Young Lovers.

It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love.

Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 40 kilometres south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.

Buried between 5000 and 6000 years ago, the prehistoric lovers are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig, said.

"As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti said. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."

The burial site was located on Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua.

Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife.

Experts will now study the artefacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site's age and how old the two were when they died, she said.

From the Sydney Morning Herald

Parham village.

Parham estate.

Early this year the Parham estate contacted us with a proposal to undertake the research and an excavation of the lost village of Parham, I think it’s important to understand what a lost village is, and an understanding of what it may have been like for the inhabitants during the period of occupation.

Firstly what is a deserted medieval village, the term used to describe such a place is a DVM, this term is really misleading, as not all deserted villages date from the medieval times, many such settlements were only finally abandon as late as 1950s, while many others have been deserted since the 5^th or so century.

One of the most famous medieval villages to be researched and excavated is Wharram Percy in Yorkshire; this site has been a focus of extensive archaeological investigations that has spanned over forty years. Only the church is clearly visible above the ground, although the surrounding landscape clearly shows the layout of the original village.

A deserted medieval village or DMV is really a ghost settlement, an abandoned location where partially erected houses and crop remains but the inhabitants have long moved on to other places.

In England there are some 3.500 DMVs, and that is at the last count, in Sussex alone there are around 115, but this is not set in stone as there will many others that to date, have not been recorded - discovered to date.

Throughout the medieval period, villages consisted of from 10- 60 families, mainly living in very rough huts-at best; wooden-framed with wattle and daub walls-on dirt floors, with no chimneys or glazes windows. The furnishings would have been sparse, beds on floors softened with straw of leaves.

Water would have come from a local river or stream, often also the main sewer from the village, sometimes they may have been a well, water would have been collected in wooden buckets.

In most cases one end of the hut would be given over to livestock, which would have been kept in the hut over night, this in the cold periods of winter would have given extra warmth to the family living in the hut, but during hot periods it would have very smelly, and very unhygienic.

Clothes made of wool, flax and animal skins were rarely changed. Only the elite, the lord of the manor, the priest the Lords steward and perhaps some of the wealthier peasants, enjoyed superior housing and clothes.

The diet at this time would have been poor, mainly porridge, cheese, black bread, and some home grown vegetables, a lot of the food would have been dried and smoked, and this food would carry them throughout the winter months.

Village lives revolved around the agriculture calendar.

In the spring the animals grazed in the pasture, and seed sown. Summer was the busiest time; particularly when the harvests of wheat, barley, rye, hay, vegetables and fruit were being gathered.

In the autumn the animals grazed on the remains of the crops, providing manure for the fields, and it is at this time other types of marling were applied.

Winter was the time when families and those animals not killed for meat stayed indoors.a

There are several arrangements for the village as we know it, a village in the round, IE around a church, the village arranged along street, and a village around a square, as in Wisbrough Green, what we have at PARHAM is a village perhaps around a church, or a village arranged along a street.
The village arranged around a church is often there from much early times, especially if the church is on a mound, as this then denotes the period of occupation perhaps to Pagan times.

A village along a street often goes back to Roman times, when settlements grew up along well known trading route. Or even an ancient track way, another trading route, perhaps where travelers stopped over night. Many of the roadside settlements of Roman Britain were abandoned in the troubled times of the Saxon Conquest, but when ever possible during settled periods ,villages sprang up again at crossroads, at river crossings, and wherever somebody thought he had something to gain from passing traffic.

So what do we have at Parham, I think it’s a village along a street, an old road or track way, the church is dated to around to around the early 12^th century.

William Penn.

My Dear Wife and Children

by William Penn, August 4, 1682

Warminghurst, 4 August 1682

My dear Wife and Children.

My love, that sea, nor land, nor death itself can extinguish or lessen toward you, most endearedly visits you with eternal embraces and will abide with you forever. And may the God of my life watch over you and bless you and do you good in this world and forever. Some things are upon my spirit to leave with you, in your respective capacities, as I am to one a husband, and to the rest a father, if I should never see you more in this world.

My dear wife, remember thou was the love of my youth, and much the joy of my life, the most beloved, as well as most worthy, of all my earthly comforts. And the reason of that love was more thy inward than thy outward excellences (which yet were many). God knows, and thou knows it. I can say it was a match of providence’s making, and God’s image in us both was the first thing and the most amiable and engaging ornament in our eyes. Now I am to leave thee, and that without knowing whether I shall ever see thee more in this world. Take my counsel into thy bosom and let it dwell with thee in my stead while thou lives.

Ist. Let the fear of the Lord, and a zeal and love to His glory, dwell richly in thy heart, and thou will watch for good over thyself and thy dear children and family, that no rude, light, or bad thing be committed, else God will be offended, and He will repent Himself of the good He intends thee and thine.

2dly. Be diligent in meetings of worship and business; stir up thyself and others herein; it is thy day and place. And let meetings be kept once a day in the family to wait upon the Lord, who has given us much time for ourselves. And my dearest, to make thy family matters easy to thee, divide thy time, and be regular. It is easy and sweet. Thy retirement will afford thee to do it, as in the morning to view the business of the house and fix it as thou desire, seeing all be in order, that by thy counsel all may move, and to thee render an account every evening. The time for work, for walking, for meals, may be certain, at least as near as may be. And grieve not thyself with careless servants. They will disorder thee. Rather pay them and let them go if they will not be better by admonitions. This is best, to avoid many words, which I know wound the soul and offend the Lord.

3dly. Cast up thy income and see what it daily amounts to, by which thou may be sure to have it in thy sight and power to keep within compass. And I beseech thee to live low and sparingly till my debts are paid, and then enlarge as thou see it convenient. Remember thy mother’s example when thy father’s public-spiritedness had worsted his estate (which is my case). I know thou loves plain things and are averse to the pomp of the world, a nobility natural to thee. I write not as doubtful, but to quicken thee, for my sake, to be more vigilant herein, knowing that God will bless thy care, and thy poor children and thee for it. My mind is wrapped up in a saying of thy father’s. “I desire not riches, but to owe nothing.” And truly that is wealth; and more than enough to live is a snare attended with many sorrows.

I need not bid thee be humble, for thou are so; nor meek and patient, for it is much of thy natural disposition. But I pray thee, be often in retirement with the Lord and guard against encroaching friendships. Keep them at arm’s end; for it is giving away our power, aye, and self too, into the possession of another. And that which might seem engaging in the beginning, may prove a yoke and burden too hard and heavy in the end. Wherefore keep dominion over thyself, and let thy children, good meetings, and Friends be the pleasure of thy life.

4thly. And now, my dearest, let me recommend to thy care my dear children, abundantly beloved of me as the Lord’s blessings and the sweet pledges of our mutual and endeared affection. Above all things, endeavor to breed them up in the love of virtue and that holy plain way of it which we have lived in, that the world, in no part of it, get into my family. I had rather they were homely than finely bred, as to outward behavior; yet I love sweetness mixed with gravity, and cheerfulness tempered with sobriety. Religion in the heart leads into this true civility, teaching men and women to be mild and courteous in their behavior, an accomplishment worthy indeed of praise.

5thly. Next, breed them up in a love one of another. Tell them, it is the charge I left behind me, and that it is the way to have the love and blessing of God upon them; also what his portion is who hates, or calls his brother fool. Sometimes separate them, but not long; and allow them to send and give each other small things, to endear one another with once more. I say, tell them it was my counsel, they should be tender and affectionate one to another.

For their learning, be liberal. Spare no cost, for by such parsimony all is lost that is saved; but let it be useful knowledge, such as is consistent with truth and godliness, not cherishing a vain conversation or idle mind, but ingenuity mixed with industry is good for the body and mind too. I recommend the useful parts of mathematics, as building houses or ships, measuring, surveying, dialing, navigation, etc.; but agriculture is especially in my eye. Let my children be husbandmen and housewives. It is industrious, healthy, honest, and of good example, like Abraham and the holy ancients who pleased God and obtained a good report. This leads to consider the works of God and nature, of things that are good and divert the mind from being taken up with the vain arts and inventions of a luxurious world. It is commendable in the princes of Germany, and [the] nobles of that empire, that they have all their children instructed in some useful occupation. Rather keep an ingenious person in the house to teach them than send them to schools, too many evil impressions being commonly received there. Be sure to observe their genius and don’t cross it as to learning. Let them not dwell too long on one thing, but let their change be agreeable, and all their diversions have some little bodily labor in them.

When grown big, have most care for them; for then there are more snares both within and without. When marriageable, see that they have worthy persons in their eye, of good life and good fame for piety and understanding. I need no wealth but sufficiency; and be sure their love be dear, fervent, and mutual, that it may be happy for them. I choose not they should be married into earthly covetous kindred. And of cities and towns of concourse beware. The world is apt to stick close to those who have lived and got wealth there. A country life and estate I like best for my children. I prefer a decent mansion of a hundred pounds per annum before ten thousand pounds in London, or suchlike place, in a way of trade.

In fine, my dear, endeavour to breed them dutiful to the Lord, and His blessed light, truth, and grace in their hearts, who is their Creator, and His fear will grow up with them. Teach a child (says the wise man) the way thou will have him to walk; and when he is old, he will not forget it. Next, obedience to thee their dear mother; and that not for wrath, but for conscience sake. [Be] liberal to the poor, pitiful to the miserable, humble and kind to all. And may my God make thee a blessing and give thee comfort in our dear children; and in age, gather thee to the joy and blessedness of the just (where no death shall separate us) forever.

And now, my dear children that are the gifts and mercies of the God of your tender father, hear my counsel and lay it up in your hearts. Love it more than treasure and follow it, and you shall be blessed here and happy hereafter.

In the first place, remember your Creator in the days of your youth. It was the glory of Israel in the 2d of Jeremiah: and how did God bless Josiah, because he feared him in his youth! And so He did Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Oh! my dear children, remember and fear and serve Him who made you, and gave you to me and your dear mother, that you may live to Him and glorify Him in your generations. To do this, in your youthful days seek after the Lord, that you may find Him, remembering His great love in creating you; that you are not beasts, plants, or stones, but that He has kept you and given you His grace within, and substance without, and provided plentifully for you. This remember in your youth, that you may be kept from the evil of the world; for, in age, it will be harder to overcome the temptations of it.

Wherefore, my dear children, eschew the appearance of evil, and love and cleave to that in your hearts that shows you evil from good, and tells you when you do amiss, and reproves you for it. It is the light of Christ, that He has given you for your salvation. If you do this, and follow my counsel, God will bless you in this world and give you an inheritance in that which shall never have an end. For the light of Jesus is of a purifying nature; it seasons those who love it and take heed to it, and never leaves such till it has brought them to the city of God that has foundations. Oh! that ye may be seasoned with the gracious nature of it; hide it in your hearts, and flee, my dear children, from all youthful lusts, the vain sports, pastimes and pleasures of the world, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. You are now beginning to live-what would some give for your time? Oh! I could have lived better, were I as you, in the flower of youth. Therefore, love and fear the Lord, keep close to meetings; and delight to wait upon the Lord God of your father and mother, among his despised people, as we have done. And count it your honor to be members of that society, and heirs of that living fellowship, which is enjoyed among them-for the experience of which your father’s soul blesses the Lord forever.

Next, be obedient to your dear mother, a woman whose virtue and good name is an honor to you; for she has been exceeded by none in her time for her plainness, integrity, industry, humanity, virtue, and good understanding, qualities not usual among women of her worldly condition and quality. Therefore, honor and obey her, my dear children, as your mother, and your father’s love and delight; nay, love her too, for she loved your father with a deep and upright love, choosing him before all her many suitors. And though she be of a delicate constitution and noble spirit, yet she descended to the utmost tenderness and care for you, performing in painfulness acts of service to you in your infancy, as a mother and a nurse too. I charge you before the Lord, honor and obey, love and cherish, your dear mother.

Next betake yourselves to some honest, industrious course of life; and that not of sordid covetousness, but for example and to avoid idleness. And if you change your condition and marry, choose with the knowledge and consent of your mother, if living, guardians, or those that have the charge of you. Mind neither beauty nor riches, but the fear of the Lord and a sweet and amiable disposition, such as you can love above all this world and that may make your habitations pleasant and desirable to you. And being married, be tender, affectionate, and patient, and meek. Live in the fear of the Lord, and He will bless you and your offspring. Be sure to live within compass; borrow not, neither be beholden to any. Ruin not yourselves by kindness to others, for that exceeds the due bounds of friendship; neither will a true friend expect it. Small matters I heed not.

Let your industry and parsimony go no farther than for a sufficiency for life, and to make a provision for your children (and that in moderation, if the Lord gives you any). I charge you to help the poor and needy. Let the Lord have a voluntary share of your income, for the good of the poor, both in our Society and others; for we are all His creatures, remembering that he that gives to the poor, lends to the Lord. Know well your incomings, and your outgoings may be the better regulated. Love not money, nor the world. Use them only and they will serve you; but if you love them, you serve them, which will debase your spirits as well as offend the Lord. Pity the distressed, and hold out a hand of help to them; it may be your case, and as you mete to others, God will mete to you again.

Be humble and gentle in your conversation; of few words, I charge you; but always pertinent when you speak, hearing out before you attempt to answer, and then speaking as if you would persuade, not impose.

Affront none, neither revenge the affronts that are done to you; but forgive, and you shall be forgiven of your Heavenly Father.

In making friends, consider well, first; and when you are fixed, be true, not wavering by reports nor deserting in affliction, for that becomes not the good and virtuous.

Watch against anger; neither speak nor act in it, for like drunkenness, it makes a man a beast and throws people into desperate inconveniences.

Avoid flatterers; for they are thieves in disguise. Their praise is costly, designing to get by those they bespeak. They are the worst of creatures; they lie to flatter and flatter to cheat, and, which is worse, if you believe them, you cheat yourselves most dangerously. But the virtuous-though poor-love, cherish, and prefer. Remember David, who asking the Lord, “Who shall abide in Thy tabernacle; who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?” answers, “He that walks uprightly, works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; in whose eyes the vile person is condemned, but honors them who fears the Lord.”

Next, my children be temperate in all things: in your diet, for that is physic by prevention; it keeps, nay, it makes people healthy and their generation sound. This is exclusive of the spiritual advantage it brings. Be also plain in your apparel; keep out that lust which reigns too much over some. Let your virtues be your ornaments; remembering, life is more than food, and the body than raiment. Let your furniture be simple and cheap. Avoid pride, avarice, and luxury. Read my No Cross, No Crown; there is instruction. Make your conversation with the most eminent for wisdom and piety; and shun all wicked men, as you hope for the blessing of God, and the comfort of your father’s living and dying prayers. Be sure you speak no evil of any; no, not of the meanest, much less of your superiors, as magistrates, guardians, tutors, teachers, and elders in Christ.

Be no busybodies; meddle not with other folks’ matters but when in conscience and duly pressed, for it procures trouble, and is ill-mannered, and very unseemly to wise men.

In your families, remember Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, their integrity to the Lord; and do as [if] you have them for your examples. Let the fear and service of the living God be encouraged in your houses, and that plainness, sobriety, and moderation in all things, as becomes God’s chosen people. And, as I advise you, my beloved children, do you counsel yours, if God should give you any. Yea, I counsel and command them, as my posterity, that they love and serve the Lord God with an upright heart, that He may bless you and yours, from generation to generation.

And as for you who are likely to be concerned in the government of Pennsylvania and my parts of East Jersey, especially the first, I do charge you before the Lord God and his only angels that-you be lowly, diligent, and tender; fearing God, loving the people, and hating covetousness. Let justice have its impartial course, and the law free passage. Though to your loss, protect no man against it, for you are not above the law, but the law above you. Live therefore the lives yourselves you would have the people live; and then you have right and boldness to punish the transgressor. Keep upon the square, for God sees you; therefore do your duty; and be sure you see with your own eyes, and hear with your own ears. Entertain no lurchers; cherish no informers for gain or revenge; use no tricks, fly to no devices to support or cover injustice, but let your hearts be upright before the Lord, trusting in Him above the contrivances of men, and none shall be able to hurt or supplant.

Oh! the Lord is a strong God; and He can do whatsover He pleases. And though men consider it not, it is the Lord that rules and overrules in the kingdoms of men; and He builds up and pulls down. 1, your father, am the man that can say, he that trusts in the Lord shall not be confounded. But God, in due time, will make His enemies be at peace with Him.

If you thus behave yourselves, and so become a terror to evildoers and a praise to them that do well, God, my God, will be with you, in wisdom and a sound mind, and make you blessed instruments in His hand for the settlement of some of those desolate parts of the world — which my soul desires above all worldly honors and riches, both for you that go and you that stay, you that govern and you that are governed — that in the end you may be gathered with me to the rest of God.

Finally, my children, love one another with a true and endeared love, and your dear relations on both sides; and take care to preserve tender affection in your children to each other, often marrying within themselves, so [long] as it be without the bounds forbidden in God’s law. That so they may not, like the forgetting and unnatural world, grow out of kindred and as cold as strangers; but, as becomes a truly natural and Christian stock, you and yours after you may live in the pure and fervent love of God toward one another, as becomes brethren in the spiritual and natural relation.

So my God, that has blessed me with His abundant mercies, both of this and the other and better life, be with you all, guide you by His counsel, bless you, and bring you to His eternal glory, that you may shine, my dear children, in the firmament of God’s power, with the blessed spirits of the just, that celestial family, praising and admiring Him, the God and Father of it, forever and ever. For there is no God like unto Him: the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; the God of the Prophets, the Apostles, and Martyrs of Jesus; in whom I live forever.

So farewell to my thrice dearly beloved wife and children. Yours, as God pleases, in that which no waters can quench, no time forget, nor distance wear away, but remains forever.

William Penn

---

“Wherefore, my dear children, eschew the appearance of evil, and love and cleave to that in your hearts that shows you evil from good, and tells you when you do amiss, and reproves you for it.”

Neanderthals.

Scientists claim some Neanderthals had red hair and fair skin

Holger Roempler of Harvard University and the University of Leipzig, Carles Lalueza-Fox of the University of Barcelona and Michael Hofreiter of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have challenged the commonly-accepted image of Neanderthals, claiming that some of the extinct hominids could have had fair skin and red hair.

Roempler, Lalueza-Fox and Hofreiter have been studying DNA samples taken from Neanderthal fossils found in Italy and Spain. During the course of their study, the researchers had found a mutation that can affect skin and hair pigmentation.

This mutation, according to Roempler et al, reduces the function of the gene known as melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is one of the key proteins regulating hair and skin color. The catch here is that a slightly different mutation in that gene causes red hair and fair skin in modern humans.

Buoyed by last year's discovery that Neanderthals also possessed the gene known to influence modern speech in humans, Roempler, Lalueza-Fox, Hofreiter and the other members of their team have been continuously working to analyze Neanderthal DNA-dubbed as "the blueprint of life" in the hopes of better understanding these ancient people.

Neanderthals

Neanderthals trekked all the way into Siberia

By Will Dunham.

Neanderthals, the stocky kin of modern humans, were far more widespread geographically than previously thought, with some trekking into southern Siberia before vanishing about 30,000 years ago, scientists said on Monday.

Researchers led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, found that Neanderthals spread 1,250 miles further east than scientists had commonly believed.

The scientists used genetic tests to determine that three fragmentary bones previously found in the Altai region of southern Siberia were indeed those of a Neanderthal. They also confirmed that a child's skeletal remains from Teshik-Tash in the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan were from a Neanderthal.

Scientists previously had established that Neanderthals lived in Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia before their disappearance, perhaps after some type of competition with modern humans who had migrated out of Africa.

"Intriguingly, their presence in southern Siberia raises the possibility that they may have been present even farther to the east, in Mongolia and China," the researchers wrote in the journal Nature.

Since the discovery in the 19th century of Neanderthal remains in the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany, scientists have struggled to understand just who were these stockily built archaic humans and why did they die off.

Scientists also are aiming to clarify the evolutionary relationship between modern humans, who left Africa and quickly spread around the world starting roughly 100,000 years ago, and Neanderthals.

"They are our closest relatives," Paabo said in a telephone interview. "If you saw one in the street, she or he would strike you as very robust and muscular, with a big brow ridge and bigger musculature. But they had, for example, just as big a brain as we have."

Traits typical of Neanderthals appear in remains dating from 400,000 years ago, and Neanderthals disappeared about 30,000 years ago, the researchers said.

Paabo, a leader in the field of ancient DNA research, also is instrumental in an effort launched last year to complete a first draft of the Neanderthal genome.

The fact that their geographic range was even bigger than previously thought makes their disappearance all the more mysterious, Paabo said.

Slindon Estate Yard Saw Pit.

The old estate yard at Slindon has many interesting features; it would have been at one time a hive of activity, with carpenters, blacksmiths, all working at there trades supplying the needs of the great house and the estate in general.
Now this has gone, but there are reminders left of this bygone age, one in particular is the saw pit, here wood felled on the estate would be brought to be sawn into planks for various uses, it would have been hard work sawing often massive timbers into planks, and the worse job would have been at the bottom of the pit, for all the saw dust would fall upon you, and the hardest work, for you had to pull the massive saw on the downward stroke, the top man keeping a straight cut.
The saw pit at Slindon will be fully excavated later this year.

Notes.
'Top dog' is synonymous with the similar, if now archaic, phrases, 'upper dog' and 'over dog'. Clearly it is also the antonym of 'under dog' (now usually spelled as a single word) and its synonym, 'bottom dog'.
We have here a golden opportunity for those who consider plausibility to be enough evidence to hang a phrase derivation on. When wooden planks were sawed by hand, two men did the job using a two-handed saw. The senior man took the top handle, standing on the wood, and the junior took the bottom - in the saw-pit below. Add to this the fact that the irons that were used to secure the wood were called dogs and that the bottom position was much the more uncomfortable, and we can jump from this scene to the origin of 'top dog' and 'underdog'.
That may be true. The problem with it as an explanation is that no one has found evidence to back it up. There are printed references to saw-pits and to this form of work, going back to the early 15th century in England and the 19th century in America. None of these have any mention of 'top dog' or 'under dog'. Hardly likely that everyone, including Shakespeare, who referred to saw-pits in The Merry Wives of Windsor, would have ignored these colourful phrases, had they been in use at the time. For example, this extract from the 1876 Yale Review describes saw-pits in some detail makes no mention of 'top dog':
"The saw-pit was a rude structure about seven feet high, made of strong posts set in the ground wide enough apart to hold one or two pieces of heavy pine timber, and the sawyers, one above and one beneath, sawed out one hundred feet per day."
In fact t here are no known references to 'top dog' or 'under dog' in the context of wood sawing until well after the practise was superseded by mechanical sawing.
There are printed references to these terms going back to the days that the pits were still in use, but these all refer to fights of some sort, particularly dog fights. Here's a piece, for which the word doggerel might have been invented, that appeared in several US newspapers in 1859, under the name of 'David Barker':
The Under Dog In The Fight
I know that the world, the great big world,
From the peasant up to the king,
Has a different tale from the tale I tell,
And a different song to sing.
But for me - and I care not a single fig
If they say I am wrong or right wrong,
I shall always go for the weaker dog,
For the under dog in the fight.
I know that the world, that the great big world,
Will never a moment stop.
To see which dog may be in the fault,
But will shout for the dog on top.
But for me I shall never pause to ask
Which dog may be in the right
For my heart will hear, while it beats at all.
For the under dog in the fight.
Perchance what I've said I had better not said,
Or 'there better I had said it incog.
But with my heart and with glass filled up to the brim
Here's health to the bottom dog.

Slindon Estate.

Photos taken on the estate over the past few years are starting to be listed on a web album, click on this link to take you there, more will be added from time to time, .
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/archresearch

Life in the Middle Ages.

Daily Life in the Middle Ages.

Daily life for us peasants is generally pretty hard. I get up each morning at dawn, eat a quick breakfast of homemade bread and ale and then I'm off to the fields for a full day of work. We have to plant, tend, and harvest at least one good crop a year or we will starve in the winter. We usually try to plant and harvest at least two crops each year. After working all day, I sometimes stop in the village tavern for a bit of socializing before heading home to have my dinner, and then off to bed.
Elizabeth gets up at the crack of dawn as well. She has my breakfast ready for me before I leave. After that, her day is full. There's the vegetable garden to tend, clothing to wash, bread to bake for tomorrow, cloth to weave, and a house to keep clean. Rebecca and Samuel help her by tending to the animals (we have some pigs, a cow, some chickens, and a couple sheep), and doing other chores. Mathew usually works in the fields with me. He's learning to be a farmer so he can support his own family some day. When Samuel is about 10, he'll come to the fields to work too. Until then, Samuel attends school at the village church to learn some prayers and songs, and how to do a bit of math.
Peasants worked long hours every day, rain or shine, to ensure that their families had enough to eat. Most peasants were farmers, although a few were millers, blacksmiths, and tavern owners. Peasant farmers were the backbone of medieval society. They worked land leased to them by wealthier land holders in the nobility. The farmers produced all of the food, and paid most of the taxes. Their lives weren't all hard work though. They had feasts on holidays, and celebrated births and marriages. They rested each Sabbath day and attended church.
Where They Lived
Peasants lived in small towns or nearby farms on a lord's manor. The average peasant lived in a two room cottage that was constructed of mud plastered branches and straw or of stone and wood with a roof of thatch. The rooms had dirt floors and a few furnishings such as stools, a table, and maybe a chest to hold clothes in the common room. In the other room, sacks of straw served as beds for the entire family. A wealthy peasant might own a bed stand and a few iron pots. In the winter, the common room was shared with the livestock, who helped provide warmth. An open kitchen hearth was also located in the common room. Windows were small slits and didn't have glass in them. The interior of the cottage was lit by candles made of tallow (and probably smelled pretty icky).
What They Wore
The clothing of the peasants and other lower class people was usually made of rough wool or linen. Peasant women spun wool into threads and wove cloth that was turned into clothing for their families. Peasants probably had only one set of clothing, two at most. Men wore coarse tunics, and long stockings or leggings. Women wore long dresses of coarse wool, and stockings. Some peasants may have worn linen undergarments to offset the uncomfortable wool clothing. The outer garments were almost never washed, though the undergarments were laundered regularly. Wood smoke permeated the clothes and acted as a kind of deodorant for peasants. The base for the cloth was usually a russet (brown), so most clothing was a fairly drab combination of browns, reds, and grays, with only small variations. Children were dressed as miniature adults. Both men and women wore wooden clogs or shoes made of thick cloth or leather. In cold weather, peasants would have worn sheepskin or woolen cloaks, woolen hats, and woolen mittens to keep out the rain and cold. Many peasants died during the winter months from over exposure to the elements.
What They Ate
Peasants had a fairly unchanging diet of baked bread, porridge, stew, seasonal vegetables, and some meat. If a peasant lived near a stream or ocean, he may have caught fish to supplement his diet. Otherwise, he ate what he could grow. Peasants mainly grew crops of corn, beans, and wheat. Each family also had a vegetable garden near their home that provided lettuce, tomatoes, peas, beans, radishes, carrots, and other vegetables. Some peasants may have had fruit trees as well. Peasants also harvested acorns and other nuts and berries from the nearby forest. Peasant women made butter and cheese from the milk of cows as well. In the fall, they slaughtered most of the animals for their meat. If it was too rainy or too dry for a good crop to grow, peasant families had a very good chance of starving to death.
Children and Schooling
Birth and infancy were the most dangerous stages of life for people in the Middle Ages. Records from the time period suggest that approximately 20% of women died during childbirth and 5% of infants died during delivery with another 10-12% dying in their first month. Healthy children were regarded as a gift from God. Most families wanted sons, who would one day carry on the family name, as opposed to daughters, who would require a large dowry when they married. However, many parents probably rejoiced at the birth of a daughter as well, especially if they had been childless for many years or their infants had died.
Childbirth during the Middle Ages was very dangerous for both the mother and the infant. When the mother went into labor, a midwife, generally a townswoman who was experienced in delivering babies, attended her. If the delivery went well, so much the better, but in the event of complications the midwife could do very little. There were no Caesarean sections and no advanced medical equipment to help mother and child. Many women died during childbirth and many infants died during delivery.
If both mother and infant survived childbirth, the child was usually bathed in lukewarm water and then swaddled in warm cotton or wool fabric. If it was thought the infant would not live, it was immediately baptized by the midwife or by a man nearby, often the father. If the infant was thought to survive it was baptized several days after its birth in a local church. Here it was named, often after a close relative or a saint, and was promised to be brought up as a Christian.
After the baptism, the child was brought home and life returned to normal. Its mother or a wet nurse generally nursed the infant at home. In peasant families, where every person was needed to work the fields, infants were sometimes left alone in the home for long periods of time, or in the care of a brother or sister who was as young as 2 or 3. Many accidents befell infants left alone or in the care of other children, helping to account for the high infant mortality rate.
If the child lived through the first year, it was soon walking and talking. Young children would have been given small chores like feeding the chickens or washing the dishes, but were otherwise free to play up until the age of around seven. Peasant children whose families were almost always poor wouldn't have had many toys. Fathers and older siblings might make a child a wooden spinning top, a doll, or a set of blocks. Most of the time though, children played with what was available and used their imaginations.
Around the age of seven, children began to learn what they would need to know for their adult lives. Younger male children might attend a village school run by the local church. There they would learn important prayers and songs, and a smattering of Latin and mathematics. When a male child was old enough to be useful, he would go to work with his father or another villager as an apprentice. As an apprentice, the boy would learn everything he would need to support himself and his family. Most male children, especially the eldest, worked the same job as their father. Girl children didn't usually receive formal schooling. Instead, they stayed home with their mothers and learned how to be a good housewife and mother. They learned how to weave cloth, cook, grow vegetables, make butter, clean house, tend children, and other necessary things.
Marriage and Divorce
Marriages of all classes of people were arranged by the parents of the couple. Marriages were contracted to join two families together, and no family would leave such important matters to be decided on the emotions of the people involved. Peasant girls could marry as young as 12 and boys as young as 14. Most of the time though, girls married around 17 or 18 and boys in their late 20's or 30's. The groom was almost always much older than his bride. The prospective bride and groom would probably have already met and known each other for some time as peasants tended to live in or close to the same village their whole lives.
The couple were married in a simple ceremony unlike the elaborate marriage ceremonies today. The actual ceremony differed from place to place. In the early part of the Middle Ages, the Church was not very involved in the marriage ceremony and it was usually conducted at home with several witnesses present. Over the course of the Middle Ages, the Church became more and more involved in the marriage ceremony and by the end of the period, a Christian marriage ceremony almost always accompanied a wedding.
Once the wedding was over, married life began. It was undoubtedly awkward for both the husband and the wife for a time until they got to know each other better. Mutual friendship and respect eventually developed among most married people and sometimes the partners also grew to love each other.
The man was the head of the household in the Middle Ages and the wife was legally his property. A man was allowed and even expected to beat his wife, as long as she lived through the experience. Husbands had complete control over all of their wife's belongings and any other property that was owned by the family. The husband had the final say in all matters. However, many husbands asked for and heeded the advice of their wives.
Husbands were allowed to divorce their wives for many reasons, the most popular being adultery. Wives, on the other hand, could not divorce their husbands. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, this changed slightly, and wives were allowed to divorce husbands convicted of certain crimes or away on a long campaign of warfare. In the peasant class, where everyone knew everyone else, adultery and divorce were less common then in the upper classes where the husband was often gone for long periods of time.
Celebrations and Holidays
Life wasn't all hard work though. The Catholic Church had many holidays that were observed. On these holidays, peasants had feasts, sometimes provided by the lord of the nearby manor, and socialized with their neighbors. They danced, sang songs, and generally had a good time. Peasants also celebrated the birth and baptism of a new child, marriages of family members, and other important events.


References:
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