Were rabbits first domesticated in the Early Middle Ages?
Scientists from Oxford University test dating methods to challenge whether our relationship and affection for rabbits dates back to any single event, or, if it is instead better explained as a continuum that has evolved over time.
The Newberry opens up access to 1.7 million historical images
The Newberry seeks to promote wider public engagement with 1.7 million high-res images now online.
700-year-old ring bearing the image of St. Nicholas discovered by a gardener in Israel
A rare impressive, intact bronze ring from the Middle Ages, bearing the image of St. Nicholas, was discovered by chance during recent landscaping work in the garden of a home in the Jezreel Valley community of Moshav Yogev.
What Vikings really put in their pillows
Your pillows – if they’re not synthetic – are almost certainly filled with domestic goose or duck feathers. These are the most common types of fill used for this purpose today. But our ancestors weren’t always as discerning.
New game, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, explores life in medieval Bohemia
Released on 13 February, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an action role-playing game set in the early fifteenth-century Holy Roman Empire that has striven for historically accurate and highly detailed content.
Collection of 3,000 medieval manuscripts now online
After centuries of separation, one of the most valuable collections of manuscripts from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age – the Bibliotheca Palatina – has been virtually reunited.
Delapré Abbey opens its doors to reveal 900 years of history
After an extensive programme of National Lottery funded restoration, Delapré Abbey in Northamptonshire is set to open to the public from March 17th 2018.
High-tech scans reveal secrets of medieval burial stones in Scotland
The latest digital photography techniques applied to the ancient burial stones at Inchinnan Parish Church in western Scotland have revealed that one of the stones, thought to be medieval in date, was originally carved much earlier..
Byzantine fountain and pools discovered in Israel
Archaeological Excavations in Ein Hanniya Park in Rephaim Valley National Park, Israel, have uncovered impressive and significant finds, including pools and an elaborate fountain dating back 1500 years, a capital typical of First Temple-era royal estates, and a rare silver coin.
Mass grave maybe from the Viking Great Army, archaeologists find
A team of archaeologists has discovered that a mass grave uncovered in the 1980s dates to the Viking Age and may have been a burial site of the Viking Great Army war dead.
Researchers find first evidence of glassmaking in sub-Saharan Africa
Scholars from Rice University, University College London and the Field Museum have found the first direct evidence that glass was produced in sub-Saharan Africa centuries before the arrival of Europeans.
Medieval Chess Piece Discovered in Norway
Archaeologists recently made a particularly spectacular find in Tønsberg – a rare and richly decorated chess piece.
How Dice Changed in the Middle Ages
Whether at a casino playing craps or engaging with family in a simple board game at home, rolling the dice introduces a bit of chance or “luck” into every game.
Using AI to uncover the mystery of the Voynich manuscript
Modern scientific methods help decipher language and meaning of medieval manuscript.
Exhibition of Medieval Manuscripts Opening at the Art Institute of Chicago
From January 27-May 28, 2018, the Art Institute of Chicago will present a collection of manuscript illuminations spanning four hundred years of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance from countries across Western Europe.
Modern mathematics is used to solve question about medieval war
In the year 1014, the fate of Ireland would be decided at the Battle of Clontarf. The Irish King Brian Boru would defeat a Viking army, although at the cost of his own life. However, there is one historical debate about this conflict – was it really a battle against the Vikings, or an internal civil war?
Outcasts: Prejudice and Persecution in the Medieval World comes to the Getty
Outcasts: Prejudice & Persecution in the Medieval World, on view January 30—April 8, 2018 at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, presents individual case studies that examine the way art, like language, was used to articulate a rhetoric of exclusion.
Now and Forever: The Art of Medieval Time – new exhibition comes to the Morgan Library
Drawing upon the rich holdings of the Morgan Library & Museum’s collection of medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts, Now and Forever explores how people told time in the Middle Ages and what they thought about it.
Is the Bayeux Tapestry coming to Britain?
Reports suggest the Bayeux Tapestry – one of the most famous pieces of medieval art – will be loaned to the British Museum for several months.
York Minster’s Great East Window restoration completed
On 2 January 2018, the final panel in York Minster’s 600-year-old Great East Window was returned to the world-famous masterpiece, 10 years after all 311 panels were removed by York Glaziers Trust.
Research into Anglo-Saxon burials uncover new insights
Christine Cave, a PhD candidate at the Austrialian National University, has developed a new method for determining the age-of-death for skeletal remains based on how worn the teeth are.
Canterbury Roll now available online
In New Zealand, University of Canterbury staff and students are working to translate and digitise a unique medieval manuscript to make it accessible to the world.
Medieval friary where Richard III was buried to be protected
The remains of a 13th century monastic site, Greyfriars in Leicester, which was the burial place of King Richard III, has been granted protection by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England.
Ruins of 8th century monument discovered in Mongolia
A joint excavation team from Osaka University and the Institute of History and Archaeology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences discovered the ruins of a unique monument surrounded by 14 large stone pillars with Turkic Runic inscriptions.