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A researcher holding the bollock dagger that was found at Ypres, Belgium.	Source: VRT

Dropped Your Bastard Sword? Then Whip Out Your Bollock Dagger

If you find the term ‘bollock dagger’ too crude, you could rightfully call this weapon a ‘kidney dagger.’ But that’s how the Victorians attempted to mask the true nature of this horrendous invention...
Facial reconstruction of one of the ancient Scots who may have come from Loch Lomond but  was buried at Cramond. Source: Hayley Fisheer / University of Aberdeen

Ancient Scots Were Sometimes Born Apart But Buried Together

Nine ancient Scots were buried in a mass grave in eastern Scotland some 1,400 years ago. However, a new study in the Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences journal shows they were born in...
Greenland’s Lake 578 site was one of the sites where core samples and other data were taken that showed evidence of a prolonged drought. “Nobody has actually studied this location before,” said study lead author Boyang Zhao, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. 						Source: UMass

A Prolonged Drought Drove Out the Greenland Vikings, Says New Study

European Nordic seafaring pirates and raiders, known as the Vikings, would come to Greenland to settle around 950 AD, but mysteriously the Greenland Vikings vanished with the onset of the Little Ice...
The rare St George seal, a matrix seal, found during the Villers-Cotterêts medieval castle restoration project last year.		Source: Serge Le Maho / Inrap

Unique St George Seal Found in Castle Ruins in Northern France

In 2020 the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) in France’s northernmost region, Hauts-de-France, requested that the country’s National Monuments Center (CMN) begin renovation of an...
Game pieces and board retrieved from the excavation site in Oslo, Norway.	Source: Ida Irene Bergstrøm / Science in Norway

Game Pieces Of The Medieval Norwegian Dope Addicts

Game pieces from the gaming and gambling history of Norway have been discovered in medieval Oslo. So bad did gambling addiction become that the king had to change national gaming laws. An excavation...
The caltrops the Ukrainian Art of Steel workshop has been manufacturing with traditional blacksmithing for the current war with Russia.		Source: Art of Steel

Medieval Caltrop Defense Weapon Coming to the Aid of Ukrainian Resistance

When nations go to war, the most tragic aspect is the disruption and annihilation of civilian lives. International media has been reporting the robust resistance put up by Ukrainian citizens in many...
Reproduction horse armor and linen pierced by an arrow point. Source: Jones et. al. / CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Knights and Armored Steeds: Was Horse Armor Effective in Battle?

Nothing recalls the medieval era in Europe better than the image of a gallant knight in shining armor mounted on a fully barded—or armored—steed. But how effective was such mail horse armor in...
A plaque to the Black Death dead from 1349 and 1369 at Monmouth, Wales.		Source: Jaggery / CC BY-SA 2.0

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...
 Medieval exorcism of a woman.

The Exorcism Of Marthe Brossier: The First Exorcism With Scientific Controls

Marthe Brossier was a celebrity in France in the 1590s. She was a woman possessed by demons and her family took “the act” on tour. They went from town-to-town showing off the Satanic entity that...
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

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 compacted human excrement found inside a medieval barrel toilet at the Old Berwick Hospital site in Northumberland, England.   Source: Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Medieval Loo and Strange Foundation Walls Found at UK’s Berwick Hospital

An archaeological dig prior to the demolition of the Old Berwick Hospital site, built in 1874 in the town of Berwick in Northumberland, continues to unveil interesting discoveries about the town’s...
The causeway found on Berlin is remarkably well preserved. Source: Morgenpost.

700-year-old Causeway Found Under Central Berlin Street

Located in Berlin-Mitte in the German capital, Stralauer Straße has a storied history which is now known to stretch back to the medieval founding of Berlin in the year 1237. Excavations in January...
Pages from the 15th century medieval manuscript the Talbot Shrewsbury Book.       Source: British Library / Public domain

Lost Lovers and Heroes: 90% of Medieval Manuscripts Have Not Survived

A study comparing the survival of medieval manuscripts and tales from regions around Europe has arrived at some stark conclusions about the preservation of the medieval European past. A vast majority...
Rock cut houses south of Nottingham Castle, with the castle building just visible above. The city of Nottingham predates Anglo-Saxon times and was known in Brythonic as Tigguo Cobauc, meaning Place of Caves (known also as "City of Caves").            Source: CC BY-SA 4.0

Nottingham’s 1000-year-old Man-made Caves Are Focus of Regeneration

A new project has been launched by archaeologists and historians from the University of Nottingham to make the city’s medieval underground cave network the focus of a regeneration plan for the city...
The Medieval Brooch found in Wiltshire. Credit: Solent News and Photo Agency

Thrilled Detectorist Finds 800-Year-Old Brooch with Magical Words to Ward off Illness

Metal detectorists have become important allies to the archaeology community. Over the past few years, several exciting finds of ancient coins, jewelry, tools, weapons, and other assorted metallic...
Mad monarchs usually battled themselves, but internal struggles often led to unforeseen encounters with other powerful forces like dragons!		Source: Dusan Kostic / Adobe Stock

Mad Monarchs and Dragons: Is there Truth Behind the Fantasy World of George R. R. Martin?

There is a saying stating that books are written from other books. Keeping this in mind, new books draw on ideas, aspects and inspiration contained within the pages of other already existing books...
Blue glowing ball lightning, a phenomenon that was reported in medieval times, with the earliest English reference now confirmed to be 450 years before the previous known mention in an English historical text. 		Source: sakkmesterke / Adobe Stock

English Benedictine Monk Describes Ball Lightning in 1195 AD Text!

A pair of academics from Durham University in the United Kingdom have discovered an 827-year-old reference to an unusual weather-related phenomenon in an obscure medieval English text. While...
The Court of Emperor Frederick II in Palermo by Arthur vom Ramberg (1865) Web Gallery of Art (Public Domain)

The Wonder Of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250) was known as the Wonder of the World, Stupor Mundi , because there had never been anyone like him; nor will there ever be another to match him. Like many...
Venturing Into The Symbolic Landscape Of Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest

Venturing Into The Symbolic Landscape Of Robin Hood’s Sherwood Forest

The site of Sherwood Forest , legendary home of ‘Robin Hood and his Merry Men’ lies a bit more than 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of London. In the 1200s, which is usually considered by many to be...
The medieval horse it turns out, based on a recent research study, was a lot smaller than we thought!		Source: Snowshill / Adobe Stock

Medieval Horses in England Were Shockingly Small, Research Reveals

Medieval battle scenes in movies or television shows usually feature heavily armed warriors mounted on huge horses, thundering across the plains to attack their cowering and quivering enemies. While...
King Roger II Of Sicily: Christian Sultan And Half Heathen King

King Roger II Of Sicily: Christian Sultan And Half Heathen King

One of the most successful, but little known kings who reigned during the Middle Ages was Roger II (1095-1154) who controlled the island of Sicily along with Apulia and Calabria in Southern Italy...
The Medieval Origins of The Carol: How Christmas Songs Have Survived Through the Centuries

How Christmas Carols Have Survived the Centuries

Singing and Christmas seem to go naturally together, like plum pudding and custard. Even those who would not normally attend a choir concert or church service throughout the year might happily...
The unicorn ring found by a metal detectorist in 2018 near Thornton, Buckinghamshire, England		Source: Hanson Auctioneers

Detectorist’s 2018 Unicorn Ring Sold, But Provenance Questions Remain

A 400-year-old gold signet unicorn ring has just sold at auction for 26,470 dollars (23,550 euros). Everyone is talking about the ring’s value and its association with a noble family linked to...
Left to right; Germanic lyre - the best-preserved lyre from Dzhetyasar  - A replica of the Sutton Hoo lyre. 	Source: Left to right: CC BY-SA 4.0 /  G. Kolltveit / A Praefcke / Antiquities Publications Ltd

Experts Surprised By Similarities Of Sutton Hoo Lyre and Eastern Specimen

A recent re-examination of artifacts from Soviet era digs in the Dzhetyasar territory in southwest Kazakhstan has identified a fourth-century AD lyre that shows remarkable similarity with the one...

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