New DNA test can determine eye and hair colour from people who lived in the Middle Ages

A team of researchers from Poland and the Netherlands have developed a system that is able to answer what the hair and eye colour is from individuals who lived over 800 years ago.

 The HIrisPlex DNA analysis system was recently recreated for modern forensic research, but the researchers have now shown that this system is sufficiently robust to successfully work on older and more degraded samples from human remains such as teeth and bones. The system looks at 24 DNA polymorphisms (naturally occurring variations) which can be used to predict eye and hair colour.

 In their article, ‘Bona fide colour: DNA prediction of human eye and hair colour from ancient and contemporary skeletal remains’, the researchers examined the remains of Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881 to 1943) confirming his blue eyes and blond hair.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

15th-century frescoes identified in Polish church, money being raised to restore them

Frescoes discovered on the walls of an Orthodox Church in Poland have been identified as 15th-century art works, and funds are being raised to restore them.

Art historian Jaroslaw Giemza said Tuesday that recent research on the frescoes at the ancient church in the eastern village of Posada Rybotycka have dated them to that late Middle Age period.

White paint had concealed the frescoes for a long time, and they were first partly uncovered in the 1960s.

Click here to read this article from the Boston Globe

Poland's medieval love affair for knights

There is something about summer that makes some Poles clamour to slip into chain mail or flowing dresses and pretend to be medieval knights and damsels.

During the holiday season there is a knights' tournament or battle re-enactment every weekend.

"People love it. They want to be some somewhere far, far away from the normal, just a little bit boring, everyday life," says popular historian Boguslaw Woloszanski.

"We are a very romantic nation, and knights and the medieval time is so romantic."

Click here to read this article from the BBC

Environmental Crusaders: How Medieval Knights remade Poland’s ecosystems

In 1280, victorious Teutonic Crusaders began building the world’s largest castle on a hill overlooking the River Nogat in what is now northern Poland. Malbork Castle became the hub of a powerful Teutonic state that crushed its pagan enemies and helped remake Medieval Europe. Now, ancient pollen samples show that in addition to converting heathens to Christians, the Crusaders also converted vast swathes of Medieval forests to farmlands.

Click here to read this article from Conservation Magazine

Nostalgic Poles rebuild medieval castles

Fanciful turrets flank the thick fortress walls. A cannon sits in the courtyard. Inside the castle in the eastern Polish town of Tykocin, there are brand-new electric ovens, modern radiators and sleek bathroom fixtures. A handful of Polish developers are completely rebuilding medieval castles to house museums, hotels or conference centers that they hope will recapture the enchantment of a time when Poland was a great European power,before centuries of occupation, warfare and foreign rule.

"Why should the Germans have their castles on the Rhine, the French their castles on the Loire, why should the Czechs have so many castles open to the visitors and why should the Poles have only ruins?" said Dariusz Lasecki, a businessman and one of two brothers rebuilding a medieval castle in Bobolice, a town near Czestochowa.

Click here to read this article from the Washington Examiner