Early medieval England in long-term perspective: the English Landscapes and Identities project

We live in the digital era, and archaeologists are increasingly engaging with 'big' data. A recent project at Oxford sought new answers about the landscapes of early medieval England from the longue durée.

Letty ten Harkel • October 14, 2022

"Horribiles vultus": race and racism in Byzantine Africa

A passage in a sixth-century epic narrative ‘On the Libyan War’ reveals the role of race and racism in defining communities in Byzantine North Africa.

Jip Barreveld • September 30, 2022

Farrowed futures: Prognostic pigs and pig prognostics in the Middle Ages

Could medieval pigs foretell the future? The answer may surprise you.

Thijs Porck • September 16, 2022

'Op Romereis' met Alfred de Grote in de vroege Middeleeuwen

Koningszoon Alfred reisde op jonge leeftijd naar Rome; een reis met grote politieke gevolgen!

Song Tan • September 02, 2022

Automated Reading of Medieval Manuscripts: An Alternative for Palaeography Classes?

New technologies may well blow the ‘dust’ off traditional scholarly skills such as palaeography, which risk being scratched from curriculums. In the ‘Digital Editing’ class in Leiden University’s Dutch department, students helped train a computer to automatically read medieval manuscripts.

Bram Caers • July 20, 2022

The maze of meaning: Interpreting Job through imagery in Leiden, UB, BPL 100 A

Leiden, UB, BPL 100 A, a glossed (annotated) copy of the biblical Book of Job dating from the twelfth century contains a number of sketches. What can these tell us about the interpretation of Job’s suffering in the Middle Ages?

Irene O'Daly • July 07, 2022

Arabian Monotheism before Islam: Some Reflections on the Pagans of the Qurʾan

The religious and philosophical landscape in Arabia before the advent of Islam remains, for the most part, uncharted territory. This post sheds light on how the new Islamic dispensation of the seventh century AD came to see the Arabian pagans and their worldview.

Ahab Bdaiwi • June 23, 2022

Deciphering the Feudal Landscapes of Crusader Peloponnese

They have been described as castles, castle towns or simply fortified medieval villages. The hilltop settlements of the late-medieval Peloponnese dominate the landscape as relics of its feudal past. Yet, their identity, origin, purpose and chronology remain ambiguous.

Dionysis Kalantzis-Papadopoulos • May 27, 2022

Wine trade from the Holy Land

Palestinian wines were praised and consumed across western Europe. Transport containers found in Jerusalem, likely used to carry these wines, are stored in the depot at the Faculty of Archaeology. What can these amphorae tell us about connectivity across the Mediterranean in the early Middle Ages?

Vera van Heel • May 13, 2022