vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Neolithic Revolution
Once early farmers perfected their agricultural techniques like irrigation , their crops would yield surpluses that needed storage . Most hunter gatherers could not easily store food for long due to their migratory lifestyle , whereas those with a sedentary dwelling could store their surplus grain . Eventually granaries were developed that allowed villages to store their seeds longer . So with more food , the population expanded and communities developed specialized workers and more advanced tools .
Ancient Egyptian deities
Festivals often involved a ceremonial procession in which a cult image was carried out of the temple in a barque - shaped shrine . These processions served various purposes . In Roman times , when local deities of all kinds were believed to have power over the Nile inundation , processions in many communities carried temple images to the riverbanks so the deities could invoke a large and fruitful flood . Processions also traveled between temples , as when the image of Hathor from Dendera Temple visited her consort Horus at the Temple of Edfu . Rituals for a deity were often based in that deity 's mythology . Such rituals were meant to be repetitions of the events of the mythic past , renewing the beneficial effects of the original events . In the Khoiak festival in honor of Osiris , his death and resurrection were ritually reenacted at a time when crops were beginning to sprout . The returning greenery symbolized the renewal of the his own life .
Ancient Egyptian deities
Deities were assumed by the ancient Egyptians to be present throughout the world , capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives . People interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines , for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites . Egyptians prayed for divine help , used rituals to compel deities to act , and called upon them for advice . Humans ' relations with their deities were a fundamental part of Egyptian society .
Ancient Greek architecture
The ancient Greeks perceived order in the universe , and in turn , applied order and reason to their creations . Their humanist philosophy put mankind at the centre of things , and promoted well - ordered societies and the development of democracy . At the same time , the respect for human intellect demanded reason , and promoted a passion for enquiry , logic , challenge , and problem solving . The architecture of the ancient Greeks , and in particular , temple architecture , responds to these challenges with a passion for beauty , and for order and symmetry which is the product of a continual search for perfection , rather than a simple application of a set of working rules .
Slash-and-burn
Large families or clans wandering in the lush woodlands long continued to be the most common form of life through human prehistory . Axes to fell trees and sickles for harvesting grain were the only tools people might bring with them . All other tools were made from materials they found at the site , such as fire stakes of birch , long rods ( Vanko ) , and harrows made of spruce tops . The extended family conquered the lush virgin forest , burned and cultivated their carefully selected swidden plots , sowed one or more crops , and then proceeded on to forests that had been noted in their wanderings . In the temperate zone , the forest regenerated in the course of a lifetime . So swidden was repeated several times in the same area over the years . But in the tropics the forest floor gradually depleted . It was not only in the moors , as in Northern Europe , but also in the steppe , Savannah , prairie , pampas and barren desert in tropical areas where shifting cultivation is the oldest type of farming . Cultivation is similar to slash - and - burn . ( Clark 1952 91 -- 107 ) .
Ancient Greece
At least in the Archaic Period , the fragmentary nature of ancient Greece , with many competing city - states , increased the frequency of conflict but conversely limited the scale of warfare . Unable to maintain professional armies , the city - states relied on their own citizens to fight . This inevitably reduced the potential duration of campaigns , as citizens would need to return to their own professions ( especially in the case of , for example , farmers ) . Campaigns would therefore often be restricted to summer . When battles occurred , they were usually set piece and intended to be decisive . Casualties were slight compared to later battles , rarely amounting to more than 5 % of the losing side , but the slain often included the most prominent citizens and generals who led from the front .
Ancient Greece
The scale and scope of warfare in ancient Greece changed dramatically as a result of the Greco - Persian Wars . To fight the enormous armies of the Achaemenid Empire was effectively beyond the capabilities of a single city - state . The eventual triumph of the Greeks was achieved by alliances of city - states ( the exact composition changing over time ) , allowing the pooling of resources and division of labor . Although alliances between city - states occurred before this time , nothing on this scale had been seen before . The rise of Athens and Sparta as pre-eminent powers during this conflict led directly to the Peloponnesian War , which saw further development of the nature of warfare , strategy and tactics . Fought between leagues of cities dominated by Athens and Sparta , the increased manpower and financial resources increased the scale , and allowed the diversification of warfare . Set - piece battles during the Peloponnesian war proved indecisive and instead there was increased reliance on attritionary strategies , naval battle and blockades and sieges . These changes greatly increased the number of casualties and the disruption of Greek society . Athens owned one of the largest war fleets in ancient Greece . It had over 200 triremes each powered by 170 oarsmen who were seated in 3 rows on each side of the ship . The city could afford such a large fleet -- it had over 34,000 oars men -- because it owned a lot of silver mines that were worked by slaves .
Sapper
This was achieved by digging what the French termed a sappe ( derived from the archaic French word for spade or entrenching tool ) . Using techniques developed and perfected by Vauban , the sappers began the trench at such an angle so as to avoid enemy fire enfilading the sappe by firing down its length . As they pressed forward , a position was prepared from which cannon could suppress the defenders on the fort 's bastions . The sappers would then change the course of their trench , zig - zagging toward the fortress wall . Each leg brought the attacker 's artillery closer until the besieged cannon would be sufficiently suppressed for the attackers to breach the walls . Broadly speaking , sappers were originally experts at demolishing or otherwise overcoming or bypassing fortification systems .
Maya civilization
The Maya made meticulous observations of celestial bodies , patiently recording astronomical data on the movements of the sun , moon , Venus , and the stars . This information was used for divination , so Maya astronomy was essentially for astrological purposes . Maya astronomy did not serve to study the universe for scientific reasons , nor was it used to measure the seasons in order to calculate crop planting . It was rather used by the priesthood to comprehend past cycles of time , and project them into the future to produce prophecy . The priesthood refined observations and recorded eclipses of the sun and moon , and movements of Venus and the stars ; these were measured against dated events in the past , on the assumption that similar events would occur in the future when the same astronomical conditions prevailed . Illustrations in the codices show that priests made astronomical observations using the naked eye , assisted by crossed sticks as a sighting device . Analysis of the few remaining Postclassic codices has revealed that , at the time of European contact , the Maya had recorded eclipse tables , calendars , and astronomical knowledge that was more accurate at that time than comparable knowledge in Europe .
Iliad
In the literary Trojan War of the Iliad , the Olympian gods , goddesses , and minor deities fight among themselves and participate in human warfare , often by interfering with humans to counter other gods . Unlike their portrayals in Greek religion , Homer 's portrayal of gods suited his narrative purpose . The gods in traditional thought of fourth - century Athenians were not spoken of in terms familiar to us from Homer . The Classical - era historian Herodotus says that Homer and Hesiod , his contemporary , were the first writers to name and describe the gods ' appearance and character .
Gilded Age
Water management was more critical , lightning fires were more prevalent , the weather was more extreme , rainfall was less predictable . The fearful stayed home , while migrants were mainly motivated by a search improve their economic life . Farmers sought larger , cheaper and more fertile land ; merchants and tradesman sought new customers and new leadership opportunities . Laborers wanted higher paying work and better conditions . With the Homestead Act providing free land to citizens and the railroads selling cheap lands to European farmers , the settlement of the Great Plains was swiftly accomplished , and the frontier had virtually ended by 1890 . Native
Dead Sea
Josephus identified the Dead Sea in geographic proximity to the ancient Biblical city of Sodom . However , he referred to the lake by its Greek name , Asphaltites .
Middle Ages
The construction of cathedrals and castles advanced building technology , leading to the development of large stone buildings . Ancillary structures included new town halls , houses , bridges , and tithe barns . Shipbuilding improved with the use of the rib and plank method rather than the old Roman system of mortise and tenon . Other improvements to ships included the use of lateen sails and the stern - post rudder , both of which increased the speed at which ships could be sailed .
Ancient Egyptian deities
Personal interaction with the deities took many forms . People who wanted information or advice consulted oracles , run by temples , that were supposed to convey divine answers to questions . Amulets and other images of protective deities were used to ward off the demons who might threaten human well - being or to impart the deity 's positive characteristics to the wearer . Private rituals invoked the deities ' power to accomplish personal goals , from healing sickness to cursing enemies . These practices used heka , the same force of magic that the deities used , which the creator was said to have given to humans so they could fend off misfortune . The performer of a private rite often took on the role of a deity in a myth , or even threatened a deity , to involve the deity in accomplishing the goal . Such rituals coexisted with private offerings and prayers , and all three were accepted means of obtaining divine help .
Ancient Egyptian deities
Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so , they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the deity 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the deities could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing .
Siege
The universal method for defending against siege is the use of fortifications , principally walls and ditches , to supplement natural features . A sufficient supply of food and water was also important to defeat the simplest method of siege warfare : starvation . On occasion , the defenders would drive ' surplus ' civilians out to reduce the demands on stored food and water .
History of Texas
The Comanche used their military power to obtain supplies and labor from the Americans , Mexicans , and Indians through thievery , looting and killing , tribute , and kidnappings . There was much violence committed by and against Comanche , before and after the European settlement of Texas . Although they made a living partially through raiding and violence , along with hunting / gathering , especially buffalo hunting , the Comanche empire also supported a commercial network with long - distance trade . Dealing with subordinate Indians , the Comanche spread their language and culture across the region . In terms of governance , the Comanche were nearly independent but allied bands with a loosely hierarchical social organization within bands .
Greco-Persian Wars
At the beginning of the conflict , all naval forces in the eastern Mediterranean had switched to the trireme , a warship powered by three banks of oars . The most common naval tactics during the period were ramming ( Greek triremes were equipped with a cast - bronze ram at the bows ) , or boarding by ship - borne marines . More experienced naval powers had by this time also begun to use a manoeuver known as diekplous . It is not clear what this was , but it probably involved sailing into gaps between enemy ships and then ramming them in the side .
Ancient Egypt
Large seagoing ships are known to have been heavily used by the Egyptians in their trade with the city states of the eastern Mediterranean , especially Byblos ( on the coast of modern - day Lebanon ) , and in several expeditions down the Red Sea to the Land of Punt . In fact one of the earliest Egyptian words for a seagoing ship is a `` Byblos Ship '' , which originally defined a class of Egyptian seagoing ships used on the Byblos run ; however , by the end of the Old Kingdom , the term had come to include large seagoing ships , whatever their destination . Early
Desert
People have been living in deserts for millennia . Many , such as the Bushmen in the Kalahari , the Aborigines in Australia and various tribes of North American Indians , were originally hunter - gatherers . They developed skills in the manufacture and use of weapons , animal tracking , finding water , foraging for edible plants and using the things they found in their natural environment to supply their everyday needs . Their self - sufficient skills and knowledge were passed down through the generations by word of mouth . Other cultures developed a nomadic way of life as herders of sheep , goats , cattle , camels , yaks , llamas or reindeer . They travelled over large areas with their herds , moving to new pastures as seasonal and erratic rainfall encouraged new plant growth . They took with them their tents made of cloth or skins draped over poles and their diet included milk , blood and sometimes meat . Salt
Greco-Persian Wars
The style of warfare between the Greek city - states , which dates back until at least 650 BC ( as dated by the ' Chigi vase ' ) , was based around the hoplite phalanx supported by missile troops . The ' hoplites ' were foot soldiers usually drawn from the members of the middle - classes ( in Athens called the zeugites ) , who could afford the equipment necessary to fight in this manner . The heavy armour usually included a breastplate or a linothorax , greaves , a helmet , and a large round , concave shield ( the aspis or hoplon ) . Hoplites were armed with long spears ( the dory ) , which were significantly longer than Persian spears , and a sword ( the xiphos ) . The heavy armour and longer spears made them superior in hand - to - hand combat and gave them significant protection against ranged attacks . Lightly armed skirmishers , the psiloi also comprised a part of Greek armies growing in importance during the conflict ; at the Battle of Plataea , for instance , they may have formed over half the Greek army . Use of cavalry in Greek armies is not reported in the battles of the Greco - Persian Wars . Naval
Dead Sea
Also in Roman times , some Essenes settled on the Dead Sea 's western shore ; Pliny the Elder identifies their location with the words , `` on the west side of the Dead Sea , away from the coast ... ( above ) the town of Engeda '' ( Natural History , Bk 5.73 ) ; and it is therefore a hugely popular but contested hypothesis today , that same Essenes are identical with the settlers at Qumran and that `` the Dead Sea Scrolls '' discovered during the 20th century in the nearby caves had been their own library .
Neolithic Revolution
Living in one spot would have more easily permitted the accrual of personal possessions and an attachment to certain areas of land . From such a position , it is argued , prehistoric people were able to stockpile food to survive lean times and trade unwanted surpluses with others . Once trade and a secure food supply were established , populations could grow , and society would have diversified into food producers and artisans , who could afford to develop their trade by virtue of the free time they enjoyed because of a surplus of food . The artisans , in turn , were able to develop technology such as metal weapons . Such relative complexity would have required some form of social organisation to work efficiently , so it is likely that populations that had such organisation , perhaps such as that provided by religion , were better prepared and more successful . In addition , the denser populations could form and support legions of professional soldiers . Also , during this time property ownership became increasingly important to all people . Ultimately , Childe argued that this growing social complexity , all rooted in the original decision to settle , led to a second Urban Revolution in which the first cities were built .
Apollo
A similar story is mentioned by Plutarch . He writes that the Cretan seer Epimenides purified Athens after the pollution brought by the Alcmeonidae , and that the seer 's expertise in sacrifices and reform of funeral practices were of great help to Solon in his reform of the Athenian state . The story indicates that Epimenides was probably heir to the shamanic religions of Asia , and proves , together with the Homeric hymn , that Crete had a resisting religion up to historical times . It seems that these rituals were dormant in Greece , and they were reinforced when the Greeks migrated to Anatolia .
Spanish Armada
Given the Spanish advantage in close - quarter fighting , the English ships used their superior speed and manoeuvrability to keep beyond grappling range and bombarded the Spanish ships from a distance with cannon fire . The distance was too great for this to be effective , however , and at the end of the first day 's fighting neither fleet had lost a ship in action , although the Spanish carrack Rosario and galleon San Salvador were abandoned after they collided . When night fell , Francis Drake turned his ship back to loot the abandoned Spanish ships , capturing supplies of much - needed gunpowder , and gold . However , Drake had been guiding the English fleet by means of a lantern . As a result of him snuffing out the lantern to slip away from the Spanish ships , the rest of his fleet became scattered and was in complete disarray by dawn . It took an entire day for the English fleet to regroup and the Armada gained a day 's grace . The English ships again used their superior speed and manoeuvrability to catch up with the Spanish fleet after a day of sailing .
Tropical cyclone
The practice of using names to identify tropical cyclones goes back many years , with systems named after places or things they hit before the formal start of naming . The system currently used provides positive identification of severe weather systems in a brief form , that is readily understood and recognized by the public . The credit for the first usage of personal names for weather systems is generally given to the Queensland Government Meteorologist Clement Wragge who named systems between 1887 and 1907 . This system of naming weather systems subsequently fell into disuse for several years after Wragge retired , until it was revived in the latter part of World War II for the Western Pacific . Formal naming schemes have subsequently been introduced for the North and South Atlantic , Eastern , Central , Western and Southern Pacific basins as well as the Australian region and Indian Ocean .
History of insurance
The ancient Athenian `` maritime loan '' advanced money for voyages with repayment being cancelled if the ship was lost . In the 4th century BC , rates for the loans differed according to safe or dangerous times of year , implying an intuitive pricing of risk with an effect similar to insurance .
Hellenistic period
Magic was practiced widely , and this , too , was a continuation from earlier times . Throughout the Hellenistic world , people would consult oracles , and use charms and figurines to deter misfortune or to cast spells . Also developed in this era was the complex system of astrology , which sought to determine a person 's character and future in the movements of the sun , moon , and planets . Astrology was widely associated with the cult of Tyche ( luck , fortune ) , which grew in popularity during this period .
Ancient Greek architecture
The architecture of ancient Greece is of a trabeated or `` post and lintel '' form , i.e. it is composed of upright beams ( posts ) supporting horizontal beams ( lintels ) . Although the existent buildings of the era are constructed in stone , it is clear that the origin of the style lies in simple wooden structures , with vertical posts supporting beams which carried a ridged roof . The posts and beams divided the walls into regular compartments which could be left as openings , or filled with sun dried bricks , lathes or straw and covered with clay daub or plaster . Alternately , the spaces might be filled with rubble . It is likely that many early houses and temples were constructed with an open porch or `` pronaos '' above which rose a low pitched gable or pediment .
Artemis
The ancient Spartans used to sacrifice to her as one of their patron goddesses before starting a new military campaign .
Ship
The Phoenicians , the first to sail completely around Africa , and Greeks gradually mastered navigation at sea aboard triremes , exploring and colonizing the Mediterranean via ship . Around 340 BC , the Greek navigator Pytheas of Massalia ventured from Greece to Western Europe and Great Britain . In the course of the 2nd century BC , Rome went on to destroy Carthage and subdue the Hellenistic kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean , achieving complete mastery of the inland sea , that they called Mare Nostrum . The monsoon wind system of the Indian Ocean was first sailed by Greek navigator Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 118 BC .
Ancient Greece
By the 6th century BC several cities had emerged as dominant in Greek affairs : Athens , Sparta , Corinth , and Thebes . Each of them had brought the surrounding rural areas and smaller towns under their control , and Athens and Corinth had become major maritime and mercantile powers as well .
Ancient Egyptian deities
To insulate the sacred power in the sanctuary from the impurities of the outside world , the Egyptians enclosed temple sanctuaries and greatly restricted access to them . People other than kings and high priests were thus denied contact with cult statues . The only exception was during festival processions , when the cult statue was carried out of the temple , but still enclosed in a portable shrine . People did have less direct means of interaction . The more public parts of temples often incorporated small places for prayer , from doorways to freestanding chapels near the back of the temple building . Communities also built and managed small chapels for their own use , and some families had shrines inside their homes . Despite the gulf that separated humanity from the divine , the Egyptians were surrounded by opportunities to approach their deities .