[{"id":309333,"date":"2026-08-12T14:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T18:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=309333"},"modified":"2026-08-12T11:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:02:08","slug":"three-ancient-ways-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/three-ancient-ways-of-war.html","title":{"rendered":"Three Ancient Ways of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert L. O\u2019Connell at Quillette<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"In what we know as the Middle East, a dramatic jump in the emerging pattern of human violence took place around 5500 BCE, the primary evidence being circumvallation, the construction of walled fortifications around population centres.<\/p>\n

Circumvallation was not unprecedented. The massive and fabled walls of Jericho appeared around 8000 BCE. Twelve feet high and six feet thick, an estimated 1,800 feet in circumference, the walls were a mute indicator of both the place\u2019s unprecedented wealth\u2014perhaps derived from trading Dead Sea salt\u2014and the need to protect it. But these fortifications stood alone for 2,500 years; and then, rather suddenly, equivalents began to spring up again, as town after town in the Middle East either was destroyed, built walled fortifications, or both.<\/p>\n

What was responsible? Had the forces of social complexity simply reached a stage that it had turned these agricultural communities against each other? This was certainly possible; but why had so many simultaneously perceived the environment as being dangerous enough to undertake the massive task of circumvallation? What had changed?<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert L. O\u2019Connell at Quillette: In what we know as the Middle East, a dramatic jump in the emerging pattern of human violence took place around 5500 BCE, the primary evidence being circumvallation, the construction of walled fortifications around population centres. Circumvallation was not unprecedented. The massive and fabled walls of Jericho appeared around 8000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309335,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309333\/revisions\/309335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":309329,"date":"2026-08-12T13:45:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T17:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=309329"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:58:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:58:39","slug":"why-are-rivers-so-mathematical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/why-are-rivers-so-mathematical.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Rivers So Mathematical?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natalie Wolchover at Quanta<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\"\"In 1957, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist named John Hack discovered the most important law of river networks. In rivers and streams in Virginia and Maryland, Hack measured the length of each stream and the area of the land that slopes toward that stream and therefore drains into it, called its basin or drainage area. What he discovered is now known as Hack\u2019s law: Any stream, from the littlest brook to the mightiest river, has a length that\u2019s proportional to its drainage area raised to the power of 0.6. (In symbolic form:\u00a0L<\/em>\u00a0~\u00a0A<\/em>0.6<\/sup>.) There\u2019s a bit of variance around that 0.6 value \u2014 Earth is, after all, a complicated place \u2014 but \u201cthe general regularity of the relation is nevertheless remarkable,\u201d Hack\u00a0wrote(opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>. \u201cStream lengths tend to increase proportionally to the 0.6 power of the drainage area, regardless of the geological or structural characteristics of the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Natalie Wolchover at Quanta: In 1957, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist named John Hack discovered the most important law of river networks. In rivers and streams in Virginia and Maryland, Hack measured the length of each stream and the area of the land that slopes toward that stream and therefore drains into it, called its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5918],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recommended-reading","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309332,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309329\/revisions\/309332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":309327,"date":"2026-08-12T12:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/?p=309327"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:51:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T14:51:59","slug":"anthropics-felix-rieseberg-why-ai-wins-a-nobel-before-a-pulitzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2026\/08\/anthropics-felix-rieseberg-why-ai-wins-a-nobel-before-a-pulitzer.html","title":{"rendered":"Anthropic\u2019s Felix Rieseberg: why AI wins a Nobel before a Pulitzer"},"content":{"rendered":"