Death: Did you mean...?

Plagues have swept through humanity ever since communities have gathered together in concentrated groups. In this collection of resources, we look at just some of the pandemics that raged throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, from the...

In the ancient world the gods were often held responsible for one's good health and making offerings to them, reading out spells or wearing amulets was a common way to make sure illness stayed far away but there soon developed a whole body...

Peoples, cities and states have traded since antiquity but in the medieval period, things escalated so that goods travelled ever greater distances by land, river and sea. Great cities arose thanks to commerce and international trade such...

The Death of Cato of Utica, oil on canvas by Jean-Paul Laurens, 1863. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.

The Death of Chramm, painting by Évariste Vital Luminais, 1879. The painting depicts the execution of Chramn (aka Chramm) and his family, by his own father King Chlothar I (r. 511-561). After rebelling against his father Chramn, was sentenced...

Painting by Peter Nicolai Arbo (1831-1892) depicting the death of Hervor, the heroine of the 13th century CE Scandinavian Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks. She wields her father's magic sword Tyrfing but it brings its owner nothing but trouble...

A scene showing an Abbot and Death from the Dance of Death series of woodprints by Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497-1543 CE). c. 1525 CE.

A map illustrating the spread of the Black Death plague from its origins in central Asia to western and then central Europe, 1347-1352 CE.

Painting by Reginald Arthur from 1892 CE, depicting the legendary death of Cleopatra by snakebite.

The citizens of Tournai, Belgium, burying the dead during the Black Death of 1347-52 CE.