Medievalists.net

In 2008, I graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Medieval Archaeology, after completing a senior thesis focusing on Viking colonization and urban environments. How did I come to have such a specialized degree at a landlocked American university? Well, definitely not by following a straight and narrow path!

A University of Southampton professor has carried out the most detailed analysis ever of the archaeological remains of the lost medieval town of Dunwich, dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’.

The Black Death, which caused the deaths of tens of millions of people in the fourteenth century, was caused bacterium Yersinia pestis. New evidence now shows that the same microscopic bacterium also caused the Plague of Justinian in the sixth century.

After interviewing various people, including Gardiner and Musto and Academy President Richard Unger, two narratives have emerged – one that suggests that personality clashes emerged between the Executive Directors and some of the members of the academy’s council; while another seems to show that a serious disagreement emerged over the structure of the academy and how much freedom the Executive Directors should have in running the organization.

Danielle Trynoski reviews the Master of Arts in Medieval Archaeology program at the University of York

This week, we get a special treat: George R. R. Martin wrote this episode. If you’re expecting another Battle of Blackwater, you’re not going to find it. This is a slower episode with basic storyline movement and few exciting scenes.

On this week’s episode of The Borgias, Lucrezia tearfully gives up Giovanni to Rodrigo and Vanozza. Forces against the Borgias gather at Forli, Cesare makes friends with the French and Rodrigo invites new scandal into his bed.

A review of Patricia Bracewell’s book: Shadow on the Crown.

The archaeologists who discovered King Richard III under a car park are now hoping that a 600-year-old lead lined stone coffin found nearby will lead them to the remains of a knight buried in the 14th century.

In the sixteenth century an accountant in the German city of Augsburg named Matthäus Schwarz was busy moving up the social circles, and he did it in part by knowing the latest fashions and dressing well. By 1541 he succeeded in becoming a member of the nobility. Now his efforts are being recreated in an experimental research project at the University of Cambridge.