New ancient DNA analysis has shed light on how the black rat, blamed for spreading Black Death, dispersed across Europe -- revealing that the rodent colonized the continent on two occasions in the ...

New ancient DNA analysis has shed light on how the black rat, blamed for spreading Black Death, dispersed across Europe – revealing that the rodent colonised the continent on two occasions in the ...

Christians in medieval Europe appear to have inadvertently influenced the evolution of modern chickens to boost traits relating to their egg-laying abilities and how friendly they are. In a new study ...

The modern history of Western Europe is defined by opposition. Europe is presented as a beacon of civilisation facing down the barbarous masses that populated the rest of the world, and one of the ...

Quatrilobed Plaque, ca. 1300-1310, probably by Guillaume Julien (French), Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Mary Spedding Milliken Memorial Collection, gift of William Mathewson Milliken, ...

What is known: Vikings sailed to Greenland. They homesteaded there for a few hundred years, and likely experienced multiple famines. Many died. Some returned to European shores. And all of this ...

General introduction to major themes in the cultural, intellectual, and institutional history of China and Japan, with some attention to Korea and Southeast Asia. Two lectures, one preceptorial. This ...

Unpredictable weather in late medieval Europe disrupted agricultural stability, forcing cities to rely on maritime grain routes for food security. These vital trade networks, expanded to combat famine ...

Researchers have unraveled the mysterious origins of silver that was used to make coins during the early medieval period in Europe. For a study published in the journal Antiquity, a team of experts ...

The transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age was apparently accompanied by severe droughts between 1302 and 1307 in Europe. Researchers write that the 1302-07 weather patterns ...