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Christmas in Tuscany would not be complete without a slice of panforte — the peppery, dried fruit and nut-based spice cake born in the central Tuscan hill town of Siena in the Middle Ages — served with a glass of vin santo, a sweet Italian dessert wine. Several legendary origin stories surround panforte. Some culinary historians believe it was inspired by lokum, aka Turkish delight, the ancient date- and nut-based confection popular in different forms in several Middle Eastern countries to this day, brought back to Tuscany by medieval-era crusaders. According to local lore, Sienese soldiers won the Battle of...

Remains of the Ancrum Old Bridge, which stood during the 14th Century, has been found in the River Teviot after being hidden underwater for hundreds of years. Dating of the oak bridge timbers has confirmed a date of the mid-1300s, making the remains the oldest scientifically dated bridge ever found in its original position across one of Scotland’s rivers.

Carmelite friars established Whitefriars in 1270, but the religious site was destroyed during the Protestant ReformationArchaeologists digging under the remains of a demolished parking garage in Gloucester, England, have found the ruins of a 13th-century monastery, BBC News reports. Established around 1270, the Carmelite friary—known as Whitefriars—was all but demolished during the 16th century. Historians had long been aware of the house of worship’s existence, but they didn’t know exactly where it was located. Researchers from the Gloucester City Council and Cotswold Archaeology took advantage of a redevelopment project in the city’s King’s Quarter neighborhood to investigate. “For around 300...

The Jerusalem latrine was found in the Christian Quarter of the Old City, close to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1996 during excavations of a cesspool in the courtyard of a Spanish school. A microscopic fish tapeworm egg found in the medieval latrine at Riga. (photo credit: IVY YEH) From the bowels of history comes a study published this week in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B at Cambridge University in England, which details a first attempt at using the methods of ancient bacterial detection, pioneered in studies of past epidemics, to characterize the microbial...

CNA Staff, Sep 23, 2020 / 12:00 am MT (CNA).- After fire toppled the iconic spire and destroyed the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France in April 2009, heated debates ensued about whether the reconstruction should use the church’s original design, or use a more modern design and technique. Some proposed futuristic ideas included a rooftop swimming pool and a greenhouse atop the 850-year-old cathedral. Last year, the French Senate passed a bill mandating that Notre-Dame be rebuilt as it was before the fire, with lumber and medieval carpentry techniques, which were highlighted in a public demonstration...

Archaeologists have uncovered a lost 13th century sacristy at Westminster Abbey along with the bones of hundreds of monks from an earlier burial ground. The team from Pre-Construct Archaeology had been doing work on the North Green of the abbey when they came across the Great Sacristy built by Henry III in the 1250s. An integral part of Henry’s Abbey, the sacristy was the only section of the 13th-century reconstruction which had been lost. Originally used to keep the sacred vestments and items prior to Mass, it was later converted into living quarters before being demolished in the 18th century....

isitors to St. Mary’s Church, a 12th-century parish in Yorkshire, England, will soon be welcomed by a cast of characters from C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. As Harriet Sherwood reports for the Guardian, 14 limestone sculptures depicting Aslan the lion, Jadis the White Witch, Reepicheep the talking mouse and other magical creatures are set to replace worn medieval carvings on the church’s exterior. ...

A mysterious female warrior discovered in a Viking grave in Denmark was originally thought to be a Viking. But now, researchers have made a surprising discovery about this fierce warrior who died more than 1,000 years ago — she wasn't actually a Viking. According to researchers at Poland's Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the woman was likely Slavic, emanating from a region in Eastern Europe that is now present-day Poland. Dr. Gardeła added that the revelation is not all that surprising. "During the Middle Ages, this island was a melting pot of Slavic and Scandinavian elements." Although the woman's...

Belgian monks have revived a medieval beer recipe last brewed in the 18th century. The Order of Canons Regular of Premontre at Grimbergen Abbey in Belgium have begun brewing the ale again after rediscovering the original 12th-century recipe and methods in their archives. But be careful if you get to try the new ancient brew - at 10.8 per cent alcohol content it's likely to blow your cassock off.

A University of Bristol academic has succeeded where countless cryptographers, linguistics scholars and computer programs have failed—by cracking the code of the 'world's most mysterious text', the Voynich manuscript. Although the purpose and meaning of the manuscript had eluded scholars for over a century, it took Research Associate Dr. Gerard Cheshire two weeks, using a combination of lateral thinking and ingenuity, to identify the language and writing system of the famously inscrutable document. In his peer-reviewed paper, The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained, published in the journal Romance Studies, Cheshire describes how he successfully deciphered the manuscript's...

If you know nothing else about medieval European illuminated manuscripts, you surely know the Book of Kells. “One of Ireland’s greatest cultural treasures” comments Medievalists.net, “it is set apart from other manuscripts of the same period by the quality of its artwork and the sheer number of illustrations that run throughout the 680 pages of the book.” The work not only attracts scholars, but almost a million visitors to Dublin every year. “You simply can’t travel to the capital of Ireland,” writes Book Riot’s Erika Harlitz-Kern, “without the Book of Kells being mentioned. And rightfully so.” The ancient masterpiece is...

This Medieval Man Used a Knife as a Prosthetic Limb The man’s skeleton bears signs of frequent ‘biomechanical force,’ according to a new study image: https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/8ovq0YUyqFxilC3FolzWf9RVfXg=/800x600/filters:no_upscale()/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/c0/c9/c0c9b13f-c35f-416c-9a28-7f53c4e41f9a/micarelli-5.jpg knife prosthetic The man's limb appears to have been removed by blunt force trauma and a knife was later secured in its stead. (Micarelli et al. 2018) By Brigit Katz APRIL 20, 2018 In 1985, archaeologists discovered a medieval necropolis in northern Italy, which, over the years, yielded the remains of 222 individuals. Amid these remains, the skeleton of one adult male stood out because his hand appeared to have been amputated at the...

The manuscripts, all dated between 700 and 1200, are being made available to the general public for the first time, thanks to a collaboration between England and France.Click here to launch the slide showA two-year project that drew together and digitized 800 manuscripts from the collections of the British Library and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France has been completed and is available for perusing online. The manuscripts, all dated between 700 and 1200, are being made available to the general public for the first time. Historically, manuscripts from this time were reserved for the upper classes, who could read and...

They were one of the most powerful organizations in the world at their time, controlling wealth and military arms across the world. The Knights Templar were the first Christian religious military order, eventually growing to be one of the first international banking organizations, a massive military arm in the Holy Land, and the fodder for conspiracy theorists for literally hundreds of years. The Knights Templar were established during the Crusades, largely because of the state of the Holy Land after the First Crusade. Military campaigns launched from 1095 to 1099 had secured small Christian kingdoms in and around Jerusalem, but...

The records include dates and times, Cesario said, which makes them useful to modern-day astronomers. Planet Nine, if it exists, would have about 10 times the mass of Earth and orbit 20 times farther from the sun than Neptune does... Scientists suspect the existence of Planet Nine because it would explain some of the gravitational forces at play in the Kuiper Belt, a stretch of icy bodies beyond Neptune. But no one has been able to detect the planet yet, though astronomers are scanning the skies for it with tools such as the Subaru Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano....

The oldest whisky still in the world has been uncovered at a medieval abbey where William Wallace took refuge after defeating the English in battle. Archaeologists found what they believe to be an installation used for the distillation process at Lindores Abbey in Fife. The first ever written record of Scotch whisky distillation took place in the abbey in 1494, according to the exchequer rolls of King James IV.

Friends and family of a beloved Medieval knight re-enactor have been left “stunned” after the Virginia man accidentally impaled himself with his lance during a re-enactment event over the weekend. Peter Barclay, 53, was competing in an equestrian game in front of a crowd in Williamstown, Kentucky Saturday when he was fatally injured. Participating in events under the knight name of Master Terafan Greydragon, Peter went to spear a paper plate while on horseback when something went wrong and his lance impaled him under his sternum, WLWT confirms. Peter, a military veteran, was airlifted to a hospital but died en...

A Medieval knight re-enactor has impaled himself with his lance during a performance and died. News outlets report 53-year-old Peter Barclay, of Virginia, was competing in an equestrian game in Williamstown, Kentucky, when he was wounded Saturday. Barclay's brother and the president of event holder Society for Creative Anachronism, John Fulton, says Barclay was trying to spear a paper plate on the ground. Fulton says in a Facebook post that the metal-tipped lance hit the ground and flipped, stabbing Barclay's chest. He says Barclay, who performed under the name "Master Terafan Greydragon," died while being flown to a hospital.

Rowan W. Dorin, assistant professor of history, with the miscataloged parchments whose mystery he is working to solve. Credit: L.A. Cicero __________________________________________________________________________ When historian Rowan Dorin first stepped onto the Stanford campus in early 2017, he made it a habit to visit Green Library every week to dig through its collection of medieval documents and objects. After a few months, Dorin, an assistant professor of history specializing in medieval Europe, discovered something out of the ordinary. Three leaves of ancient parchment were labeled as a Hebrew translation of text about grammar, but its margins had Latin words like fish, capers...

Just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day — two construction workers in Holland have discovered a real-life “pot o’ gold.” The workers from water company Oasen made the stunning find when they were laying pipes in the new town of Hoef and Haag, in the province of Utrecht, LiveScience reports. During the construction work, they dug up a medieval cooking pot that contained 12 gold and 462 silver coins. The coins have been dated to the 15th century. It's unclear at this point who will keep the coins. After finding the pot, "it literally and figuratively rained coins," the company...