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Welcome! BoredReading is a fresh way to read high quality articles (updated every hour). Our goal is to curate (with your help) Michelin star quality articles (stuff that's really worth reading). We currently have articles in 0 categories from architecture, history, design, technology, and more. Grab a cup of freshly brewed coffee and start reading. This is the best way to increase your attention span, grow as a person, and get a better understanding of the world (or atleast that's why we built it).

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For much of African history, the construction of fortresses and fortified structures was a mostly urban phenomenon associated with large states.
a month ago

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More from African History Extra

African cities in the 19th century: cosmopolitan urban spaces between three worlds.

When the German adventurer Gerhard Rohlfs visited the city of Ibadan in 1867, he described it as “one of the greatest cities of the interior of Africa” with “endlessly long and wide streets made up of trading stalls.” However, unlike many of the West African cities he had encountered which were centuries old, Ibadan was only about as old as the 36-year-old explorer, yet it quickly surpassed its peers to be counted among the largest cities on the continent by the end of the century.

6 days ago 8 votes
A history of the medieval coastal towns of Mozambique ca. 500-1890 CE.

The East African coast is home to the longest contiguous chain of urban settlements on the continent.

a week ago 12 votes
Internal diasporas and the state in African history

The Wangara chronicle, one of West Africa's oldest surviving historical texts composed around 1650, contains an interesting account explaining the migration of a group of scholars from medieval Malī against the wishes of its ruler:

2 weeks ago 10 votes
On the history of the Bantu expansion: old misconceptions and new evidence

The southern half of the African continent is populated by speakers of about 550 closely related languages that are referred to as the Bantu languages.

3 weeks ago 17 votes
On the spread of Traditional African religions during the pre-colonial period.

Among the corpus of terracotta figurines discovered in the Greco-Egyptian city of Alexandria dating back to the 2nd century BC is a fine clay vessel in the form of a Nubian priestess of Isis of Philae, who is depicted in a kneeling position while performing a Greek-type mortuary wine libation.

a month ago 16 votes

More in history

Rockets and Space Coloring Book (1960)

Some nice space pictures (to color) for you today.  Coloring books may be one of the ultimate forms of ephemera. There were meant to be used, admired? and then thrown away. Yet many children owned them and there were at least 40 issued between 1950 and 1970 on space themes. If pictures are a universal communication then these children got a lot of input about what their future in space would look like. This particular one is full of futuristic dreams of what space flight might be from the viewpoint of the beginning of our men into space programs. Rockets and Space Coloring Book. New York: Treasure Books. (51 p.) 1960.  This first batch seems to be copied from older 50's space images This image on the right above seems a little odd. It can't be on the Moon since there is a helicopter.  What is the palm tree doing in the loading of the lunar ship? Does it leave from the tropics? Does it launch "single stage direct?" This image above also needs more explanation. Is this a Russian launch system? I don't remember it. "Ready for take-off" to aim at targets on Earth? That spaceship has a really big window

17 hours ago 2 votes
Sejanus: The Praetorian Prefect With Imperial Ambitions

Tiberius Caesar had the unenviable task of succeeding his stepfather Augustus. He would always be a pale shadow of the charismatic founder of the Roman Empire. Tiberius’s time in power was also scarred by the influence of Sejanus, the prefect of the emperor’s Praetorian Guard. Sejanus used Tiberius’s insecurity and reticence to rule and […]

8 hours ago 1 votes
Honoré Daumier, Portraits des Célébrités du Juste-Milieu

At the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, you can see these sculptured portraits of celebrities by French artist Honoré Daumier (February 26, 1808 – February 10 or 11, 1879). Created between 1832 and 1835, Les Célébrités du Juste-Milieu (The Celebrities of the Golden Mean) terracotta look remarkably modern, an impression enhanced by some of the faces … Continue reading "Honoré Daumier, Portraits des Célébrités du Juste-Milieu" The post Honoré Daumier, Portraits des Célébrités du Juste-Milieu appeared first on Flashbak.

7 hours ago 1 votes
10 Ancient Greek Islands to Visit

Greece, one of the world’s oldest civilizations, traces its history back to at least 7000 BCE, when Neolithic settlements emerged across the region. By 3000 BCE, the Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean civilizations flourished, setting the stage for Greece’s cultural and intellectual dominance. The Minoans of Crete (2700–1100 BCE) built Europe’s first known advanced society, […]

12 hours ago 1 votes
René Magritte’s Art Deco Posters and Music Covers

Belgian painter René Magritte (21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) is best known for his Surrealist art. But before he relocated from Brussels to Paris in 1927 and began hanging out with André Breton (19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) and other Surrealists, Magritte worked as a commercial artist. Typically of … Continue reading "René Magritte’s Art Deco Posters and Music Covers" The post René Magritte’s Art Deco Posters and Music Covers appeared first on Flashbak.

yesterday 2 votes