Researchers have discovered that a small silk bag attached to a document at Westminster Abbey matches Charlemagne’s burial shroud. It is woven in a pattern of white hares and floral motifs and dates to the early 12th century. The textile was not the first shroud used in the burial of the first Holy Roman Emperor […]
Conservators working in the Old Monastery of Taxiarches in Aigialeia West Greece, on the Peloponnese peninsula, have uncovered a mural portrait of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1449-1453). It is the last portrait of a reigning Byzantine emperor in a monumental painting known to survive and the only portrait of Constantine made
A new museum dedicated to the Roman epic poet Virgil has opened in Mantua, Virgil’s hometown, in a newly-restored 13th century palace. Visitors to the museum will have the opportunity to see art and artifacts related to Rome’s poet laureate in eight galleries, each dedicated to a different aspect of Virgil’s life and work, in
An archaeological excavation at Molkenmarkt, Berlin’s oldest square in the heart of the historic center, has unearthed 188 reliquary figurines from the 14th century, a period before the Protestant Reformation when personal reliquaries were popular devotional objects. The large number of figurines in a single burial context is a unique find on the Berlin archaeological
A unique wooden clog has been discovered in a 15th century cesspit in the Dutch city of Alkmaar. Although wooden shoes are icons of Dutch culture, only 44 of them have been found in excavations in the Netherlands and Belgium. Most of them are more recent and in worse condition. This one is made of
Archaeologists with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore have discovered more than 20 early medieval burials of Lombard royalty under a 15th century cloister in Pavia. Many of the tombs are stone boxes with tiled roofs, both flat and gabled. One of the oldest graves is decorated with a large painted red cross on the
