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New Study Reveals that London was the Most Violent Place in Medieval England
A new study suggests that medieval London was notorious for its excessive violence. The overall findings suggest that violence affected many parts of medieval London, although predictably it...
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Divine, Demonic, or Something In-Between: How the Changing Face of Elves...
Just as human culture has changed over the centuries, supernatural creatures also change with time. For example, elves were originally a type of nature spirit similar to Nymphs in Greek mythology.Read...
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Putting the Sex Back in Wessex: The Scandalous Reign of Queen Elgiva & Her...
The Queens of England (as in the consorts of Kings) during the early Medieval periods of English history rarely receive any coverage in the history books. Hands up anyone who can name the wife of...
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Watch Your Step! Don’t Tread on the Caltrop, A Weapon with a Pointed History
There is a cunning and deadly device that used by armies in the past, and up to the present day. It’s a weapon mostly overlooked but is yet brilliantly effective—the caltrop. The caltrop (or calthrop)...
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Dance Macabre: How the Dead Danced with the Living in Medieval Society
In the Halloween season, American culture briefly participates in an ancient tradition of making the world of the dead visible to the living: Children dress as skeletons, teens go to horror movies and...
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Puzzling Medieval Runes Found on Stone in Norway
A rare find of a stone bearing engravings of runes that date back to the Middle Ages has been unearthed recently at an excavation near Oslo. The relic is a whetstone which was a tool used for...
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Monumental Mongolian Burial Discovered Includes 14 Giant Inscribed Pillars
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...
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Eltz Castle: A Majestic Medieval Pile Owned by the Same Family for 800 Years
Eltz Castle is a majestic castle situated on the top of a rock within a small wooded valley in Germany. Be it through luck or strategy, the castle has been mostly spared from the ravages of war. Apart...
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Locked into a Relationship: The Medieval Remedy for Divorce Still Requested...
Global divorce rates are on the rise. Some people see this as a social issue. But the small Romanian village of Biertan has a unique method to remedy this problem. They follow a tradition which has...
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Amateur Treasure Hunter Will Make Thousands of Dollars from a Medieval Gold Ring
An amateur treasure hunter has made an exciting discovery in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The young man unearthed an engraved 20-carat gold ring dating to the medieval period. The find may...
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New Study Answers the Question - Did Medieval People Reach Old Age?
An Australian archaeologist has decided to take a different approach to looking at the lives of past society. Instead of focusing on the rich, young, and beautiful (all popular groups by today’s...
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The Hurdy Gurdy Was Essential Medieval Entertainment Enjoyed by Merrymakers...
The hurdy gurdy is a musical instrument, or more precisely, a string instrument, that traces its origin to the Middle Ages of Europe. The hurdy gurdy was initially used to play sacred music, before...
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What Comforting Items Did Vikings Have That Are Still the Height of Luxury...
In the largest and most richly equipped Viking burial mounds discovered in Norway there are usually found beds and several types of bird feathers and down from pillows and duvets, including eagle-owls’...
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Erotic Medieval Runic Inscriptions Found in Bergen
A runic inscription found in Bergen is quite long and the author must have had a lot of “erotic energy” when he carved these runes into the 33 centimeter-long (13 inches) wooden stick: “I love that...
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Richly Adorned Arabic Influenced Chess Piece Unearthed in Norway
Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) have recently discovered a rare and richly decorated Arabic-inspired chess piece in Tønsberg.Read moreSection:...
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Bayeux and Brexit: What the tapestry says about the UK’s shared European...
The Bayeux Tapestry is finally coming to England, or so the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has promised. There have long been calls to bring the work to England, such as for the Queen’s coronation...
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It's not how you play the game, but how the dice were made
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. We expect dice to be fair, where every...
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Becoming Beast: Marvel’s New Black Panther Movie Has a Surprising Medieval...
Black Panther looks to be another hit for Marvel. The film has been highly anticipated, not least because it is a milestone in cinema with a black lead superhero starring alongside a majority black...
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Avian Detectives Discover Vikings Dreamed on the Feathers of Giant Eagle Owls
Those legendary sea warriors who dominated the oceanic territories of the northern hemisphere between the 8th and 12th century, the Viking’s, rested their sea-weary heads on luxury pillows stuffed with...
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The Urine Wheel and Uroscopy: What Your Wee Could Tell a Medieval Doctor
In modern medicine, urine samples are routinely examined in laboratories to obtain clinical information about a patient. This procedure, known as urinalysis, developed from an older medical process...
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