Medieval Archives

The Curious Creation of the Crusader States

by History Guild | Mar 26, 2024 | Military History, Political and Economic History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
A major holy land for three of the world’s largest, most influential religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the area of the levant has long been hotly contested.
After several centuries of ownership and Christian domination under the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire, the holy land of Jerusalem and the surrounding area fell into the hands of the Muslims in 969 AD under the Fatimids, and later the Seljuq Turks.

How was law and order maintained in Britain before modern Policing?

by History Guild | Feb 14, 2024 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 6 minutes
Although the police force may seem an integral part of our world now, the first statutory police force in the world was only created in 1611, in Edinburgh. So how did a sizable country like Britain maintain law and order before this?

Swedish Viking hoard: how the discovery of single Norman coin expands our knowledge of French history

by History Guild | Feb 12, 2024 | Historical Sites, History News, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
In the autumn of 2020, I was contacted by the field archaeology unit of the Swedish National Historical Museums, who are also known as the Archaeologists. They were excavating at a Viking-age settlement at Viggbyholm just north of Stockholm. During routine metal detecting of the site, they had located a very exciting find: eight silver necklaces and other silver jewellery along with 12 coins, everything delicately wrapped up in a cloth and deposited in a pot. In other words, a genuine Viking silver hoard.

How those found guilty of treason were punished

by History Guild | Nov 27, 2023 | Political and Economic History, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 7 minutes
In 1352 the crime of treason was defined for the first time in English law. But how were traitors punished in the pre-modern period?

DNA reveals large migration into Scandinavia during the Viking age

by History Guild | Jun 7, 2023 | History News, Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
Viking age Scandinavia as a hub for migration from all over Europe.

In a study published in Cell, we show this is exactly what happened. The Viking period (late 8th century to mid 11th century) was the catalyst for an exceptional inflow of people into Scandinavia. These movements were greater than for any other period we analysed.

New archaeology finding shows how Muslim cuisine endured in secret despite policing by the Spanish Catholic regime

by History Guild | Apr 17, 2023 | Social and Cultural History | 0

Reading time: 5 minutes
Granada, in southern Spain’s Andalusia region, was the final remnant of Islamic Iberia known as al-Andalus – a territory that once stretched across most of Spain and Portugal. In 1492, the city fell to the Catholic conquest.

In the aftermath, native Andalusians, who were Muslims, were permitted to continue practising their religion. But after a decade of increasingly hostile religious policing from the new Catholic regime, practising Islamic traditions and rituals was outlawed. Recent archaeological excavations in Granada, however, have uncovered evidence of Muslim food practices continuing in secret for decades after the conquest.