Structures known as Irish Round Towers, built from the late 8th-12th centuries CE, dotted the island in medieval centuries. The only monumental stone buildings in Ireland to come before the Normans invaded, the towers used to be thought to function as lookouts for Viking invasions. Historians now ascribe less martial functions to the buildings, thinking […]
Irish Round Towers Read More »
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, baptism for infants arose early in the Christian Middle Ages, and signaled to all witnesses that the child had been admitted into the grace of God. “Team God” was obviously the side everyone wanted to be on, but it raised a problem — when Christians opposed each other, whose
Emperor Constantine and His Nickname “Kopronymous” Read More »
In Early Medieval Europe, to have a book meant you were fantastically wealthy. But to commission a book such as the one featured here meant you were at the pinnacle of society. This manuscript is the _Codex Argenteus_, and it is among the most important human-made objects created in sixth-century Europe. Parchment was expensive and
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Happy St. Lucy’s Day! Would you like to celebrate by meditating on gouged-out eyeballs? In a tradition stemming from the Middle Ages, saints who had been martyred were frequently shown in artwork with either the instrument of death (Lucy was also stabbed — see the knife?), or the body parts in their story recieving the
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One of the best things about your day today is not waking up to ergot poisoning. Unfortunately, this condition caused great suffering to many throughout history. In the Middle Ages, people called it “St Anthony’s Fire,” after a 4th-century saint who was said to have endured hallucinations and burning sensations — two of the many
The Painful Conditions From Ergot Poisoning Read More »
Two years ago, researchers published findings concerning DNA samples taken from the Early Medieval York Gospels. Manuscripts from this era are extremely rare: it was written around 990 and lavishly illustrated. By taking a simple eraser, scholars used a technique called “eZooMS,” which allowed them to sample DNA from the pages without damaging them. A
Medieval York Gospels and Science Read More »
Today at Shippensburg University I attended a fascinating talk by scholar Dr. Joshua Eyler, who presented on his new book _How Humans Learn_ (you can see him on the second photo). Eyler spoke about the ways science and evolution can help us best understand ways to obtain new knowledge.The aristocratic clergy writing books at the
Dr. Joshua Eyler’s Book “How Humans Learn” Read More »
“Lilith” is a sculpture I would pay money to take a pilgrimage to see. Created by artist Kiki Smith in 1994 out of bronze and glass, the statue of Lilith crouches, tense and fierce. Her eyes stare out with a contact that seems physical.The stories of the demon Lilith emerged over hundreds of years, but
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This beautiful site is the rocky island of Skellig Michael off the coast of western Ireland. It is a lonely and barren place now, as it was in the Early Middle Ages, when sometime between 500-700 CE hermits built a monastery there. These Christian monks wanted to spend their lives with as much solitude as
Rocky Skellig Michael in Western Ireland Read More »
We share the same genetic code with people from the Medieval past, and the basic way our brains take in sensory information is also the same. However, the cultural lens of the Middle Ages differs so greatly from our own that Medieval people interpreted the physical world in a vastly different way. This is true
Medieval Associations of Smells Read More »
This coin dates to the age of the Germanic ruler Clovis I (d 511 CE), and should immediately strike us with its mythological imagery — angels with swords aren’t things we actually see. We realize that the figure on the coin cannot correspond with a real-life person. A tricky thing about studying Early Medieval history,
Germanic Leader King Clovis I Read More »
We are likely familiar with the story of the Three Wise Men in the Christian cultural tradition — the visitors from the east whom the Gospel of Matthew says visited the infant Jesus to honor him with gifts. We might not realize, though, that the Gospel writer never indicated the number of _Magi_ (a Greek
The Wise Men of Christian Tradition Read More »
This week, I am looking at hair in Medieval history, and I am starting with the dudes. It turns out that the barbarians of the Early Middle Ages cared a great deal about styling their locks. Careful attention to cut and style announced a “je ne sais quoi” about masculenity and power.For instance, featured in
Early Middle Ages and Barbarian Men’s Hairstyles Read More »
Hairstyles give a lot of information to others — sometimes even more than clothing, because they are both changeable but also part of the body. For Medieval men, having long hair meant high social status in many cultures. The English before the Norman Conquest of 1066 are a case in point — as you can
Medieval Men’s Hair and Their Social Status Read More »
This week we are looking at Medieval birth control. This terrifying object, known as a “chastity belt,” was once thought to have been developed by men during the Middle Ages to lock up their wives or daughters’ genitalia, thereby controlling not just women’s reproduction, but their sexuality. The good news — they were probably mostly
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My theme for the next while will be. . . . “ancient and Medieval rulers who died horribly according to their gleeful enemies who ended up recording history.” This is a fun theme, because writers of Days of Yore liked to tart up their death narratives, and if they could finesse a good sense of
The Death of Earl Godwin of Kent of Southern England Read More »
If you can read this, you are not having a day as bad as the person here had, about 1,173 years ago, in the south of England. And we know this because of the multi-disciplinary approach to studying the Early Middle Ages. Scientists, archaeologists, and historians working together can tease out the stories of the
Face Mutilation of Young Women in the Early Middle Ages Read More »
There is a stereotype about how vikings loved their beer and mead, and it wasn’t invented by Marvel Comics. Here, you see a stone carved with a scene of Scandinavians from the Early Middle Ages and they are enjoying their alcohol. In the Old Norse poem _Grímnismál_, some of the deceased warriors await the final
Traditional Norse Beer Drinking Read More »
King Arthur never actually lived, but stories about him were extremely popular in Medieval Europe. One of the most well known today is _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. The poem survives in only one manuscript that dates to the late 14th century. The language is Middle English, but belongs to a conservative rural dialect
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” Read More »
Behold an example of a fabled Griffin claw, said to neutralize poisons and once collected as prized objects by Medieval kings. The upper image is of a purported Griffin claw, with a silver band inscribed with the Latin: “GRYPHI UNGUIS DIVO CUTHBERTO DUNELMENSI SACER” (“the claw of a Griffin sacred to the blessed Cuthbert of
Medieval Griffin Claw Read More »
