News Archive
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Unlocking the secrets to Sweden’s Holy King
Posted on April 23, 2014 | No CommentsResearchers in Sweden have opened the casket of King Erik IX, and hope to analyze his bones to understand more about the health of the twelfth-century ruler and to even make sure these remains are his. -
Vatican Library plans to digitize 41 million pages
Posted on April 21, 2014 | No CommentsThe Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana has begun the first phase of a massive digitization project and over the next four years will digitize over 3000 manuscripts. The Vatican library hopes to eventually digitize all 82 000 manuscripts in it collection, which covers over 41 million pages. -
Olivia Remie Constable passes away
Posted on April 20, 2014 | No CommentsThe University of Notre Dame has announced the passing of Olivia Remie Constable, Director of its Medieval Institute. -
When was Offa’s Dyke built?
Posted on April 20, 2014 | No CommentsHistorians have long believed that Offa's Dyke was built in the late eighth-century, but new evidence suggests it might be 200 years older. -
Why did Medieval Slave Traders go to Finland?
Posted on April 17, 2014 | No CommentsThe demand for blonde girls and boys was so lucrative that slave traders would hunt for these people as far away as northern Finland, a recent study finds. -
Database of UK surnames has reached 45,000 entries dating back to the Middle Ages
Posted on April 14, 2014 | No CommentsThe 'Family Names of the United Kingdom Project', which is being carried out by a team at University of the West of England - Bristol, has reached a key milestone with the completion of the first phase of the database with 45,000 surnames researched and explained. -
Byzantine monastery discovered the Negev Desert
Posted on April 14, 2014 | No CommentsAn impressive Byzantine monastery dating to the late sixth-century has been discovered in the northern part of the Negev Desert in Israel. -
Viking and Ancient boats discovered in Ireland
Posted on April 14, 2014 | No CommentsArchaeologists in Ireland have discovered the remains of boats dating back to the Bronze and Iron Age, including one from the 11th century that may have belonged to Viking raiders. -
Viking researchers help British Museum translate Norse culture
Posted on April 10, 2014 | No CommentsThe first major exhibition on Vikings at the British Museum for over 30 years which opened on 6 March in London highlights a new research project by Viking experts at The University of Nottingham. -
Trinity College Dublin marks anniversary of Battle of Clontarf with conference and exhibition
Posted on April 10, 2014 | No CommentsThis year marks the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf, one of the most important events in Irish history. -
Researchers trace medieval pilgrimage route in Scotland
Posted on April 9, 2014 | No CommentsA report released earlier this month has revealed the ways medieval pilgrims would travel to the one of Scotland's most holiest sites. -
How to Win Friends and Influence People: Medieval Bishops edition
Posted on April 8, 2014 | No Comments'To be a bishop during this time was to be a leader who might crown kings or provoke a rebellion. So the question we’re asking is, if you wanted to become a bishop, who did you need to know?' -
Jacques le Goff passes away at the age of 90
Posted on April 1, 2014 | No CommentsOne of the world's most important medieval historians, Jacques le Goff, passed away earlier today in Paris. Many medievalists will have read and been deeply influenced by his writings and scholarship. -
Archaeologists discover London’s Black Death mass grave
Posted on March 31, 2014 | No CommentsSkeletons discovered last year in London were victims of the Black Death, according to new research announced yesterday. Furthermore, archaeologists believe that have found an emergency burial ground created in 1348 for victim of the pandemic. -
Skeleton might not be Richard III, scholars suggest
Posted on March 28, 2014 | No CommentsTwo leading medieval scholars are casting doubt that the body found in Leicester in 2012 is that of King Richard III, but those involved in the discovery are defending their findings. -
‘Vikings’ Renewed for Third Season
Posted on March 25, 2014 | No CommentsThe television show Vikings has been renewed for a third season by the American channel History. Production on ten more episodes for season three will begin this summer and be broadcast in 2015. -
What did Scone look like in the Middle Ages
Posted on March 25, 2014 | No CommentsA team of researchers have stared a new project that will give us a look at how Scone, one of Scotland’s medieval royal centres, looked like and why it was so important to the development of the Scottish kingdom. -
What is an Australasian parrot doing in a 15th century Italian painting?
Posted on March 24, 2014 | No CommentsThe Sulphur-crested Cockatoo is a species of parrot native to Australia and eastern Indonesia. However, you can also see one in the Madonna della Vittoria, a painting made in 1496 by Andrea Mantegna. -
Syrian army captures Crac des Chevaliers
Posted on March 22, 2014 | No CommentsSyrian government forces have captured the medieval fortress of Crac des Chevaliers from rebels on Thursday. -
Guelph Treasure should remain in Germany, commission rules
Posted on March 22, 2014 | No CommentsAn advisory commission in Germany has ruled that the Guelph Treasure should remain in a Berlin museum and not be returned to the heirs of the Jewish owners who sold the medieval artefacts to the Nazi state in the 1930s. -
British Library purchases the Catholicon Anglicum
Posted on March 21, 2014 | No CommentsThe British Library has paid £92,500 in order to keep a 500-year old dictionary from leaving the United Kingdom. They announced earlier this week that they had completed the purchase of the Catholicon Anglicum, a 15th-century English-Latin dictionary. -
Macbeth film ‘Enemy of Man’ looks to raise money on Kickstarter
Posted on March 19, 2014 | No CommentsAn independent feature film of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth starring Sean Bean, Rupert Grint and Charles Dance has almost raised half of the $250 000 they are seeking on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. -
Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf coming out this spring
Posted on March 19, 2014 | No CommentsIn 1926, J.R.R. Tolkien, who would later go on to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, completed his own translation of the Old English poem Beowulf. Eighty-eight years later that work is going to be published for the first time -
What we now know about the Staffordshire Hoard
Posted on March 19, 2014 | No CommentsThe entire Staffordshire Hoard, over 4000 pieces, has been brought together for the first time since being discovered in 2009. Experts are now making fascinating new discoveries as they put together the collection. -
What Medieval Teeth can tell us
Posted on March 17, 2014 | No CommentsWhen a University of Oklahoma researcher and an international team of experts analyzed the dental calculus or plaque from teeth preserved for 1,000 years, the results revealed human health and dietary information never seen before.
