Medieval monastery in Hungary was a glass-making hub, researchers find

Central European University Professor of Medieval Studies Jozsef Laszlovszky and his students have been hanging out in the 12th century. They haven't gone back in time, just up the Danube to the site of a medieval monastic estate in Pomaz that housed a glass-production center. Part of the site was poorly excavated in the 1930s and skeptics weren't sure that it was once a bustling manufacturing hub but Laszlovszky, who is also an archeologist, and his team have been studying the very real evidence. From bricks that bear the scars of very high kiln temperatures to broken pieces of glass, it's now clear that the site, which includes a church and a cemetery, was a specialized center.


“We got into archeological layers full of typical materials – for example, fragments of melting pots with melted glass and even complete glass object which were most likely the finished products,” said Laszlovsky. “Interestingly, they probably used recycled glass for the products. We think that's a 21st century thing, but it's not.”

For decades the excavation site – about 20 kilometers from Budapest – was owned by a state company and was off limits to the general public. Laszlovszky was brought in by the local council to do an archeological survey to asses the site. Now owned by a private investor with a keen interest in preservation, the site will eventually be open to the public.

Click here to read this article from Central European University

Early printed book contains rare evidence of medieval spectacles

Many scholars rank the invention of eyeglasses among the most important contributions to humankind in the last 2,000 years. Yet, the inventor of this now thoroughly quotidian piece of technology remains anonymous. Indeed the inventor (or inventors) will almost certainly never be known, given the numerous conflicting claims, lack of specificity, and scarcity of surviving documentation.

 What scholars do know about the history of eyeglasses is that they were probably invented at the end of the thirteenth century by a craftsman living near Pisa. The evidence originates from a passage by Friar Giordano da Pisa who recounts having met the anonymous craftsman in 1286. A friend of Giordano named Friar Allesandro della Spina learned how to make them shortly thereafter and shared the secret with the public. A number of other possible inventors of eyeglasses have been posited over the centuries, all of which have finally been proven spurious in recent scholarship.

During the early period of the production of eyeglasses, they were referred to as vitreos ab oculis ad legendum (eyeglasses for eyes for reading) and oglarios de vitro (spectacles with glass lenses). Eventually these rather clunky terms were shortened to occhiali and ocularia. Either way, the evidence indicates that spectacles were probably invented in Italy at the end of the thirteenth century, and by the early fourteenth century, they were being produced and sold in Venice.

Click here to read this article from Cultural Compass, University of Texas

Glass discovered at Glastonbury Abbey dates back to 7th century, researchers find

New research led by the University of Reading has revealed that finds at Glastonbury Abbey provide the earliest archaeological evidence of glass-making in Britain.

Professor Roberta Gilchrist, from the Department of Archaeology, has re-examined the records of excavations that took place at Glastonbury in the 1950s and 1960s.

Glass furnaces recorded in 1955-7 were previously thought to date from before the Norman Conquest. However, radiocarbon dating has now revealed that they date approximately to the 680s, and are likely to be associated with a major rebuilding of the abbey undertaken by King Ine of Wessex. Glass-making at York and Wearmouth is recorded in historical documents in the 670s but Glastonbury provides the earliest and most substantial archaeological evidence for glass-making in Saxon Britain.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

How to build a better trebuchet

The assignment was to build a trebuchet, a kind of medieval catapult, and bomb the cardboard castle with marshmallows.

But before the teams of students were allowed to start tinkering with their materials – bits of jinx wood, string and glue – they had to brainstorm 50 ideas in 20 minutes about how to do it.


This problem-solving technique, which was developed at one of Canada’s most competitive business schools, is being introduced for the first time to students in kindergarten through Grade 8 at Ledbury Park Elementary and Middle School in North York. Five Toronto private schools, including Branksome Hall and Upper Canada College, began integrating the Rotman School of Management’s I-Think program into secondary and middle-school classes in recent years, but the Toronto District School Board is the first to integrate it at the elementary level.

It made for better trebuchets in Brent Charpentier’s Grade 8 classroom. One had perfect accuracy, and another launched a marshmallow 7.65 metres.

Click here to read this article from The Globe and Mail


Click here to read more about making trebuchets in the classroom

Early printed book contains rare evidence of medieval spectacles

Many scholars rank the invention of eyeglasses among the most important contributions to humankind in the last 2,000 years. Yet, the inventor of this now thoroughly quotidian piece of technology remains anonymous. Indeed the inventor (or inventors) will almost certainly never be known, given the numerous conflicting claims, lack of specificity, and scarcity of surviving documentation.

What scholars do know about the history of eyeglasses is that they were probably invented at the end of the thirteenth century by a craftsman living near Pisa. The evidence originates from a passage by Friar Giordano da Pisa who recounts having met the anonymous craftsman in 1286. A friend of Giordano named Friar Allesandro della Spina learned how to make them shortly thereafter and shared the secret with the public. A number of other possible inventors of eyeglasses have been posited over the centuries, all of which have finally been proven spurious in recent scholarship.

During the early period of the production of eyeglasses, they were referred to as vitreos ab oculis ad legendum (eyeglasses for eyes for reading) and oglarios de vitro (spectacles with glass lenses). Eventually these rather clunky terms were shortened to occhiali and ocularia. Either way, the evidence indicates that spectacles were probably invented in Italy at the end of the thirteenth century, and by the early fourteenth century, they were being produced and sold in Venice.

Click here to read this article from the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin

Figures on Prague’s famous astronomical clock removed for 2-month repairs

Four wooden figures on the Czech capital’s famous medieval astronomical clock have been removed for repairs.

Clock keeper Petr Skala said Friday that the figures need a regular fix of paint to prevent humidity damage.

Skala said the clock — installed on Prague’s old-town hall in 1410 — won’t be shut down during the restoration. Legend has it that when the clock stops the capital faces catastrophe.

Click here to read this article from the Washington Post

Historian Wins Grant for Study of Medieval Automata

Elly Truitt, Assistant Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College, has received a Scholar’s Award from the National Science Foundation to fund a year’s time doing research for and writing her new book, tentatively titled Magical Mechanisms: Automata in the Medieval West.

“Automata—artificial objects that are, or appear to be, self-moving—were culturally significant in medieval Europe,” says Truitt in describing her research subject. “They appear as diplomatic gifts from distant rulers to European courts; in stories and legends and chronicles of distant lands and times; as manifestations of esoteric and sometimes forbidden knowledge; in courtly settings of great luxury; attached to monumental clockworks; as examples of technological innovation, and in the service of the Church.”

Click here to read this article on Medievalists.net

Medieval canals discovered in Lincolnshire

MEDIEVAL CANALS DISCOVERED
By Emily Beament
29 August 2008
Press Association National Newswire

Miles of medieval canals which were used by monks in punts have been discovered in the Lincolnshire fens, researchers revealed today. Around 56 miles of waterways, which are now silted up and hidden in the fen landscape, were found using aerial photographs, the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference was told.

It is thought the canals, which would have been 20 to 40ft wide, were built by the monasteries in the area after 9th century raids by Vikings who destroyed many monastic sites. Civil engineer and archaeologist Martin Redding said the schemes were unlikely to have been created for drainage alone because of the huge costs involved.

Instead they would have been used first to ferry locally-quarried stone to rebuild the monastic sites, which belonged to orders including the Benedictines and Cistercians. They would then have been used to carry the rich resources of the fens to market in "fen lighters", shallow, flat-bottomed boats.

The cargo could have included cranberries, as research on a now extinct acidic peat bog in the Lincolnshire Fens has confirmed it would have been ideal for growing the fruit. Mr Redding, a member of the Witham Valley Archaeology Research Committee, said it is likely each monastery had its own network of canals connecting parts of its estate including its farms.

Many of the canals also had access to the Wash and the North Sea through natural river courses which have since silted up and disappeared. Mr Redding said the canals showed "breathtaking engineering projects" were being undertaken in the fens 800 to 1,000 years ago.