The Bavarians from the Ground Up

Since written history doesn't spread very much light on the people who lived in sixth century Bavaria, let's literally look to the ground and examine what their cemeteries tell us about them.  Aschheim is the only place where plague aDNA has been found, but as far as I know, it is the only Late Antique...

Scotland’s Brave Princess

Merida is not a typical Disney princess. All this Scottish lass wants is to determine her own fate, to find love on her own time to who she wishes. None of the three goofball sons of the three other clans in Scotland appeal to her. There is no Prince Charming in this lot of awkward...

All Cadwaladr’s Mothers

[From the archives with a new title: a little bit of folklore for the first Friday in June.] Cadwaladr the blessed is one of my favorite Old British folklore figures so I can't leave 2007 behind without one long post on him. A paraphrase translation follows of some matrilinear notes on Cadwaladr in the Bonedd...

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...