In the Netherlands, construction workers have made a gruesome discovery. When working in the city of Vianen, they came across an enigmatic mass burial. They have unearthed up to 20 skeletons that...
“I tell you: one must still have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star” (Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra). By conservative estimates, the European Renaissance spans the historical...
In 2014 a construction project required Swiss anthropologist Amelie Alterauge of the University of Bern Institute of Forensic Medicine to investigate a very unusual burial in a 400-year-old cemetery...
An old tradition has been revived in Florence, Italy due to the COVID-19 crisis. Once again wine windows have been opened to serve customers in one of Italy’s most beautiful cities. This tradition...
The plague doctor mask is one of the most recognizable symbols of the Black Death. Though the image is iconic the relationship may be a little anachronistic. While plague doctors have been plying...
Mass burials are common remnants of the many plague outbreaks that ravaged medieval Europe . A number of these graveyards are well documented in historical sources, but the locations of most, and the...
In France, a brotherhood that is over 800 years old is helping to bury the dead during the COVID-19 pandemic. This fraternity, which has its origins in medieval times, continues to assist at burials...
One of the haunting images of this pandemic will be stationary cruise ships – deadly carriers of COVID-19 – at anchor in harbours and unwanted. Docked in ports and feared. The news of the dramatic...
By Leslie Neal-Boylan / The Conversation Nurses are heroes of the COVID-19 crisis. May 12 is International Nurses Day, which commemorates the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the first “professional...
Kriston R. Rennie / The Conversation The Black Death (1347-51) devastated European society. Writing four decades after the event, the English monk and chronicler, Thomas Walsingham, remarked that “so...
The coronavirus pandemic has led many people to seek comfort in a variety of ways. Some have returned to traditional customs and beliefs. In Ireland many people are making a pilgrimage to holy wells...
READ PART I HERE While a crocodile showdown conjured up in Pharaoh’s court sounds incredible enough, it was only the magical warm-up for a series of 10 curses to befall the Egyptian slavers. As far...
The Jewish Holiday week of Passover is once again upon us. Millions around the world will experience the traditional Seder meal and remember an event from thousands of years ago. They will eat and...
Meghan Henning & Candida Moss / The Conversation With the spread of the coronavirus , the world is becoming pointedly aware of the extent to which human beings are interconnected. The rapid...
The coronavirus is concentrating our minds on the fragility of human existence in the face of a deadly disease. Words like ‘epidemic’ and ‘ pandemic ’ (and ‘panic’!) have become part of our daily...
The Black Death was one of the greatest disasters in recorded history. New discoveries in a medieval hospital burial ground are revealing new insights into its impact on rural England. It shows that...