History’s Strangest Habits: 30 Peculiar Practices of the Past

11Continuous Script

Continuous Script

Prior to the middle ages, the written script often did not use spaces in between words. Instead, writers used what was called “continuous script.” Monks under Charlemagne’s rule found it much easier to copy ancient Roman manuscripts and distinguish words by implementing spaces.


12Testicular Belief

Testicular Belief

In the Middle Ages, men who wanted a boy sometimes removed their left testicle because it was believed that the right testicle made sperm for boys and the left testicle made sperm for girls.


13Roman Timekeeping

Roman Timekeeping

Ancient Romans didn’t measure time in 60-minute hours. An hour was about 45 minutes in winter and 75 minutes in summer.


14Temple of Aphrodite

Temple of Aphrodite

There was a custom in ancient Babylon compelling all women at least once in their lives to go to the temple of Aphrodite and have sex with a stranger.


15Medieval Female Sexuality

Medieval Female Sexuality

In the Middle Ages, Catholic women were prohibited from having sex on Sundays, Wednesdays, or Fridays, on feast days, while fasting for Lent or Advent or while “impure” (menstruation, pregnancy, 40 days after giving birth & while nursing). Everything but missionary position was considered sodomy.


16Egyptian Ceremony

Egyptian Ceremony

The ancient Egyptians believed that the ebb and flow of the Nile were caused by the god Atum masturbating to ejaculation. As such, Pharaohs were sometimes required to ceremonially masturbate into the Nile.


17Ornatrix

Ornatrix

Ornatrices were enslaved hairdressers. They were responsible to create insane looks that were popular at the time, in ancient Rome. This person had to deal with a lot of gnarly ingredients such as hair dyes made out of pigeon poop, rotten leeches, squid ink, and urine.


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18Christmas in Middle Ages

Christmas in Middle Ages

Christmas in the Middle Ages was more like Mardi Gras on steroids. It included raucous parties that lasted for days, animal sacrifices, gambling, and adult trick or treating.


19Nomenclators

Nomenclators

Politicians in ancient Rome kept slaves named “nomenclators”, whose sole job was to remind their masters of the names and pertinent details of all the different people they met.


20Secession of the Plebeians

Secession of the Plebeians

In ancient Rome, in a practice known as “secessions of the plebeians” commoners would evacuate entire cities in acts of revolt, similar to the modern concept of a general strike, leaving the elite in the cities to fend for themselves.

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