9+ hour, 46+ min ago   (862+ words) Soap-making was a well-established craft in the Middle Ages, but what exactly went into medieval soap? A fourteenth-century English recipe provides remarkably detailed instructions, using ingredients ranging from sheep tallow and oak ashes to salt and wheat flour. Among these…...

2+ day, 21+ hour ago   (1003+ words) The Bayeux Tapestry has gone on display at the British Museum, giving visitors in the UK their first opportunity to see one of the most famous surviving works from the Middle Ages. Medievalists.net attended a preview of the exhibition…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (794+ words) A medieval calendar dating to 813 shows that scholars were already aware that the calendar in use did not precisely match the movements of the Sun. Preserved in Florence, the manuscript records a three-day discrepancy between conventional calendar dates and astronomical…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago   (512+ words) Archaeologists working at Naumburg Cathedral in eastern Germany have uncovered a small medieval cemetery containing 13 graves, believed to date from the 11th century. The elaborate construction of the graves and their location between the cathedral and a nearby chapel indicate that…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (175+ words) What was work like before industrialisation? This book looks back at Britain before the rise of modern industry, exploring the professions and occupations that once played an important role in people’s everyday lives. The book has a certain vagueness that…...