A remake of Time Bandits? That film I loved so much when I was a kid? I probably shouldn’t watch this, being a grumpy old fake history hunter. But do I ever listen to myself, no, never. I’ll try and pretend I didn’t see the 1980s classic. Spoilers ahead. The room of a young history … More TV review: Time Bandits (2024)
This is yet another relatively well known image that gets shared quite a lot when people try to convince us that mucky medieval folk were just flinging poo out their windows like it was an Olympic sport, but is that what it really depicts?Let’s have a look. The image comes from ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by … More Analysing the ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by Joos de Damhouder, 1554
The image below is often shared as an example of bad medieval hygiene, specifically to support the idea that emptying a chamber pot out of the window was a normal, generally accepted, common and/or regular occurrence in Medieval Europe.But the truth is a little different. First some of the technical details, the image comes from … More Analysing the Narrenschiff window scene (1494)
This may sound like a boring book but for me, a historian obsessed with debunking the old myth that medieval people were dirty, rarely bathed, etc. it’s quite a fascinating read and I think it has plenty of interesting details in it that most people will find interesting. So as I read the book I … More Book review: ‘Water technology in the Middle Ages’, by Roberta J. Magnusson (2003)
Medieval Hygiene hasn’t been a serious topic of research for historians till relatively recently, the topic is more related to the daily life of common people, not knights, royals or other famous people, so less interesting for some, but for a long time the old opinions held since Victorian times were just repeated for generations.Luckily … More Book review: ‘Community, Urban Health and Environment in the Late Medieval Low Countries’ by Janna Coomans (2021)
The enduring myth that Ludwig van Beethoven was black has been a subject of debate for over a century and while recent DNA evidence has definitively debunked the claim, some people still believe it.In this article I’ll explain why people once believed it, why there’s no evidence for it and finally I’ll share the DNA … More Beethoven was not black
As it’s sometimes still difficult to comprehend how common (or uncommon) bathhouses were in medieval Europe, I thought it might be interesting to make a list of all the places that had a functioning public bathhouse/bathing facility in Europe between 500-1500AD with connected sources/evidence.This list does not tell us how many bathhouses each city/town/village had … More List of medieval towns, villages & cities with bathhouses
For a long time historians have been more interested in the stories of royals, nobles, knights and other important and powerful people, than they have been in the lives of the common folk.But I’ve always cared more about what life was like for people like me, not rich, not powerful, not living in palaces, etc. … More Book review: ‘Urban Women: Life, Love, and Work in the Medieval Low Countries’ by Andrea Bardyn, Chanelle Delameillieure, Jelle Haemers (2019)
This picture has been going around the internet with the claim that it shows “One of the earliest known photographs of a Native American with a wolf” or “One of the few documented images capturing the coexistence of a Native American and a wolf”, usually followed by a nice story about how Native Americans and … More Not a photo of a Native American with a wolf
Time to review yet another nonsense online article with no sources or references. “Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In”https://talesofthemiddleages.com/why-medieval-castles-were-filthy-places/ Oh dear.Okay, this is mostly just a rant, a flood of words, me screaming into the void.There are some sources for what I’m saying in the thread I link to … More Article review: Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In
Fake History Hunter 