Crusader Feces, Bat Feces, Latin swear words, and building a village - medieval news roundup

Here are some news stories from the medievalverse, and a few from beyond it...

Crusader Feces

An article in the International Journal of Paleopathology shows that many Crusaders would have been suffering from worms or other diseases. Test done by two researchers from the University of Cambridge at Saranda Kolones castle in Cyrpus showed that two species of parasite, the roundworm and the whipworm, were prevalent among the crusaders. The castle was built after the Third Crusade and abandoned in 1222.

Evilena Anastasiou and Piers D. Mitchell write that "the discovery of these parasites highlights how medieval crusaders may have been at risk of malnutrition at times of siege and famine, as these worms competed with them for nutrients."

You can read more about this story from Reuters.

The article 'Human intestinal parasites from a latrine in the 12th century Frankish castle of Saranda Kolones in Cyprus' is available here.

One stone at a time

While we have reported on groups in France and Arkansas that are building medieval castles, we now have a team of 25 workers in Germany who have just started constructing a replica of a ninth century monastic settlement and town. Bert Geuten is leading the effort to build the medieval site near the southern German town of Meßkirch in Baden-Württemberg. Because they are using authentic historical tools and techniques, it will take over 40 years before the project is complete, which will include a 2,000 seat cathedral.

They began last weekend by starting construction on a small church. “In the ninth century the monks would have built a small church first – they didn't want to wait until the cathedral was ready to be able to pray. So we're doing the same,” Geuten explained.

Click here to read the full article from The Local.

Bat Feces

Churches in England are again facing danger, but not from thieves stealing their metal or declining attendance. Instead, bats are the new threat, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. An environmental directive from the European Union prohibits building owners from killing bats or destroying their roosts, and this is apparently leading to church interiors being contaminated with bat droppings.

Tony Baldry, a Member of Parliament who officially speaks for the Church of England, said, "the church of St Peter ad Vincula at South Newington in my own constituency has some very fine, almost unique, medieval wall paintings which seem to have been spared Thomas Cromwell's men. But having survived the ravages of the Reformation they are now threatened by bat urine. And these are irreplaceable parts of our natural heritage."

Click here to read the article from Daily Telegraph

How to Swear like a Roman

One of my daily reads The Atlantic magazine occasionally has articles related to history. Last month, they looked at ancient cursing with Futuo! How the Romans Swore. It focuses on the new book, Holy Sh*t! A Brief History of Swearing by Melissa Mohr, and explains the meaning behind Latin words such as futuo, landica, cinaedus, mingo, cacare and verecundum. You can read that article here.

What it takes to run the IMC

The International Medieval Congress is taking place at the University of Leeds from June 30th to July 4th. Over 2000 people will be attending (I wish I was there too). Anthony Lowe, event manager for MeetInLeeds is in charge of making sure everything goes smoothly “This has been three years in the planning as it is the largest conference we have hosted on the campus,” he explains to ConferenceNews. “It’s been great working with all the different departments to create a medieval campus, with special exhibitions in the university art gallery, library and academic meeting rooms, as well as themed menus and medieval street food."

He adds, “It’s going to be incredibly busy but we’re extremely well-prepared for it and will be working hard to ensure that everyone has a fabulous experience and remembers their medieval experience for many years to come. Leeds is a very attractive campus and we are looking forward to showing it at its very best.”

Click here to read the full article from ConferenceNews

Social Networking in the 1600s

Tom Standage is the author of the forthcoming book, Writing on the Wall: Social Media — The First 2,000 Years. In this article from the New York Times, he writes about how the coffeehouse was the social-networking site of the 17th century. He explains:

People went to coffeehouses not just to drink coffee, but to read and discuss the latest pamphlets and news-sheets and to catch up on rumor and gossip. Coffeehouses were also used as post offices. Patrons would visit their favorite coffeehouses several times a day to check for new mail, catch up on the news and talk to other coffee drinkers, both friends and strangers. Some coffeehouses specialized in discussion of particular topics, like science, politics, literature or shipping. As customers moved from one to the other, information circulated with them.

You can read the article here.

The Rise of the Novel

Staying in Early Modern England, Penn State News has an interesting profile of Leah Orr, a specialist in 18th-century literature. She just completed her PhD on Did the Novel Rise? Fiction and Print Culture in England, 1690-1730, which "rebuts the longstanding notion that the novel as we now know it became a recognized form and rose to prominence during that time period. That conception of early fiction, she argues, is based on close readings of a few famous texts by major authors, such as Daniel Defoe and Aphra Behn, and neglects the broader literary context in which those texts were written and first read."

Click here to read more from Penn State.

Other news bits:

Medieval herb garden unveiled at Northumberland Park

Medieval Polish Treasures Revealed at Down Museum Exhibition

Rachel Koopmans wins Margaret Wade Labarge Prize for Books in Medieval Studies

Video: Students studying Archaeology at Queen's University take part in an excavation which discovers a Medieval Lime Kiln, which may have been used during the construction of Dundrum Castle.

Treadmill shows medieval armour influenced battles

Medieval suits of armour were so exhausting to wear that they could have affected the outcomes of famous battles, a study suggests.

Scientists monitored volunteers fitted with 15th Century replica armour as they walked and ran on treadmills. They found that the subjects used high levels of energy, bore immense weight on their legs and suffered from restricted breathing.

The research is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The effect of the heavy armour was so great, that the researchers believe it may have have had an impact on the Battle of Agincourt.

Click here to read this article from the BBC

The ‘Big Society’ is a Medieval Society

More than 1,600 experts on the Middle Ages have gathered at the International Medieval Congress, which began today at the University of Leeds. The academic conference is the biggest of its kind in the United Kingdom, and the largest medieval themed conference in Europe. This year’s focus will be the contentious themes of poverty and wealth. The conference will examine the approaches and views taken by medieval societies to these issues and compare them to today’s. Delegates will learn that the spirit of volunteering was strong in medieval times, drawing parallels with British Prime Minister David Cameron’s modern day vision of a ‘Big Society’.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Medieval graffiti reveals how ordinary people practised their faith

Whether you consider graffiti an eye-sore or an art form, scholars at this year’s International Medieval Congress will debate the use of graffiti as an historical source.

Matt Champion of the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey will identify graffiti as a normal practise, he said: “Much of the graffiti, far from being hidden away in dark corners, was not only highly visible but was tolerated and an accepted and acceptable part of the medieval Christian experience within the parish church.”

Matt Champion describes graffiti as “lay piety”, as it represented a method of devotion and spirituality that did not require the intervention of clergy men.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

International Medieval Congress to examine disabilities, deserving and undeserving poor, in the Middle Ages

More than 1,600 experts on the Middle Ages will gather next week at the International Medieval Congress to be held at the University of Leeds. The academic conference is the biggest of its kind in the UK, and the largest medieval themed conference in Europe. On Monday academics will discuss the problems medieval authorities had in distributing welfare to the disabled, and the lessons that we can draw from this in the light of Prime Minister David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’.

The British Government’s Welfare Reform Bill, due for its second reading at the House of Lords later this month, attempts to redraw the boundary between those deserving and undeserving of state support. Disability being scrutinised is nothing new, and similar debates happened in the 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

International Medieval Congress begins next week

More than 1,600 experts from all over the world will come together and take a medieval look at the contentious themes of poverty and wealth, at a forthcoming conference at the University of Leeds.

The 17th annual International Medieval Congress, organised by the University’s Institute for Medieval Studies, is the biggest academic event of its kind in the UK and the largest medieval-themed academic conference in Europe.

This year’s Congress will look at the gulf between the rich and poor, examining the approaches and views taken by medieval societies to these issues and comparing them to today’s. Delegates will learn that the spirit of volunteering was strong in medieval times, drawing parallels with Prime Minister David Cameron’s modern day vision of a ‘Big Society’. The conference will also consider topics including medieval social welfare, graffiti, and the relationship poverty had with the likes of disability and education.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Leeds exhibition to host history of sugar

Modern thinking says sugar is best avoided but a new exhibition hopes to show that sugar can be good, as Neil Hudson found out.

Once upon a time, there was no sugar. There were no hard-boiled sweets, no sugar-coated breakfast cereals, no chocolate drops and certainly no delicate sponge cakes with icing on top and cups of sweet tea to wash them down with.

It’s hard to imagine a world without sugar. It’s something we all take for granted, partly because of its ubiquity. It is on every coffee table, in every cupboard, ever corner shop and visit your local supermarket and it’s odds-on you’ll find a couple of split bags oozing white granules on to the aisle.

Travel back in time just 500 years, however, and sugar was a luxury with ‘superfood’ status.

Click here to read this article from the Yorkshire Evening Post

See also this article from the University of Leeds

Wakefield Museum: Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Yorkshire academics have launched a mouth-watering new exhibition exploring the history of the sweet tooth.

The free-to-all exhibition at Wakefield Museum traces the evolution of sweet foods through history, examining their different nutritional roles and reputations within societies dating back to the medieval era.

Visitors will learn the surprising fact that while today we are taught that sugar is bad for us, it was once considered the medieval equivalent of a 'superfood' - a term nowadays reserved for fruits and vegetables full of anti-oxidants such as blueberries, pomegranate and broccoli. The global journey, from plant to plate, of sugar and cinnamon will also be revealed, starting with the story of medieval trade and finishing up with modern trends in nutritional research. A selection of spectacular sugar sculptures will be on display, along with images from 500 year old manuscripts.

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice runs until October and forms part of the You Are What You Ate project based at the University of Leeds and funded by the Wellcome Trust. It aims to inform a healthy balanced diet by displaying the enjoyable side of eating, focusing on fashions and customs linked to feasting and entertainment.

Click here to read this article from the University of Leeds

Rewriting history: royal conspiracies in late medieval England

Royal intrigues are by no means a modern phenomenon – medieval monarchs were involved in conspiracies and cover-ups, according to best-selling author Ian Mortimer. Ian will be giving an open lecture on medieval conspiracies, in particular the impact of an allegation that Edward II was not murdered in 1327 but was still alive in 1330 and possibly even a decade after that.

A qualified archivist and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Ian has been called a Bill Bryson of the past. His work The Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England appeared at number six in the Sunday Times bestselling paperback list in April 2010. He describes himself as “emphatically not an academic but a writer whose prime historical interests are research methodologies, new literary forms, and relationships between the present and the past.”

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Early medieval manuscripts give new view of English life under the Normans

A new study of early medieval manuscripts written in the English language has revealed that the Normans, who conquered England in 1066, were not the destructive force of popular belief. The project, ‘The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060-1220′ was funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) and provides contextual information and a catalogue of all the surviving books that were written between 1060 and 1220 that contain text written in the English language. This descriptive catalogue is freely available to other scholars in the field.

The new story shows English people living under Norman rule continued to write, read and preach in the English language as they had done under the Anglo-Saxon kings in earlier centuries, in the new social and political climate.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

International Medieval Congress - Interview with Axel E. W. Müller

The largest annual conference in the United Kingdom is set to begin next week. The International Medieval Congress will again take place at the University of Leeds, and features over a thousand papers on a wide variety of topics on the Middle Ages.

The congress begins on July 13th and runs for four days. Already 1551 people have registered to attend the congress, coming from over 40 countries to take part.

We interviewed Axel E. W. Müller, Director of the International Medieval Congress, who heads up a team of six people who directly organize the congress (as well as hundreds of others who are actively involved in developing its programme. We asked Professor Müller a few questions about the congress:

How does the International Medieval Congress differ from other medieval conferences held in the United Kingdom?

The most obvious difference of the IMC to other conferences (on aspects of the Study of the European Middle Ages) in the United Kingdom or in Europe is its size. With an average between 1400 and 1500 participants from around the world, it is only trumped by the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan in the United States. This size gives it a few advantages over other conferences on medieval studies in the UK; this allows the congress to have a broad academic scope which attracts a wide corpus of scholars in a variety of disciplines who would not necessarily meet at smaller conferences, and offers a chance for multi and interdisciplinary interaction that one would rarely get at other conferences on medieval studies.

Each year the congress has a theme - this year it is 'Heresy and Orthodoxy', and in 2010 it will be 'Travel and Exploration'. Why do you choose to have special themes and how do you go about making the choice for one?

The special thematic strands, like 'Heresy and Orthodoxy' and 'Travel and Exploration' exist in order to give a certain focus to the congress. A lot of planning time and man hours go into the programming of each Congress. We have subdivided Medieval Studies in 35 thematic areas in order to a) have a good range of presence of scholarship and research from all fields and disciplines, b) to enable a comprehensive programming...

In addition to those 'core strands', we select each year one special thematic strand (not as an exclusive theme) which aims to identify upcoming areas of research or encouraging burgeoning fields, and sections within Medieval Studies which we feel are worth exploring beyond conventional boundaries. Participants are by no means required to submit papers that fit with the special theme (and usually around 1/3 of papers submitted fit with the special thematic area).

However, we find that it is a good way for participants to focus their thinking, it presents a cohesive strand of scholarship, and attracts new participants to come. The special themes are broad enough to encompass a wide variety of scholarship from a variety of different disciplinary approaches, and we attempt to make it inclusive enough to be something that everyone attending the congress could engage with and find useful.

The lead-in time for these strands is quite substantial and currently we are fine-tuning Special Thematic Strands (through the Congress Standing Committee and Programming Committee) for 2012 and 2013. How do we decide? A long consultation process - we are always open for suggestions and proposals. Once a year the Standing Committee makes a short list which is then passed on to the Programming Committee for further suggestions which get fed back to the Standing Committee which finally decides.

One of the unique features of the International Medieval Congress is that attendees have the opportunity to participate in a number of events and excursions. Could you tell us more about them and highlight some of this year's excursions and events?

Every year at the IMC participants are welcome to partake in a number of excursions, fairs and special events that give the conferenceg oers the chance to go to places, or see and do things that are both relevant to their work as medieval academics, but also are fun and interesting. This year we are hosting the regular book fair (with over 80 stands), but also an antiquarian and second-hand book fair, a medieval craft fair and an historical societies fair. Special events this year include performances of medieval stories, music and dance, as well as workshops on liturgical music, medieval textile production, medieval cosmetics and a medieval summer feast complete with the requisite boar’s head.

Yorkshire is an exceptionally rich medieval landscape, full to the brim with Medieval culture, artifacts and architecture. Our excursions are aimed to show people many of those sites, often with behind the scene views, to get a real insight in sites, places and surroundings, which is why we ensure that all trips are led by experts on the particular landmark they are visiting. Each year, we are spoilt for choice by so many options to chose from - but we try to find something for a range of interests. This year, we'll Byland, Kirkstall and Fountain’s Abbeys, as well as Skipton and Conisborough castles. There will also be a behind-the-scenes tour of the Royal Armouries in Leeds with curators from the museum, the British national collection of arms and armour and the finest collection of medieval martial material culture in England.

In addition, to go a little bit further afield, after the congress there is a special three-day tour which participants can sign up for; this year will be touring "Hadrian’s Wall country in the early middle ages", including stops in Bede’s home town Jarrow, the roman forts of Bewcastle, and Vindolanda, as well as the Anglo-Saxon churches at Corbridge and Bywell. The tour culminates in full day’s exploration of the holy isle of Lindisfarne.

For those coming to Leeds and the Congress for the first time, what advise might you give about what people might want to see and do while on their stay here?

Well, as I mentioned above, Yorkshire and the North of England more generally is an area particularly ripe for medievalists. Within Leeds itself, I would recommend that the must-see attraction for medievalists is the Royal Armouries museum, which houses a spectacular medieval collection. Leeds is also home to Kirkstall Abbey, and a 12th century church in nearby Adel both of which are easily accessible by bus. The newly reopened Leeds city museum also has a medieval collection. The medieval city of York is only about 25 minutes away by train, which has the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe, intact medieval city walls, spectacular Viking archeological finds and the majority of surviving extant medieval stained glass in England. If the conferencegoer has access to a car, the countryside is dotted with abbeys like Fountain’s, Ripon, Bolton or Rievaulx, medieval parish churches (many of which are filled with Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandanavian sculpture), and medieval castles in Knaresborough and Pickering. And, there is, of course, the Congress - which should deserve a visit in its own right.

We thank Professor Müller for answering our questions. For more information about the International Medieval Congress, please visit their website. Check back with the News for Medievalists section to get further updates about the congress.