26 Photos That Show What A Fascinating Period Of Time The Middle Ages Was

Some call the years before the Renaissance and Enlightenment as Europe's "Dark Ages," a time of backward and brutal people who were technologically primitive and hopelessly dumb, but in fact, the Dark Ages was anything but dark.

For example, both indoor and outdoor bathing were beloved in Europe. People not only made and used soap at home, but they frequented bathhouses—some public, some private, and some merely fronts for brothels.

Medieval people were also well aware of the importance of dental hygiene. They were advised to rinse their teeth with water on waking to wash off any mucus that had built up overnight.

Gilbert the Englishman, a 13th-century doctor, suggested rubbing teeth with powders made from herbs such as mint or marjoram, and according to Gerald of Wales, the Welsh were particularly enthusiastic teeth-cleaners: "They are constantly cleaning them with green hazel-shoots and then rubbing them with woollen cloths until they shine like ivory."

In some 14th-century Burgundian villages, it seems that people at the bottom of the social hierarchy literally owned only the clothes they stood up in.

However, there is ample evidence suggesting that most people owned at least a change of clothes, and that they washed them relatively frequently.

Clothes could be washed in a tub, often with stale urine or wood ash added to the water, and stamped or beaten with a wooden bat until clean.

Some did their washing in rivers and streams, and larger rivers even had special jetties to facilitate this, such as 'le levenderebrigge' on the Thames.

Even though travel was elemetary compared to the modern age, a fair amount of diversity can still be found throughout medieval society.

An analysis from 2019 used DNA from bones in a Black Death cemetery in London to reveal a more diverse city than previously thought. Research of 41 people revealed seven different places of origin, people of African ancestry, and people with dual white European and black African heritage.

Scholars, artists and engineers were also active during the Middle Ages.

During this time, they produced the first eyeglasses, figured out mechanical timekeeping, introduced the heavy plow, and moveable type—three inventions that would enable the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment.

The formation of guilds elevated artists from the peasantry into the rakns of coveted craftspeople, while everything from illuminated manuscripts to tapestry and sculpture thrived during the era.

However, understanding of the world was limited. Among the non-European lands known to medieval people, India may have been the most important.

"Europeans got most of their knowledge about the Indian subcontinent from the remnants of Greek learning, which had eroded over the centuries since the end of the classical period but survived in some Latin works," writes medieval literature scholar and critic Dr. Josephine Livingstone.

"The earthly paradise was reputed to exist in or near India, at the farthest eastern edge of the world. Stories about Alexander the Great were particularly popular, having been handed down from the classical period. Alexander, the leader of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia in the 4th century, famously travelled all the way to India in his pursuit of power and lands. Many manuscripts describe his battles and adventures with fabulous creatures."

Latin sources gave medieval writers and map-makers a variety of options to draw upon for describing regions of the world. These sources, which didn't always agree with each other, meant that new medieval writings blended easily into an already-varied culture.

"Writers ... who drew on the works of Pliny the Elder encouraged the idea that Asia and Africa were very hot places full of monsters and strange people: people without noses, or with giant feet to shade them from the sun, or with dogs’ heads, for example," Livingstone explains.

The Old English The Marvels of the East is one such text that draws on these ideas, as well as those found in a hotchpotch of other Latin sources. "Preserved in three manuscripts, including the book that contains Beowulf, this text describes and illustrates a vast range of strange and magical people and animals. Here you will find dragons, phoenixes and other familiar legendary creatures," Livingstone says.

"But it also features people who are described as having 'black' skin, alongside other wonderful people who sleep curled up in their own enormous ears. Medieval Europeans' view of people of different ethnicities was often bound up with wonder, fear and fiction."

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