Medieval History
You know those medieval-set films in which every golden-hued vista seems to have been shot by the British Tourist Board and the characters all appear to use copious amounts of ye olde hair conditioner? Well, Black Death is a far more gruesome and unhygienic-looking cup of tea. The movie stars a bedraggled-looking Sean Bean as a bishop?s envoy tasked with the mission of finding out why a remote hamlet has escaped the ravages of the titular plague which, in real-life, wiped out around half of Europe?s population in the 14th century. The twisty result often resembles a medieval reworking of Apocalypse Now as Bean and his band of decidedly un-merry men make their way through a countryside filled with all manner of unpleasantness from fields packed with corpses to an attempted witch-burning that ends in tears (or horrible gurgling sounds, anyway).
Click here to read this article from Entertainment Weekly
- Hunting For A Mass Killer In Medieval Graveyards
Beneath the Royal Mint Court, diagonally across the street from the Tower of London, lie 1,800 mute witnesses to the foresight of the city fathers in the year 1348. Recognizing that the Black Death then scourging Europe would inevitably reach London,...
- Black Death Study Lets Rats Off The Hook
Rats weren't the carriers of the plague after all. A study by an archaeologist looking at the ravages of the Black Death in London, in late 1348 and 1349, has exonerated the most famous animal villains in history. "The evidence just isn't there...
- A 'black Death' Saga With More Than One Plague
The plague that decimated Europe's population in the 14th century provided plenty of support for the notion of a higher power ? and a lower one. God's wrath and the devil's malice seemed plausible explanations for such widespread loss of life....
- Black Death Came From China, Study Finds
An international team of scientists have concluded that the plague known as the Black Death originated in China over 2600 years ago. In the article, ?Yersinia pestis genome sequencing identifies patterns of global phylogenetic diversity?, which was published...
- Plague And Famine: An Interdisciplinary View
Plague and Famine: An Interdisciplinary View I am organizing a session for the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo on the relationship between plague and famine. Famines...
Medieval History
'Black Death' director Christopher Smith talks about making his medieval horror movie (and not making 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies')
You know those medieval-set films in which every golden-hued vista seems to have been shot by the British Tourist Board and the characters all appear to use copious amounts of ye olde hair conditioner? Well, Black Death is a far more gruesome and unhygienic-looking cup of tea. The movie stars a bedraggled-looking Sean Bean as a bishop?s envoy tasked with the mission of finding out why a remote hamlet has escaped the ravages of the titular plague which, in real-life, wiped out around half of Europe?s population in the 14th century. The twisty result often resembles a medieval reworking of Apocalypse Now as Bean and his band of decidedly un-merry men make their way through a countryside filled with all manner of unpleasantness from fields packed with corpses to an attempted witch-burning that ends in tears (or horrible gurgling sounds, anyway).
Click here to read this article from Entertainment Weekly
- Hunting For A Mass Killer In Medieval Graveyards
Beneath the Royal Mint Court, diagonally across the street from the Tower of London, lie 1,800 mute witnesses to the foresight of the city fathers in the year 1348. Recognizing that the Black Death then scourging Europe would inevitably reach London,...
- Black Death Study Lets Rats Off The Hook
Rats weren't the carriers of the plague after all. A study by an archaeologist looking at the ravages of the Black Death in London, in late 1348 and 1349, has exonerated the most famous animal villains in history. "The evidence just isn't there...
- A 'black Death' Saga With More Than One Plague
The plague that decimated Europe's population in the 14th century provided plenty of support for the notion of a higher power ? and a lower one. God's wrath and the devil's malice seemed plausible explanations for such widespread loss of life....
- Black Death Came From China, Study Finds
An international team of scientists have concluded that the plague known as the Black Death originated in China over 2600 years ago. In the article, ?Yersinia pestis genome sequencing identifies patterns of global phylogenetic diversity?, which was published...
- Plague And Famine: An Interdisciplinary View
Plague and Famine: An Interdisciplinary View I am organizing a session for the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies to be held from May 13-16, 2010 at Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo on the relationship between plague and famine. Famines...