Waste Management in Medieval Scotland with Richard Oram
Kate Buchanan and Richard Oram talk about the everyday task of dealing with waste in Medieval Scotland. Covering both urban setting and elite residences, this episode outlines what people thought about and did with their daily waste.
Crusaders of Climate Change? The Debate on Global Warming between the Medieval and the Present Age
Through such a debate, the study of medieval history could become more helpful for present considerations on climate change and more resistant against deliberate misinterpretation.
Can botany provide a window to our medieval past?
Can botany provide a window to our medieval past? Paper by Fiona MacGowan Given at the BSBI Irish Spring Conference, on March 27,…
The watery miracles of Italian saints
A new study examines the cultural impacts of climate change in Italy during the Early Middle Ages.
How to Grow Organic Food like Medieval Farmers
If nothing else works, you could bring the vermin to justice.
Researchers see parallels between 14th century drought and current climate change
New research about medieval weather conditions has revealed that a severe drought that struck Europe in the early 14th-century displays similarities with the 2018 weather anomaly, which also left the continent experiencing exceptional heat and drought.
A Medieval Peasants’ Winter
Coping with cold and snow, the medieval way.
Climate change caused the demise of Central Asia’s medieval civilizations, study finds
A new study challenges the long-held view that the destruction of Central Asia’s medieval river civilizations was a direct result of the Mongol invasion in the early 13th century.
How changing from a tribal to a feudal society impacted the local environment
The transition from tribal to feudal living, which occurred throughout the 14th century in Lagow, Poland had a significant impact on the local ecosystem, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.
Medieval Scottish Deer Parks and Beyond, with Kevin Malloy
Kate Buchanan is joined by Kevin Malloy to discuss Kevin’s journey to studying medieval Scottish history, his work on medieval deer parks, and how researching medieval Scottish history can lead to other work.
Sea ice caused the Little Ice Age in the 14th century, researchers say
A new study finds a trigger for the Little Ice Age that cooled Europe from the 1300s through mid-1800s, and supports surprising model results suggesting that under the right conditions sudden climate changes can occur spontaneously, without external forcing.
Environmental History and the Fall of Rome, with Kristina Sessa
Kristina Sessa discusses non-human causes of change – like climate and disease – that are being emphasized more than ever in the history of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium.
Wood And Woodlands In Icelandic Literary, Documentary And Archaeological Sources
The 12th-century AD Íslendingabók describes Iceland as having been ‘covered with woodland from the mountains to the seashores’ at the time of the Norse settlement in the late 9th-century AD.
Looking for the Northern Lights in Medieval Iceland, finding Jane Austen
Ármann Jakobsson attempts to answer the questions he keeps being asked about Icelandic sagas.
The contours of disease and hunger in Carolingian and early Ottonian Europe (c.750-c.950 CE)
This thesis is the first systematic examination of the textual and material evidence for disease and hunger in Carolingian and early Ottonian Europe, c.750 to c.950 CE
Lead pollution in Britain was just as bad in the 12th century as during the Industrial Revolution, study finds
Air pollution from lead mines in twelfth-century Britain was as bad as it was during the Industrial Revolution and exactly maps the comings and goings of England’s Kings, a new world-first study has shown.
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.
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.
Medieval History, Explosive Volcanism, and the Geoengineering Debate
By studying historical explosive volcanism, medieval history provides a laboratory for understanding the climatic and societal impacts of geoengineering in the form of reports of extreme weather and societal stresses such as subsistence crises and even conflict arising from scarcity induced resource competition
Viking runestone reveals fear of climate catastrophe, scholars find
The new interpretation suggests the inscription deals the conflict between light and darkness, warmth and cold, life and death.
How Coal Played a Part in Medieval Air Pollution
Pollution was a problem long before the Industrial Revolution and complaints of air pollution and its association with fuel can be traced back over seven hundred years.
Norse arrival on Iceland led to extinction of its walrus population, study finds
A team of researchers have shown that soon after the Norse arrived in Iceland, that island’s species of walrus went extinct.
What lead pollution in Arctic ice shows can tell us about the Middle Ages
Researchers used thirteen Arctic ice cores from Greenland and the Russian Arctic to measure, date, and analyze lead emissions captured in the ice from 500 to 2010 CE, a period of time that extended from the Middle Ages through the Modern Period to the present.
Dealing with flooding in medieval Valencia – blaming garbage instead of God
There is a common perception that when a natural disaster struck in the Middle Ages, the people would just say that this was God’s punishment for their sins. However, this was not always the case – at least when it came to flooding in Valencia.