#the iron age

[lightdancer1]

One of the key lessons of archaeology and history in Africa is that humanity's growth is not a linear teleological process:

Today in Black History Month, beginning the expansion of Black and African history out of the narrow corner of East Africa most directly linked to the Mediterranean and the Hijaz. This is in no small part to set the stage for what happens when the existing growing polities in this part of the world had headlong collisions with the religious and political aspects of the Islamic world. One important factor to understanding what happened in Black Africa that did not happen elsewhere in the same way, and which had very direct relevance on how states and armies formed in the region is that West Africa leaped straight from Stone to Iron Age.

Iron, it should be noted, is much more abundant than the things that make Bronze on the one hand, and on the other this is why the Iron Age was more proto-democratic than the Bronze Age which promoted highly autocratic centralized states. This, IMO, at least partially accounts for the more decentralized state traditions in the Sahel as the kind of cultures that arise around metallurgy that works more simply than that of the Bronze Age allows for diffusions of authority and expertise rather than concentration of them. Everything has its advantages and everything its drawbacks.

[lily-isalittlegirl]

that's true but what did tumblr do to john green in 2014

Haven't stopped thinking about this since I saw it

[humming-fly]

I love how Gerald was trying to keep Shadow from spoiling anything about the future meanwhile literally everything Shadow says and does around Maria is the biggest death flag ever

[holidaysincambodia]

Sumerian/Mesopotamian Amulet Seal in the Form of a Bull, c. 3250 BCE.

[imrisah]

I can never give them up.

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Personal headcanon is that Bull is still part of the inquisition even though they are married and they see each others whenever they can. Sometimes that means years apart. Bull hitched a ride with Morrigan and the Inquisitor through the Eluvians to make this happen.

He stays for a while helping with the Antaam issue and then they part ways again. Just until next time though, there is always that promise.

He is way older than Dorian so the ten years gap between DAI and DATV is showing more decisevely on him and maybe he walks with a cane now and doesn't fight (as much) anymore.

[mooshs-crack-headcanons]

I think it's funny that when Cassandra gathers ppl to save the world you get the (mostly) het Inquisition. But when Varric gathers people it's always a wild pack of deranged fruits, AKA the DA2 crew minus Sebastian (the dlc straight) and the Veilguard minus Solas (status pending)

Idk what to put as a ending post image so here's Varric with his cleavage out

[chevalierlogan]

[orientalld]

[okthisway]

What are you doing, Solas?

inspired by this incredible Iron Bull and Solas chess game edit by LethallanTV

[mimorugk]

Andraste's flaming sword …. 🧎

[kinascorner]

In Memoriam of the 3 party member system😔, a curated selection of some of my favorite three-way dialogues.

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100% support the devs on doing what they need to to balance gameplay, and i'm excited to try the new combat system, but I'll miss the surprise additions to chatter.

[celestefox13]

.... Anyone else flashback to the banters between Solas and Bull in Inquisition where they played a mental chess game and Solas won because of a play with a pawn? And how he slowly inched that pawn across the board during those banters? (Like he positions Rook and helps slowly "inch" them across the "board" to checkmate the Gods?)

Or about the banters between Solas and Sera about the Friends of Red Jenny, and how he couldn't really wrap his mind around the group's entire goal just being help in small ways without any significant goal truly in mind? (Like how he couldn't wrap his mind around facing, accepting, and processing regrets the way Rook does to escape the Fade prison because he's always thinking too big picture and grand purposes)

Or, perhaps one of the most interesting, the banters between Solas and Varric about Orzammar and how it is in the current time of the games? (And how all the questions Solas asks echoes or points to both what happened to the Elvhen empire and what he intends to do to try to fix his mistake?)

Or the banter where Viv asks if Solas enjoys seeing himself as the villain? And their banters discussing the Circle, and Viv's political prowess, and how "in another age" she "would've ruled an empire?"

Or banters with Dorian about spirits and magic, and how they are used in Tevinter? And on slavery in general? (And how those conversations are a very big part of Dorian actually thinking about the slaves in Tevinter in a meaningful way)

Or with Cassandra about the burdens of leadership and how Cass stepped aside from leading/making decisions for the Inquisition as a whole cause she recognized/felt she wasn't the one to wield such power? Or the one where Cass wonders if the Archdemons are "pets" to beings who no longer exist?

Anyone else thinking about the banters that weren't with Cole about spirits and how to "ground" one's self in the real world, or with Blackwall about being men that have seen war and done cruel things and have had to live a lie until caught in the lie? But were more about the nuances of lives lived and currently being lived; and the status quo and how it was vs how it is vs how it maybe should be; and the very core of his being and true beliefs and how he could find some kind of echo of each with the members of the Inquisition, reflecting and foiling in turn?

Just me? Cool, cool, cool

[briccko]

Everyone is here!!!

[evanhereonearth]

Wild how some blokes think women only go for the most boring, generic, triangular trust fund men when meanwhile, over in the Dragon Age fandom, we are absolutely feral for this parade of glorious mess

(I did Origins but am limited to ten images…but I see you, Alistair “Swooping is Bad” Theirin and Zevran, defo assassin defo farthest thing from a virgin Antivan Crow disaster bisexual. We also go feral for them.)

[basiliskonline]

@lingerie_addict has a really cool thread on ancient fashion over on twitter.

Those source links are here

cambridge.org

Youtube

ucl.ac.uk

[bashcrandicoot]

I love you The Iron Bull