Glasses on Guthlac’s Monks?

I was looking at the Guthlac roll in the British Library online and I noticed something rather odd. Have you noticed it? The two outer figures are wearing glasses! According to the British Library page for the roll, its dates to c. 1175-1225 and is believed to be prototypes for stained glass windows. This seems...

Heavenfield Round-up 5: Signs of Power and Piety

The find of the week was the grave of a medieval abbot of Furness Abbey in Cumbria. Past Horizons has the best write up of the discovery at the abbey, which is just southwest of the Lake District. They have also had good features on reinterpreting the mass grave of Vikings found in Oxford, and...

Heavenfield Round-up 4: A Golden Hoard of Links

The news of the last week or so has certainly been the announcement of the discovery of the 7th century Anglo-Saxon "Trumpington Princess" and the blogs have been all over it. Here is a mini round-up of the coverage: I think I may have been the first blog on the story (based on the earliest...

7th century English ‘Princess’ Grave Revealed

Multiple news sites (Independent, NewsObserver, ) are reporting that the remains of a seventh century 'princess' has been found in a field near Cambridge. The approximately 16 year old woman was found laying on a bed with iron fittings; the fittings are all that remain of the bed. She was buried fully dressed with an...

St Æthelthryth and the Virgin Mary Through the Ages

I'm experimenting with methods of putting up presentations. This one is put up through slideshare. Its conversion function doesn't seem to have liked all of my text as you can see from the title page. This is the presentation I gave at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo in May 2010. If you...

Baldhildis Ring

Over at Got Medieval Carl provides a link the to the famous Baldhild ring on the feast of St Balthild this month. This is the first time I've had a good look at the famous 'erotic' ring found in Norfolk, East Anglia. If you click on the picture it will take you to the museum...