Most history online is either a list of dates or a wall of text. We wanted something closer to standing in the place itself: the fort drawn at the size it really was, the line of time drawn at its real length, the letter shown in the words its writer chose.
How we check
- Evidence first. Every fact links to where it comes from: the research paper, the excavation record, the museum that holds the object, or the published translation. Encyclopaedias help us find sources, but we never cite them as one.
- Read the source, not a summary of it. Before a number goes on a page, someone has read it in the source we cite, and the date of that check is recorded on the sources page.
- Say how sure anyone can be. Every claim falls into one of three kinds, shown with these labels:
- Evidence
- Found, measured or written down at the time, and published by the people who found it.
- Informed
- Reasoned from similar places or later records. A good guess, and we say so.
- Debated
- Experts disagree. We give the main views, who holds them and why, and don’t pick a winner where the evidence hasn’t.
- Every “at least” stays in. Many ancient dates are minimums. We keep the words that say so, and draw them that way too.
- Show the working. Where we work something out ourselves, such as how many football pitches fit in a fort, the sum is printed beside it.
- Draw honestly. Maps and plans are drawn in code from published measurements. Captions say what is simplified, what is drawn by eye and what is left out.
- Fair on contested history. History involves real peoples, faiths and nations. Where it is disputed we set out each side in its own terms and cite who holds it.
- Correct openly. When we get something wrong, we fix it and list the change, with the date, on the corrections page.
Tell us if we’re wrong
Email hello@fallinghippo.com with “Correction” in the subject, the page, and what you think is wrong. A source helps a great deal. We read every message.