I’ve just got back from living as a medieval person, AMA

[TheCountessofFitzdotterel]

First time in my life I’ve ever done anything worthy of an AMA!

Ah. Ok then.

The Book of Genesis has the first written evidence of cryogenics and genetic breeding and much more, which we only started in fairly recent times. The Bible also contains the first description of arthritis too.

Have you got references? I’m intrigued.

Genesis is the first book in the Bible. It first describes the creation. Most people disregard the account, because they consider it impossible to create the earth in 7 days. We don't know how long their days were. The point is, the order of creation was right. The author also described the earth as having one land mass and one sea. We didn't know that until last century.

Adam was put to sleep, ostensibly to create Eve. There are many fascinating accounts. Sodom and Gomorrah were towns which were destroyed. It is possibly the first account of venereal disease, perhaps even aids. The populations were such that eventually they had taken to raping any visitor to the towns. They were eventually all suffering from disease.

The story of the Tower of Babel is very similar to our internet - the world wide web. The Tower of Babel was a tower began by men designed to reach the sky and see what God sees. It was for them a means of knowledge. It was destroyed. The writer said God destroyed it because of the damage which could be done if everyone was able to understand each other. It would cause trouble, so he pulled it down and scattered the races, giving them different languages so that they would not understand one another and cause trouble!

The first account of genetic engineering was when Jacob was working for his father in law Laban. He was doing most of the work for 7 years to win Rachel after he had been cheated by Leah. Jacob was doing all the work and Laban getting richer. He went to Laban and did a deal, that when it was time to leave, he would take all the spotted sheep and Laban would have the white ones.

Laban was pleased with the deal. What he didn't know was that Jacob had a ram which had brown patches on. He mated the ram with the ewes and they gave birth to spotted lambs, and his flock of spotted sheep grew faster. Now the writer of the Bible puts this down to the hand of God, which it probably was, because who else would have put it into Jacob's mind? The narrative is that he ran the flock passed a certain place - offhand I cannot recall it - some sort of ditch or water pipe. It had to be the hand of God, because the Bible is the history of the Hebrews and their religion.

The Bible contains the plots for every novel that has ever been written since. No author has written a story which doesn't have the basic plot in the Bible. You name it, the Bible has it. You don't have to be religious to get something from it.

Yes, I’ve read Genesis, although it was a while ago. I missed the cryogenics & genetic engineering examples though.

Sorry, I got distracted by all this talk of cholera and forgot to answer your question!

You definitely experience space very differently in light and dark. Everything is focused round the fire (focus means hearth after all, iirc) and other spaces only exist insofar as you need them, eg a space to move through to get to bed. During the day it can be a relief to go outside because inevitably the light is better outside.

There were stored onions and parsnips. (Evidence for carrots seems a bit mixed.)
Also turnips. And leeks and brassicas growing.

I did feel like I really craved the fresh dark green of new growth, I can imagine getting quite excited by the first new nettle tops.

My understanding of the term ‘hungry gap’ is it means the slightly later months when stored food has run out and growing vegetables have run out or run to seed. We’re still in the stored food supplies time of year though I am sure you would have looking carefully at your stores.
It’s a long time till the new crops come in.

That's interesting about focus on the fire, and about the relief of being outside. In terms of what you were saying about adapting your real life with things like dimmer light or earlier evenings, I suspect most of us really ought to be getting more outdoor light than we do at this time of year.

Definitely.
I think we need more outdoor light and we need the feeling of well-being we get from being round a fire with other humans.
Our life in winter has changed more than our summer life and I don’t think the increase in SAD is a coincidence.

When you were there, was there any discussion as to who was King at the time the village was set? Was it before the Norman Conquest? Perhaps Stephen or Canute?

Alfred the Great ruled in the 9th century. That is dark ages, so called because not enough research has been done in the past. Now we know much more about him. He was educated in Rome: brought up a Christian. He educated his own children and other children. England was divided into Kingdoms. King Alfred integrated England and became sole ruler.

He fought the Vikings and eventually converted them to Christianity.

We know from grave goods that there was some truly spectacular artwork, so obviously there was trade between Britain and Europe, even as far as Africa.

It was 1461 so absolutely the cusp of the change from Henry VI to Edward IV. The Battle of Wakefield had happened in December but we would only just have heard about it, and the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross was taking place on Candlemas, our last day but of course we would have had no idea.

Battle of Mortimer’s Cross was taking place on Candlemas

A friend at Uni was a re-enactor (British Plate Armour Society) and I tagged along to the 1987 re-enactment to get some photos. It was October - just before the Great Storm.

ing cold. And ing noisy during the night as the Scottish contingent (there were mercenaries at the batte) let off their black powder. Apparently they couldn't transport it all back to Scotland 🤔

Great fun. Great pics.

I have long been interested in all this. I have five Tudor dolls houses, which I have renovated and furnished.

One very large one I decorated the walls inside with the shields of my family tree going all the way back to 1595. Imagine all your ancestors in doublet and hose. I had already researched the family trees, then discovered that whatever the name, no matter how common, there is a shield for it. I copied and reduced all the family names, made them into shields and papered the walls along with the Royal and titled of the times. I panelled two rooms, made big Tudor fireplaces and kitchens.

I bought many books for info. You can buy these books very cheaply on eBay from big companies like World Books and Barham's. You can also buy Usborne cut out books of anything medieval, Roman, Greek, mythology, Egyptian for just a few pounds and build your own village, town, castle.

It is fascinating..

That sounds amazing and better for me than becoming a re-enactor at my age. I couldn't manage without my glasses and hearing aids.

Glasses I have. Hearing aid not yet. I think glasses - or something similar - was in during the time of Pepys, and could have been before. Mariners had telescopes before that.

I started getting these emails of history facts and last week one of them dealt with beer and wine, what came first. Apparently archaeologists have found 8,000 year old jugs of wine or similar and tested the DNA.

The Bible mentions water pipes and viaducts, and Moses taught the Hebrews how to deal with infections and washing was insisted on before meals, so if we did not in medieval times, it was because the people didn't listen to the monks and nuns in the infirmaries.

Moses had to make a religious issue of it otherwise the Hebrews would have ignored it. As it wasn't an issue in the 15th century it was probably for the same reason.

People did wash hands before meals in the medieval period, often with very elaborate items such as aquamaniles because it was a ritualised part of dining.

Spectacles existed and were imported in quite large numbers from Venice by the 16th c but initially were only for close work, not distance vision.

Most reenactment events allow hearing aids as long as they are hidden- this was unusually hardcore. It’s not hard hiding them under a coif because women were generally expected to cover their ears.

I do like a cut out model! Sadly never managed to persuade my children they were a good way to spend your time.

Yes that's my understanding too. In East Africa it's before the harvest.

Try them yourself. £4 spent could have them get interested if they see you doing it, especially if they think you made mistakes.

They appeal to children, but not confined to them. I have several, but not made up. Seems a pity to spoil them, and there isn't room for them at the moment. The dolls houses take up all the flat surfaces at waist level!

I'm disabled long time and as I am defeated by one occupation I move on to another. If all you need is a tube of glue I shall soon be starting on the medieval village/town/castle that I bought a few years ago. They are good for hand/eye coordination..

Did they eat much though? People were a lot smaller in those days with the exception of a few giants dug up by archaeologists. They probably never had the chance to stretch their stomachs as people do now.

Sort of makes you wonder why they are plump in the Bruegel paintings! Perhaps they stored up fat in autumn for the winter months?

Thank you this a great AMA.
I was wondering about wearing wellies and getting about in the mud in winter, and I wondered if some of the mud, flood, standing water in fields etc that we now see is partly because of our changing use of the land, how we build buildings, how we farm land, how we also use areas of land to live on that would never have been usable in historical times?

Although I know things have always changed constantly in landscape with rivers silting up and series of very hard winters etc. I wonder if we’ve really exaggerated the extremes of that with the way we live now and climate change.

Regenerative farmers who do things differently now seem to to create loads less water runoff on their land etc. Out walking in the countryside in heavy rain these days I often see tarmac roads streaming with brown water, which is the topsoil just running off fields. it can’t have always been like that.

And domestically, cobbles would have been used a lot wouldn’t they to create a surface to stand on that’s slightly above the wet surface on paths etc?

I thought the hungry gap in the UK is around March April when the winter stuff has finished producing but the salads and fruit haven’t started to be available yet

The hungry gap will depend on where you are, what land you have, what your previous harvest was like. It isn't a fixed season.

Preserving food takes a lot of skills which would have been passed on from generation to generation. Looking out for subtle changes which indicate that XYZ needs using up before it spoils.

All it takes is a poor harvest followed by a cold, wet winter and a household could easily be eating into their winter stores from early on. It's no wonder farmers are a gloomy and pessimistic breed!

Years ago as an experiment we set ourselves the challenge of 'growing a cake' on our allotment. We grew wheat, sugarbeet, soft fruit. The eggs came from a neighbouring plot. I made a Swiss roll (fat free sponge). Even with electricity it was incredibly hard work. I was left with a lot of respect for my forebears.

You have a very valid point, as climate change is demonstrating almost monthly somewhere in the world.

We once had a smallholding with a paddock and stabling. The flooding was terrible and great ponds would appear. I contacted an expert who walking the field and reported that there had been new buildings down a lane and the ditches were replaced with pipes. The effect of that was backup onto our field.

I wonder if developers and builders really care about the environment, so long as houses are built and money made?

I want to be your friend 😂😂

This sounds an amazing project!

I think the hungry gap was May. Traditionally it was after the stored goods ran out but before the first spring crops were ready