Studied History myself. Been playing civ1 since i was like 8 years old, had no choice really =p. I focused most on contemporary american history and politics with a side of religion.
In other news...
I was thinking about selecting a 'trait' for every culture based on their history:
Scientific
Industrious
Agricultural
Commercial
Primal
Cultural
Military Tradition
Maybe to work with group wonders some day. You only get 1 of each. In any case it's a tiny bit of basic info.
It's possible to give a 'civilization trait' by a building. Such a building may be something that can only emerge in the capital (automatically) when:
1) The civic for the civilization is adopted
2) The strength of the 'idea' of that civilization is strong enough in the capital
So developing such traits as generic ways to categorize and slant the abilities of the people would be a great project! Just also keep in mind that this would be a way of grouping cultures into categories but that the civic and trait tags are often similar in ability and scope and that the civics should then show how later, more modern 'advanced' cultures can get an edge over simpler ones.
So this would be like assigning a UnitCombat to a culture so to speak, a set of bonuses and penalties that apply to the culture for having that trait that it may share with many other cultures.
A GREAT idea!
Archeology isn't that difficult. Every object you don't understand is explained by assigning it some kind of religious significance. And once you have used that explanation too many times, you switch to: every object you don't understand is evidence of space aliens visiting earth in the past.
(I wish I was joking but I'm not).
We probably shouldn't rule OUT those options, but they are only part of the realm of potential. We should not allow ourselves to continue to try to settle for one worldview outlook then put the blinders on and assume that outlook is true until we're forced to admit it's not. The scientific method requires unbiased observation and conclusions while allowing deeper theoretical analysis to take place against many models of possibility.
That the Ancient Alien theory is currently the occum's razor answer for a lot of details should not be so surprising, given that our galaxy is so large and so developed along many different timelines that there really should, theoretically, be pre-existing off world intelligences that very well could have interacted wtih humanity at many different times in our development and before. We should consider that we are looking at an Earth that is a very small piece of a much much mind-bogglingly bigger galactic storyline. Surely, upon deepest consideration, this is actually the MOST likely conclusion rather than the LEAST.
The problem is how disturbing that is to the psyche that we Humans aren't actually the center of the universe, even if just our own corner of it. It also disturbs the mind to the consideration that the answers we seek are too deep to imagine ever becoming wrapped up in a neat little bow that tells the story of an Earth history from a beginning to an end. It's damned unsettling to think that the historical timeline of Earth may never be something we can fully put to rest all the answers to, that we'll keep finding more and more mysteries to solve and that process will never end because many of those threads may lead off the planet entirely.
Of course, while we have to recognize why the Human consciousness would be inclined to want to reject such theories, no matter how logical they may become as more and more data surfaces and seems to confirm and support them, we should also not go running wild with assuming fantastical ideas we can't confirm must be true. In my opinion, all potential models of history should be considered equal until we have completely ruled any out. Process of deductive reasoning, all is on the table until something is completely disproven.
That said, gut tells me that we're all soon to have revealed, with no further capacity for doubt, that we have never been completely alone here. In the meantime, let's keep building our historical model in an attempt to work with a model that suggests we ARE alone and that everything here is of our own design. The game needs to stay simple somewhat, and we're trying to build a 'belief neutral' zone here.
