Penance has played a prominent role in religions all over the world. And the interesting thing is there are documents spanning the globe which discuss penance and provide clear opportunities to find...
Margery Kempe was, for the first 40 years of her life, an ordinary woman. Born into a middle-class family in 14th century East Anglia in England, she is remembered today for her remarkable later life...
St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain and work to restore its rare medieval shrine has just been completed. But the addition of a new...
The Christian Church attempted to censor Galileo’s findings in the first decades of the 17th century, but it was a time of expanding knowledge, so it did not take very long for the information to get...
A team of University of Cambridge researchers have just released the results of their study of cancer incidence in medieval and pre-Industrial Revolution-era Britain. The scientists examined the...
It was in 2018 that dozens of explorers, archaeologists and historians from Poland and abroad, congregated to conduct an archaeological research project on the legendary Battle of Grunwald . This...
Domestic violence is a serious problem in modern society, but it should surprise no-one that this issue has been plaguing Western society for many hundreds, even thousands of years. It is difficult...
Stepwells are magnificent architectural structures found in India that tapped into underground water tables, providing a year-round water supply. Thousands of the engineering masterpieces are dotted...
Geoffrey of Monmouth has gone down in history for his classic epic, the Historia Regum Britanniae , known in English as The History of the Kings of Britain . This masterpiece of medieval literature...
Saxo Grammaticus was a Danish historian whose writings were instrumental for the preservation of the ancient history of the Danes and their nations. Considered to be one of the major historical...
The Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle is a fortress located in the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, in the western part of Ukraine. According to written sources, the city existed as early as the 12th century,...
With deeply-spiritual origins, and an important function in the religious framework of medieval England, Coventry's medieval Charterhouse priory was all but destroyed in the Reformation. But now,...
The cycle of life and death is an eternal and unchanging truth of human history. Yet, the attitudes around both are influenced and shaped by a number of factors. Today, dying of old age is seen as a...
It’s a name most people have never heard of and even fewer can pronounce, but St Aethelthryth of Ely is one of England’s most fascinating saints whose name has survived throughout the centuries and...
A silver badge which is described as the medieval equivalent of today’s popular meme phenomenon is one of the thousand or so antiquities that has been discovered by metal-detectorists in the UK over...
The ‘Bradford Tooth Fairy,’ a dentist turned forensic archaeologist, created a new method to discover details of ancient diets, just by looking at people’s teeth. She’s now applied her innovative...
An 81-year-old retired banker’s construction plans have been halted by the discovery of a lost bishop’s palace in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, England. While archaeologists have called the Medieval ruins...
In the Middle Ages, pregnant women allegedly wore a type of specially prepared wrap known as a birthing girdle. Birthing girdles were long, thin, rolls made from animal skin parchment. They were...
Archaeologists announced the discovery of a 12th-century tunnel network beneath an abbey in Wales. This tunnel beneath a popular Welsh abbey is so long that that archaeologists project that it will...
According to The First News, researchers have discovered a secret tunnel underneath the Ducal Castle in Szczecin, Poland. The researchers made this discovery after exploring Nazi-era passages built...
They say we just need food to survive, but we all know we eat good food to really live! The ancients knew this as well, and that sentiment was echoed across time and cultures, creating vibrant,...
One of the most iconic images of the European Middle Ages is the castle. This defensive structure was often heavily fortified and provided its inhabitants with much-needed safety. It was usually...
Dark Age Britain was apparently full of “saints”…well, at least hundreds of people gained membership into the ‘cult of saints’ at that time. Up to 3-4 percent of aristocrats may have been awarded...
The eternal quest to be ridiculously good looking is one we’ve been on since time immemorial. From elaborate, exquisite, and downright weird clothing choices, to sexy-but-deadly cosmetics, and...