Medieval Times?

Question

I was wondering if anyone could give me websites on the following topics

-Caste Systems
-Clothing
-Buildings
-Daily Life

Basically any good websites on medieval times but I particularly interested in these topics.

I have tried google, wikipedia, and those general websites. I am looking for more specific medieval websites.

Answer 1

First of all, the "caste system" usually refers to India, not Europe in the Middle Ages, although some writers and commentators will draw parallels between the European "feudal system" and the Indian "caste system."

As for clothing, buildings and daily life, be aware that the Middle Ages (aka Medieval Times) were nearly a thousand years long and spanned more than a dozen a countries. One of the defining features of medieval Europe is that it was divided in various kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, protectorates, city states, federations, etc., etc.; it was not an empire, and it was definately not a unified, monolithic culture, despite the prevelance of Medieval Latin as the "lingua franca".

So, try narrowing your seaches:
For clothing, try terms like: Norse, Saxon, Norman, Burgundian
For buidings: Carolingian, Romanesque, Gothic

Daily Life is a bit more nebulous, but again it varied depending on time and place.

This is a good site for information on Anglo-Saxon England (early medieval, circa 700-1100):
http://www.regia.org/village/village.htm

Here is site about the Norse (Scandinavians) during the Viking Age (circa 900-110):
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/text/history.htm

Here's a site that is mostly a collection of links to other article about the 12th century (the high middle ages):
http://cunnan.sca.org.au/wiki/12th_century

I know where these are because they are within in my area of interest. Hopefully they'll give you a good start, even though they really only deal with the north-west part of Europe. Maybe someone else can point you towards links for France, Central Europe (loosely, the "Holy Roman Empire" - modern Germany, parts of Poland, Austria, Czechlands, Switzerland and Italy), Eastern Europe (Byzantium, Hungary, Russia, etc.), the city states of Italy, and Iberia (now, Spain; in the middle ages, divided and fiercely fought over)

Good luck!

Answer 2

Wow, that's the easiest question i decided to answer all day! Thanks for getting that load off my back. There are alot of sites that fit into that broad category, but try CastleWeb, NOVA, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Medieval Times website. I especially recomend CastleWeb. It has hundreds of pages of info (neatly organized and accesible though), educational games, videos, sounds, and pictures. It has links and castle of the week. But my favorite feature above are the forums. If you can't find your info o the forums, you won't find them anywhere.

Hope that helps. Check out your local library and see if they have an interactive CD called Castles. It is very informative.

Answer 3

Black Knight starring Martin Lawrence, and A Kid in King Arthur's Court with the guy from Rookie of the Year

Answer 4

First try these topics in Google - you will get lists of many relevant web sites.
Secondly try a major encyclopaedia - Wikepedia is easily available on the web, but there are more authoritative ones in big libraries - many of which have access to on-line versions.
Thirdly try the subject catalogues of you public library and your school or college library
There is plenty of good stuff out there that is easy to find. All you have to do is harvest it.

Answer 5

the society for creative anachronism!!these people observe the "new middle ages";they fight in armor,make chain mail,make period costumes,follow chivalrous dictums,observe the cultural arts of poetry,the dance and letters!!they have a great university with many books suitable to you needs and there is much downloadable content as well!!

Answer 6

wikipedia will reveal most of what you are looking for, and probably more.