Medieval and Renaissance

The end of the Khmer Empire (or Angkor civilization) was probably caused by a number of things, but one immediately evidence factor was the civilization's inability to adapt to an extended drought brought about by climate change.

This timeline details the important events in the Angkor civilization, and lists the kings of Classic period Khmer Empire.

This history of maiolica ceramics is a must-read for late-medieval fans of ceramics. This article written by ceramicist Damon Moon, originally appeared in Steven Goldate's now-defunct Ceramics at About page, and I'm grateful to him for bringing it to my attention.

The University of Michigan's Kelsey Museum has the beginnings of a terrific site on Constantinople and sites in Egypt and Syria.

Feudalism is a system of political organization, in which an elite individual called a "lord" has control over several common people, or "vassals"

This multi-lingual collection of webpages is a javascript database of information about foreigners' graves identified in the Early Medieval period in Europe (AD 400-800). Several articles on cultural groups as well.

Pam J. Crabtree. 2001. Medieval Archaeology: An Encyclopedia. Garland Publishing, New York.

From your Guide to Medieval History, Melissa Snell, an excellent resource.

A basic informational web page for researchers in the Medieval and later periods, includes complete issues of the Late Antiquity newsletter, and upcoming conferences.

An organization for the study of the Renaissance and Reformation.

A completely online journal dedicated to the study of the Northwestern Europe from the Late Roman Empire to the advent of the Norman Empire.

An on-line source of public domain and copy-permitted texts.

A website with data on the Jewish Medieval kingdom of Khazaria, in what is now far eastern Europe.

The Normans were descendants of Vikings, who settled in the northwest France in the early 10th century AD and crossed the English Channel in 1066.

The Norse were Viking warriors who were great adventurers, traveling westward from the Viking homeland to Iceland, Greenland, and yes, even Canada.

A book by Michael Crichton (and now a movie directed by Richard Donner) gives the meaning of "archaeological field trip" a new spin.

And who says a major catastrophe can't be a giggle? Test your knowledge about the Black Death.