http://rfmcdpei.livejournal.com/1484716.html

links to an Economist article on the conditions of the 10 million Palestinians in the world, plus some Wikipedia articles on the diaspora and its expulsion from Israel.

Now this is a pirate queen.

Googling "women pirates" also found Anne Bonny and Mary Read from this list.

More on Cheng I Sao or Ching Shih, and others. 1500 ships in the Red Flag Fleet.

Carbon-dated chicken bones join sweet potatoes (and their names) as evidence of American contact.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-chickens5jun05,1,6459529.story

I've just finished David and Solomon by Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, authors of The Bible Unearthed on how poorly archaeology supports the Bible. This book is on what archaeology has to say about the David and Solomon stories. I'll summarize their reconstructed version:

Over on rasfw, David Tate started the thread "Time Travelers strictly barter", on what would be good for a time traveller to carry with them to get by in their destination. He was particularly interested in things besides the old standbys, silver and gold, things such as spices, synthetic gems, pins, lodestones. But the topic hit upon a couple of past interests of mine: prices in medieval Europe (for the Ars Magica game), and why and how there's such a huge wage differential between the First and Third Worlds.

Inspired by my comment here
http://lyceum-arabica.livejournal.com/86812.html

some links, on pirate democracy, insurance, and freedom for blacks.
http://a4a.mahost.org/pirates.html
http://www.physorg.com/news70726212.html
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/history/pirates/goodpirates.htm
http://www.cdnn.info/news/article/a050614.html

A long article on pirate sociology (including homosexuality and women pirates)
http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no8/pirate.html

Some archaeology
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/whydah/story.html

So, I thought I was well-informed in history...

My idea of ancient history has always been fairly compartmentalized. Mediterranean stuff over hear, India over there, China over *there*. Some India-China crosstalk, and Alexander marching to India, but no big deal. Of course there was trade in silk and spices, but not *ideas*, right? Well, apart from Hindu numerals turning into Arabic numerals. Nestorian Christians ended up in China but I didn't know of their mattering. (I still don't.) Nothing like Japanese gods being based on Greek ones, say.

If you're going to be a woman in ancient times, be Egyptian.
http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777190170/
There are lots of pages on the web, but this one is by a professor at the U of Chicago. Women were legal equals, who could own property, serve on juries, defend themselves in court, initiate no-fault divorce...

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html
has a summary of the Code of Hammurabi, and then the Code itself. Women don't seem as free as Egyptian ones but could still have debts of their own, and had Code rights to support after divorce. (An Egyptian woman would have those such rights as part of the -- economic -- marriage contract between herself and her husband.) Behind the assumption of support is the ex-wife having custody of the children. By contrast, the Assyrian code gave no protection to the wife, explictly saying she could be cut loose, and killing via impaling a wife who committed abortion.

No link, but Etruscan women are said to have had it good as well.

Unrelatedly, I found a Coptic spell for a man to get a male lover.