There's a saying, "salting the earth", which is a reference to the ancient Romans, who were in a long time war against Carthage, finally succeeding in attacking said city state and completely destroying it and, according to the claim, spreading salt all around the fields so that they would become infertile, ie. impossible to grow any crops on (and, thus, deliberately causing a famine to all peoples living around the city.)
This "salting the earth" by the Romans has been considered a historical "fact" for at least a century.
Turns out that it's just complete fiction. Turns out that there's literally zero historical evidence of it having happened. There are many writings by contemporary historians who describe the Roman invasion of Carthage in great detail, but none of them make even a remote mention of them spreading salt. Nothing.
Historians also consider it a rather ludicrous idea. Back in ancient times salt was actually quite valuable. Perhaps not as valuable as gold and silver, but neither something you would be throwing away metric tons of. In fact, the etymology of the very word "salary" is from the Latin word "sal", ie. salt, being a reference to an allowance to Roman soldiers to buy or trade in salt. It was considered that valuable. The idea that Romans would just throw metric tons of salt around is just outright ludicrous. It would have been, pretty much in essence, like throwing money away.
The origin of this myth is actually relatively recent. The earliest source that has ever been found that mentions this alleged event is the publication Cambridge Ancient History from 1930. It gives no sources for the claim. Nobody has ever found an earlier reference to that alleged event than that.
Yet, many people to this day take it as an established historical fact. Multi-million-subscriber YouTube channels repeat the fact blindly, with zero corroboration from actual historians.
This just makes one think: How many known "historical facts" are there in common knowledge that are actually completely false and made-up, and which never happened? (Or even if something similar happened, the actual event was quite different from what we "know" today.)
One particular thing that this somehow made me think of, is the Native American war bonnet.
It has been one of the most prominent targets of the anti-"cultural appropriation" movement of the past decade or two. Not only have far-leftist intersectional feminist social justice warriors been loudly shouting that using the "indian feather hat" is "cultural appropriation" and thus a horrible crime against humanity, but in fact many American Native people have come forward and confirming that, indeed, that particular headgear is not only an integral part of their culture, but has also a spiritual significance to them. Only the most distinguished warriors and leaders wore the bonnet as a symbol of their achievements and leadership.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all about respecting genuine culture and people's historic past. I would be on the forefront of opposing, for example, defacing or denigrating or disrespectful use of, say, Buddha statues or other religious symbols with a very long cultural and religious meaning to a large amount of people, or any other such symbols and significant cultural aspects that have a deep meaning to the people engaged in those customs and practices. (For the most part I include country flags in this category. I think they deserve a modicum of respectful treatment due to what they symbolize and who they represent. You don't need to worship them, but you shouldn't be defacing them either.)
Note that I'm not opposed to other people using those things and eg. owning them, as long as they show a modicum of respect when treating them, in light of the cultural significance that they have. Don't deface them nor use them as a trashcan.
But, in the light of how unreliable historical claims are, one has to wonder how much of what eg. those American Native people are saying about the war bonnet is actually true and what is just fiction. (Even if it's something they genuinely and truly believe, ie. they are being honest and not lying, that doesn't mean that everything they are saying is actually true. They may well have been deceived into believing falsities about their own ancient history as much as anybody else.)
I suppose in this case it's better to err on the side of caution and treat Native American war bonnets with a modicum of respect, assuming that they do indeed hold a very long history of great significance to those people, and disrespecting this symbol is an insult to them.
But it does make one think how much of it is actually true and how much has been later inventions.
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