Henry III of England King John died in 1216 AD, the year after John signed the Magna Carta. His son Henry III succeeded him. (Henry III was named after his grandfather Henry II.) Henry III was [...]
Medieval economy: A carpenter works in his shop. Collapse of trade After the fall of Rome, people in Europe used money less than they had before. Instead they mostly lived on what they [...]
Medieval peasant clothing, from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1400s AD, now in Chantilly) What did medieval people wear? In Medieval Europe, as in the Roman period, most people [...]
Turkomen on the Silk Road with camels Just like under Persian or Sassanian rule, the economy of West Asia during the Islamic period depended very heavily on trade. The Silk Road ran right across the Islamic Empire. It [...]
Medieval Islamic clothing: women covered their heads with veils, and men wore hats or turbans. Why did people cover up their bodies? It was hot in the Islamic Empire. So people [...]
The economy of ancient Greece: A Greek man doing carpentry (Athens, 400s BC) The Greek word "economy" The Greeks did not have the same idea of an economy that we [...]
Hellenistic economy: a sculpture of a woman selling vegetables at the market Mercenary soldiers After the Peloponnesian War was over in 404 BC, everyone in Greece was poorer than before, [...]
Classical Greek economy: Sailors rowing trading ships (Athens ca. 550 BC) Greek mercenary soldiers The trends of the Archaic period in Greece continued into the Classical period, about 500-400 BC, [...]
A pair of pants (braccae) from Germany from the 400s AD German clothing was like the clothing of Central Asia in that German men, and often women, wore pants under [...]
History of sheep: Scythian man milking a sheep (Ukraine, 400 BC) Why are sheep important? Sheep are an important part of the economy of North Africa, Europe, and West Asia [...]
