A thousand years, or roughly from the year 500 to the year 1500, were devoted to the European Middle Ages. This period saw a great deal of history, yet textbooks frequently fall short of connecting the present with the past in the same way that artifacts do.
Items like cheating in games, carrying firearms, and cheese addiction serve as evidence that some things never change. The more bizarre aspects of medieval life, such as the three-person toilet and the nun who left her convent by pretending to die, were also recorded through medieval artifacts.
10 Medieval Peasant Diet
The meals of the English elite are well documented when it comes to medieval munchies. However, the peasantry’s menu was so inadequately documented that scholars were unsure of what individuals consumed. There was no concrete proof, but pottages and stews were undoubtedly their staple foods.
To check for food residues in 2019, 73 frying pots underwent chemical analysis. The 500-year-old vessels originated from West Cotton, a medieval settlement. Many of the jars contained fat, indicating the importance of ceramics in medieval cooking as well as the fact that stews and pottages were a mainstay for peasants.
Meat, such mutton and beef, was one of the ingredients. Additionally, there were signs of green vegetables like leek and cabbage. The meat-and-cabbage stew was a crucial discovery. Elite kitchens hadn’t seen anything like.
The paucity of fish was the biggest surprise, but the vessels did show how much the residents loved dairy. Milk-derived items occupied over a fifth of all the pots. Scientists were able to create a “cookbook” that detailed meals, butchering and preparation methods, and the disposal of trash after combining this new knowledge with animal remains from West Cotton.
9 The Aberdeenshire Game Board
The Book of Deer is said to be the earliest Scottish manuscript. The illuminated book, which was written by monks in the tenth century, includes the first Scottish Gaelic writing. Since 2008, archaeologists have been trying to locate the writers’ monastery. The Monastery of Deer, as its name suggested, was situated somewhere in Aberdeenshire.
2018 saw the discovery of a game board by a team working on freshly discovered ruins. The relic was a rare find in and of itself. It was made of stone and had a disk-like form, and its themes suggested that it was used to play a variety of games that were common in medieval Scandinavia and Ireland.
The layers underneath the relic were what really interested archaeologists. The same as charcoal bits discovered there, they belonged to the seventh and ninth centuries. This demonstrated that at least some of the remains were in use during that time, with people playing a game there.
8 The Missing Nun
Recent historians have combed through the Registers of the York Archbishops. The books contained transactions made by archbishops between 1304 and 1405. Researchers came upon a letter while working on a new project that intended to make an online version of the registers.
It was written by Archbishop William Melton in 1318 and contained a “scandalous story” that the author had heard. Evidently, a nun by the name of Joan had left her monastery. She not only fled, but she also made an attempt to kill herself. She reportedly produced a body double to stand in for her at a funeral.
Joan could have packed a shroud and molded it like a corpse since back then, individuals were interred in shrouds. “Carnal passion,” which may have meant anything from a desire to live in the outside world to a wish to be married, was cited as the cause for her departure.
The Dean of Beverley, who resided in Yorkshire around 64 miles (40 kilometers) from York, was the recipient of the letter. The missing nun was to be located and brought back to her York convent, according to the dean. There is currently no information on whether Joan was able to avoid the dean.
7 The Sewer Sword
Engineers and construction workers labored within a sewer at the start of 2019. The plan was to put pipes in the Danish city of Aalborg. Instead, the workmen discovered a two-edged sword. The 1.1-meter (3.6-foot) long weapon was examined by archaeologists when they received the relic.
The outcome was positive. It was discovered in an unusual location and most likely belonged to a top-tier soldier. Only the elite in the 1300s, when it originated, could afford to commission these pricey weapons.
It was found in an unexpected location that had nothing to do with a sewer. On some of Aalborg’s oldest pavement, it was discovered. The blade, which was still razor sharp, bore the scars of at least three conflicts. This implied that it may have been faked for many years before being found on the ground.
There is no consensus on its actual age; all that is known is that an exceptional warrior possessed it in the 1300s. The sword was likely dropped while its owner besieged or defended the city of Aalborg, which had its fair share of storming hordes.
6 The Bergen Dice
Archaeologists investigated Bergen in Norway in 2018. In the Vagsbunnen neighborhood, they discovered a wooden cube close to a medieval roadway while doing excavations. The block was immediately recognized as a dice due to the fact that it had dots on either side (aka die).
No one was initially shocked by Bergen’s discovery of the medieval dice, which number over 30. The abnormality of the dice was soon obvious. The sides for 1 and 2 were missing from the 600-year-old item. There were sides with 3 to 6 dots, but the additional 4 and 5 were located where the missing numbers should have been.
There used to be a lot of taverns and inns in the neighborhood, and their patrons undoubtedly liked to gamble. This dice would have provided its possessor with an unfair advantage in a game of chance. Alternately, it may have been launched during a game in which 1 and 2 were never utilized. Archaeologists are pretty positive, nevertheless, that someone made the cube specifically to enable them to cheat.
5 A Lewis Warder
Four sets of medieval chess pieces were discovered in 1831 on the Scottish island of Lewis. The “Lewis hoard” was a collection of carvings made from walrus tusks. Researchers were delighted by the peeks into medieval life provided by the little creatures’ attire and actions, but there was one more thing that would have made them happiest.
There are gaps in the chess sets. Never had five pieces been located. An antique shop bought a little statue in 1964. In his documents, the owner referred to the purchase as a “antique walrus tusk warrior chessman.” He should have been aware. The object, however, was just taken to the auction house Sotheby’s for evaluation after being passed down in the Edinburgh family for 55 years.
One of the missing Lewis items was confirmed recognized as belonging to it. It was a warder, or rook or castle in contemporary chess. The figure was darker than the other Lewis sculptures for some reason, held a sword, and exhibited a frown. Amazingly, the antique merchant paid $5 for it, despite the fact that it is actually worth $1,3 million.
4 Three-Person Toilet
Although a toilet might not seem unusual, there is one from the 12th century that does. A huge oak plank was chopped into three places with an axe around 900 years ago. Then, this three-person toilet seat was put over a cesspool close to the Thames. It formerly stood behind—and most likely served—a structure that was situated at what is now known as Ludgate Hill.
Some of the names of the residents and employees of the structure, which housed both residences and businesses, were discovered by researchers. One of the names was Cassandra de Flete and her capmaker husband John.
When the restroom was in use, the structure itself was referred to as Helle. The seat, which was found in the 1980s, was chosen by daring scientists. The axe-hewn holes were cozy, but there was a problem with personal space. Three persons might have sat shoulder to shoulder in the holes because they were so close together.
3 Lost Govan Stones
In the Kingdom of Strathclyde, gravestones were carved between the tenth and eleventh century. In the absence of Scotland, the latter was one of numerous powers that competed for dominance over the British Isles.
The stones were enormous and exquisitely adorned. The Govan Stones, 46 artifacts that were discovered in Glasgow in the 19th century, gained notoriety. 31 were eventually moved to the Govan Old Parish Church. Included in this was a stone-carved tomb that allegedly contained the remains of a saint-king by the name of Constantine.
The remainder remained on display against a graveyard wall for years, but they disappeared when a neighboring shipyard was destroyed. For more than 40 years, historians worried that the priceless stones had been lost or stolen.
Experts and volunteers joined together in 2019 for an archaeological excavation to look for the missing burial markers. A 14-year-old student found gold. He discovered a Govan Stone while excavating close to the Govan Parish Church. Two more were eventually discovered as a result of a more thorough search. The finding raises some optimism for the eventual appearance of the remaining lost statues.
2 Traveling Book Coffer
Today, book lovers may carry a library with them everywhere they go. Travelers frequently utilized a book coffer since readers in the Middle Ages did not have the convenience of.pdf files. There are now just 100 of these rare relics left.
One was purchased by Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries in 2019 from a private buyer. The case originated in France and was made of leather and wood in the fourteenth century. Additionally, it had carrying straps and metal clasps.
In two ways, the box was extraordinarily valuable. This is one of the earliest book coffers ever discovered; the majority of surviving examples originate from the 1500s. A woodcut that was fastened to the interior of the lid was the most intriguing discovery. It was a composition titled “God the Father in Majesty,” a draft taken from a Parisian liturgy book.
The print may have served to shield the contents of the coffer spiritually, according to the Bodleian. The woodcut was quite uncommon all around. Only four of its kind are known to survive, and it was discovered in its original environment and dates to Europe’s early printing attempts.
1 Royal Marriage Bed
A bed was purchased online by an antiques dealer almost ten years ago. The description of a “profusely carved Victorian four-poster bed with armorial shields” in the catalog caught Ian Coulson’s attention from England. Coulson got it home and found that the description was wrong. He had luckily avoided being conned.
Instead, the trader had discovered what could have been the most significant piece of furniture in England. Furthermore, the English royal coat of arms was the most significant royal artifact—the “armorial shields.”
Coulson and other experts concur that the bed is not at all Victorian. With hand tools being used to work the wood, it belonged in a medieval workshop rather than the automated factory of the industrialized Victorians. Traces of ultramarine, a pricey medieval pigment more valuable than gold, were also present in the bed. This demonstrated that the bed belonged to a wealthy couple at some point in the 15th century.
The roses of the houses of York and Lancashire were carved on the bed, indicating that the couple was probably King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Before the wedding, their bed was ordered, and it was burned along with all other royal furnishings during the English Civil War.