Medieval people drank wine, and a lot of it. Some speculate that it would have tasted much worse than today’s drink, because it wasn’t stored in glass bottles, and corks hadn’t been invented. This might have made older wines murky with dead yeasts, and easily spoiled. The best wines likely were the newer ones which […]
Winemaking in Medieval Europe Read More »
We’ve all heard the term “rune,” but mostly in contemporary culture we think about runes being magical symbols, perhaps fitting into the worlds of JRR Tolkien. So I’m here to deliver some bummer history news to fight this stereotype and argue that runes could be much more mundane. However, this lead plaque (dating between the
Old English Runes and Their Magical and Ordinary Purposes Read More »
Looking at the ridges and furrows of fields such as this, one can get a rare glimpse of what Medieval agricultural topography was like. The undulating patterns you see here were made hundreds of years ago above the settlement of Wood Stanway in Medieval England. There are two big reasons why the landscape still looks
Wood Stanway and How the Black Death Changed England’s Landscape Read More »
This sculpture, coming from a porch from the abbey church at Moissac and dating between 1120-1135, shows a woman in hell being tortured for her sins of lust. Her long hair, draped over her face, draws attention to her sexual moral depravity, as two snakes bite her breasts as they coil around her genitalia. On
Moissac Sculpture, Women, and Medieval Sodomy Read More »
This butterfly I photographed today at the Hershey Butterfly House likely belongs to the genus “Heliconius”, aka “the longwings.” But it looks very similar to the one illustrated in a 15th-century Medieval French Manuscript which scholars have identified as an “Aglais urticae” or “Small Tortoiseshell”. Both the 21st century butterfly house and the Medieval painting
Medieval Butterflies Read More »
Here you see the Medieval 12th century ruins of the monastery at Lindisfarne. These remains, old as they are, predate Saint Cuthbert, whose cult grew up around this area after his life of preaching and asceticism in the seventh century (see Medieval illumination of Cuthbert on the second slide). But 300 million years before the
St Cuthbert’s beads Read More »
This is one of the most important books in existence — the Codex Vaticanus. Dating to the fourth century, it is one of the earliest and most complete manuscripts of the Bible. But whereas its fame resides mostly in the history of Christianity (many scholars translating the New Testament rely on it), it has a
Codex Vaticanus and the Septuagint Read More »
This 13th-century fresco illustrates the most influential forgery in history: _The Donation of Constantine_. See the dude in the gold dress with the red beard handing over what looks like a puffy triangle to the larger but thin Santa Claus-guy? That’s supposed to be the Emperor Constantine (4th century) giving Pope Sylvester the right to
The Donation of Constantine Read More »
The oldest continuous center of learning is in Fez, Morocco. The University of al-Qarawiyyin (aka Al-Karaouine) was founded as a mosque in either 857 or 859, and likely scholars were teaching there soon after. According to a 14th-century manuscript, al-Qarawiyyin was founded by Fatima al-Fihri, a wealthy woman from a merchant family, who had immigrated
Fez, the Oldest “University” Read More »
Here’s a late 14th-century illustration of the African trading route to Ghana, one of the world’s key areas of commerce and part of the Kingdom of Mali (of Mansa Musa fame). And this map is the closet pictorial representation I could find to document the constitution of the Medieval Mali Empire, because it is actually
Medieval Mali Manden Charter Read More »
Many are looking forward to the fall because of the cooler nights, pumpkin-spice everything, and the changing leaves: here’s a Medieval skeleton to enhance the mood. This chap, known to archaeologists as T US 380, lived between the 6th and 8th centuries among the Longobard peoples in Italy. He had had a hard life, dying
Early Medieval Knife Prothesis Read More »
As the 1300s began, the Christian-held areas of Spain saw an influx of slaves from a variety of cultures: Greeks, Armenians, Turks, foreign Muslims, and sub-Saharan Africans. While Christians (as well as Muslims and Jews) had legally enslaved people for centuries, they were newly confronted with the fact that some of their Muslim neighbors were
Medieval slavery and blackness Read More »
This is a beautiful modern artistic rendition of one of China’s most famous poets: Li Qingzhao (1084- ca. 1155). Her works reflect a sort of artistic craftsmanship that cannot be translated into English, and also a unique window into a woman’s mind from a time of strident patriarchy. Most of her writings have been lost,
Li Qingzhao the Famous Medieval Chinese Poetess Read More »
