Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Medieval World: Culture & Conflict picks up where its sister magazines – Ancient Warfare and Ancient History – leave off. The publication features the rich history and material culture of the Middle Ages – broadly conceived geographically and temporally – expanding on the contents of the popular Medieval Warfare magazine. Through well-researched and lavishly illustrated articles, this accessible publication brings to light cultural activities in local and global contexts, historical figures and events, as well as political, religious, economic, and artistic facets of the Middle Ages..

Medieval World Culture & Conflict Magazine

Editorial

Medieval Nubian fashion brought to life

500-year-old artwork found in rubbish dump

Medieval DNA reveals skeleton’s link to Norse saga

Norman conquest coin hoard bought for £4.3 million

Medieval church discovered in Bulgaria

Medieval frescoes discovered in Slovakia

Norway’s Vikings were far more violent than Denmark’s

CHASING CHRONOS • For people living in the world of the twelfth century, time was understood in relation to astronomy and most likely expressed as a correlation to an upcoming religious festival or agrarian task with no need to ‘beat the clock’. Instead, a look up at the sky sufficed to know everything, so how did this evolve into looking down at clocks or watches?

Labours of the Months

Birth of clocks

THE BATTLE OF ANTIOCH-ON - THE MEANDER • As his men died around him, the emperor of Nicaea - Theodore Lascaris (r. 1205-1221) - fought on. His death loomed, and he would meet it sword in hand like a true Roman Basileus. His enemy’s blow almost fulfilled the wish, but with a desperate stroke of his sword, Lascaris cleaved his opponent’s head from his shoulders; a head that was not sought in a war that was not wanted.

NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS • In the spring of 1163, Pope Alexander III visited Paris and reportedly laid the first cornerstone of the cathedral of Notre-Dame in the presence of King Louis VII (r. 1137-1180). Although he placed it on foundations roughly 10 metres deep, this ceremonial act likely heralded the beginning of the iconic cathedral’s construction above ground level. And rise it did.

Archaeology

Early construction

A medieval evolution

Putting a roof on it

The 17th - 19th centuries

CROWNING PARIS • Five years after its rescue by an extraordinary team of firefighters, the Crown of Thorns will enter Notre-Dame de Paris once again for its installation in a new reliquary on 13 December 2024. Today, the cathedral is known around the world as a special place of devotion to the Virgin Mary, but it also holds three relics of Christ’s Passion: The Crown of Thorns, a Holy Nail, and part of the Holy Lance. Each of these sacred items has a long and distinguished history of devotion that connects the cathedral and the civic identity of Paris with a chapter from its medieval past.

Serving at Notre-Dame

Medieval celebrations at Notre-Dame

THE LAST JUDGMENT AT NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS • When viewed from a distance, the portal of the Last Judgment seems to present an unchanged, unified whole. This, however, is the product of the restoration that began in the 1840s under architects Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Emmanuel Viollet le-Duc. Closer scrutiny reveals that the portal has been altered many times.

Visualizing the portal

Modifications and mutilations

The 19th-century restoration

MONSTERS TO WATCH OVER US ALL • One of the most recognizable features of Gothic architecture, and indeed of Notre-Dame Cathedral, are its many gargoyles monstrous figures carved in stone, usually to decorate a spout by which water was carried away from the roof and the sides of the building to prevent erosion and...