maximios

Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford.  The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]

An Oxford Historian Jan 23, 2021 5 min read Updated: Apr 26, 2021 Food is a universal, but frequently invisible to the historian. What and how did people of the past eat? Do these questions vary by ‘class’, gender, age etc. In the first of these Deep-Dives into smaller topics of early medieval history, we’ve […]

#ComissionsEarned (This post includes Amazon Affiliate links)* As a continuation from my previous post about Anglo-Saxon nicknames, I thought I’d highlight a few contemporary Viking examples (if you’ve not read the previous post, check here). Viking nicknames are a generally more widely appreciated phenomenon, not least because of public familiarity with the Sagas. In fact, […]

One of the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ period‘s most impressive, and most complex, artefacts is the so-called ‘Franks Casket’. A lidded whalebone box, covered in intricate carvings and text, the casket appears to originate from an early eight-century Northumbrian context. But what was it used for, and what can it tell us? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franks_Casket#/media/File:Franks_casket_03.jpg) The existence in the modern […]

An Oxford Historian Mar 4, 2021 2 min read Updated: May 28, 2021 The latest summary of free and easy-access resources for those interested in early medieval history. The Electronic Sawyer is a free online database of Anglo-Saxon charter evidence, covering a broad chronological and geographical scope. ‘Charters’ represent a diverse set of legal documents; […]

Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford.  The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]

As an introduction to the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ history and archaeology course I have put together (available free and online here), I’ve compiled a reading list of suggestions. It’s often hard to track down these resources even when someone name-drops them so I’ve included links to them all and, where possible, their free versions. While this reading […]

Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford.  The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]

Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a second-year history PhD student at Oxford.  I believe that academics are foremost public servants – we have an obligation to share knowledge to the wider community rather than keeping it locked up in universities. ​ The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider […]

An Oxford Historian Mar 16, 2021 3 min read Updated: Apr 26, 2021 It’s time to stop suggesting the role of aliens in archaeology as light-hearted fun – it’s a dangerous idea built on serious problems. Archaeology attracts all types, which is a wonderful thing. What is less wonderful, however, is the consistent conspiracy-theory trend […]