Looking for new medieval research without hitting a paywall? Here are ten open-access articles published in April 2026 that explore everything from medieval trade and kingship to archaeology and smells.
In total, we found more than 70 open-access articles on medieval studies published last month. Our Patreon supporters can access the full list, featuring research on literature, religion, warfare, manuscripts, and much more.
1. Genetic genealogy of the Piast dynasty and related European royal families
By Michal Zenczak, Luiza Handschuh, Małgorzata Marcinkowska-Swojak, et al.
Nature Communications
This study uses archaeogenomics to investigate the origins of the Piast dynasty, the ruling family that shaped the early Polish kingdom. Examining remains from Piast burial sites across Poland, the researchers identified several individuals as members of the dynasty and traced their paternal and maternal lineages. The findings suggest that the Piasts may have had non-local origins, adding new evidence to debates about state formation in tenth-century East-Central Europe.
2. The Herlaugshaugen ship burial: closing the gap between the East Anglian and Scandinavian ship burial traditions
By Geir Grønnesby, Hanne Bryn, Lars Forseth, Bente Philippsen, Knut Paasche, Christian Løchsen Rødsrud and Arne Abel Stamnes
Antiquity
A large mound on the island of Leka in Norway has long been associated with Herlaug, a legendary pre-Viking king. Excavations in 2023 uncovered iron clinker nails and wooden fragments, identifying Herlaugshaugen as one of the earliest known ship burials in Scandinavia. The article places the discovery within wider maritime networks of the seventh and eighth centuries, showing how it helps bridge the gap between Anglo-Saxon ship burials such as Sutton Hoo and later Scandinavian examples.
3. Declining female participation: mechanisms at play on the Viennese private annuity market, c. 1360–1450
By Anna Molnár
The Economic History Review
This article examines women’s participation in the private annuity market of late medieval Vienna. By looking at how access to credit and investment changed between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it explores the social and economic mechanisms that shaped women’s financial activity. The study offers a useful window into urban economic life, gender, and finance in late medieval Central Europe.
4. Weavers, merchants and the taxman: the changing socio-economic contexts of textile circulation in the late antique Mediterranean
By Anna Kelley
Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean
This article looks at textile circulation in the late antique Mediterranean, focusing on the roles of weavers, merchants and taxation. Drawing on evidence from Egypt and the Levant, it explores how textiles moved through social, economic and administrative systems.
5. Mutton-Reeking Barbarians and Smelly Ghosts: Olfactory Othering in Medieval China
By Flavia Xi Fang
T’oung Pao
This article examines how smell was used as a form of cultural othering in medieval China, especially in descriptions of Inner Asian frontier peoples. It focuses on the association between these groups and the smell of mutton, a motif that became prominent from the mid-eighth century onward. Rather than treating these references as simple comments on diet, the article shows how scent became connected to ideas of identity, danger and contamination in literature, political rhetoric and historiography.
6. Nature, Culture, and War in the Writings of Step’annos Orbelian
By Ivan Foletti and Michaela Kovářová
Eikón / Imago
This article turns to medieval Armenia and the writings of Step’annos Orbelian, especially The History of the State of Sisakan. It examines how natural landscapes were imagined, transformed and sacralized through monastic colonization. The study connects environment, culture and conflict, showing how medieval Armenian authors could frame the transformation of wilderness into cultivated and sacred space.
7. Two Ways of Remembering the Horse in The Primary Chronicle
By Anastasija Ropa
Ephaistos
This article explores the role of horses in The Primary Chronicle, considering how equine imagery and memory shaped historical writing. It offers a fresh look at animals, power and identity in medieval narrative traditions.
8. Child resuscitation miracles and the living past
By Julie Singer
postmedieval
This article examines medieval miracle stories in which children are miraculously resuscitated, paying particular attention to the role of the child’s voice. It focuses especially on Gautier de Coinci’s tale of the little boy who sang Gaude Maria. Bringing medieval miracle narratives into conversation with Sound Studies and Disability Studies, the article asks how revived children’s voices disrupt ordinary ideas of time, recovery and bodily experience.
9. Whose was the Fifteenth-century Manor Court?: Seigneurial Jurisdictions, Peasant Economic Activity and “Middle-class Lordship” in Late Medieval East Anglia
By Spike Gibbs
Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook
This article studies manor courts in fifteenth-century East Anglia, asking whether they primarily served lords or tenants. By examining court activity around 1400 and 1500, it shows that these institutions remained important to lords, but not simply as tools for extracting arbitrary rents.
Gibbs also finds that peasants used courts for their own economic and communal purposes, though this role declined over the fifteenth century. It is one of several articles from this journal’s latest issue that have open-access articles related to the Middle Ages.
10. Bede or Beowulf? Reflecting on the Constructed Narratives of Teaching Medieval History in Schools in England
By Toby Purser
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
This article reflects on how medieval history is taught in schools in England, especially the ways narratives about Bede, Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon England and 1066 shape students’ understanding of the period. It argues that medieval history in the classroom often depends on constructed narratives that can limit how students encounter the early Middle Ages.
Open-access publishing continues to make it easier for medievalists to discover new scholarship from around the world, whether the topic is Viking ship burials, medieval finance, Armenian landscapes, or the teaching of Anglo-Saxon England.
If you want to explore even more recent research, Medievalists.net Patreon supporters can access our complete roundup of over 70 open-access medieval studies articles published in April 2026.
Looking for new medieval research without hitting a paywall? Here are ten open-access articles published in April 2026 that explore everything from medieval trade and kingship to archaeology and smells.
In total, we found more than 70 open-access articles on medieval studies published last month. Our Patreon supporters can access the full list, featuring research on literature, religion, warfare, manuscripts, and much more.
1. Genetic genealogy of the Piast dynasty and related European royal families
By Michal Zenczak, Luiza Handschuh, Małgorzata Marcinkowska-Swojak, et al.
Nature Communications
This study uses archaeogenomics to investigate the origins of the Piast dynasty, the ruling family that shaped the early Polish kingdom. Examining remains from Piast burial sites across Poland, the researchers identified several individuals as members of the dynasty and traced their paternal and maternal lineages. The findings suggest that the Piasts may have had non-local origins, adding new evidence to debates about state formation in tenth-century East-Central Europe.
Click here to read the article
2. The Herlaugshaugen ship burial: closing the gap between the East Anglian and Scandinavian ship burial traditions
By Geir Grønnesby, Hanne Bryn, Lars Forseth, Bente Philippsen, Knut Paasche, Christian Løchsen Rødsrud and Arne Abel Stamnes
Antiquity
A large mound on the island of Leka in Norway has long been associated with Herlaug, a legendary pre-Viking king. Excavations in 2023 uncovered iron clinker nails and wooden fragments, identifying Herlaugshaugen as one of the earliest known ship burials in Scandinavia. The article places the discovery within wider maritime networks of the seventh and eighth centuries, showing how it helps bridge the gap between Anglo-Saxon ship burials such as Sutton Hoo and later Scandinavian examples.
Click here to read the article
3. Declining female participation: mechanisms at play on the Viennese private annuity market, c. 1360–1450
By Anna Molnár
The Economic History Review
This article examines women’s participation in the private annuity market of late medieval Vienna. By looking at how access to credit and investment changed between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it explores the social and economic mechanisms that shaped women’s financial activity. The study offers a useful window into urban economic life, gender, and finance in late medieval Central Europe.
Click here to read the article
4. Weavers, merchants and the taxman: the changing socio-economic contexts of textile circulation in the late antique Mediterranean
By Anna Kelley
Al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean
This article looks at textile circulation in the late antique Mediterranean, focusing on the roles of weavers, merchants and taxation. Drawing on evidence from Egypt and the Levant, it explores how textiles moved through social, economic and administrative systems.
Click here to read the article
5. Mutton-Reeking Barbarians and Smelly Ghosts: Olfactory Othering in Medieval China
By Flavia Xi Fang
T’oung Pao
This article examines how smell was used as a form of cultural othering in medieval China, especially in descriptions of Inner Asian frontier peoples. It focuses on the association between these groups and the smell of mutton, a motif that became prominent from the mid-eighth century onward. Rather than treating these references as simple comments on diet, the article shows how scent became connected to ideas of identity, danger and contamination in literature, political rhetoric and historiography.
Click here to read the article
6. Nature, Culture, and War in the Writings of Step’annos Orbelian
By Ivan Foletti and Michaela Kovářová
Eikón / Imago
This article turns to medieval Armenia and the writings of Step’annos Orbelian, especially The History of the State of Sisakan. It examines how natural landscapes were imagined, transformed and sacralized through monastic colonization. The study connects environment, culture and conflict, showing how medieval Armenian authors could frame the transformation of wilderness into cultivated and sacred space.
Click here to read the article
7. Two Ways of Remembering the Horse in The Primary Chronicle
By Anastasija Ropa
Ephaistos
This article explores the role of horses in The Primary Chronicle, considering how equine imagery and memory shaped historical writing. It offers a fresh look at animals, power and identity in medieval narrative traditions.
Click here to read the article
8. Child resuscitation miracles and the living past
By Julie Singer
postmedieval
This article examines medieval miracle stories in which children are miraculously resuscitated, paying particular attention to the role of the child’s voice. It focuses especially on Gautier de Coinci’s tale of the little boy who sang Gaude Maria. Bringing medieval miracle narratives into conversation with Sound Studies and Disability Studies, the article asks how revived children’s voices disrupt ordinary ideas of time, recovery and bodily experience.
Click here to read the article
9. Whose was the Fifteenth-century Manor Court?: Seigneurial Jurisdictions, Peasant Economic Activity and “Middle-class Lordship” in Late Medieval East Anglia
By Spike Gibbs
Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook
This article studies manor courts in fifteenth-century East Anglia, asking whether they primarily served lords or tenants. By examining court activity around 1400 and 1500, it shows that these institutions remained important to lords, but not simply as tools for extracting arbitrary rents.
Gibbs also finds that peasants used courts for their own economic and communal purposes, though this role declined over the fifteenth century. It is one of several articles from this journal’s latest issue that have open-access articles related to the Middle Ages.
Click here to read the article
10. Bede or Beowulf? Reflecting on the Constructed Narratives of Teaching Medieval History in Schools in England
By Toby Purser
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
This article reflects on how medieval history is taught in schools in England, especially the ways narratives about Bede, Beowulf, Anglo-Saxon England and 1066 shape students’ understanding of the period. It argues that medieval history in the classroom often depends on constructed narratives that can limit how students encounter the early Middle Ages.
Click here to read the article
Open-access publishing continues to make it easier for medievalists to discover new scholarship from around the world, whether the topic is Viking ship burials, medieval finance, Armenian landscapes, or the teaching of Anglo-Saxon England.
If you want to explore even more recent research, Medievalists.net Patreon supporters can access our complete roundup of over 70 open-access medieval studies articles published in April 2026.
Access the full list on Patreon
Top Image: A Piast receiving the crown – a 19th-century print by Antoni Oleszczyński in the National Library in Warsaw
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