suspension (typically for failure to pay a debt to the city: see atimia); for some Athenians this amounted to permanent (and in fact inheritable) disqualification. Still, in contrast with oligarchical societies, there were no real property requirements limiting access

The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly (ἐκκλησία ekklêsia). Unlike a parliament, the assembly's members were not elected, but attended by right when they chose. Greek democracy created at Athens was a direct, not a representative democracy: any adult male citizen of age could take part, and it was a duty to do so. The officials of the democracy were in part elected by the Assembly and in large part chosen by lot. The assembly had four main functions; it made executive pronouncements (decrees, such as deciding to go to war or granting citizenship to a foreigner); it elected some officials; it legislated; and it tried political crimes. As the system evolved these last two functions were shifted to the law courts. The standard format was that of speakers making speeches for and against a position followed by a general vote (usually by show of hands) of yes or no. Though there might be blocs of opinion, sometimes enduring, on crucial issues, there were no political parties and likewise no government or opposition (as in the Westminster system). Voting was by simple majority. In the 5th century at least there were scarcely any limits on the power exercised by the assembly. If the assembly broke the law, the only thing that might happen is that it would punish those who had made the proposal that it had agreed to

In Sparta, the goal of education was to create a strong warrior. 

Sparta's warriors were legendary

Spartan women, unlike women in the rest of Greek world, had a great deal of freedom.  Many ran businesses. Sparta women were free to move about and visit neighbors without permission from their husbands

In Sparta, boys were taken away from their parents at age 7. They lived a harsh and often brutal life in the soldiers barracks. Younger children were beaten by older children who started fights to help make the younger boys strong. Children were often were whipped in front of groups of other Spartans, including their parents, but they were not allowed to cry out in pain

Most of the skeletons sampled had similar genomes to those of a female Iron Age skeleton from Melton in East Yorkshire, suggesting that some of the men had lived most of their lives in Britain. And a small variation in isotope levels showed that some had started their lives elsewhere, but had been in Britain since early childhood.

One skeleton of the seven was a surprise, though. According to the genomic analysis, he was from the Middle East. He had grown up in what is now Palestine, Jordan or Syria, and migrated across to the UK as an adult

"It confirms the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire even at its most northerly extent."

European nobles were tempted by the prospect of increased land holdings and riches to be gained from the conquest. These nobles were responsible for the death of a great many innocents both on the way to and in the Holy Land, absorbing the riches and estates of those they conveniently deemed opponents to their cause. Adding to the death toll was the inexperience and lack of discipline of the Christian peasants against the trained, professional armies of the Muslims. As a result, the Christians were initially beaten back, and only through sheer force of numbers were they eventually able to triumph