What is told by hands, measured in sand, and announced with bells?
Limitations imposed by wearing armour on Medieval soldiers’ locomotor performance
February 10, 2014 By
Our findings can predict age-associated decline in Medieval soldiers’ physical performance, and have potential implications in understanding the outcomes of past European military battles.
Old Light on New Media: Medieval Practices in a Digital Ages
January 29, 2014 By
This essay offers an insight into the way digital editions of medieval texts can be employed to replicate the medieval reading experience.
Armourers and their workshops: The tools and techniques of late medieval armour production
January 26, 2014 By
Armour represents one of the most recognised and enduring monuments of the Middle Ages, but its fabrication as a craft-product remain obscure.
Tempus Fugit
January 23, 2014 By
If you needed to know the time between bells, there were several ways to find out.
Fireproofing of war machines, ships and garments
January 14, 2014 By
Incendiary missiles were in use in antiquity and developed rapidly in the Hellenistic period, and various forms of fire extinguishers were invented to deal with them.
Medieval Writing Surfaces: An Interview With Dr. Mary Watt
December 30, 2013 By
Dr. Mary Watt of the University of Florida talks about what people in the Middle Ages wrote on: parchment and vellum
Depicting the Medieval Alchemical Cosmos: George Ripley’s Wheel of Inferior Astronomy
December 10, 2013 By
Alchemical writing often develops the idea of a physical or analogical correspondence between heaven and earth: a relationship most fre- quently and conveniently expressed by the use of the seven planetary symbols (Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) to denote the seven metals (usually gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, iron, tin and lead respectively).
Learning by doing or expert knowledge? Technological innovations in dike-building in coastal Flanders (13th-18th centuries AD)
December 10, 2013 By
Dike construction apparently uses simple technology, with slow and gradual change; not the kind of technology that reshaped the material conditions of living, comparable to the spread of electricity or sanitation in the 19th century ‘networked’ city (and linked to the disciplining of society and the rise of domesticity and the modern self-reflexive individual) (often inspired by Latour and Foucault).
Finland, Tallinn and the Hanseatic League: Foreign Trade and the Orientation of Roads in Medieval Finland
November 24, 2013 By
What was the role of Finland in the trade of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages? Thisquestion has been widely discussed in Finnish history since 1882, when J.W. Ruuth publishedhis study on the relationship between Finland and the Hanse before 1435.
Healthscaping a Medieval City: Lucca’s Curia viarum and the Future of Public Health History
November 24, 2013 By
Healthscaping a Medieval City: Lucca’s Curia viarum and the Future of Public Health History G. Geltner (Department of History, University of Amsterdam) Urban History: 40, 3 (2013) Abstract In early fourteenth-century Lucca, one government organ began expanding its activities beyond the maintenance of public works to promoting public hygiene and safety, and in ways that suggest both […]
How Shall a Man Be Armed? Evolution of Armor during the Hundred Years War
October 13, 2013 By
Special presentation at the 2013 International Congress on Medieval Studies
Spectacles through the ages and period inaccuracies
September 29, 2013 By
One of the most annoying errors made in historical entertainment, at least for the optical profession, is the use of spectacles which are inappropriate for the period being depicted.
Into the frontier: medieval land reclamation and the creation of new societies. Comparing Holland and the Po Valley, 800-1500
September 29, 2013 By
In the paper it is shown that medieval land reclamation led to the emergence of two very divergent societies, characterised by a number of different configurations; (a) power and property structure, (b) modes of exploitation, (c) economic portfolios, and (d) commodity markets.
The Serpent in the Sword: Pattern-welding in Early Medieval Swords
September 28, 2013 By
In the pattern-welded sword blades made from the Migration Period through the mid-Viking Age (5th through 10th centuries), swordsmiths manipulated the piled structure of the blade to create a striking decorative effect
The Engineering Beauty of the Trebuchet
August 28, 2013 By
Trebuchets were used to break through castle walls from about 850-1350 C.E. Dead livestock or giant rocks were the usual ammunition, but sometimes prisoners of war or especially annoying people were added to the flying debris.
The role and status of the smith in the Viking age
August 26, 2013 By
This thesis begins by exploring the literary expressions of smiths in Viking Age myths, legends, and sagas.
English government bought “many millions” of crossbow bolts during the 13th century, historian finds
August 1, 2013 By
A new study about the medieval military industry shows that the English Royal government was making and purchasing as much as hundreds of thousands of crossbow bolts each year, revealing how important this weapon was to the medieval armies of England.
A Pedagogical Trebuchet: A Case Study in Experimental History and History Pedagogy
June 24, 2013 By
The case study presented here shows how a project in experimental history applied to a medieval trebuchet was used to solve just such problems by encouraging historical thinking, hypothesis testing of a historical problem, and reinforcing traditional primary source research.
Give us this day our daily bread: A study of Late Viking Age and Medieval Quernstones in South Scandinavia
June 19, 2013 By
Porridge and bread were by far the two most important elements in the Viking Age and medieval diet.
‘Fromm thennes faste he gan avyse/This litel spot of erthe’: GIS and the General Prologue
May 2, 2013 By
This paper was given at the Canada Chaucer Seminar on April 27, 2013.
Brick making in Britain during the later medieval period
March 9, 2013 By
This essay aims to briefly examine the mechanisms of how brick making arrived in England and to describe the manufacturing process from documentary and archaeological evidence from a selected number of sites.
Master builder of the Middle Ages and design build of today: an analysis and comparison
February 17, 2013 By
European architecture went through a period of great development and building between 1150 and 1450.
Genre Into Artifact: the Decline of the English Chronicle In the Sixteenth Century
January 20, 2013 By
Most modern scholars would agree with the thrust of these contemporary statements even while making the more subtle distinctions among different chroniclers that the perspective of four centuries provides. Few would now wish to argue that the chronicle, once the form of historical writing, had fallen into anything but a state of decay.
Questioning the Accepted Techniques for Sword-Forging in Anglo-Saxon England and in Frankish Europe
January 14, 2013 By
Frankish swords were absolutely crucial to the rise of the Carolingian empire and they played a major role in Afro-Eurasian commerce during this period.
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