The spur goad from Skegrie in Scania, Sweden
The present paper focuses on a small metal artefact discovered in 2008 during archaeological excavations that preceded the construction of the E6 road leading from Trelleborg to Vellinge in Scania, Sweden.
‘I Felt like Jumping for Joy’: Smile and Laughter in Medieval Imagery
With a starting point in ‘the gothic smiles’ of the sculptures of the great cathedrals in the thirteenth century, my aim is to draw attention to the importance of international ideals in local affairs.
Polynesians of the Atlantic? Precedents, potentials, and pitfalls in Oceanic analogies of the Vikings
Though unconnected in time and place, both the Vikings and the Polynesians were changed by their contacts with ultimately the same alien religion and external imperial forces – but they also incorporated and manipulated them to their own ends, and remained uniquely themselves.
Medieval Alexandria: Life in a Port City
The article presents an overview description of medieval Alexandria, based on the integration of archaeological finds, Muslim historiography, and medieval travelogues, with Geniza documents.
Passover in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages the two holidays of Passover and Easter had become the focal point for displays of hatred and the occasion for libels against Jews.
Piped water supplies managed by civic bodies in medieval English towns
This article uses studies of individual towns, together with civic records and Leland’s Itinerary, to examine the sources and technologies of urban water supplies, the origins of civic piped water systems, their relationships to other local systems, finance, management and oversight.
Growing mad: plant being and the medieval human in Sir Orfeo
In the Middle English Breton Lay Sir Orfeo, the eponymous hero describes his wife’s madness as her becoming “wyld and wode” (wild and wooden).
A comparative study of Urraca of León-Castilla (d. 1126), Melisende of Jerusalem (d. 1161), and Empress Matilda of England (d. 1167) as royal heiresses
This thesis explores aspects of rulership over five chapters, aimed at understanding how a royal heiress might succeed or fail to gain the throne, keep the throne, and preserve it for future generations.
Granum Bonum: Grain Distribution and the Emergence of Popular Institutions in Medieval Genoa
This dissertation is an exploration of Genoese institutionalism that demonstrates the way grain and grain distribution were intertwined with state debt and public spending in the exercise of political power in the medieval urban republic under the fourteenth-century government of Simone Boccanegra (r. 1339–1363) and his successors.
Calling All Corpses: An Examination of the Treatment of the Dead in Old English Literature
This dissertation examines various genres of Old English literature to identify times when authors discuss corpses and to what end these discussions led.
At the threshold of the Viking Age: New dendrochronological dates for the Kvalsund ship and boat bog offerings (Norway)
This article presents the site, the finds, and a new dendrochronological date for the Kvalsud vessels.
A Land Inheritance Dispute in Gozo in 1485
‘You thief, you son of a thief. We shall wipe you off the face of the earth!’
Roots, Replica, Replay: European Medievalisms after 1945
Since the end of the 18th century, the Middle Ages were, in the learned culture of European elites, much more than simply a historical period.
Illuminating the Carolingian era: new discoveries as a result of scientifc analyses
We examined this production, especially six manuscripts created in West Francia between the end of the eighth century and the first quarter of the ninth century.
The Black Death and the Future of the Plague
How do we unite study of the plague in the past and present to create a better understanding of plague dynamics, to better prepare for the future?
Justinian’s Clemency and God’s Clemency
Justinian and his ministers’ emphasis on his reputation for acts of mercy was part of a concerted effort to burnish the standing of his regime in the eyes of his subjects.
(Not) Learning the Lessons of War? The Scottish experience of conflict in the Second War of Independence (1332‒1357)
This article aims to challenge this dominant historiographical view of the military history of this period of conflict, with particular focus given to the Second Scottish War of Independence (1332–1357).
The Politics of Misadventure at Camelot
A third of the way through La mort le roi Artu (c.1230), an early thirteenth-century Old French prose romance that concludes the Lancelot Grail Cycle, ‘the greatest misadventure in the world’ takes place at Camelot, the court of King Arthur of Logres.
Fragments of the past: how to study old Norse religion
The state of the sources of the Old Norse religions presents a great problem. Most of them were written down two hundred or even three hundred years after the Christianization of the North, based on an oral tradition going back to the pre-Christian ages.
Dread the Grim Reaper: Early Warning Strategies as a Means of Plague Prevention: Hospitaller Malta’s Fight Against Contagion
Plague, the grim reaper of preindustrial society, brought social disruption and physical devastation on such a scale as to warrant major literary attention both from contemporaries who witnessed the misery it perpetrated and by writers fortunate enough to live in centuries when this most fatal of epidemics was by and large only a distant memory
Climate and the Crises of the Early Fourteenth Century in Northeastern Europe
This article demonstrates how tree-ring material can be applied to historical research using the climate-driven crises of the fourteenth century as a case study.
Mental Geographies and Cultural Identities in the Baltic Region in the Eleventh-Century: the Anglo-Saxon Cotton World Map
The cartography of the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia has been an interesting topic among scholars of the history of the ancient maps.
Byzantine Jewellery: The Evidence from Byzantine Legal Documents
In the field of Byzantine jewellery studies the usefulness of this approach was demonstrated, over 20 years ago, by the work of Hetherington on the ownership and distribution of Byzantine enamels.
Weather and Ideology in Íslendinga saga: A Case Study of the Volcanic Climate Forcing of the 1257 Samalas eruption
This eruption, which took place in 1257 at the Samalas caldera in Indonesia, caused a cooling effect across Europe until 1261, as the sulfur emissions from the volcano encircled the globe.