Sources of Life: Food and water sustainability in Abbasid Baghdad
Managing access to clean water and large quantities of grain and other foodstuffs was essential for the development of an exceedingly large city such as Baghdad under the Abbasids.Managing access to clean water and large quantities of grain and other foodstuffs was essential for the development of an exceedingly large city such as Baghdad under the Abbasids.
Christmas Traditions in the Hidden Corners of Europe
Celebrating the Christmas season in the Carpathian Mountains
Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table
In his new history of food, acclaimed historian Massimo Montanari traces the development of medieval tastes, both culinary and cultural, from raw materials to market and captures their reflections in today’s food trends.
Why Cats were hated in Medieval Europe
Cats in medieval Europe mostly had a bad reputation – they were associated with witches and heretics, and it was believed that the devil could transform himself into a black cat.
Food and Cooking during the Mamluk Era: Social and Political Implications
The preparation of food was of interest mainly to the top echelon of the Mamluk ruling elite, to members of the civilian upper class who were able to cook food at home, and to the professional cooks who kept shops catering to the vast urban lower classes.
Frosts, Floods, and Famines – Climate in Relation to Hunger in North-East Europe A.D. 1100–1550
This Master’s thesis examines the relation between climatic conditions and hunger in Northeast Europe in A.D. 1100–1550.
Witchcraft, Weather and Economic Growth in Renaissance Europe
This paper explores the possibility that the witchcraft trials are a large-scale example of violence and scapegoating prompted by a deterioration in economic conditions.
The Battle of Dupplin Moor
James Turner analyses this 14th-century battle in Scotland.
Medieval Siegecraft: Crusader vs Turkish vs Mongol
When it comes to sieges, which group was the most successful in the medieval Middle East: Crusaders, Turks or Mongols?
Bread in the Middle Ages
Kings, knights, monks, peasants – everyone in the Middle Ages ate bread. It was also the food that caused bitter religious disputes and could make you go insane.
Escaping the Mongols: A Survivor’s Account from the 13th century
The story of Master Roger, one of the many people caught up in the Mongol invasion of Hungary in 1241.
Looking for scapegoats: The betrayal of Romanos Diogenes by Trachaneiotes and Doukas at Manzikert and the role of Attaleiates’ narrative
Few people have been vilified in such a way after the disastrous outcome of a decisive battle other than Trachaniotes, Roussel of Bailleul, and Andronikos Doukas.
Medieval Christmas token discovered in England
A medieval Christmas token has been found during an archaeological survey in eastern England. Dating to between 1470 and 1560, the token is believed to be depicting St Nicholas.
What teeth can reveal about the health of early medieval children
Researchers can learn much about a person through their teeth. This is even true for people who lived 1500 years ago in early medieval Germany.
Medieval Poland was hit by floods 166 times, study finds
Polish researchers examining medieval sources have discovered that the country was hit by flooding 166 times between the 11th and 15th centuries, revealing details on the causes of these disasters.
Hostility Against the Jews in Medieval France
In France, as in other European regions, the medieval era saw changing and contradictory attitudes towards the Jews, who were alternately tolerated and persecuted.
Severe drought may have led the Huns to attack the Roman Empire, study suggests
Hunnic peoples migrated westward across Eurasia, switched between farming and herding, and became violent raiders in response to severe drought in the Danube frontier provinces of the Roman empire, a new study argues.
What we learned from a medieval Jewish cemetery in Erfurt
Last month we released a study examining the remains of the medieval Ashkenazi Jewish community in Erfurt, Germany. Our research has given us a better understanding of how this community lived in the Middle Ages.
Two medieval shipwrecks discovered in Sweden
The remains of two medieval merchant vessels, known as cogs, were discovered over the summer in western Sweden during an archaeological excavation. New evidence reveals that the ships were built outside of Scandinavia in the mid-14th century.
Herring trade began in the Viking age, study finds
Herring bones from trading places in the Baltic Sea show that extensive trade was established already in the Viking Age. Historians previously believed extensive herring trade started around 1200.
Five tips for unscrupulous mercenaries working in the Medieval Near East
What was the nature of the mercenary market in the Near East?
How Breaking Bad and a Renegade Economist Can Explain the Viking Age
One question that has puzzled scholars for a long time is what sparked the Viking Age? Why did Scandinavian men start sailing away from their homelands in the 8th century in order to raid and attack much of the rest of Europe?
An Anchoress Burned at the Stake
Catherine Sauve’s time as an anchoress in Montpellier was brief, but it ended with her execution. Why was she burned at the stake?
Norse traded walrus ivory in Kyiv, study finds
An archaeological dig in Kyiv in 2007 yielded amazing results.