Image of cage with rubber bars generated by ChatGPT I will explain the peculiar metaphor of my title later on, but this post is a second reaction to a Substack post by the social scientist Alice Ev…| Magistra et Mater
Over seventy artifacts from the internationally renowned Burray Hoard will go on display for the first time at the Orkney Museum from Saturday, November 1, thanks to a special loan from the National Museums Scotland. The items form part of an exhibition in the museum’s newly developed Groundwater Galleries, which were made possible by a […]| Archaeology News Online Magazine
Beneath the turquoise waters of northern Israel’s Gan Ha-Shelosha National Park, archaeologists have uncovered the remarkable network of a medieval tunnel system that once powered sugar mills in the Mamluk period. Carved into soft tufa rock along Nahal ‘Amal, the tunnels reveal how 14th- to 15th-century engineers transformed brackish spring water into mechanical energy—turning a […]| Archaeology News Online Magazine
Archaeologists from the Szent István Király Museum have unearthed the grave of a high-ranking Avar warrior near the border between Aba and Székesfehérvár in Hungary. The burial dates from between CE 670 and 690, during the Middle Avar era, when the region was part of the Avar Khaganate—a powerful nomadic empire that dominated the Pannonian […]| Archaeology News Online Magazine
[King] Jean II [of France], who succeeded his father, Philip VI, in August 1350 [C.E.], could have served Machiavelli as model for Anti-Prince. Impolitic and impetuous, he never made a wise choice between alternatives and seemed incapable of considering consequences of an action in advance. Though brave in battle, he was anything but a great […]| Dojo Darelir, the School of Xenograg the Sorcerer
This is the fifth and final part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc, IVd, IVe) looking at the structures of life for pre-modern peasant farmers and showing how historical modeling can help us explore the experiences of people who rarely leave much evidence of their day-to-day personal lives. I’ve been stressing … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part V: Life In Cycles→| A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
“Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms?”~ St Augustine I can still remember being scandalized in seventh grad…| Reading Freely
A man hunting for fishing worms near his summer house in the Stockholm area has made an amazing discovery: a large hoard of silver coins and jewelry from the early Middle Ages. The hoard, weighing around six kilograms (13 pounds), consists of thousands of silver coins mixed with rings, pendants, and beads. The finder immediately […]| Archaeology News Online Magazine
This is the fourth thread of the fourth part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc) looking at the lives of pre-modern peasant farmers, who make up a majority of all of the humans who have ever lived. We’re thus probing here was has been, in effect, the modal human experience. Over … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IVd: Spinning Plates→| A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
By Sarah Peters Kernan Listen here, or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts! Sarah Kernan speaks with Sara Charles, a medieval book historian at the University of London. Sara recently published The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages (Reaktion Books, 2024). She incorporates “historical remaking” into her research practices and she shares her knowledge with broader audiences through workshops, social media, and her website, teachingmanuscripts.com. Follow Sara on B...| The Recipes Project
By Caleb Prus Grief often feels as physical as it does emotional—like a weight on the chest, a flutter of the heart, or a tightening in the throat. The distinction between these physical and emotional symptoms is largely a product of modern medicine; in the premodern world, those boundaries were far blurrier. In The Canterbury Tales (c.1390), Chaucer’s Physician tells a story so tragic that the Host cries out, “I almost have caught a cardiacle”—a heart pain brought on by pity and so...| The Recipes Project
Archaeologists uncover Kara-Asar, a major Dzhetyasar site, revealing ancient life, architecture, and culture in Central Asia.| Archaeology News Online Magazine
This is the third piece of the fourth part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb) looking at the lives of pre-modern peasant farmers – a majority of all of the humans who have ever lived. Last time, we started looking at the subsistence of peasant agriculture by considering the productivity of our … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IVc: Rent and Extraction→| A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
The well-preserved ruin of Askeaton Friary is a wonderful place to explore to get a sense of a medieval monastic foundation.| Tuatha
La capital del Béarn, Pau, es una ciudad verde, histórica y con vistas a los Pirineos, con su propio funicular y el primer campo de golf de Europa.| Viajestic
Special Issue of Cheiron: The International Journal of Equine and Equestrian HistoryHave you ever felt exasperated at hearing, yet again, that medieval warhorses resembled Shires, could plough thei…| thegrailquest
This is the start of the fourth part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb) discussing the structures of life for pre-modern peasants, who made up the majority of all humans who have ever lived. In the last few sections, we’ve looked broadly at how mortality, marriage and childbearing patterns shape the households these folks … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IVa: Subsistence and a Little More→| A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
There’s been much recent scholarly interest in queenship, and this inevitably leads to the recurring historical question: what changed in medieval queenship and when? To answer this. it’s often use…| Magistra et Mater
Explore Oxford’s medieval rise, Norman rebuilding, and its transformation into a key political and educational centre.| Oxford Castle & Prison
DNA from two 7th-century burials in England reveals recent West African ancestry, reshaping early medieval migration history.| Archaeology News Online Magazine
Generic picture of speaker at IMC I had to cancel going to the International Medieval Congress 2025 in person at the last minute because of health problems, but I did at least get to attend virtual…| Magistra et Mater
Ron Ennis explores the similarities and differences between Rambam, Maharal, and Rema, in their approaches to conflicts between science and Torah.| The Lehrhaus
This encounter is designed to challenge your players' expectations of morality and social expectations in a setting that may have different worldviews from their own. In that way, it's well-suited to a non-Flintstonist campaign, as a way to introduce players to the concept that people in a medieval fantasy world might see things differently than they see things today - especially with players who are new to the idea of leaving their preconceived notions at the door when approaching the camp...| Tales of the Lunar Lands
Apollonia Pontica was once a welcome refuge for mariners navigating a notoriously treacherous stretch of the Black Sea coast. Tradition has it that this ancient city was founded by Greek settlers from Miletus in 610 BC, but excavations at the site are now pointing to an earlier foundation date. Archaeological work has also revealed the location of a major sanctuary, and is shedding fascinating new light on the ebb and flow of the city’s fortunes. We take a look at how archaeology is deliver...| World Archaeology
This is the first part of the third part of our series (I, II) discussing the patterns of life of the pre-modern peasants who made up the great majority of all humans who lived in our agrarian past…| A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
Among the many books bought at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds was Introducing Medieval Animal Names by Ben Parsons. Published by the University of Wales Press in the series designs t…| thegrailquest
Here Bonaventure emphasizes faith as the key to Bible interpretation. The goal of Bible study is not academic knowledge, but wisdom -- the experience of God leading to eternal happiness and fulfillment of all our desires. The post Understanding Scripture – Bonaventure appeared first on Crossroads Initiative.| Crossroads Initiative
Print or download the following prayer of St. Bonaventure. It is especially fitting to pray this prayer after sacramental or spiritual communion, but it is a beautiful prayer to pray anytime. ierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the most joyous and... The post Prayer of St Bonaventure appeared first on Crossroads Initiative.| Crossroads Initiative
A guest blog by Helen Clutton, a MA Medieval Studies student, recalling a placement with Special Collections earlier this year| Special Collections Blog
This is the second part of our series (I) discussing the basic contours of life – birth, marriage, labor, subsistence, death – of pre-modern peasants and their families. As we’ve …| A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
what even is a nation anyway| videodante
After the sudden collapse of a tower at Almonacid Castle in Toledo, Spain, on April 4, 2025, Global Digital Heritage was called upon to assist in an urgent digital restoration effort. Within just three days, the foundation had reprocessed historic aerial imagery to create a high-resolution 3D model that will now serve as the primary […]| Global Digital Heritage
St. Henry II was born in Bavaria in 973. He succeeded his father in ruling Bavaria as duke and was later elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1014. He proved extraordinary in his work for Church reform and expanded missionary activity. He died in 1024 and was canonized in 1146 by Pope Eugene III. The post Henry – The Emperor Who Became a Saint appeared first on Crossroads Initiative.| Crossroads Initiative
After purchasing a ship in Portoga , the overworld of Dragon Quest III opens dramatically. From this point on there are no real road blocks...| tales-of-the-lunar-lands.blogspot.com
Family forms Emmanuel Todd, The Explanation of Ideology: Family Structures and Social Systems (Blackwell, 1985, French original from 1983) was written a long time before the author became a promine…| Magistra et Mater
By: Caleb Prus In 1485, during London’s first epidemic of the sweating sickness, the physician Thomas Forestier complained to Henry VII about certain “false leeches” ⎯healers deceiving the public through “writing of the kind[s] of powders and of medicines.” These “unexpert men” were not university-educated physicians like Forestier but ordinary tradespeople⎯ “carpenters and mill keepers”⎯who … Continue reading On Medical Manuscripts in Reynolds’ Reading Practice →| The Recipes Project
I’ve just been re-reading Kate Cooper, “Closely watched households: visibility, exposure and private power in the Roman domus”, Past and Present, 197 (2007), 3-33 (10.1093/pastj/gtm012). It made me…| Magistra et Mater
I just emailed this to the authors of High-resolution genomic ancestry reveals mobility in early medieval Europe, a new preprint at bioRxiv [LINK]. I appreciate that Polish population history is not the main focus of your preprint, and also that you're constrained by the lack of relevant and suitably high quality ancient genomes from East-Central and Eastern Europe. However, I must say that your| Eurogenes Blog
During our trip to Italy last year, we also visited the city of Ferrara. After our 3 week stay in Cividale del Friuli, we went on a short 5-night road trip in central Italy before finishing our holiday in Milan. On our way to Tuscany, we stopped for 1 night in Ferrara. Ferrara is... Read More » The post Ferrara – Italy Guide appeared first on Manu’s Menu. --- Ferrara – Italy Guide was first posted on November 23, 2020 at 10:45 pm. ©2018 "Manu’s Menu". Use of this feed is for pers...| Manu’s Menu
I am adamantly opposed to the conception of grind culture. I swear to god, if you 💯💯💯 me, I will consider it a hate crime, and will report you to my local self-governance group for a reparative harm process. This isn’t to say that I do not understand that work is often required of us … Continue reading "On side hustles"| Going Medieval
Our brand-new ‘Snap’ dragon puppet is here! Children and their adult carers who attend the Castle’s Snaplings and Snapdragons sessions for pre-schoolers are about to make a new friend! Snap has bee…| Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Off. It’s not like I’m off doing very much but, you know, I have actual chores to do, a couple of nights in Montreal… and other day trips to take… and summer’s slipping away so maybe there won’t be so much in this week’s beery news notes. And I am going to have limited access to scribbling time during the middle of this week so let’s see what I can come up with… no one wants someone to get that sad and lonely feeling if there isn’t something to read as they slurp down th...| A Good Beer Blog
It was a fact of medieval life that you could die a sinner. However sin eaters, on the edge of society, could take that sin away for beer and a loaf of bread.| Historic Mysteries
In 1325, an ordinary bucket gained unprecedented notoriety as the alleged trigger for the War… The post War of the Bucket: How a Bucket Killed 2000 People (Video) appeared first on Historic Mysteries.| Historic Mysteries
An overview of the conservation process of two medieval boots in the Norfolk Museums Service's collection.| Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery
Researchers have uncovered a significant Slavic settlement and burial ground near Wettin-Löbejün in Germany.| ArchaeologyNews Online Magazine
Over the last several months, I’ve been working my way through Christopher De Hamel’s book Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World, and I just finished reading the final chapter today. I’m not a medievalist – I’ve often found books on medieval history that I’ve been exposed to are very focused on … Continue reading Fascinating Details of Medieval Manuscripts| History Research Shenanigans
One of the fundamental things in a medieval book is letters – those symbols that fill up page after page and that make up meaning. Each one of us human beings writes differently and considering that medieval books were made before the invention of print, it follows that the scripts they carry show a great variety in execution styles. … Continue reading The Secrets of Medieval Fonts→| medievalbooks
Robert Fludd, Jacob’s Ladder AUGUSTINE famously distinguished between two powers or levels of human reason, which he called lower reason (ratio inferior) and higher reason (ratio superior). These refer, respectively, to discursive reasoning (ratiocination) and intellection (immediate grasp), and correspond to what in the Platonic/Neoplatonic tradition are called dianoia and nous. Augustine’s views, of course, […]| Christian Platonism
The Adoration of the Magi, British Library, Add. 18850, f. 24v Two carols for Twelfth Night, the eve of the Epiphany. The visit of the ...| aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com
Annunciation ( BL Add. 29433, f. 20 ) Here's an Advent poem from a collection of carols which was compiled by James Ryman, Franciscan f...| aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com
Virgin and Child, from a 15th-century Book of Hours ( BL Add. 50001, f. 119v ) Mary hath borne alone The Son of God in throne. That ...| aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com
