Middle Ages
In church remains, German archaeologists discover the truth of ‘Atlantis of the North Sea’
By David I. Klein — June 22, 2023
(RNS) — After a century, a legendary North Frisian city that has lived in church sermons, chronicles and art across the region for six centuries has been found.
A newly identified document gives insight into the mind of Maimonides
By David I. Klein — May 19, 2023
(RNS) — The 900-year-old scrap of paper was among the hundreds of thousands of fragments collected from the Cairo Genizah, a trove of Jewish writings held in a Cairo synagogue that collectively chronicles nearly two millennia of Jewish life in Egypt.
Rare medieval Easter cipher is up for grabs this Holy Week
By Kathryn Post — April 5, 2023
(RNS) — When decoded, the 15th-century cipher helped calculate the date for Easter.
Penance and plague: How the Black Death changed one of Christianity’s most important rituals
By Nicole Archambeau — April 11, 2022
(The Conversation) — Churches’ struggles to respond to the plague and constant warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries helped shape the kinds of Christianity in the world today.
Celebrating a medieval ‘Miracle of Amsterdam’ in city better known for its vices
By Menachem Wecker — April 6, 2018
AMSTERDAM (RNS) — Walking quietly past strip clubs, sex shops, restaurants and expensive clothing stores, the writer was struck by the 673-year-old celebration’s endurance and power against all odds.
No dice required: A medieval prayer wheel surfaces, but how it was used is anyone’s guess
By David Van Biema — April 30, 2015
NEW YORK (RNS) If much of life in the High Middle Ages seems foreign to us, the wheel -- along with four others like it that have survived to the present -- is a real riddle.
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