Secret Passageways and Trebuchet Trick Shots: Medieval News Roundup

This week's news for medievalists features the mystery of how books were being stolen from a medieval monastery's library, and the plans to build an Anglo-Saxon house.

Finally, check out our Instagram page, where you can see some of the photos we have been taking, such as this fun picture from Southwark Cathedral:

Byzantium on Scotland, Hospital Food and the 1970s: Medieval News Roundup

For our fellow medievalists, here are some of the news and interesting posts that we came across in the last week:

Finally, this image, created in 1512, shows the first mention of the phrase: "Throw out the baby with the bath water".

Found in Narrenbeschwörung (Appeal to Fools) by Thomas Murner.

Irish Brain surgeons, Vikings who recycle and spotting mistakes in churches: Medieval News Roundup

Sealed Under Turkish Mud, a Well-Preserved Byzantine Chapel

In the fourth century A.D., a bishop named Nicholas transformed the city of Myra, on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Turkey, into a Christian capital. Nicholas was later canonized, becoming the St. Nicholas of Christmas fame. Myra had a much unhappier fate.


After some 800 years as an important pilgrimage site in the Byzantine Empire it vanished — buried under 18 feet of mud from the rampaging Myros River. All that remained was the Church of St. Nicholas, parts of a Roman amphitheater and tombs cut into the rocky hills.

But now, 700 years later, Myra is reappearing.

Archaeologists first detected the ancient city in 2009 using ground-penetrating radar that revealed anomalies whose shape and size suggested walls and buildings. Over the next two years they excavated a small, stunning 13th-century chapel sealed in an uncanny state of preservation. Carved out of one wall is a cross that, when sunlit, beams its shape onto the altar. Inside is a vibrant fresco that is highly unusual for Turkey.

Click here to read this article from the New York Times

Sixth-century baptistery discovered in Kosovo

A historic baptistery structure has been unearthed at one of the most important ancient sites in Kosovo by Turkish archaeologists. It is the first such excavation to be carried out by Turkish archaeologists in Europe.


At an excavation site in Kosovo’s ancient city of Ulpiana, a team of Turkish archaeologists have discovered a baptistery dating from the Byzantine period.

The archaeological team, consisting of archaeology students from Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan University and headed by Professor Haluk Çetinkaya, excavated in a 250 square-meter area, unearthing an important part of the sixth-century city. Mimar Sinan University graduate Elvis Shala, a native of Kosovo, also joined in the excavation, which lasted 70 days.

Click here to read this article from Hurriyet Daily News

Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition – exhibition at The Met

Nearly 300 works of art are now on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to mark how the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean underwent important changes between the seventh and ninth centuries. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition represents the first major museum exhibition to focus on this pivotal era in medieval history.

The exhibition, which began on March 14, will be hosting a couple of important events within the next few days. The exhibition brings together works of art from museums in more than a dozen countries, including Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Republic of Georgia, the United Kingdom, and Vatican City among others. Many of these works have never been shown before in the United States.

 “Byzantium and Islam will contribute immeasurably to the intellectual legacy that was established by the Met’s previous three widely acclaimed exhibitions on the Byzantine Empire,” said Thomas P. Campbell, Director of the Metropolitan Museum. “By bringing to general attention a complex historical period that is neither well-known nor well-understood, this exhibition will provide an important opportunity for our audiences.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Medicine in the Byzantine Empire

Unlike the west, Byzantium inherited a multitude of medical schools from its ancient past. It was able to draw on these, in particular the prognostications of Hippocrates and the analytical and philosophical skills of Galen and to develop a highly sophisticated medical system, capable of identifying and dealing with many diseases that were only rediscovered in the later part of the millennium.

The basis of Byzantine medical theory was two-pronged. The first took inspiration from the neo-Platonist philosophers of the Hellenistic era and the writings of Saint Athanasius, celebrating the immortality and purity of the soul while understanding that the nature of the body is weak and corruptible.

 Thus much emphasis was placed upon spiritual as well as physical healing, the maxim healthy mind in a healthy body being much valued. The theological basis behind physical healing, was that man had been created in God's image. The human body belonged to God and had to be properly looked after. Byzantine theory also provided an explanation for the origin of sickness. Adam and Eve's disobedience in Eden had brought disease and death into the world.

 Byzantium also had an ultimate role model, of greater standing than Asclepius or Hippocrates of the Ancients. Christ, the Son of God healed the sick and exhorted his apostles and disciples to give proofs of His own divine powers by acts of healing. Some thirty five miracles are recorded in the Bible and the apostles exercises healing as a 'gift of the holy spirit.' As a result, a plethora of icons and miraculous relics proliferated throughout the Empire.

Click here to read part 1 from Neoskosmos.com


Click here to read part 2 from Neoskosmos.com 

How did medieval Europeans deal with Greek debt? They sacked their capital city

Historians of the Fourth Crusade (1202-04) have been seeking explanations why the crusaders decided to sail to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople instead of Egypt. Some believe that the crusaders were tricked into doing it by the Doge of Venice or some other conspirator, while others argue that the decision to go to Constantinople was almost an accident, where unforeseen events led to the crusader army.

But Savvas Neocleous, writing in the latest issue of the Journal of Medieval History, states ”the real reason for the diversion to Constantinople in 1203 by the Venetians and the crusaders, and for their subsequent attack on the imperial capital in 1204, was a simpler and, in their minds, increasingly pressing concern: the payment of outstanding debts.”

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame Expands Research Resources

In preserving and developing the intellectual and literary traditions of the Greco-Roman world, in fashioning eastern orthodox Christianity, and in defining the notion of a Christian empire that was a center of intellectual and commercial trade, the Byzantine Empire was one of the great formative cultures in European history.

Although its rule ended in 1453 C.E., Byzantium’s influence was far from over, and the University’s Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame initiative continues to explore this influential period in medieval history.

Faculty and student research into this area of inquiry will also now benefit from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Reading Room for Byzantine Studies, located on the seventh floor of the University’s Hesburgh Libraries. The February 2012 dedication was attended by Greek Orthodox Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos from Chicago, Consul of Greece Ioanna Efthymiadou, and Stelios Vasilakis, a representative of the Niarchos Foundation.

“The inauguration of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Reading Room not only provides an appropriate home for one of the great research collections in this field of study, it also firmly embeds Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame within the Medieval Institute, the crown jewel of humanities research here at the University,” says Charles Barber, professor of medieval art history and Byzantine Studies at Notre Dame scholar.

Click here to read this article from the University of Notre Dame

Ancient Byzantine road unearthed in Greece

Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient marble paved Byzantine road during excavation work for a new metro in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki, the Culture Ministry said on Friday.

Dating from the third century BC, the marble paved road, known as the Via Egnatia, runs across much of modern day Thessaloniki at a depth of three meters.

Other finds range from hundreds of graves and tombs spanning an 800-year period from the fourth century BC, marble sarcophagi, stone tombs and more than 2,500 square meters of ancient buildings.

Many of the burial sites contained offerings, including 1,500 pieces of jewellry made of gold, silver and copper, Roman-era gold coins from Persia, clay vessels, glass perfume-holders and eight golden wreaths.

Click here to read this article from IOL Scitech

The Flowering of Hellenic Studies at Princeton University

Princeton University has been an international leader in the study of Greek culture for a long time, but the creation of the new Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies promises to bring up more blooms in that already flowering garden.

“Princeton is now one of the world’s great centers for the study of Greece and the transformative influence of Greek ideas across times and cultures”, said Princeton president Shirley M. Tilghman when she and her colleagues on the Academic Planning Group approved the creation of the Center in May 2011.

Princeton’s Program in Hellenic Studies was founded in 1981 with a two million dollar gift presented to the University by the passionate philhellene Stanley J. Seeger Jr., in 1979. The Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund continued to contribute additional monies over the years, and now that gift is the primary support of the new Center named in his honor. Seeger, a 52 (and ’56) Princeton alumnus who out of love for the country became a citizen of Greece, died in July 2011.

Lecturer in Classics, Dimitri Gondicas, previously the Executive Director of the Program in Hellenic Studies and now the first Director of the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, believes that Princeton’s principal and lasting contribution to Hellenism in America is its deep commitment to academic excellence in teaching, in high-level research, and in international academic exchanges, rather than large-scale cultural events.

Click here to read this article from Greek News

See also Princeton establishes Stanley J. Seeger '52 Center for Hellenic Studies

Istanbul to launch replica of Byzantine ship

Turkey is going to build the perfect replica of a Byzantine ship for scientific purposes. The copy of the medieval ship, nearly 10 metres long and more than 2.5 metres wide, will be put to sea next year under the name ''Yenikapi 12''.

The project of the Istanbul University's Cultural Artifacts Protection and Restoration Department was recently announced by a Turkish news website and ANSAmed has received photos of the initiative from the University. Construction will start this summer and the ship's launch is scheduled "mid-2013". The organisers of the project suggested that visitors will have an opportunity to come on board: "they will have a magnificent experience in a boat from the Middle Ages," they announced.

The ship will be the same type of one of the 36 that were found, along with thousands of other artifacts, during the ongoing excavations for the Istanbul underground that started in Yenikapi in 2004. It will also be exhibited to the public, probably in a museum, before being launched. The shipwrecks that were found on the coasts of Istanbul are estimated to have been constructed between the fifth and 10th century AD, are regarded as the world's largest shipwreck collection, associate professor of the Department that leads the initiative Isil Kocabas said. The ships shed light on the construction technology that was used in the Byzantine era. A doctorate thesis has already shown how the "Yenikapi 12" was designed and constructed, indicating the process of making its replica.

Click here to read this article from ANSAmed

Byzantine bother: Artifacts back in German museum after decades

A Berlin museum is celebrating the return of dozens of Byzantine artifacts, which spent years in Soviet Russia after World War Two. Some date back as far as the 4th century – yet it is their recent history that reads like a real detective story.

By the end of the war in 1945, the Byzantine collection of Berlin’s Bode Museum totaled some 6,000 objects. To save them from Soviet hands and keep them in Germany, the artifacts were divided into groups, stored in crates and spirited away.

Almost half of the hidden treasures were however found and taken to the USSR, where they stayed for over a decade.

In 1958, the gems were brought back to Germany. But instead of being identified and sent back where they belonged, they got mixed up with other artifacts and ended up in Leipzig University’s Egyptian Museum for decades.

Click here to read this article from Russia Today

Countless Treasures Found in the Excavations for the Subway in Thessaloniki

Macedonians discovered a valuable treasure hid in the bowels of the earth, thanks to the methodical excavations undertaken in the construction of the Thessaloniki metro.

Many artifacts found in the excavation, from items such as gold hoops, benches, and thousands of everyday objects, up to whole churches, remnants of the glorious, long history of Thessaloniki, have come to light. The excavations were completed by the end of the year, leaving behind thousands of “mosaics” of cultures that flourished in the city.

Archaeologists are revealing a palimpsest of the city, a city that has undergone constant and continuous phases of occupation from the 4th century BC, when it was founded in Thessaloniki, until now! “In Byzantium, Thessalonica was described as the second city of Constantinople, precisely because of its extremely important historical position in the region.” They emphasized, among other things, that the general secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Lina Mendoni, spoke to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economic Affairs of the House, ahead of signing an additional contract to perform archaeological work. "In terms of area stations, there are mainly archaeological investigations in the order of 17,000 sq.m. In essence, speaking of the area of ​​excavation, we speak about 28,000 square meters," explained Ms. Mendoni.

Click here to read this article from The Greek Reporter

Byzantine Stamp with the Temple Menorah discovered in Israel

A 1,500 year old seal bearing an image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah was discovered near the Israeli city of Acre/Akko.

A ceramic stamp from the Byzantine period (6th century CE) was discovered in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at Horbat Uza east of Acre, prior to the construction of the Akko-Karmiel railroad track by the Israel National Roads Company. This find belongs to a group of stamps referred to as “bread stamps” because they were usually used to stamp baked goods.

According to Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period”.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

1,600 year-old bathhouse discovered in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a 1,600 year-old bathhouse apparently used by the owners of a wealthy estate or an inn on an ancient road.

Remains of an ancient bathhouse dating to the Byzantine period were exposed during work being conducted on the modern water infrastructure near Moshav Tarum, west of Jerusalem. In recent months the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out an archaeological excavation that uncovered impressive finds as a new water supply system is being built to service Jerusalem.

Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World

Marmaray dig reveals Byzantine and Ottoman glasswork

Glasswork from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires has been discovered during the Marmaray excavations in Istanbul. Experts previously believed Ottomans did not develop a unique glasswork style.

Archaeologists have discovered unique glasswork from the Ottoman Empire for the first time in the Marmaray excavations Istanbul’s Sirkeci neighborhood, as well as 2,000 year-old glasswork from the Romans and Byzantines.

Speaking to Anatolia news agency, Doğuş University Industrial Designs Department Chairman Üzlifat Özgümüş said the excavations, which have gone on since 2007, were the world’s largest and the most important excavations.

Click here to read this article from Hurriyet Daily News

Byzantine-era Christian prayer box discovered in Jerusalem

A miniature Christian prayer box decorated with a cross has been uncovered in archaeological excavations in Jerusalem. The box, which dates to the Byzantine period (sixth-seventh centuries CE), is adorned on the inside with the drawings of two figures (icons) surrounded by a background lined with gold leaf, and it seems that the artifact was used as a personal prayer relic.

The box is 2.2 cm long by 1.6 cm wide and is made of a bone taken from a large animal (steer, camel or horse). The box slides open. When doing so it includes two flat parts, each of which bears a colored drawing.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Byzantine-era anchor found in Israel might shed light on ancient sailing

The recent discovery by Israeli lifeguards of three ancient iron anchors might help archaeologists understand more about ancient sailing and lead to the discovery of an unknown anchorage site.

Lifeguards at a Bat Yam city beach, south of Tel Aviv, came across the first 300 kg, two-meter-tall anchor after spotting it submerged in shallow waters, 30 meters offshore.

Though the lifeguards initially thought it to be a modern artifact, they contacted the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) after suspecting that it might, in fact, be an archaeological find.

An IAA marine archaeologist confirmed that the find was about 1,700-1,400 years old, belonging to the Byzantine era.

Click here to read this article from the Xinhua News Agency

Byzantine mansion, Roman Villa discovered in Antioch

The ruins of a Byzantine mansion belonging to a pontiff and a Roman villa have been unearthed in a recent excavation being carried out in the ancient Pisidian city of Antioch in Yalvaç, Isparta.

Archaeologists underline that the wall paintings discovered in both structures were of high quality, only comparable to the quality of the paintings found in Rome and Pompeii. The excavation is being conducted by Süleyman Demirel University's Department of Archeology in Pisidian Antioch, an ancient city in Yalvaç, and is almost complete. Assistant Professor Mehmet Özhanlı from the university's Department of Archeology, who is supervising the dig, said in a statement to the Anatolian news agency that they had discovered the mansion of a Byzantine pontiff and a villa from the Roman period in a hill known as Vicus Aedilicus.

Click here to read this article from Today's Zaman