Archaeological news about the Archaeology of Later Medieval Europe from the Archaeology in Europe web site

Monday, 19 March 2018

Alchemy, flushing toilets and blood-letting: The secrets of medieval Oxford revealed

Exclusive: Investigators have found writing equipment, cutlery and even ceramic beer mugs used by students and teachers going back 800 years


Oxford’s medieval secrets: a panorama of the development site and excavations 
Photos Oxford Archaeology

Archaeologists have been unearthing the realities of daily life at Oxford University – as they were experienced some seven centuries ago.

In one of Britain’s largest-ever urban excavations, investigators have found the writing equipment, refectory cutlery and even ceramic beer mugs used by students and teachers back in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

They’ve even been able to rediscover what Oxford’s medieval scholars were eating – a very wide range of food including beef, lamb, goose, salmon, trout and eggs.

For the first time for many centuries, archaeologists were able to see substantial parts of one of the university’s greatest medieval teaching institutions – a friary established by Franciscan friars in 1224.

It was of pivotal importance in the history of Oxford University.

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Major dig to begin at Carrickfergus Castle


A major archaeological excavation at the front of Carrickfergus Castle, County Antrim, will begin later.
The dig will inform the next phase of conservation and presentation at the historic site.
Carrickfergus Castle is one of Northern Ireland's best-known historic monuments.
It has been in state care since 1928, and is now managed by the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities (DfC).
It dates back to the 1170s and is one of the most complete examples of Norman architecture in Northern Ireland, and one of the most complete castles of its type on the British Isles.
The excavation will investigate the ground at the entrance to the castle, where earlier investigations revealed buried structures and artefacts.

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Thursday, 1 March 2018

Remains of Welshpool's medieval castle excavated


Archaeologists have resumed a dig at Welshpool's medieval castle.

Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) held an open day at Victoria Bowling Club on Saturday from 10:00 GMT to 16:00 to present their findings to the public.

Previous excavations found that parts of the building were well preserved.

"This year we are exploring the ditch around the castle mound," said CPAT community archaeologist Alex Sperr.

Volunteers have been helping the trust to excavate the site.

"Although the castle is on a prominent site not many people know about it, and it is great that we can help raise the profile of this important piece of Welsh heritage," said Mr Sperr.

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Tuesday, 6 February 2018

Mittelalterliche Mauern in Attendorn


Archäologen finden Hinweise auf Torenkasten


Im Luftbild lassen sich die beiden mächtigen Fundamente des vermuteten Torenkasten und die dazwischen liegende Abwasserrinne gut erkennen. (Foto: ABS/Köln)

In Attendorn (Kreis Olpe) haben Archäologen unter Leitung des Landschaftsverbandes Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) die Grundmauern von vier Gebäuden aus dem 15. oder 16. Jahrhundert freigelegt. Zwei Steinhäuser verfügen über ungewöhnlich starke Mauern. Die Wissenschaftler vermuten hier einen sogenannten Torenkasten, in dem Verurteilte der Öffentlichkeit vorgeführt wurden.

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Tuesday, 17 October 2017

Using parchment to reveal the ancient lives of livestock

A page from the York Gospels. Eraser rubbings left over from cleaning the pages of this manuscript revealed the ancient genomes of the animals used to produce the parchment. 
(Image: York Minster)

Innovative ways of utilising ancient protein and DNA analysis have revealed new information about medieval parchment and the animals from which they are made.

A group of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and the University of York have taken eraser rubbings – left over from the cleaning of medieval manuscripts – and extracted DNA and proteins from the waste. This method means that parts of the manuscript no longer need to be removed for destructive testing.

The group recently used this technique to analyse the pages of the York Gospels, an Anglo-Saxon book (c.1000 AD) containing the four Gospels of the New Testament, a letter from King Cnut, and land ownership documents. The experiment yielded some interesting results.

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Monday, 9 October 2017

Belgium's Grognon citadel and Medieval port resurfacing

The Grognon citadel, in Namur (in Wallonia, Belgium), continues to reveal its secrets, as rescue excavations began several months ago, with a view to building an underground car park at the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers. Recently, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of the ramparts, a watchtower and the Grognon Gate, which were used to enter the area by ship. 


The excavations of the Grognon citadel allow us to visualize the boundaries of the district 
as it existed until the 19th century [Credit: © SPW]

"We knew that the gate was there, and also the round tower," explains Dominique Bosquet, archaeologist at the Walloon Public Service,"but the exact state of preservation, the smaller buildings adjoining it, the complexity of a building built against the rampart, then demolished and reconstructed on larger scale - all these things can only be discovered and really clarified through archaeological investigation. So we knew we were going to find this kind of thing, but not to such a degree of preservation and complexity."

"In reality," adds Raphaël Vanmechelen, also an archaeologist at the SPW,"there are four types of fortification walls and four gates, all of which are interesting because they all reflect different architectural techniques, public space design and military techniques. But it is true that the second, which can be dated precisely to the end of the 12th century, is particularly spectacular. This makes it possible to fully understand the morphology of the old quarter".

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'Lost chapel' of Westminster Palace revealed in new 3-D model

St Stephen's was built by King Edward I to be a show-case of English royal splendor.
Credit: University of York

The first dedicated House of Commons chamber, destroyed in the 1834 Palace of Westminster fire, has been reconstructed with the help of 3D visualisation technology.

The House of Commons took shape in the medieval chapel of St Stephen, formerly a place of worship for the royal family. With few traces of the original building still remaining, echoes of the life of the chapel can only be found in centuries-old documents in parliamentary and national archives.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, art historians at the University of York have now brought St Stephen's Chapel and the Commons chamber back to life by pioneering a technique combining traditional archival research with digital reconstruction.

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