Fossil Sharks’ Teeth: A Medieval Safeguard Against Poisoning
In the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, particularly between the thirteenth and the sixteenth century, the most common way of eliminating one’s enemy was by poisoning his food or drink at a banquet.
Humour in the Game of Kings: The Sideways Glancing Warder of the Lewis Chessmen
Using the example of a particular piece of the Lewis Chessmen this paper examines both the benefits and the limitations that come about with the cultural approach and cautions against a too rigid application.
Anglo-Saxon smiths and myths
Knowledge of the metalworking and jewellery-making abilities of the Anglo-Saxons has been much enhanced in recent years by metallurgical and other technical studies.
Women’s Devotional Bequests of Textiles in the Late Medieval English Parish Church, c.1350-1550
My investigation is set within the context of the current high level of interest in the workings of the late medieval parish.
Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery?
This paper reassesses the early Anglo-Saxon assemblage from Hardown Hill, Dorset. Wingrave excavated the objects in 1916 but apart from his 1931 report, and Evison’s 1968 analysis, there has been little subsequent discussion.
The Tablet, Medieval-Style
Wax tablets have been around since ancient times, and now that I’ve made one, I can see why. They’re easy to make, use, and reuse; they’re light and durable; they’re portable; and they have lots of room for making mistakes.
The ‘Living’ Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: An Interdisciplinary Study
This thesis explores perceptions of two-edged swords as ‘living’ artefacts in Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia between c. 500 and 1100.
10 Things to Know About Medieval Drinking Horns
Here are ten things we learned about medieval drinking horns from Vivian Etting’s book The Story of the Drinking Horn.
CONFERENCES: Renaissance Drinking Culture and Renaissance Drinking Vessels
This paper took a closer look at Renaissance drinking vessels and drinking culture and examined the types of vessels commonly used in Italy and the Netherlands during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
Call for Papers: Moving Women, Moving Objects (300-1500) (ICMA CAA 2015)
CFP: Moving Women, Moving Objects (300-1500) (ICMA CAA 2015)
Dutch medieval bone and antler combs
Bone and antler combs are common finds in medieval northern europe. Two major types occur in the netherlands: the composite comb, usually made of antler, and the longbone comb.
Res et significatio : The Material Sense of Things in the Middle Ages
This essay serves as an introduction to Friedrich Ohly’s life and work and offers an analytic orientation to the methodological and historical questions taken up by this special issue of Gesta dedicated to medieval conceptions of significationes rerum (the signification of things).
Viking Age Queens: The example of Oseberg
The Oseberg ship burial is a Viking Age burial mound containing a double female inhumation, which is located in the Oslofjord area in Norway.
Beyond fragments and shards: Children in medieval Bergen
By analysing physical remains reflecting the games, behaviour and clothing of children (specifically toys and shoes) it has been possible to obtain new information and shed new light on the everyday life of children in medieval Bergen
Reading and meditation in the Middle Ages: Lectio divina and books of hours
This article aims to shed light on the practice of reading the book of hours by considering who engaged in this practice, how the book of hours was read, and what the goal of such reading activity was.
Archaeometry of medieval Islamic glazed ceramics from North Yemen
The Yemen Archaeological Project is concerned with the history and culture of a medieval Islamic university town, Zabid, and its interaction with neighboring settlements and the outside world, from A.D. 700 to 1750.
The Amber Trail in early medieval Eastern Europe.
The standard method employed in characterization studies of amber, namely infrared spectrography, can discriminate roughly between Baltic amber and amber from other European sources…
In Heaven and on Earth: Church Treasure in Late Medieval Bohemia
My work, thus, focuses on the intellectual concepts and practical policies involved in the development of treasuries in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Bohemia. It oscillates between three main disciplines of history: art, religious, and cultural history.
Rural Settlements in Medieval Norway, AD 400-1400
In the 5th and 6th centuries the three aisled longhouse with a byre and a living section appears to dominate on rural settlements in all regions. From the 7th century onwards the diversity is greater.
Objects of Devotion: The Material Culture of Italian Renaissance Piety, 1400–1600
Why did Renaissance shoppers fill their baskets with rosaries, crucifixes, Christ-dolls and devotional paintings? A new study by historian Dr Mary Laven investigates the significance of Catholic clutter, as she explains.