Skeleton Of Medieval Giantess Unearthed From Polish Cemetery

Skeleton Of Medieval Giantess Unearthed From Polish Cemetery

Just outside of the Medieval church of the Ostrów Lednicki stronghold in Poland, archaeologists have unearthed the strange burial of a giantess. The woman’s skeleton showed that she reached a towering height of 7’2″ but also that her short life was full of traumatic injuries and disease.

The giantess was found in a cemetery that was once used solely by the elite of the area: dignitaries, the very wealthy, and people connected with Bolesław the Brave, the king of Poland in the early 11th century, and with the local Piast ruling dynasty. By the late 12th century, though, the cemetery saw more and more burials of commoners, with over 2,500 skeletons recovered at the site of Ostrów Lednicki Island.

But in spite of the elite nature of the cemetery, its most famous resident is a woman from a lower social class who died in her late 20s. Writing recently in the book New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care, archaeologists Magdalena Matczak and Tomasz Kozłowski detail the intriguing skeleton and the odd nature of the grave.

Read more here >>> Forbes dot com

Women Rulers of the Maldives

From an article in Mint Press by Dr Milena Rampoldi:

In her book, Bahriye Üçok gives us a general overview of the history of the Maldives. Although, according to the historian Zambaur, Muhammed el-Âdil was the first ruler of the islands to embrace Islam (548-1153-4), Ibn Battuta, the famous Moroccan traveller, relates that a widely known legend gives the honor of being the first Muslim sultan to Ahmed Shenurâze.

In the 19th century, also female rulers governed the Islands. Hatidje binti Djelâlüddîn Ömer (her local name was Rehendîkabadikilâce) did not succeed her father immediately after his death. Her brother Shihabüddîn, though a minor, succeeded to the throne before her, and Abdullah bin Hadramî was appointed as his vizier. When Shihabüddîn grew up he appointed his slave Ali Kelekî in Hadramî’s place; but the new vizier, upon realizing the immoral character of the sultan, had him deposed and beheaded.

More articles by Dr Milena Rampoldi

Blanche Mortimer Found

From Medievalists dot com:

The discovery of a body inside a church memorial has caused amazement in the world of archaeology and surprised experts. Michael Eastham, a conservator of sculpture has been working on the memorial in a Herefordshire Church for nearly two years but was taken aback when a mysterious coffin was discovered jammed inside the tomb-chest.

“We could not work out what it was when we first took the stone panels from the front of the memorial,” said Michael. “We thought it might be a layer of slate but as we explored further we realised it was a lead coffin. It’s the first time in more than thirty years as a Conservator that this has ever happened.”

Originally it was feared the coffin had been hidden during the construction of the tomb in the late 14th century or possibly even added at a later date. It has now been decided that it is almost certainly the coffin and remains of Blanche Mortimer whose memorial it is, wife of Sir Peter Grandison and daughter of Roger Mortimer, the powerful noble who had Edward II murdered and was the de facto ruler of England for three years before being himself overthrown by Edward’s eldest son, Edward III.

Blanche was born around 1316 at Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire, and was the youngest child of Sir Roger Mortimer and Joan de Geneville. She became the wife of Peter de Grandison , but died in 1347. They had one son, Otto.

History of the Hennin

From Smithsonian dot com:

Nothing says “princess” like a pointy, cone-shaped hat. From kids’ costumes to medieval paintings, the cone hat—more formally known as a hennin (or henin)—is a sure sign of royalty. But here’s something you might not know about the hat that adorn the heads of pale-skinned ladies: they were actually modeled after the hats of Mongol warrior queens.

Medieval PoC points to the book Secret History of the Mongol Queens, where author Jack Weatherford writes:

The contraption struck many foreign visitors as odd, but the Mongol Empire had enjoyed such prestige that medieval women of Europe imitated it with the hennin, a large cone-shaped headdress that sat towards the back of the head rather than rising straight up from it as among the Mongols. With no good source of peacock feathers, European noblewomen generally substituted gauzy streamers flowing in the wind at the top.

Celebrating Nadia Mehr

From the Malaysia Sun - First Pakistani girl gets doctorate in medieval history in Indian Kashmir:

Nadia Mehr has scripted history by becoming the first Pakistani female to complete a doctorate in medieval history from the Kashmir University here.

She completed her thesis titled: "The Development of Science, Technology, Arts and Language during the Sultanate period in Kashmir". Hailing from Kasur near Lahore, 31-year-old Mehr was selected under the South Asia Foundation programme.

See also the articles from -

The Greater Khasmir:

A Pakistani girl Nadia Mehr daughter of Mehr Din of Lahore, Pakistan has completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in History from Kashmir University. She is the first Pakistani girl to have completed the doctorate from this Srinagar-based varsity under the South Asia Foundation (SAF) program.

The KU officials said Nadia pursued the research program vide University Registration No: 52-PhD-2010 from the Institute of Kashmir Studies. She did her thesis on “The Development of Science, Technology, Arts and Language during the Sultanate Period in Kashmir”, under the supervision of Prof Gulshan Majeed, Institute of Kashmir Studies.

The Tribune:

After a difficult visa process, bouts of violence and four years of hard work, Nadia Mehr Din has completed her PhD in history from the University of Kashmir, Srinagar. She is the first Pakistani woman to have completed the doctorate from Indian-administered Kashmir under the South Asia Foundation (SAF) programme, report Kashmiri newspapers.

Her dissertation was titled “The Development of Science, Technology, Arts and Language during the Sultanate Period in Kashmir”, under the supervision of Prof Gulshan Majeed, Institute of Kashmir Studies and she received her degree on December 9.

More on the Poison Ring

Bonnie Petrunova

More news about the poison ring from Bulgaria.

From Fox News: Ring found in Bulgaria thought to be a medieval murder weapon

Drilled into side of the ring is a small cavity, archaeologists say was used to hide poison probably used to murder friends of the aristocrats in the Dobrudja area.  Expertly and exquisitely crafted, the ring is thought to have been imported from Italy or Spain according to dig leader Bonnie Petrunova, deputy director of Bulgaria's National Archaeology Museum.

From Huffington Post: Medieval Poison Ring Discovered In Bulgaria

According to Katherine Lester's 2012 book Accessories of Dress: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, poison rings date back to Roman times but were used up through the 16th and 17th centuries. The rings were originally used as a method of suicide for victims anticipating a violent or painful death, according to Lester. But they were later used as a covert murder weapon.  The lethal piece of jewelry unearthed in Bulgaria was most likely used for the latter purpose during a bitter conflict between a medieval ruler named Dobrotitsa and his son Ivanko Terter, Petrunova said.

From the French Tribune: Speculations over Medieval Ring found in Bulgaria

This ring is 600 years old and is made of bronze ring. It was found during excavations at the ruins of Cape Kailakra. This is a place where aristocrats of the Dobrudja region resided during 14th century.  Local officials said, "This explains many of the unexplained deaths among nobles and aristocrats close to Dobrotitsa".

From the Las Vegas Guardian Express: Discovery of Medieval Ring Reveals Deadly Purpose

The bronze ring has a small cavity drilled into the side that, according to archaeologists, was used to hide poison. When the host offered his “enemy” a drink, he would tilt his pinky finger of his right hand so that the poison would end up in the glass.

From the Inquisitr: Medieval Poison Ring Found In Bulgaria, Could Solve Ancient Murders

It is believed the bronze ring was once owned by Dobrotitsa, a noble who ruled the Dobrudja region during the second half of the 14th century, reports NBC News. There were several unexplained deaths among the nobles and aristocrats close to Dobrotitsa, according to local officials. The bronze ring was exquisitely crafted and was deliberately hollowed out, with a small hole that could have allowed its owner to sneak poison into a dinner party.  Bonnie Petrunova, deputy director of the National Archaeology Institute and Museum, believes that the ring played a part in the bitter conflict between Dobrotitsa and his son, Ivanko Terter. She explained that their feud wasn’t known by many, but that Ivanko was one of few who dared stand up to the leader. It is unclear if the poison ring has been swabbed to see if any of the lethal liquid still remains.

More about: Bonnie Petrunova at National Institute of Archaeology with Museum - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Medieval Murder Ring

From Discovery News:

Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed a medieval bronze ring that might have been used for political murders some 700 years ago, local authorities have announced.

Found at the site of a former medieval fortress in Cape Kaliakra, not far from the Black Sea coastal town of Kavarna in northeast Bulgaria, the finely crafted ring was probably worn by a male on the little finger of the right hand.

Intriguingly, it features a round, hollow cartridge decorated with granulation and an artificial hole.

Lambayeque Priestess Found

From the Latin American Herald Tribune:

Researchers at the Chotuna-Chornancap archaeological digs near the Peruvian city of Chiclayo have found the funerary remains of a woman who was a priestess of the Lambayeque or Sican culture, said the project director, Carlos Wester La Torre.

The preliminary conclusion of physical anthropologist Mario Millones is that this was a woman between 25-30 years old who lived during the second half of the 13th century A.D. in the waning days of that culture on Peru’s northern coast, whose most important historical figure was the Lord of Sipan, considered the Tutankhamun of America, in the 3rd century A.D.

The research, promoted by Peru’s Culture Ministry, got started eight months ago with an excavation that two months later came upon the tomb, but it wasn’t until a few days ago that the sex and age of the priestess were determined.

Lady Elizabeth Dacre's Erotic Poem

From Huffington Post:

A crude love poem written almost 450 years ago by a Roman Catholic woman and sent to a Protestant scholar who served Edward VI has been discovered in the back of a book by a British academic.

When Professor Treharne took her class of undergraduates on a tour of medieval literature in the library of West Virginia University, she thought she was introducing another year of eager literature students to the familiar wonders of Chaucer.

Instead, tucked into a 1561 edition of the poet’s work, she was about to discover what she now believes to be the only known Latin love poem written by an Englishwoman until the 18th century.

After translating the poem Treharne discovered that the poem was penned by Lady Elizabeth Dacre, a married Catholic woman, and addressed to Sir Anthony Cooke, a Protestant and tutor to King Edward VI. During this time it was common for lustful Tudor men to pen verses to woo the objects of their affection but extremely unusual for a lady to do the same.

Pucellina of Blois

From the Jerusalem Post:

In the second half of the 12th century, a Jewish woman named Pucellina, presumably of Italian ancestry, had dealings with the nobility in the town of Blois, located in Champagne. Most likely she was a moneylender, not an unusual profession for a medieval European Jew with funds; colleagues of hers were lending money to members of the nobility as well as to the church.

A distressing incident, namely a false blood-libel claim, transpired on May 26, 1171, ending in disaster for Pucellina. A male servant was supposedly watering his horse by the bank of the Loire when he noticed a Jew nearby. According to his account, this Jew was tossing the body of a Christian boy he had murdered into the river. The servant was convinced that the entity thrown into the water was a corpse because his horse was so startled that it refused to drink.

This “witness” immediately reported his sightings to his master, who realized that he had been afforded a perfect opportunity to undermine the local Jewish community. In particular, he could undermine Pucellina, to whom he had a strong aversion; this arrogant Jewish woman had the gall to consider Count Thibaut (of Blois) her patron.

The Sisterhood of Avalon

From the Record:

The sisterhood, a Celtic tradition, is exclusive to women in which followers honour five goddesses who each represent a station in a cycle of healing.

The sisterhood is about “gathering the tools for self-empowerment,’’ said Lazic, a holistic therapist in private practice, who meditates several times a week and journeys to Avalon in her mind twice a month.

Pagan faiths, often described as earth-based religions, adhere to ritual practices and follow different mythologies including Celtic, Norse and ancient Greek traditions.

Some follow the phases the moon, celebrating equinoxes and solstices. They practice in groups, alone or today more commonly on the internet in covens, circles or hearths.

Common forms of paganism include Wicca and witchcraft. Paganism was a label European Christians gave to villagers who followed traditional folk practices outside the mainstream religions.

The Sisterhood of Avalon is a mix of Arthurian legend, folklore, stories passed on from the druids and goddess spirituality. It’s not known if Avalon really existed but its followers believe the spiritual energy of ancient times remains alive today.

Within history, Avalon is a place with pagan and Christian roots. According to Arthurian legend, a mortally wounded King Arthur was healed on Avalon and the island is his final resting place.

Legend also has it that Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus’ uncle, returned to Glastonbury after the death of Jesus to establish the first Christian church in the British Isles. It is said that Joseph brought Jesus with him on trips to the British Isles.

The Lady Chapel in Glastonbury is dedicated to Jesus’ mother Mary and still exists today. The tower of Saint Michael, that stands on Glastonbury Tor, is the remains of the second church built there in the 15th century.

Vikings: Alive & Well in NW England

From 24dash.com:

The Vikings are alive and well and living in the North West of England! That’s the revelation in a new book on an epic research project into the genetic footprint of the Scandinavian invaders.

‘Viking DNA: The Wirral and West Lancashire Project’ is the culmination of several years of research by biochemists and geneticists, by Wirral-raised Professor Steve Harding from The University of Nottingham and Professor Mark Jobling and Dr Turi King from the University of Leicester. It shows the power of modern DNA methods to probe ancestry using the North West of England as an example.

The North West has long been known to have special links with the Vikings going back over a thousand years, through archaeological evidence, ancient manuscripts, local surnames and placenames such as ‘Thingwall’ from the Old Norse ‘ping-vollr’ meaning ‘meeting place’. It’s believed many of the Vikings, of mainly Norwegian origin, ended up in the region after being expelled from Ireland in AD902.

The new book tells the story of how 21st century genetic methods have been used in conjunction with historical and linguistic evidence to investigate the Viking ancestry of Wirral and neighbouring West Lancashire. Rigorous DNA analysis of samples of the local population, focusing on people who had surnames present in the regions prior to 1600, has scientifically proved that the Vikings settled heavily in the area and left a huge genetic legacy which survives and continues today.

Black Death Came From China

From Global Times:

Teams of medical geneticists and biologists have determined that the great waves of plague that have ravaged Europe, dating back to medieval times, originated in China, according to a New York Times report.

The plagues have claimed millions of lives, and the worst wiped out an estimated 30 percent of the European population.

"The results indicate that the plague appeared in China more than 2,600 years ago," said a statement from the French Museum of Natural History that took part in the research.

It then spread toward Western Europe along the Silk Road, starting more than 600 years ago, and then to Africa, probably by an expedition led by Chinese seafarer Zheng He in the 15th century, the statement added.

The plague came to the US from China via Hawaii in the late 19th century, according to the molecular evidence.

The Folly of Charlemagne

The Last Resting Place of Mona Lisa

From the Telegraph:

 

The remains of the Italian woman who was the model for Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa were dug up 30 years ago and now lie in a municipal rubbish tip, an Italian expert has claimed.

Lisa Gherardini died in Florence in 1542 and was buried in the grounds of Sant'Orsola convent.

Over the centuries the Franciscan convent was used as a tobacco factory and a university teaching facility but in the 1980s a redevelopment was launched to convert it into a barracks for Italy's tax police, the Guardia di Finanza.

The developers had no knowledge that it was the final resting place of da Vinci's famous model – that was only discovered in 2007 – and during work to build an underground car park, the convent's foundations were excavated, along with the crumbling remains of graves and tombs.

The rubble was then dumped in a municipal landfill site on the outskirts of Florence.

Marriage Dispensation Granted to Robert Stewart

Reproduced from Andrew Stuart's "Genealogy of the Stewarts" (1798) - sourced from Papal Archives - and published in Origines Genealogicae, the marriage dispensation granted to Robert Stewart (King Robert II of Scotland) when he married Euphemia of Ross in 1352.

Euphrosyne of Polotsk

The daughter of Duke Svyatoslav (Wenceslaus) of Polotsk, Euphrosyne became a recluse at an early age at the Holy Wisdom Cathedral in Kiev. She copied books and gave her earnings to the poor; she founded a monastery at Seltse.

In the early 1170's, she took a pilgrimage to Constantinople and to the Holy Land. Patriarch Michael II gave her an icon of the Theotokos, which is now called the Virgin of Korsun. The Crusader king, Amaury I, received her in the Holy Land.

Euphrosyne died at Jerusalem (1173), and her body was returned to Kiev for burial.

Women Behind the House of Orage-Nassau

From the Australian:

WHEN the house of Orange-Nassau finally became monarchs in The Netherlands in 1815, it was the result of hundreds of years of manoeuvring: battles physical and political and, Susan Broomhall contends, a solid effort by generations of the family's women.

"The male line was really weak, they died in battle or were minors for many years," says Broomhall, a professor of history at the University of Western Australia. "It was the women who kept reminding people of the family through systematically promoting it, so when The Netherlands decided on a monarchy, their family was the obvious choice." The family still rules, via Queen Beatrix.

A $450,000, four-year Australian Research Council grant will help Broomhall and colleague Jacqueline Van Gent tease out the scope of the women's influence.

"For most of the people who have researched this family it's all been about the men, but there is a whole other side," Broomhall says. "It's a different way of thinking about family."

Something of Interest

Some interesting articles from a number of sources:

Medieval Women as Master Craftsmen @ Hawkin's Bizzare
5000 Medieval historical Novels @ Medieval News
Macbeth: A True Story @ Medieval News
Tycho Brahe to Be Exhumed by the Copenhagen Post

And some further reading:
* Matthew Carr - Cast Away: Blood & Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain
* Charles Lachman - The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family
* Susan Wise Bauer - The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade
* Richard Beeman - Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution
* Philip Dray - Capitol Men: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through the Lives of the First Black Congressmen

The Tools of Death

From the Business Standard:

The Exhibition of Medieval Instruments of Torture is one of the most complete of its kind in Europe. It traces the 700 year history (13th-19th century) of refinement of torture methods used largely, but not exclusively, under the Spanish Inquisition. For the visitor, entering it is a free fall from the sense of grace and peace of the mosque-cathedral, a plunge into a den of madness. A reminder that the Middle Ages were not only about romance, knights and fair maidens, or ballads and religiosity, they were violent and bloodthirsty; that beauty and ugliness went hand in hand; that the most grotesque forms of cruelty lay just under the veneer of some of man’s most amazing deeds.