Norse cultural reaction to climate change during the little ice age and their societal collapse in Greenland
This study aims to understand the adaptations of the Norse Greenlanders to climate change in their new home.
How warm weather led to the rise of Genghis Khan
In the thirteenth-century a Mongol warrior named Genghis Khan took control of the nomadic tribes on the Great Stepee and launched a series of invasions that would see a vast empire being established from China to Eastern Europe. Now a team of researchers have shown that their success can be partly attributed to climate change.
Medieval landmarks in danger from rising sea levels
The Tower of London, the church of Mont-Saint-Michel, and the city of Venice are all in danger of flooding because of rising sea levels, a new study suggests.
Did a Megadrought force the Huns to invade Europe?
The worst megadrought in the last 2000 years hit Central Asia around 360 AD, new study finds
Environmental Effects in the Agriculture of Medieval Egypt
Agriculture has been the main source of the economy for all dynasties established in Egypt and the Mamluk kingdom was no exception.
Floods and weather in 1342 and 1343 in the Carpathian Basin
Concerning weather, weather-related extremes and catastrophic consequences, 1342 was an extraordinary year in most parts of Central Europe, even in such an extraordinary decade as the 1340s. Accounting with the seven flood events (including one Danube flood) mainly of great magnitude, at present 1342 is the most important known flood year of medieval Hungary.
The Great Transition: Climate, Disease and Society in the 13th and 14th Centuries
Across the Old World the late-thirteenth and fourteenth centuries witnessed profound and sometimes abrupt changes in the trajectory of established historical trends
An early medieval symbol carved on a tree trunk: pathfinder or territorial marker?
The chance discovery of a carved symbol on a waterlogged tree of the six–ninth century AD may be the earliest mark on a living tree that has so far come to light.
Elemental theory in everyday practice: food disposal in the later medieval English countryside
For medieval rural communities the story of food did not necessarily end in its eating.
A Climate for Crusades? Weather, climate and armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land (11th–14th Century)
The crusaders found themselves confronted not only with foreign cultures and violent armed resistance, but also with an alien natural environment and climatic conditions that could prove to be sometimes just as fatal as the arrows of the enemy.
Ancient and Medieval Climate Change and the Future of Humanity
Some examples of recent scientific and historical investigations of ancient and medieval climate demonstrate the power of combining scientific and traditional historical evidence.
Roses in the Middle Ages
Roses reached the height of European favor in the 1200s and the 1300s after several centuries of increasing popularity.
A risk society? Environmental hazards, risk and resilience in the later Middle Ages in Europe
The roll-call of disasters during the later medieval period was a lengthy one.
Massive volcanic explosion from 1257 took place on Indonesian island, researchers find
After thirty years of investigation, researchers have discovered where the volcanic explosion took place that caused the medieval ‘year without summer’ in 1258.
Into the frontier: medieval land reclamation and the creation of new societies. Comparing Holland and the Po Valley, 800-1500
In the paper it is shown that medieval land reclamation led to the emergence of two very divergent societies, characterised by a number of different configurations; (a) power and property structure, (b) modes of exploitation, (c) economic portfolios, and (d) commodity markets.
The Medieval Metal Industry Was the Cradle of Modern Large-Scale Atmospheric Lead Pollution in Northern Europe
This study indicates that the contemporary atmospheric pollution climate in northern Europe was established in Medieval time, rather than in the Industrial period. Atmospheric lead pollution deposition did not, when seen in a historical perspective, increase as much as usually assumed with the Industrial Revolution (1800 A.D.).
Medieval Europeans and their Aquatic Ecosystems
Purposeful medieval fish-catching activities combined with unintended consequences of large-scale agricultural, urban, and commercial development during the Middle Ages to affect, separately and together, aquatic ecosystems and their component fish species in demonstrable ways.
The Devil’s Apples (Mandrakes)
The magic of the Mandrake grew with the passage of time. Elusive in its origins, where its associations lay with the age-long mysteries of love, its potency lingers on through the medicine of the Middle Ages
What did the Vikings ever do for us?
Well they were a lot more generous in their beach ownership laws, says Derek McGlashan
From the Persecuting to the Protective State? Jewish Expulsions and Weather Shocks from 1100 to 1800
Violence against Jews was caused by many factors, but we build on the common claim advanced by historians that Jews were convenient scape-goats for social and economic ills.
Medieval Irish chronicles reveal persistent volcanic forcing of severe winter cold events, 431–1649 CE
We present a uniquely long historical record of severe short-term cold events from Irish chronicles, 431–1649 CE, and test the association between cold event occurrence and explosive volcanism.
The Ecology and Economics of Medieval Deer Parks
There is a wealth of literature on a diversity of aspects of medieval parks, from their invertebrate ecologies, to rare lichens and bryophytes, to their herds of deer, their fishponds, and to the politics of fashion and taste and the provision of sport and entertainment for an affluent elite.
Feasting with Early Medieval Chiefs: Locating Political Action through Environmental Archaeology
This excellent paper was the first given in the session on Early Medieval Europe. It looked at various archaeological excavations in Iceland and Denmark and the political role feasting played in pre-Christian Viking societies.
Black Sun, High Flame, and Flood: Volcanic Hazards in Iceland
Iceland is one of the most volcanically active areas on earth, but were it not for the description of the end of the world in the poem Völuspá, one might think volcanic activity made little impression on Medieval Icelanders.
The Light was retreating before Darkness: Tales of the Witch hunt and climate change
Little by little, out of the old conviction —pagan and Christian— of evil interference in atmospheric phenomena evolved the belief that some people may use malign sorcery to set off whirlwinds hail, frosts, floods and other destructive weather events.