Archive Results For: Early Middle Ages
Book Review-‘Maritime Wales in the Middle Ages: 1039–1542’ by K. Lloyd Gruffydd, ed. M. D. Matthews
The circumstances surrounding the publication of this book are remarkably poignant. The life’s work of Ken Lloyd Gruffydd was centred on the maritime history of medieval Wales; he contributed many articles on the subject to Cymru a’r Môr / Maritime Wales, a journal which deserves to be much better known outside the principality, and these […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | High Middle Ages
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
Book Review – ‘Political Economies of Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean: The decline of Venice and the rise of England 1450–1700’ by Benjamin W. D. Redding
England’s emergence as a global maritime power, and the decline of the Venetian Republic, has long been discussed as a single concurrent process. In her latest book Maria Fusaro provides the reader with an innovative and detailed understanding of English activities and general livelihood in the Venetian empire while this transfer of power was taking […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | Medieval | High Middle Ages | Early Modern | Mediterranean | Other (Eighteenth C)
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Strategy & Diplomacy
Viking Ships with Angular Stems: Did the Old Norse term beit refer to early sailing ships?
This article discusses a certain type of ship known from Scandinavian Viking Age and Merovingian Period iconography. This type of ship has a vertical stem and stern that meet the keel at right angles, sometimes with an extension filling the space under a sloping forefoot and a similar extension at the rear end of the […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
Shipbuilding and Nautical Technology in Japanese Maritime History: Origins to 1600
Sources relating to developments in Japanese ship building and maritime practices are sparse before 1600, although evidence does exist in the form of archaeological artefacts, artistic representations and written descriptions. Traditional Japanese ship design and nautical methods had assumed their fundamental shape by 900 AD. This was to change from 1300 AD onwards with Japan […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | High Middle Ages | Other (location)
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design | Strategy & Diplomacy
Remains of the Ancient Ports and Anchorage Points at Miyani and Visawada, on the West Coast of India: a Study Based on Underwater Investigations
An extensive underwater visual inspection was made of the Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, India, between 2004 and 2006. A number of Stone Anchors, Indo-Arabia, Ring Stone and Composite types, were found and analysis suggested that the mouths of sheltered creeks were being used as anchoring points between the early Christian and early Medieval periods. Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Other (location)
Subjects include: Archaeology | Harbours & Dockyards
Grapnel Stone Anchors from Saurashtra: Remnants of Indo-Arab Trade on the Indian Coast
Medieval stone grapnel anchors on the coast of Gujarat on the Arabian Sea were investigated from 1991 to 2001. These stone anchors probably originated between the eight and fourteenth centuries AD during an upsurge of Arab maritime activity starting in the second century AD which ended gradually after the arrival of the Portuguese. Generally long […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | Indian Ocean
Subjects include: Archaeology
The Norse Vika Sjovar and the Nautical Mile
In this article the author examines the theories pertaining to Norse measurements of sea travel put forward by Norse navigational authority Roald Morcken. In doing this the author compares Morcken’s sources with those of Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, Danish and German origins. Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Early Middle Ages | Baltic | North Sea
Subjects include: Science & Exploration | Ship Handling & Seamanship
The First Crusade as a Naval Enterprise
Maritime aspects of the First Crusade have been sparingly reported, but were crucial to its progress. Friendly fleets captured two ports before the crusade reached the east. Supplies reached the crusaders via Byzantine controlled Cyprus and the fastest communication with the west was by sea. Ships came from Genoa and Pisa with lesser contributions from […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Strategy & Diplomacy
The Origins of the Ancient Methods of Designing Hulls: A Hypothesis Part II
A follow-on to the author’s article in the Mariner’s Mirror August 1993, this suggests a letter to Charles I of Anjou (King of Sicily) in 1275 confirms the existence of well-established methods of galley construction, survived from ancient times and possibly a carry-over from the crusade of 1204, and yet evolving from ‘shell-first’ to (load-bearing) […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | Late Middle Ages | Antiquity | High Middle Ages | Mediterranean
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design
The Sailing Performance of Anglo-Saxon Ships as Derived from the Building and Trials of Half Scale Models of the Sutton Hoo and Graveney Ship Finds
The article describes the attempts of the authors to understand and confirm the sea-faring competency and mobility of the Anglo-Saxons. By researching literary and archeological evidence, the authors built half-scale models of two Anglo-Saxon sailing vessels trading between Southern England and France during the Middle Ages. Trials were held with the models to evaluate sailing […] Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | English Channel
Subjects include: Archaeology | Historic Vessels, Museums & Restoration | Ship Handling & Seamanship | Ship Models & Figureheads | Shipbuilding & Design
Note: The Norman Invasion of 1066
An observation on the nature of eleventh century warfare and armed forces, this explains the amphibious nature of the King’s thegns, the national fyrd and the mercenary force of here. The conclusion is that the outcome of the invasion was the result of a desperate and close-fought battle, not faulty strategy. Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | English Channel
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics
Note: England’s Naval Trauma 1066
This questions whether Harold Godwine, the newly crowned king, was the victim of the weather as much as of William the Bastard. Read More
Filed under: Early Middle Ages | English Channel | High Middle Ages
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Navies