The Archaeology of Knowth in the First and Second Millennia AD
Knowth, Ireland is the site of one the country’s most important archaeological sites: from a large neolithic grave mound to medieval and post-medieval settlements, this place offers a huge amount of evidence on Irish history.
Mummified saints of the Northern Croatian Littoral
European mummies occupy a significant place among the world known mummies.
Transvestites, Saints, Wives, and Martyrs: The Lives of female saints as read by fifteenth-century Florentine women
An examination of the lives of female saints taken from the highly popular vernacular Vite dei santi padri written by Domenico Cavalca (c.1270-1342) and the ways women in quattrocento Florence may have been reading them.
Edward II and the Expectations of Kingship
Although historians generally agree that Edward II’s reign was a complete failure, and that the king himself was rather inept, debate has centered on the specific causes for his downfall.
The Oxford Calculators
Oxford’s medieval philosophers deserve greater recognition, says Mark Thakkar
The Battle of Beroia: A Byzantine ‘Face of Battle’
It was by reading John Keegan’s Face of Battle that I discovered that it was possible to write military history that was both intellectually rigorous and engaging to read.
The Development of Predicative Possession in Slavic Languages
As an active language, Early Proto-Indo-European (Pre-Indo-Euro- pean) had no category of syntactic transitivity (Subject-Object relation), which is the central characteristic of nominative (accusative) languages, and no verb ‘have’.
Stasis in the Medieval World Conference
April 13-14, 2013, at The Institute of Archaeology, University College London
An Investigation Into the Use of Color As a Device to Convey Memes During The Little Ice Age
No single element in art drives emotion more effectively than color. The Greeks knew this and deliberately painted their marble works for the purpose of eliciting a reaction in the viewer.
The Use of Gunpowder Weapons in the Wars of the Roses
During the fourteenth century, while continental gunpowder holdings were largely in local control England’s gunpowder weaponry never fell under a similar local control, but was always exclusively a royal possession.
Spouses, Siblings and Surnames: Reconstructing Families From Medieval Village Court Rolls
From the perspective of a medievalist, this work is clearly essential; most medieval people, quite simply, were peasants, and we shall better understand the histories of medieval parliaments, towns, and universities when we have successfully uncovered their rural underpinnings.
Handspinners of the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance
The Handspinners of Paris, France: In 1270, a royal judge, Etienne Boileau, compiled “Le Livre de Metiers” (The Book of Trades) which contained the ordinances of 100 Parisian craft guilds. By consulting the surviving tax rolls of 1292, 1300, and 1313, it is possible to determine the extent to which these crafts were practiced.
Colour, seeing, and seeing colour in medieval literature
Colour was seen differently in the past. This naive statement is a useful starting-point for the study because it immediately introduces the philosophical problem of colour as it has been encountered throughout our cultural and intellectual history.
Tournament Culture in the Low Countries and England
In England and the Low Countries towards the end of the thirteenth century, a common chivalric culture had emerged which permitted exchanges and mutual participation in tournaments on both sides of the Channel.
Wraiths, Revenants and Ritual in Medieval Culture
‘When a human being dies, both flesh and bones die.’
Herbs and Drugs in Monastic Gardens
In those small backyards the monks planted various medical herbs from which drugs were gained and gathered to provide the monastery and the sick of the neighbourhood with medicine. Every monk, in this way, was a doctor and pharmacist as well.
Holding The Border: Power, Identity, And The Conversion Of Mercia
Examining the conversion of the kingdom of Mercia from the perspective of that kingdom’s origins and development and its rulers’ interests and concerns will enable us to understand both resistance and conversion to Christianity in seventh-century England.
Rebaptism as a Ritual of Cultural Integration in Vandal Africa
Midway through the first book of his History of the Vandal Persecution, Victor of Vita narrates the story of a Vandal master who deemed it appropriate to allow his two Roman slaves, Martinianus and Maxima, to marry.
Women, Gender and Guilds in Early Modern Europe
Historians of women and gender, as we might expect, have had a different point of view. In her pioneering 1919 study of women’s working lives in seventeenth-century England, Alice Clark depicted a Golden Age in the medieval period, during which women enjoyed access to skilled and profitable work.
The Dominican Convents in Medieval Norway
In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Norway was larger than it is today, where the former Norwegian districts of Jämtland and Bohus are now parts of Sweden. In 1380, the Norwegian throne was inherited by the Danish king, and for the rest of the Middle Ages, Danish monarchs ruled Norway, but even though the kings often made use of Danes in the administration, the Norwegian kingdom did in fact remain as an independent part of a so-called double monarchy.
The Gendered Landscape: A discussion on gender, status and power expressed in the Viking Age mortuary landscape
I will attempt to show that the gender roles of the Viking Age are perhaps often interpreted and represented too simplistically, and that popular stereotypes fail to take into account the complex multitude of categories, variations and negotiations which one ought to expect from the interpretation of gender.
More pieces from the Staffordshire Hoard discovered
The Staffordshire Hoard has now grown by a further 81 pieces, after a Coroner’s Court declared yesterday that the newly found objects were part of the Anglo-Saxon treasure.
A Perfect Reign of Queen and King?: An Analysis of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in their Leadership Roles
As a literary couple that has stood the test of time, their roles as leaders, and roles in their relationship with each other reflects society’s understanding and belief of where gender roles belong in respect to leadership roles.
Interview with Jeri Westerson, author
I took the tropes of your typical hard-boiled detective series—the lone detective with a chip on his shoulder–who is hard drinking, tough-talking, tough fighting character–the dark streets and dark doings of crime and subculture of criminals and intrigue, the femme fatale—and let them slide into the medieval era.
Charlemagne’s Jihad
In 782, after almost two years with no clashes in the Saxon front, Charlemagne led his army into Saxony once again. This time, the main purpose was to subdue the Saxons who rebelled under the leadership of Widukind. It was a brutal campaign, during which, our sources relate, more than 4,500 Saxon rebels were beheaded in one day at the order of Charlemagne.