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Around 1000 CE, European knowledge of the wider world was limited, uneven, yet slowly expanding, shaped less by direct exploration than by inherited classical learning, religious frameworks, and selective contact through trade and pilgrimage...

Lying camel with guide, China, Tang Dynasty, early 7th century CE. Made from stone with a white glaze. Exhibited at Museum Rietberg, Zurich, Switzerland.

Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 CE and died in 1506 at the age of 54. He became famous during his lifetime as the man who discovered the ‘new world’ - understood as the Americas generally during the Age of Exploration. Since the 19th...

This video covers the history of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). It is less than 25 minutes long but very comprehensive and includes a section in the beginning on the Silk Road and how it influenced Chinese culture. Recommended for anyone...

The Portuguese colonised Malacca (modern Melaka) on the southwest coast of the Malay peninsula from 1511 and kept it until 1641 when the Dutch took over. The port controlled the Malay Straits which lead from the Indian Ocean (the Andaman...

The Empire of Trebizond was an offshoot of the Byzantine Empire that existed from 1204 to 1461 CE, ruled by the Megas Komnenos Dynasty, descendants of the Komnenos Byzantine emperors. The Empire of Trebizond has been far less researched than...

Trade and commerce in the medieval world developed to such an extent that even relatively small communities had access to weekly markets and, perhaps a day's travel away, larger but less frequent fairs, where the full range of consumer goods...

Pirates have gained a reputation for wearing bright and distinctive clothing and accessories during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730) even if, in reality, most of what we think they wore comes from works of fiction like Robert Louis Stevenson’s...

Striking silhouettes, sumptuous fabrics, bright colours, frills galore, and all manner of ornate accessories define the clothing of the Victorian period, that is, during the reign of Queen Victoria, which spanned seven decades of the 19th...

Caesarea Maritima, the city Herod the Great (r. 37-4 BCE) built for Rome on the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean served as the Roman Empire's powerbase of operations both commercially and militarily. With Rome's ultimate goal of adding...