Medieval History
Dr Vicki Szabo associate professor of history at Western Carolina University was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship based at the School of History and Archeology, Cardiff University. Vicki will be in Cardiff for four months working with Jacqui Mulville to continue creating a database for the identification of whale species from artifacts and examine historical whale-hunting patterns. Brill publishing house recently released Szabo?s book Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic, which explores the perception, use and significance of whales during the Middle Ages.
Szabo will pursue her research interests at Cardiff University in Wales this autumn among faculty and students interested in ancient history, archaeology and conservation, and Welsh history. She has worked on medieval whaling and related archaeology of medieval whaling since 1995, and her current research began in 2000. ?I?m studying modern whale skeletons, creating an analytical database using photographs, measurements and DNA, and hopefully producing a tool to identify which whales were hunted in the Middle Ages,? said Szabo.
Currently, no easy method of matching whale bone artifacts to whale species exists, said Szabo. ?My research colleague ? Jacqui Mulville, senior lecturer in bioarchaeology at Cardiff University ? and I will work with biologists, geneticists and whale specialists and collect data to create a database that will allow us to identify whale species from whale bone artifacts,? she said. ?Once we can do that, we can study artifacts from sites and figure out which types of whales they were using, whether there were patterns in the whales being hunted, and maybe even begin to reconstruct premodern whale populations, something zoologists cannot yet effectively do.?
Although Szabo has traveled to Britain, Wales will be a new experience, she said. ?I teach early British history at WCU, so being in Wales will add a new dimension to that. I?ll get to visit sites that I teach about, learn new sources and come to understand Welsh culture, at least a little,? said Szabo. ?I?m most excited that I?ll learn new research methods for both environmental history and medieval archaeology, which will be a great aid in the classes, and for graduate instruction. Hopefully, I?ll also come back with new contacts, so I can help students research and study abroad more effectively.?
Last year, Medievalists.net interview Vicki Szabo about her book Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic. Click here to read that interview.
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Medieval History
Scholar to work medieval whales in Wales
Dr Vicki Szabo associate professor of history at Western Carolina University was recently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship based at the School of History and Archeology, Cardiff University. Vicki will be in Cardiff for four months working with Jacqui Mulville to continue creating a database for the identification of whale species from artifacts and examine historical whale-hunting patterns. Brill publishing house recently released Szabo?s book Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic, which explores the perception, use and significance of whales during the Middle Ages.
Szabo will pursue her research interests at Cardiff University in Wales this autumn among faculty and students interested in ancient history, archaeology and conservation, and Welsh history. She has worked on medieval whaling and related archaeology of medieval whaling since 1995, and her current research began in 2000. ?I?m studying modern whale skeletons, creating an analytical database using photographs, measurements and DNA, and hopefully producing a tool to identify which whales were hunted in the Middle Ages,? said Szabo.
Currently, no easy method of matching whale bone artifacts to whale species exists, said Szabo. ?My research colleague ? Jacqui Mulville, senior lecturer in bioarchaeology at Cardiff University ? and I will work with biologists, geneticists and whale specialists and collect data to create a database that will allow us to identify whale species from whale bone artifacts,? she said. ?Once we can do that, we can study artifacts from sites and figure out which types of whales they were using, whether there were patterns in the whales being hunted, and maybe even begin to reconstruct premodern whale populations, something zoologists cannot yet effectively do.?
Although Szabo has traveled to Britain, Wales will be a new experience, she said. ?I teach early British history at WCU, so being in Wales will add a new dimension to that. I?ll get to visit sites that I teach about, learn new sources and come to understand Welsh culture, at least a little,? said Szabo. ?I?m most excited that I?ll learn new research methods for both environmental history and medieval archaeology, which will be a great aid in the classes, and for graduate instruction. Hopefully, I?ll also come back with new contacts, so I can help students research and study abroad more effectively.?
Last year, Medievalists.net interview Vicki Szabo about her book Monstrous Fishes and the Mead-Dark Sea: Whaling in the Medieval North Atlantic. Click here to read that interview.
- Lost Roman Port Found In Wales
The remains of a 2000-year-old Roman port have been discovered in south Wales by archaeologists from Cardiff University. Uncovered outside the Roman fortress in Caerleon by a team of staff and students from the School of History, Archaeology and...
- New Book Examines The Influence Of Medieval Welsh On Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote: ?I love Wales?and especially the Welsh language?. Now, a Cardiff University academic has explored Wales? influence on Tolkien in the first book-length study of his debts to Welsh language and literature. Tolkien and Wales: Language,...
- Scottish Mp Demands Return Of The Lewis Chessmen
A Scottish Member of Parliament is demanding that the entire collection of Lewis Chessmen be permanently kept in Scotland. He is upset that the British Museum, which houses some of these medieval figures, is now saying that the chessmen were created...
- Website Launched On Medieval Monasteries In Wales
A new website was launched last month by the University of Wales Lampeter with information about medieval monasteries and nunneries founded in Wales between the coming of the Normans and the Dissolution of 1530s. The Monastic Wales website is a work...
- *late Antique And Byzantine Studies, Cardiff University*
*LATE ANTIQUE AND BYZANTINE STUDIES, CARDIFF UNIVERSITY* THIS NEW Masters course has been designed to provide students with advanced knowledge, understanding and skills to carry out independent research into the history and culture of late antiquity and...