Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have an interesting choice of study during the Independent Activities Period between semesters. The can take a non-credit course in food and cooking of the Middle Ages.

The people of Stavanger, Norway are on a quest to discover the exact year their town was founded. A good starting place may be with the huge collection of human bones dating to the Middle Ages found beneath their cathedral.

With the help of grant money, the York Cause Papers, records from the Church Courts of York from the 1300 to 1858, are now available online.

An unassuming building with an interesting chimney in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, may be “potentially one of the most exciting urban archaeological discoveries in Ireland in recent years.” The building, currently under restoration, is believed to be Ireland’s earliest surviving example of a timber framed house. (photo)

The history and art of Great Britain can be traced by the paintings on its church walls. Now interested parties may not have to travel to review the country's glorious wallpaintings, but can study them online thanks to the efforts of the Churches Conservation Trust.

In a paper for British Museum, Neil Christie looks at "cultural and socio-politico-economic context" of Byzantine-Lombard jewelery in 6th through 8th century. (photos)

In his 2007 dissertation for the University of Nottingham, Norman and Anglo-Norman Participation in the Iberian Reconquista c.1018 – c.1248, Lucas Villegas-Aristizabal considers the contribution of the Normans, especially Crusaders, in the Christianizing of the Iberian Peninsula.

In a research paper for Scandinavian-Canadian Studies, Vol.16 (2005-6) Erin-Lee Halstad McGuire discusses new methodologies for studying the settlement and development of Iceland.

In her 1991 Master's Thesis, The Role of the High Cross in Early Christian Ireland: 8th to 11th Centuries, Jill Quattlebaum discusses the early Christian Church in Ireland and the importance of the stone cross as its symbol. The thesis is available to read online.

A Fordham University graduate student has found a novel way to finance her education: she offers a calligraphy service. She has posted tutorials for her craft on YouTube. (video)

While most authors concentrate on the structured battles and armored knights of medieval Europe, Katherine Simms, in Warfare in the Medieval Gaelic Lordships, looks small, private wars in Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and at less formal combat methods.

Medievalists.net blog offers a link to an article by David M. Guion dealing with wind bands from the 14th through 19th centuries. The article, published in the Journal of Band Research, Vol.42 (2007) is entitled: Wind bands in towns, courts, and churches from the Middle Ages to the Baroque.

Krzysztof Adamiec, the assistant archivist at the National Portrait Gallery, was given the assignment of cataloguing the papers of the Gallery’s first Director Sir George Scharf when he discovered something amazing: fragments and artifacts from the tomb of King Richard II.

Medievalists.net reports that Adam Gacek has published a paper describing a thirteenth century recipe for Arabic papermaking. The recipe states that the paper was made from the bark of fig trees, rather than hemp or flax.

The great interest in medieval themes by the public has led academics to create a new educational organization: The Society for the Public Understanding of the Middle Ages, which was formed during the International Congress on Medieval Studies to address how the general public views the historical period.

Michael A. Cramer's new book, Medieval Fantasy as Performance: The Society for Creative Anachronism and the Current Middle Ages, considers the organization as an improvisational art form that presents the Middle Ages in a pleasing and entertaining, if not always accurate, way.

Dr. Karolyn Kinane has announced that Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire, is seeking scholarly papers and lectures for its 32nd Annual Medieval and Renaissance Forum to be held April 15-16, 2011. The theme is “Love, Friendship, Marriage.”

Archaeologists working in Noisy-le-Grand, a suburb of Paris, have discovered two burial grounds dating to Merovingian and Carolingian times. The site is believed to contain more than 300 graves.

For the past ten years, Norse scholars have debated whether the breakdown in trade of walrus ivory brought down the Norse settlements in Greenland during the 15th century. In a new article, scholar Kirsten Seaver disputes the theory and offers her own: English cod fishing.

Apparently the Byzantines had a werewolf problem, according to a new article by four scholars from the University of Athens. "Lycanthropy in Byzantine times ([CE] 330–1453)," looks at how doctors in the Empire dealt with patients who believed they were werewolves.

Volume 53 of Medieval Archaeology: Journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology has been released by Maney Publishing. The academic journal specializes in the medieval archaeology of Britain and Ireland.

A team of archaeologists from the Institut national des recherches archaeologiques has discovered the fortifications of medieval Paris.

An archaeologist and a stonemason recently risked life and limb to investigate the ruins of the Old Man of Wick, a 12th century Scottish castle believed to have been built by Harald Maddadsson, the Earl of Orkney. The castle is perched precariously on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.

University of Minnesota professor Susan Noakes has received a US$70,000 grant for two years for a project entitled “Globalization of the Middle Ages.” The research will be funded by the university's Imagine Fund.

Knowledge and Learning in the Middle Ages: A Conference Celebrating the 800th Anniversary of the University of Cambridge is the title of the one-day conference hosted by the Magdalene Society of Medievalists. registration is now open for the June 13, 2009 conference.

Law professor and legal history scholar Mark S. Weiner, who currently teaches at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, has received a Fulbright Fellowship to teach and undertake research at the University of Akureyri, Iceland. The fellowship will begin in the fall of 2009.

Among the five new saints created recently by Pope Benedict were a 14th century Portuguese friar and an early 14th-century Sienese aristocrat. The saints were canonized in a ceremony at the Vatican.

Medievalists.net features an interview with Dr. Natalie Zemon Davis, Professor Emeritus of History at Princeton University, who currently teaches at the University of Toronto. Davis is the author of nine books and more than 80 articles, "many of which focus on the social and cultural history of 16th century France.

Akdamar Church, also called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, an Armenian structure dating back to 921 C.E., is being restored in a US$1.5 million project being undertaken by Turkey as a step towards improving relationships between the two neighboring countries.

Medievalists.net is a new web site and affiliated blog with articles about the history of the Middle Ages. The blog's syndicated headlines are now offered as an optional feature on SCAtoday.net.