Britain’s best legal minds wrote on parchments made from sheepskin to prevent fraud for hundreds of years, a new study shows. From the 13th to 20th centuries, lawyers specifically favoured sheepskin, rather than goatskin or calfskin, for writing legal documents, the UK authors say. In an analysis of ancient sheepskin parchment, the researchers found the structure of … Read more
A trove of treasures uncovered in 2020 including a wax seal stamp of an Elephant with a ‘war-tower’ and a medieval ‘meme’ has been revealed by the British Museum. The meme-like item is a unique mount, perhaps worn as a badge, depicting a knight stepping out of a snail shell that appears to be mounted … Read more
Facial recognition software has helped recreate faces of Czech royals who died more than a thousand years ago. Researchers used radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis to identify the remains of Duke Spytihněv I and his brother, Vratislav, who died within a few years of each other in the early 10th century. The team scanned the … Read more
Facial recognition software has helped recreate faces of Czech royals who died more than a thousand years ago. Researchers used radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis to identify the remains of Duke Spytihněv I and his brother, Vratislav, who died within a few years of each other in the early 10th century. The team scanned the … Read more
Jimmy Kimmel last night laid into the ‘inbreeding’ royals as late night hosts took turns to skewer the Palace after Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview. Stephen Colbert asked if the monarchy’s ‘medieval selective-breeding program might be racist’ and slammed the family’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Jimmy Fallon, James Corden and Seth Myers also took to … Read more
Mystery medieval tunnels that don’t appear on any maps are uncovered near 12th century abbey by workmen moving electricity pole The team stumbled on the underground network – unseen for hundreds of years The tunnel site was found near to the Tintern Abbey close to the England border Engineers working for Western Power Distribution stumbled … Read more
A medieval manor house which was owned by the great-grandmother of Lady Jane Grey is to be closed to the public by the National Trust to allow it to be permanently rented as holiday accommodation. Shute Barton, in the village of the same name near Axminster, Devon, dates from the 14th century and was owned … Read more
It was unlikely that the residents of Islamic Sicily drank alcohol, but that didn’t stop them being involved in a possible thriving wine trade, according to a new study. Chemical residues of grapes found in medieval containers from Sardinia and Pisa led researchers from the University of York to speculate on how they were used. … Read more
It was unlikely that the residents of Islamic Sicily drank alcohol, but that didn’t stop them being involved in a possible thriving wine trade, according to a new study. Chemical residues of grapes found in medieval containers from Sardinia and Pisa led researchers from the University of York to speculate on how they were used. … Read more
The skeleton of a friar with two broken legs resembling a medieval ‘hit and run’, probably from a cart accident that killed him, has been unearthed by Cambridge archaeologists. The team from the University of Cambridge were examining skeletal trauma from 314 skeletons buried at three locations in the city between the 10th and 14th … Read more