About
Living before
People had teeth before toothbrushes.
Every claim sourced. Every image from a museum collection or a public archive.
What it is
Living Before is about what people did before an everyday thing existed. Each entry takes one problem and sets three or four societies side by side. The first is reading small print before glasses.
One entry a week, by email. Every entry stays here, in the archive.
How claims are sourced
Each entry starts from a research file and a fact-check of it. Once the entry is written, it gets a fresh fact-check of its own, and what that finds is fixed before it goes out.
The sources at the end of every entry name the printed edition, with a link to the copy we used. From modern books and articles we take the facts in our own words, and quote at most one short line per source, credited, and only when commenting on it.
How translations are checked
An old translation is quoted only if it was published before 1931 and its translator died in 1955 or earlier. Otherwise we translate from the original, and the entry says so: our translation.
Each of our translations is checked twice, blind. Two AI translators, working separately, translate the same original without seeing ours. Where they read it differently, our line is corrected, softened or cut. The original is printed beside our English, so anyone who reads it can check us.
Where the images come from
Every image comes from the museum or public archive that holds it, under that holder’s own public-domain or CC0 release, or, for a US patent drawing, because US government works are in the public domain. Each one has a dated record. Every image is credited with its maker where known, its date and the collection that holds it. No image is made or altered with AI.
The images and the old texts are public domain or CC0 under their holders’ own releases, and we claim no rights in them.
Who writes it
Entries are drafted with AI tools from the research file and fact-checked. Alex Vita reads and approves every entry before it goes out.
Spotted a mistake, or have a question? Write to [email protected].