Going Medieval

i-fed61cad3ccae12c647832a75700e34f-manusc1.jpg

There's childhood and youth and young adulthood. And then comes middle age. I've been wondering when my Middle Ages are going to begin. I've left the Iron Age of my youth, for sure, and I have a feeling that my Roman Imperial times are drawing to an end. So, the other day, I found the answer. Three weeks from now, I will be closer to 50 than to 20. That must be my AD 409. That's when the last remaining Imperial officials in the province of Britannia start packing their gear and no longer answer plainly when you ask them how old they are. "Thirty-something" is all they reply.

I'm going Medieval and feeling pretty good about it. The Middle Ages are a long and colourful period with many riddles that can only be answered by living through the era. And then? The Renaissance!

[More blog entries about , , ; , , .]

More like this

This entry was first published over the cell-phone network on my old site, without pix, on Thursday 12 April. This morning we wrapped up our 20 person-hours in Varv, joined by regular Dear Reader Lars Lundqvist. The weather was great, but we found nothing older than the 11th century. A fragment of…
I really enjoyed my work yesterday. The forenoon saw me in the stores of the Museum of National Antiquities looking through Otto Frödin's uncatalogued finds from the "SverkersgÃ¥rden" site near Alvastra monastery. Not only did I find all the elusive 1st Millennium stuff that's mentioned in the…
Dear Reader, let me tell you about my on-going research. Written history begins late in Scandinavia. The 1st Millennium AD is an almost entirely prehistoric period here. Still, Scandinavian archaeologists have long had a pretty good general idea about late 1st Millennium political geography. The…
Yesterday I began my return to the Bronze Age. For most of my career I've mainly worked with the Late Iron Age, a period that dominates the landscape of agrarian Sweden completely through its cemeteries and place names. But my first published piece of research, indeed the first research I ever did…

At 40, I'm entering my Crusades. Your blog is great! I am not as funny as you, but check out my blog too at dianeriosblog.blogspot.com

By Diane Rios (not verified) on 15 Mar 2007 #permalink

I am closer to 50 than to 40 now, and am leaving the Renaissance for the Age of Enlightenment. Keep at it, whippersnapper.

By Mustafa Mond, FCD (not verified) on 15 Mar 2007 #permalink

Well, what about the Migration Period? Take a trip. And the Merovingian ditto? Growing long hair, shaving off the sideburns? Ever thought about that?

L Scary close to 50.

Maybe you could take a break and pillage Ireland.

By Mustafa Mond, FCD (not verified) on 15 Mar 2007 #permalink

I'm definitely looking forward to the Merovingian Period. The animal art is great, and about then I guess I'll be old enough to stand a chance at getting a university job.

Just watch out for the Black Death -- whatever it might be. For me it's the fact my wife turns 40 in two weeks and wants another baby. Come to think of it, our discussions on the topic do seem to resemble the Hundred Years war.

Well, y'know, enjoy the pillaging while it lasts. At least the Church won't come bothering you in your snug Northern hideaway 'til long after it's finished with the rest of Europe.

Having recently crossed over to the less popular side of fifty, I like the idea that that makes me a Renaissance man as long as it doesn't include various Borgias trying to do me in. Sadly, I'm rather stuck in my ways, so I fear there will be no Reformation for me.

Can´t get it out of my mind: If life gets worse over the years one would expect that life would end up in the Stone Age. Martin, imagine wading in heaps of chipped pieces of quartz. Good God, what a scary thought...

Ted, sounds like a thorny problem. But my feeling is she won't be a very fun wife if you refuse to knock her up, while both a contented wife and a baby are sources of a lot of joy. Go for it. And while you're at it, do a few neighbours' wives as well!

Molly, no church for me! They won't even want to bury me as I don't pay their membership fee.

John, maybe you could go to Japan and be a samurai when you reach the 17th century.

Lars, no sweat, in the Stone Age nobody had to sieve, collect and weigh quartz chips.

Reaching the inquisition would be a tough time for you, though... Before that you must promisse me an interview, as a medieval archaeologist I would naturally have loads of questions.

According to novelist and columnist P. C. Jersild, the Ages of Man are

Childhood: 0--20
Growing Up: 20--40
Adulthood: 40--60
The End: 60+

So it looks as if, in just a century or two, we're both gonna be grownups! Who would have thought it?