Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday 20 April 2022

Yet more on the fate of Medieval Greenland


I see that Haaretz has an article building upon the recently published research into the decline and abandonment of the European colonies in Greenland around the beginning of the fifteenth century. I recently wrote about this clearly popular research topic and the interpretations that have been put forward in The fate of medieval Greenland and in More about the decline of Medieval Greenland

This interest in what happened in Greenland six or so centuries ago has more, I am sure, to do with present concerns about environmental change than just an uncomplicated fascination with medieval pioneering life in North America - even though it does mean that modern Americans can do archaeological work on medieval sites on, or under, their home turf, so as to speak. Maybe current television and film productions help to raise interest. Nonetheless the research being done is adding to our understanding of both past and also potential events.



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