The focus of the study is the Templar estates in Lincolnshire during the first four decades of the fourteenth century. Within this context, two themes are explored: the characteristics of Templar farming and estate management and the fate of the former Templar properties between 1312 and 1338.
Was a lease effective as a weapon of lordship? The use of documents in the principality of Salerno (10th-11th Century)
January 18, 2018 by
This paper attempts to examine the strategic use of the agrarian contracts by the landlords of the principality of Salerno in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Beekeeping from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages
December 11, 2017 by
Beekeeping from Antiquity Through the Middle Ages By Gene Kritsky Annual Review of Entomology, 2017. 62:249–64 Humans and honey bees have a long history of association. It is likely that proto-humans were interacting with honey bees long before the appearance of Homo sapiens, as chimpanzees will modify branches into a variety of tools to tear into […]
The prehistory of medieval farms and villages: from Saxons to Scandinavians
October 9, 2017 by
Those seeking to unravel the biographies of settlements, communities and landscapes back into the Early Middle Ages must chiefly rely upon material evidence locked up in the landscape, to be extracted and interpreted using approaches drawn from archaeology and related disciplines.
Fish on Friday III: From Fish Weir to Table
April 14, 2017 by
It’s no mystery that medieval people ate fish. The fish industry was a vital element of the medieval European economy, and fueled lots of movement around the continent. However how did they get onto the trestle tables and trenchers?
Book Review: Occupying Space in Medieval and Early Modern Britain and Ireland
March 21, 2017 by
Our review of ‘Occupying Space in Medieval and Early Modern Britain and Ireland’
Livestock and animal husbandry in early medieval England
October 7, 2015 by
Major themes in the zooarchaeological record regarding livestock and animal husbandry in England from the 5th to 11th Centuries AD are reviewed.
Medieval Beekeeping
June 21, 2015 by
Beekeeping has been a practice going back to ancient times, and during the Middle Ages one could find many farms that kept beehives and collected honey. However, few medieval texts offer indepth information on how this was done. One
Medieval Pest Control
May 27, 2015 by
Have a pest troubling you? In the Middle Ages, you could try these remedies to get rid of them – poisons, traps, or even writing a letter to them!
Human-Bovine Plagues in the Early Middle Ages
May 21, 2015 by
In other words, when spreading among cattle, a now-extinct morbillivirus episodically colonized and spread in human populations during the early Middle Ages.
Study reveals size of livestock were at their lowest in Early Middle Ages
May 20, 2015 by
A new study, covering the last 2000 years of livestock animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and goats, has revealed that in Spain these animals were at their smallest size during the 8th and 9th centuries.
Environmental Crusading: The Teutonic Knight’s Impact After the Baltic Crusades
March 12, 2015 by
Environmental archaeologist and Professor of Archeology at Reading, Dr. Aleks Pluskowski, examined Malbork and several other sites across Eastern and Northern Europe in his recent paper, The Ecology of Crusading: The Environmental Impact of Holy War, Colonisation, and Religious Conversion in the Medieval Baltic. Pluskowski is keenly interested in the impact the Teutonic Knights and Christian colonisation had on the region. His ambitious 4 year project on the ecological changes in this area recently came to a close at the end of 2014.
Medieval Horse Stable: The Results of Multi Proxy Interdisciplinary Research
February 28, 2015 by
A multi proxy approach was applied in the reconstruction of the architecture of Medieval horse stable architecture, the maintenance practices associated with that structure as well as horse alimentation at the beginning of 13th century in Central Europe.
The imperial abbey of Ellwangen and its peasants: a study of the polyptych of 1337
January 31, 2015 by
This paper presents an analysis of Ellwangen Abbey’s polyptych of 1337, with a view to understanding better the nature of the south German rural economy in this period.
A peasant is a peasant, is a peasant? : Medieval Maritime Peasant Lives
January 26, 2015 by
A peasant is a peasant, is a peasant…or is s/he? Was the life of a peasant who lived in the coastal regions of England the same as that of the peasant who made his livelihood toiling on the land for his local lord?
Of sagas and sheep: Toward a historical anthropology of social change and production for market, subsistence and tribute in early Iceland
November 6, 2014 by
This dissertation deals with the formation of chiefdoms, communities, ecclesiastical institutions and state, and with production for market, subsistence and tribute in early Iceland in the context of climatic change and ecological succession.
The Importance of Parks in Fifteenth-Century Society
October 21, 2014 by
In this paper, my aim is to consider the role of parks in the fifteenth century.
Profile of a Plant: The Olive in Early Medieval Italy, 400-900 CE
October 14, 2014 by
The essay illuminates some of the ways that early medieval Italian communities engaged their environmental inheritance, how they recast the stolid olive to fit local contingencies.
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950)
October 7, 2014 by
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950) Timothy P. Newfield Crisis Alimentarias en la Edad Media: Modelos, Explicaciones y Representaciones (Milenio, Lleida, 2013), pp. 117-172. Abstract The subsistence crises of Carolingian Europe have been widely overlooked in modern histories of the early Middle Ages. Detailed treatment has yet to be […]
A monastic landscape: The Cistercians in medieval Leinster
September 23, 2014 by
This study endeavours to discuss the Cistercian monasteries of Leinster with regard to their physical location in the landscape, the agricultural contribution of the monks to the broader social and economic world and the interaction between the cloistered monks and the secular world.
Manor Village and Individual in Medieval England
August 25, 2014 by
This thesis explores peasant life of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England from information found in the manorial court rolls-the village court records–of Ramsey Hepman grove and Bury.
Signs of Power. Manorial Demesnes in Medieval Iceland
August 20, 2014 by
An important aspect of medieval Icelandic social organization, namely the manor, has been neglected in previous research, and very little research has been undertaken comparing Icelandic manorial organization with other regions. This article focuses on one aspect of manorial organization, namely the manorial demesne or central farm of the manor.
Animals in Saxon and Scandinavian England
August 4, 2014 by
In this book an analysis of over 300 animal bone assemblages from English Saxon and Scandinavian sites is presented. The data set is summarised in extensive tables for use as comparanda for future archaeozoological studies.
The transition between late antiquity and the early medieval period in north Etruria (400-900 AD)
July 2, 2014 by
Traditionally, the idea that the Roman empire ‘declined and fell’ was considered a historical fact, not a matter for debate. The beginning of the ‘decline’ was usually dated to the 3rd or 4th century AD.
A Year on the Medieval Farm
June 3, 2014 by
What did medieval peasants do on a farm? Here is a month to month guide!
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