Europe

12 September, 2022 - 14:51 Cecilia Bogaard

10 Real-life Fairytale Castles from Across Europe

The castles we see in movies and picture books were not just inspired by fantasy and imagination. In most cases they were based on real-life castles, many of which can be found in Europe. Evolving...

Charles II had a deathbed obsession with King’s Drops, which were made using powdered human skulls. Source: papi8888 / Adobe Stock

16 July, 2022 - 22:56 Sahir

The King’s Drops: Charles II, Powdered Skulls and a Deathbed Obsession

For all of Europe’s pretentions of progress with civil democracies and human rights, the archives are filled with anything but. From the blood of Roman gladiators being sold as a remedy for epilepsy...

Coffee beans next to a skull. Source: karnstocks / Adobe Stock

1 July, 2022 - 15:00 Lex Leigh

When Sweden’s King Ordered a Clinical Trial of Coffee on Prisoners

Between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, coffee is everywhere. If you’re a coffee lover, you may have wondered about how coffee came to be throughout history. In early times, however, some people...

Royal children were untouchable, so whipping boys would be punished on their behalf. Source: liyasov / Adobe Stock

30 June, 2022 - 01:52 Aleksa Vučković

Whipping Boys Were Kids Spanked in Place of an ‘Untouchable’ Young Prince

In many corners of the globe, aristocrats and nobles, kings and young princes, were all deemed to be ‘ untouchable ’ and protected by divine right . To lay one’s hand on a nobleman or noble child was...

Dolmen of Poloutin in a cornfield, representing the origins of farming. Source: aluxum/Adobe Stock

13 May, 2022 - 23:00 ashley cowie

Ice Age Hunters’ DNA Reveals The Origins Of Farming

What were the origins of the first farmers? Where did they come from and where did they go? This question was recently asked by a team of scientists studying the genomes of Europe's first farmers...

Stone Age friendship rings found in Finland, made from slate in Russia, broken or refashioned into pendants. Source: Marja Ahola / University of Helsinki

29 April, 2022 - 01:57 Sahir

Slate Stone Age ‘Friendship Rings’ Found in Finland

According to the latest research, Stone Age hunter-gatherers in northeast Europe expertly crafted slate friendship rings some 6,000 years ago. These were produced in copious numbers by many makers in...

In the Middle Ages, medieval aphrodisiacs were a very important tool to ensure that husbands had enough lust to actually make love and male heirs. Source: Giovannino de' Grassi / Public domain

24 April, 2022 - 18:58 Sahir

Medieval Aphrodisiacs: Body Scented Bread Dough!

People in Europe in the Middle Ages boosted libidinal sexual intimacy through the use of medieval aphrodisiacs, some of which are truly bizarre. Dr. Eleanor Janega, a medieval historian based in...

A plaque to the Black Death dead from 1349 and 1369 at Monmouth, Wales. Source: Jaggery / CC BY-SA 2.0

1 March, 2022 - 18:00 ashley cowie

Was Medieval Black Death Really That Bad? A New Pollen Study Says No!

Black Death is said to have killed over half of Europe’s population. However, a new pollen study suggests many parts of Europe were not affected by the bacterial onslaught. Black Death was a bubonic...

28 February, 2022 - 22:00 Sahir

5,000-Year-Old DNA from Skeletons Found in Serbia is Solving Genetic Mysteries

Ancient Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology are characterized by a burial practice known as kurgan burials, wherein mounds of earth and stone are raised over a single or multiple graves...

Researchers from Norway, France, Austria and England were able to use information from SK152 to reconstruct what she might have looked like. Source: Stian Suppersberger Hamre/FaceLab

26 February, 2022 - 13:59 ashley cowie

Ancient Norse Teeth Plaque Helps Explain Pandemics

A team of Norwegian scientists have been tracking the evolution of diseases in medieval bodies. Not only have they added to the understanding of how diseases become pandemics, but they’ve revealed...

The La Tene culture Laténium landing stage in Hauterive on Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. Source: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra / CC BY 2.0

5 November, 2021 - 13:58 Aleksa Vučković

How the Great La Tene Culture Changed Iron Age Europe

Speaking of the Iron Age, most people first think of wild barbarian tribes wielding their crude swords and tools made from iron. But the truth is often very far from this. This important age in world...

Various biblical images that are painted on the burial vault found in Bruges. Source: Raakvlak

7 October, 2021 - 14:46 ashley cowie

Painted Medieval Burial Vaults Surface In Belgium

Excavations at the Church of Our Lady in the heart of historic Bruges, Belgium, have unearthed a third medieval burial vault. Just like the first one discovered back in May, this one also features...

Screen shot from the film ‘Enigma of Kaspar Hauser’ (1974).

29 September, 2021 - 02:01 Natalia Klimczak

The Mysterious and Tragic Life of Kaspar Hauser

He came from nowhere and became one of the greatest mysteries of 19th century Germany. On May 26th, 1828 he appeared in the streets of Nuremberg. For the next five years he was a source of...

Jacques de Molay cursed everyone who supported his death

18 September, 2021 - 02:01 Natalia Klimczak

The Powerful Curse of Jacques de Molay, the Last Grand Master of Templars

On March 18, 1314, Jacques de Molay and a few other Templars, after enduring torture and many other humiliations, were sent to death. De Molay was an old man, tired with life and proud of his...

Hanging out in the margin of an illuminated manuscript

1 September, 2021 - 01:58 dhwty

Beautiful, Decorative, and Sometimes Crude: Illuminated Manuscripts and Marginalia

Illuminated manuscripts are manuscripts that are covered with painted ornaments presented under several forms. These documents are perhaps most commonly associated with the European Middle Ages...

An incomplete early early-medieval (Anglo-Saxon, 500-600 AD) gilded copper-alloy zoomorphic plate bird brooch with garnet eye detail, missing its pin. This type of brooch was found in many medieval furnished graves across Kent and the Frankish world. But after 600 AD European burial rites transitioned to unfurnished churchyard burials, according to the latest study. Source: Hampshire Cultural Trust

6 August, 2021 - 14:51 ashley cowie

Big Data Study Reveals Rapid Transition in Medieval Burial Rites

An English archaeologist has analyzed “big data” to make a slate of new observations about changing burial traditions in medieval Europe. In business the term “big data” describes large, hard-to-...

18 June, 2021 - 00:15 Alicia McDermott

Medieval People Were Reopening Graves, But Not to Rob Them

In the Middle Ages being dead wasn’t a guarantee you would rest in peace. Researchers have found hundreds of examples of people re-opening graves in cemeteries from Transylvania to southern England...

7 May, 2021 - 22:56 Nathan Falde

Metal Fragments Found To Be Currency In Bronze Age Europe

Archaeologists from Germany and Italy have found convincing proof that people in Late Bronze Age Europe used metal scraps or fragments as a form of money . As excavations throughout Central Europe...

31 March, 2021 - 18:25 ancient-origins

Scandinavian Origins | DNA | Stone Age Scandinavia

Tracking the migration of humans isn’t easy , but genetics is helping us uncover new information at breathtaking speed. We know that our species originated in Africa and likely reached Europe from...