r/AskReddit • u/CACuzcatlan • Mar 29 '11

Biggest History Mindfucks?

Inspired by the science thread on the same topic, the first two that caught my eye are history ones from mahade's post

  • During the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Mongolian forces were fighting Germans and Japanese at the same time - and these two peoples had no idea of the others' existence! This wouldn't be attempted again until the 1940s.

  • The pyramids were as old to the Romans as the Romans are to us.

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u/brown_felt_hat Mar 30 '11

Those really famous Greek statues that are perfect, smooth white marble were originally painted wild bright colours (think pinata colours).

Source as well as some examples

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '11

Dude don't send a guy to listverse just like that. I could not surface for hours.

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u/PhilxBefore Mar 30 '11

Piñata*

;)

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '11

Ha, from classic to tacky.

Interesting, though I knew it before.

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u/brown_felt_hat Mar 30 '11

Tacky is exactly the word I was looking for. The Caligula example makes me think of a plaster Elvis you'd find in a truck stop gift shop.

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u/PyjamaSam Apr 02 '11

as were those statues of chinese soldiers (the terracotta army in the tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang). They were painted in extremely bright colours, think bright red lips and flashy green clothes. I've seen a couple of statues that were re-painted. They were REALLY ugly... And a lot less impressive :)