What’s new in medieval studies? Here are ten open-access articles published in March, which range from dealing with rioters in late medieval England to a bog dress.
This ongoing series on Medievalists.net highlights what has been published in journals over the last month that deal with the Middle Ages. All ten articles are Open-Access, meaning you can read them for free. We now also have a special tier on our Patreon where you can see the full list of 50 open-access articles we found.
The Cover of the Holy Building, the Symbol of Politics: The Historical Power Rivalry over the Kiswa of the Ka‘ba
By Esra Atmaca
Religions
Abstract: For Muslims, the Ka‘ba holds immense significance as the destination of pilgrimage—an obligatory act of worship—and as the direction toward which prayers are performed. The kiswa is a cover that has been placed on the Ka‘ba, the holiest place in Islam, since the Jāhiliyya period as an expression of respect for it. Although there are some exceptions in Islamic history, it is usually changed once a year and it was woven in different colours according to the period, and finally it became a tradition to be black. The kiswa of the Ka‘ba is one of the most important religious and political symbols of Islamic history. This article analyses the role of the kiswa of the Ka‘ba in the relations between Muslim rulers in the Islamic world throughout history. From the earliest periods of Islam, the kiswa has been recognized as a symbol of legitimacy and a means of asserting control over the administration of pilgrimage. Many states, such as the Abbāsids, Mamlūks, and Ottomans, expressed or reinforced their political legitimacy among Muslims by showing their influence over the Ka‘ba through the tradition of the kiswa.
In the medieval Islamic world, Muslim states or local administrators of these states especially used the kiswa as a symbol of sovereignty, thus increasing their influence in the regions they governed. Some Muslim administrators who wanted to send the kiswa to the Ka‘ba competed with each other or prevented the other from sending the kiswa to the Ka‘ba because each year only one kiswa was sent to Mecca. In this study, the position of the kiswa as a political symbol in the quest for the legitimacy of Muslim rulers in Islamic history and the historical development of this issue are discussed and analysed with examples.
For the love of literature: a Byzantine perspective
By Baukje van den Berg
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
Excerpt: It is well known that the Byzantines lacked a term precisely capturing our notion of ‘literature’. Indeed, ‘applying the modern idea of literature to earlier times carries with it a certain amount of anachronism.’ The term most closely resembling ‘literature’, logoi, encompasses many texts denied ‘literariness’ today.
Rise of the Nomad Kings—Pastoral Polities in the Horn of Africa (a.d. 650–1000)
By Alfredo González-Ruibal, Álvaro Falquina Aparicio, Candela Martínez Barrio, Pedro Rodríguez Simón, Manuel Antonio Franco Fernández, Jorge de Torres Rodríguez, Pablo Gutiérrez de León Juberías, Ibrahim Osman, Asma Youssouf, Laura Muñoz Encinar, Adrián de la Torre and Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo
Journal of Field Archaeology
Abstract: The archaeology of nomadic societies in northeastern Africa is understudied in comparison with sedentary populations. This is particularly the case in the Horn of Africa. The image of nomadic groups is still quite static, as if they had changed little over the millennia. Recent archaeological research in Somaliland and Djibouti is helping to change this narrative. In this article, we focus on the emergence of nomadic polities that occurred during the last centuries of the 1st millennium a.d. This took place in an eventful context of political, economic, and cultural transformations throughout the Mediterranean, northeastern Africa, and the Middle East.
We argue that political entrepreneurs among the nomadic societies of the Horn filled the gap left by state decline and used the opportunity to build their own polities, as happened in different regions of Eurasia, while taking control of trade routes. Our arguments are based on new data from surveys and excavation carried out in funerary sites in Djibouti between 2021 and 2024.
Understanding late medieval population change in English towns: an alternative approach
By Scott C. Lomax
Continuity and Change
Abstract: Understanding population change in late medieval English towns is crucial for interpreting urban development and economic shifts. Traditional estimates, based on taxation records from 1377 to the Tudor period, provide arbitrary population figures at two fixed points and fail to capture short—term fluctuations. This study proposes an alternative methodology that integrates multiple strands of evidence, including court records, tax lists, and archaeological data, offering a more nuanced understanding of demographic change. Using Nottingham as a case study, it challenges prevailing models of urban population decline. The evidence suggests that after sustained population growth into at least the 1330s, approximately 60 per cent of the townspeople died during the Black Death of 1349.
However, significant migration by the early 1350s, and again in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, led to periods of population recovery. Archaeological evidence, together with documentary sources, indicates urban expansion from the second half of the fourteenth century, with substantial growth by the early sixteenth century—contradicting traditional narratives of abandonment and decline. The findings demonstrate that demographic change was far more complex than traditional methodologies suggest and that this alternative approach provides deeper insight into population trends. This approach is applicable to towns with comparable source material.
Resurrecting a Bog Dress: A Comparative approach to Medieval Textile Construction
By Jake Morton, Ruby Becker and Helen Banta
EXARC Journal
Abstract: In this article we recreated garment 38 from the fourteenth century garments preserved in a graveyard in Herjolfsnes, Greenland to explore the reasons behind the stitching techniques used. Using experimental methodologies, previous knowledge of patterning, and hand stitching techniques, we constructed one half of the garment using modern hand stitching techniques and the other using period techniques. We focused on the stitching, seam finishing, and tablet-woven edges, and evaluated each half on fit, drape, shape, and durability. Performing each step by hand allowed us the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with the medieval processes of construction and gain a better understanding of the experience of construction. Based on our final product, we concluded that the stitching techniques are particularly suited to make a sturdy and attractive garment from a relatively loose-weave fabric, allowing for the easy insertion of gussets and the performance of alterations and repair.
Betwixt and Between: Non-Cloistered Religious Women in Late Medieval Rome
By Ashley Tickle Odebiyi
Church History
Abstract: This article examines eleven communities of non-cloistered religious women in fifteenth-century Rome. These women, known as bizzoche, created a shared identity through their choice of clothing, which did not conform with their elite status, and their acts of piety, such as Eucharistic adoration and service to the poor. Such practices share similarities with the beguines in northern Europe, beatas in Spain and the Americas, and others, pointing to a broader women’s religious movement that transcended geographic space. However, scholarship often examines such communities of non-cloistered religious women in isolation, obscuring such connections. This article seeks to illuminate some of these commonalities and argues that late medieval, non-cloistered religious women across Europe used habit and pious practices to form a shared identity and navigate the gender- and class-based restrictions on publicly practicing their religion.
Earliest evidence for heavy metal pollution on wildlife in Middle Age Europe
By M. Robu, I.-C. Mirea, D. Veres, S. Olive, M. Vlaicu, P. Telouk and J.E. Martin
Environmental Pollution
Abstract: Effects of past anthropogenic metal pollution on the wildlife are understudied. We investigate trace element incorporation in the dentition of a 1000 BP-year-old brown bear from the Romanian Carpathians, an area known historically for strong metallurgical activities. Background values as well as unnatural high lead (Pb), lithium (Li) and zinc (Zn) levels in a circa 5‒6-year-old brown bear male were detected using trace element maps across its functional dentition. High-resolution elemental transects and histological sections reveal the seasonal extent of lead intake, which occurred during five recorded summers, i.e. when the animal was actively foraging. We interpret the elevated Pb, Li and Zn concentrations in the terminal growth lines as evidence for the earliest-known anthropogenic heavy metal pollution in a wild animal. Our study underlines the impact of early industrial activities in a large terrestrial omnivore, demonstrating that anthropogenic threats on wildlife were not solely driven by hunting or landscape modification during the most recent decades.
The ‘proclamation’ statute of 1454 and its implementation to 1460: an insight into the effectiveness of late Lancastrian government
By James Ross
Historical Research
Abstract: This article investigates one strand of late Lancastrian government, based on a largely unknown collection of writs ordering proclamations against those accused of riots who had failed to appear before the royal council, dating from 1454 to 1460. These provide key evidence of the attempt to deal with the pressing problem of law and order before the civil war. While not necessarily effective, they show the council was involved in many ‘minor’ cases and not just noble feuding. It concludes that the judicial role of the royal council was rather greater than previously thought, foreshadowing the better-known conciliar fora under the Tudors.
Philosophical Trends in Jewish Thought in the Early Abbasid Period: A Recalibration
By Sarah Stroumsa
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World
Abstract: In sketching the emergence and development of Jewish philosophy in the medieval Islamicate World, the commonly-held view underlines the predominance of kalām in general and the Muʿtazila in particular among Jews in the Levant in the early Abbasid period.
Jewish intellectuals in the early Islamicate Levant, however, who became interested in systematic philosophical and theological thought, were simultaneously exposed to a broad variety of philosophical and religious currents. Their encounter with these currents naturally exerted influences on their own thought, and one can assume that different people responded variously to these influences. Unfortunately, much of the philosophical work of Jewish thinkers from this early period survives only in snippets of quotations and records. The present paper assembles these snippets, attempting to see if they can allow us to draw a more nuanced map of Jewish philosophical interests in the the Levant in the 9th–10th centuries.
Fact, Fiction, and Legend: Writing Urban History and Identity in Medieval and Renaissance Siena
By Ming Yin
Religions
Abstract: Beginning in the 13th century, rivalry among Italian city-states intensified, transforming cultural competition into a strategic tool for asserting identity. Roman heritage was often contested, with cities emphasising their claims as the true heirs of Rome. Siena has faced criticism for its lack of major historical sites. In response, its municipal authorities and citizens developed the legends of the “she-wolf” and Saint Ansanus. These legends reinforced Siena’s urban identity through historical narratives and public art. During the Renaissance, Siena redefined its history to assert its legitimacy by drawing on classical culture. This re-articulation of identity addressed historical rivalries and revealed the enduring complexity of local identity formation in Italy. This study examines historical legends and uses historical materials, such as city archives and artworks, to research the Italian city of Siena during the Renaissance and to investigate the origins of urban legends, their controversies, and how Siena created the legends of the “she-wolf” and Saint Ansanus.
We found 50 open-access articles from March – you can get the full list by joining our Patreon – look for the tier that says Open Access articles in Medieval Studies.
What’s new in medieval studies? Here are ten open-access articles published in March, which range from dealing with rioters in late medieval England to a bog dress.
This ongoing series on Medievalists.net highlights what has been published in journals over the last month that deal with the Middle Ages. All ten articles are Open-Access, meaning you can read them for free. We now also have a special tier on our Patreon where you can see the full list of 50 open-access articles we found.
The Cover of the Holy Building, the Symbol of Politics: The Historical Power Rivalry over the Kiswa of the Ka‘ba
By Esra Atmaca
Religions
Abstract: For Muslims, the Ka‘ba holds immense significance as the destination of pilgrimage—an obligatory act of worship—and as the direction toward which prayers are performed. The kiswa is a cover that has been placed on the Ka‘ba, the holiest place in Islam, since the Jāhiliyya period as an expression of respect for it. Although there are some exceptions in Islamic history, it is usually changed once a year and it was woven in different colours according to the period, and finally it became a tradition to be black. The kiswa of the Ka‘ba is one of the most important religious and political symbols of Islamic history. This article analyses the role of the kiswa of the Ka‘ba in the relations between Muslim rulers in the Islamic world throughout history. From the earliest periods of Islam, the kiswa has been recognized as a symbol of legitimacy and a means of asserting control over the administration of pilgrimage. Many states, such as the Abbāsids, Mamlūks, and Ottomans, expressed or reinforced their political legitimacy among Muslims by showing their influence over the Ka‘ba through the tradition of the kiswa.
In the medieval Islamic world, Muslim states or local administrators of these states especially used the kiswa as a symbol of sovereignty, thus increasing their influence in the regions they governed. Some Muslim administrators who wanted to send the kiswa to the Ka‘ba competed with each other or prevented the other from sending the kiswa to the Ka‘ba because each year only one kiswa was sent to Mecca. In this study, the position of the kiswa as a political symbol in the quest for the legitimacy of Muslim rulers in Islamic history and the historical development of this issue are discussed and analysed with examples.
Click here to read this article
For the love of literature: a Byzantine perspective
By Baukje van den Berg
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
Excerpt: It is well known that the Byzantines lacked a term precisely capturing our notion of ‘literature’. Indeed, ‘applying the modern idea of literature to earlier times carries with it a certain amount of anachronism.’ The term most closely resembling ‘literature’, logoi, encompasses many texts denied ‘literariness’ today.
Click here to read this article
Rise of the Nomad Kings—Pastoral Polities in the Horn of Africa (a.d. 650–1000)
By Alfredo González-Ruibal, Álvaro Falquina Aparicio, Candela Martínez Barrio, Pedro Rodríguez Simón, Manuel Antonio Franco Fernández, Jorge de Torres Rodríguez, Pablo Gutiérrez de León Juberías, Ibrahim Osman, Asma Youssouf, Laura Muñoz Encinar, Adrián de la Torre and Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo
Journal of Field Archaeology
Abstract: The archaeology of nomadic societies in northeastern Africa is understudied in comparison with sedentary populations. This is particularly the case in the Horn of Africa. The image of nomadic groups is still quite static, as if they had changed little over the millennia. Recent archaeological research in Somaliland and Djibouti is helping to change this narrative. In this article, we focus on the emergence of nomadic polities that occurred during the last centuries of the 1st millennium a.d. This took place in an eventful context of political, economic, and cultural transformations throughout the Mediterranean, northeastern Africa, and the Middle East.
We argue that political entrepreneurs among the nomadic societies of the Horn filled the gap left by state decline and used the opportunity to build their own polities, as happened in different regions of Eurasia, while taking control of trade routes. Our arguments are based on new data from surveys and excavation carried out in funerary sites in Djibouti between 2021 and 2024.
Click here to read this article
Understanding late medieval population change in English towns: an alternative approach
By Scott C. Lomax
Continuity and Change
Abstract: Understanding population change in late medieval English towns is crucial for interpreting urban development and economic shifts. Traditional estimates, based on taxation records from 1377 to the Tudor period, provide arbitrary population figures at two fixed points and fail to capture short—term fluctuations. This study proposes an alternative methodology that integrates multiple strands of evidence, including court records, tax lists, and archaeological data, offering a more nuanced understanding of demographic change. Using Nottingham as a case study, it challenges prevailing models of urban population decline. The evidence suggests that after sustained population growth into at least the 1330s, approximately 60 per cent of the townspeople died during the Black Death of 1349.
However, significant migration by the early 1350s, and again in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, led to periods of population recovery. Archaeological evidence, together with documentary sources, indicates urban expansion from the second half of the fourteenth century, with substantial growth by the early sixteenth century—contradicting traditional narratives of abandonment and decline. The findings demonstrate that demographic change was far more complex than traditional methodologies suggest and that this alternative approach provides deeper insight into population trends. This approach is applicable to towns with comparable source material.
Click here to read this article
Resurrecting a Bog Dress: A Comparative approach to Medieval Textile Construction
By Jake Morton, Ruby Becker and Helen Banta
EXARC Journal
Abstract: In this article we recreated garment 38 from the fourteenth century garments preserved in a graveyard in Herjolfsnes, Greenland to explore the reasons behind the stitching techniques used. Using experimental methodologies, previous knowledge of patterning, and hand stitching techniques, we constructed one half of the garment using modern hand stitching techniques and the other using period techniques. We focused on the stitching, seam finishing, and tablet-woven edges, and evaluated each half on fit, drape, shape, and durability. Performing each step by hand allowed us the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with the medieval processes of construction and gain a better understanding of the experience of construction. Based on our final product, we concluded that the stitching techniques are particularly suited to make a sturdy and attractive garment from a relatively loose-weave fabric, allowing for the easy insertion of gussets and the performance of alterations and repair.
Click here to read this article
Betwixt and Between: Non-Cloistered Religious Women in Late Medieval Rome
By Ashley Tickle Odebiyi
Church History
Abstract: This article examines eleven communities of non-cloistered religious women in fifteenth-century Rome. These women, known as bizzoche, created a shared identity through their choice of clothing, which did not conform with their elite status, and their acts of piety, such as Eucharistic adoration and service to the poor. Such practices share similarities with the beguines in northern Europe, beatas in Spain and the Americas, and others, pointing to a broader women’s religious movement that transcended geographic space. However, scholarship often examines such communities of non-cloistered religious women in isolation, obscuring such connections. This article seeks to illuminate some of these commonalities and argues that late medieval, non-cloistered religious women across Europe used habit and pious practices to form a shared identity and navigate the gender- and class-based restrictions on publicly practicing their religion.
Click here to read this article
Earliest evidence for heavy metal pollution on wildlife in Middle Age Europe
By M. Robu, I.-C. Mirea, D. Veres, S. Olive, M. Vlaicu, P. Telouk and J.E. Martin
Environmental Pollution
Abstract: Effects of past anthropogenic metal pollution on the wildlife are understudied. We investigate trace element incorporation in the dentition of a 1000 BP-year-old brown bear from the Romanian Carpathians, an area known historically for strong metallurgical activities. Background values as well as unnatural high lead (Pb), lithium (Li) and zinc (Zn) levels in a circa 5‒6-year-old brown bear male were detected using trace element maps across its functional dentition. High-resolution elemental transects and histological sections reveal the seasonal extent of lead intake, which occurred during five recorded summers, i.e. when the animal was actively foraging. We interpret the elevated Pb, Li and Zn concentrations in the terminal growth lines as evidence for the earliest-known anthropogenic heavy metal pollution in a wild animal. Our study underlines the impact of early industrial activities in a large terrestrial omnivore, demonstrating that anthropogenic threats on wildlife were not solely driven by hunting or landscape modification during the most recent decades.
Click here to read this article
The ‘proclamation’ statute of 1454 and its implementation to 1460: an insight into the effectiveness of late Lancastrian government
By James Ross
Historical Research
Abstract: This article investigates one strand of late Lancastrian government, based on a largely unknown collection of writs ordering proclamations against those accused of riots who had failed to appear before the royal council, dating from 1454 to 1460. These provide key evidence of the attempt to deal with the pressing problem of law and order before the civil war. While not necessarily effective, they show the council was involved in many ‘minor’ cases and not just noble feuding. It concludes that the judicial role of the royal council was rather greater than previously thought, foreshadowing the better-known conciliar fora under the Tudors.
Click here to read this article
Philosophical Trends in Jewish Thought in the Early Abbasid Period: A Recalibration
By Sarah Stroumsa
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World
Abstract: In sketching the emergence and development of Jewish philosophy in the medieval Islamicate World, the commonly-held view underlines the predominance of kalām in general and the Muʿtazila in particular among Jews in the Levant in the early Abbasid period.
Jewish intellectuals in the early Islamicate Levant, however, who became interested in systematic philosophical and theological thought, were simultaneously exposed to a broad variety of philosophical and religious currents. Their encounter with these currents naturally exerted influences on their own thought, and one can assume that different people responded variously to these influences. Unfortunately, much of the philosophical work of Jewish thinkers from this early period survives only in snippets of quotations and records. The present paper assembles these snippets, attempting to see if they can allow us to draw a more nuanced map of Jewish philosophical interests in the the Levant in the 9th–10th centuries.
Click here to read this article
Fact, Fiction, and Legend: Writing Urban History and Identity in Medieval and Renaissance Siena
By Ming Yin
Religions
Abstract: Beginning in the 13th century, rivalry among Italian city-states intensified, transforming cultural competition into a strategic tool for asserting identity. Roman heritage was often contested, with cities emphasising their claims as the true heirs of Rome. Siena has faced criticism for its lack of major historical sites. In response, its municipal authorities and citizens developed the legends of the “she-wolf” and Saint Ansanus. These legends reinforced Siena’s urban identity through historical narratives and public art. During the Renaissance, Siena redefined its history to assert its legitimacy by drawing on classical culture. This re-articulation of identity addressed historical rivalries and revealed the enduring complexity of local identity formation in Italy. This study examines historical legends and uses historical materials, such as city archives and artworks, to research the Italian city of Siena during the Renaissance and to investigate the origins of urban legends, their controversies, and how Siena created the legends of the “she-wolf” and Saint Ansanus.
Click here to read this article
We found 50 open-access articles from March – you can get the full list by joining our Patreon – look for the tier that says Open Access articles in Medieval Studies.
See also our list of open-access articles from February
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