The Middle Ages, which began around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and lasted until the early Renaissance in the 1300s, is often romanticized as an era of knights in armor, of jousting, castles and chivalry. But the knowledge gleaned from the finds, including the ruins of medieval buildings, tombs and artifacts, allowed archaeologists and historians to develop a more detailed and nuanced view of life during this time. Here are six surprising finds from the time and their significance.
1. Crusader sword lost at sea
An ancient sword that experts say dates back to medieval times and believed to have belonged to a crusader, on display on the beach at the Israeli seaport of Caesarea October 19, 2021.
Jack Guez / AFP / Getty Images
In October 2021, after a storm moved the sands at the bottom of the Mediterranean along the Israeli coast and exposed a treasure trove of stone anchors, pottery and other medieval artifacts, a recreational diver discovered a Rare and valuable 39 inch iron sword, encrusted with seashells and marine organisms but otherwise in good condition.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the weapon is 900 years old and belonged to a knight who came to the Middle East to fight in the Crusades, in which European Christian armies fought the Muslims for control of Jerusalem and d ‘other sites. How the sword, which would have been prized in its day, ended up underwater is unclear. But as Jonathan Phillips, professor of history at the University of London, explained, The New York Times, one possibility is that it was lost in a battle on a beach, where invading Christian forces landed and were often counterattacked by Muslim defenders, or in fighting at sea.
This is not the first time that someone has found a medieval sword underwater. In 2018, an eight-year-old girl wading in a lake in Sweden stepped on a sharp object and pulled a sword out of the water. The nearly three-foot-long weapon dated to the 5th or 6th century AD, before the rise of the Vikings.
2. Caves where a former hermit king lived
Archaeologists believe that several man-made caves in southern Derbyshire in England may have once housed an Anglo-Saxon monarch in exile. King Eardwulf, also known as Saint Hardulph, was deposed from the Northumbrian throne in AD 806, briefly reinstated in AD 808, and then ousted for good two years later. According to a 2021 press release, he may have spent the rest of his life in exile in the caves of Anchor’s Church, which were hewn from soft sandstone rock.
The find makes the cave “possibly the oldest intact domestic interior in the UK,” said Edmund Simons, the senior researcher who led a team of researchers from the Royal Agricultural University and Wessex Archeology. The Guardian. Although the ex-monarch was forced to live as a hermit, it was not necessarily a harsh existence. The mansion had three rooms, as well as a chapel, with doors and windows that resemble Saxon architecture. In addition, the ex-king may have received a visit from the faithful who venerated him as a holy man.
3. The imposing idol
Although the Middle Ages evoke images of Christian monks in monasteries working on sacred manuscripts, an eight-foot-tall wooden idol discovered in the summer of 2021 in Ireland is a reminder that paganism still existed in the early Middle Ages.
Archaeologists working with road builders found the 1,600-year-old figure in a bog in the town of Gortnacrannagh. Carved from an oak trunk, the idol has a human head and notches carved along its body, according to the Claire Herald. “Three things about the figure fascinate me,” says Lisa M. Bitel, professor of religion to the dean and professor of history at the University of Southern California, and a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America.
“First, it dates just before – or perhaps very early – Christianization in Ireland. Saint Patrick, writing about a hundred years after the idol was made in the fifth century, condemned “pagan” figures like this one. Second, it was found in a bog; bogs were special sites, neither water nor land, where people poured sacrifices and the bodies of executed victims. This figure was found with animal remains and a dagger, so clearly part of a ritual. Third, all of this suggests something about religious practices in Ireland before people became Christians. “
4. African inhabitants of medieval London
A burial trench between rows of individual graves, dug between concrete foundations, from the excavation of the Black Death Cemetery in East Smithfield, London.
MOLA / Getty Images
DNA analysis of the bones and teeth of 41 adults who died during the Black Death and were buried in medieval London in the mid-1300s revealed that the city was more ethnically and racially diverse than previously known. once believed. As Michigan State University curator of human osteology Rebecca Redfern and assistant anthropology professor Joseph Hefner wrote, in March 2021, 30% of people in the sample were not of white descent. , and of 19 women in the sample, three were of African descent, while another four were of mixed heritage.
Cord J. Whitaker, Associate Professor of English at Wellesley College and author of the 2019 book Dark metaphors: how modern racism emerged from medieval racial thought, says that such research refuted the once widely held view that medieval England and Europe were racially homogeneous.
“They found people of North African descent, but who seemed to have lived in London for quite a long time,” says Whitaker. This diversity was mostly found in large port cities that were part of international trade networks, which moved goods from Asia to Europe via Africa in what Whitaker calls a medieval version of modern globalism.
5. Castle under a prison yard
In 2015, archaeologists discovered the walls of a Norman castle under a basketball court in a former prison in Gloucester, a town in southwest England. The prison was built in the late 1700s, but the ruins of the medieval fortress below date back to 1110.
According to a report by Cotswold Archeology, the castle was a large structure with a keep (a fortified inner tower), an enclosed courtyard, stables and a castle moat on what later became the site of the prison, and a bridge -levis and a door to the north.
The castle played a role in Anarchy, a civil war in England in the mid-1100s, and was a royal residence during the reign of Henry III in the 1200s. The design resembled Canterbury Castle and the tower of London, and visitors to the city would have seen “a powerful symbol of Norman architecture,” as Cotswold Archeology chief executive Neil Holbrook told Gloucester Live.
6. Medieval fear of zombies
Simon Mays, the skeletal biologist at the English Heritage Center for Archeology, examines a hole in a skull found in Wharram Percy, a deserted medieval village.
John Giles / PA Images / Getty Images
You might think the fascination with the living dead started with television and horror movies, but archaeologists have found evidence that medieval English villagers feared resuscitated corpses would emerge from the tomb.
In the abandoned village of Wharram Percy, long ago, an analysis of the bones of residents who died between 1000 and 1300 BC revealed burn marks and cuts on the skulls and upper body, which were apparently inflicted after the dead. The cut marks were in places that ruled out cannibalism as an explanation, and analysis of the skeletal teeth showed that they were local residents, leading scientists to conclude that the damage was inflicted to keep the dead safe in their graves.
Simon Mays, human skeletal biologist and guest lecturer at the University of Southampton, said The Guardian in 2017 that the discovery “shows us the dark side of medieval beliefs”.
