famine

Ancient Egypt
142

The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name

Joseph L Thimes explores a range of different translations of the Egyptian name given to his namesake, the biblical Joseph.

Ancient Egypt
141

Famine and Feast in Ancient Egypt

REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT The Cambridge Elements: Ancient Egypt series delves into wider Egyptological themes and debates in fresh ways, beyond traditional approaches. Specialist authors collate primary source materials to illustrate complex themes in a way that readers can easily…

Above Side by side in a pit, these skeletons were originally assumed to be Black Death victims, but radiocarbon dates have provided an unexpected explanation for the high fatality rate. Could they have died as a result of the last millennium’s largest volcanic eruption? This mass burial clips the edge of an earlier pit that may date to a 1252 famine, while the bodies in the later pit are believed to be victims of the climatic fluctuation brought on by the 1258 eruption.

Current Archaeology
270

London’s volcanic winter: Spitalfields cemetery and the famine of 1258

Mass graves were needed all too often in the Medieval world, but establishing the specific tragedy behind any given set is difficult. Now Don Walker believes that a group in Spitalfields cemetery can be linked to a massive volcanic eruption, as he told Matthew Symonds.