Lead is a versatile, common metal that has been used for many applications throughout history. However, it is also incredibly deadly in even the smallest of amounts. While our ancestors believed that lead was an insignificant part of life, it actually could have ravaged their minds and bodies without their knowledge. Its effects still harm us today.

10 Ancient Rome

In 1983, Canadian scientist Jerome Nriagu examined the diets of 30 Roman emperors from 30 BC to AD 220 and made an astounding discovery: They were filled with lead. At the time, it was common to boil down grapes into syrups as a flavoring for food. This was done in copper kettles that released huge amounts of lead into the product.

Knowing that emperors were gluttonous in their eating habits, this could have led to chronic lead poisoning and, as Nriagu thought, the fall of Rome. While Nriagu’s conclusions have been disputed by various studies, others have backed him up based on the pipes of the Tiber River, long the chief source of water for Rome. This water contained around 100 times as much lead as fresh springwater.

9 The First Artificial Sweetener

Sadly, lead was humanity’s first artificial sweetener. Where sugar couldn’t readily be obtained, lead acetate was used because of its naturally sweet taste. In Roman times, lead acetate was called sapa and was frequently added to wine.

In 1047, Pope Clement II suddenly died from an unknown cause. A 1959 examination showed that he suffered from chronic lead poisoning, most likely from lead acetate in wine. Clement II was German, and the Germans of that time had a custom of sweetening their wines in the Roman way.

There are even rumors that Ludwig van Beethoven, another wine lover, was ill from chronic low-level lead poisoning related to his consumption of lead-laced wines. A study of his bones showed high levels of lead, which is the most likely cause of his well-known deafness in later years.

8 Toxic Rum

When 17 males were exhumed from the Royal Naval Hospital cemetery in Antigua, it was discovered that their bones were tainted with lead. The normal amount of lead in bones is 5–30 ppm (parts per million). But in the bones of 14 of the men, it ranged from 13–336 ppm, with 80 ppm being lead poisoning.

One hypothesis for this high level of lead could be lead that entered Antiguan rum in 18th-century distilleries. In the past, the Royal Naval fleet gave out rum rations to sailors. This could have caused chronic lead poisoning in many sailors, including the 17 buried in Antigua.

If true, this has severe implications for other members of the Royal Navy who served in the West Indies and may have consumed similarly tainted rum. The rum ration was an established tradition in the British Royal Navy at the time.

7 Artists And Lead

In 1713, Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini wrote in his book De Morbis Artificum Diatriba that he knew many artists and painters who suffered similar symptoms unique to their profession: chronic sickness, a colorless complexion, and melancholy. He was one of the first to theorize that “painter’s colic” was the result of the paints they used.

This ingestion of deadly metals was called saturnism and affected several famous artists. Throughout much of history, lead was involved in the creation of most paints. A study showed that this most likely affected Michelangelo Buonarroti, Francisco Goya, Candido Portinari, and possibly Vincent van Gogh. They all displayed symptoms of “painter’s colic” and worked closely with lead paints for much of their lives.

6 American Pewter

In the first years of colonization in America by the English, the most common types of dishes, cups, and other serving containers were all coated in a deadly layer of lead. Pewter was widely used in musket balls, too. So anyone at the time who used a musket—which was the vast majority of colonists—would have been exposed.

However, wealthy Americans in the 1600s were the ones who mainly used pewter dishes, so much so that researchers can tell who was wealthy back then from the amount of lead in their bones. For example, Colonel Joseph Bridger, one of the wealthiest and most prominent Virginians of his time, died in 1686. But when his body was exhumed and tested by medical professionals in 2007, the lead levels in his bones were measured at 149 ppm, which would have been seven times the average amount of lead.

5 Medieval Lead Glaze

Medieval Europe’s upper class used lead on their silverware and dishes as a sort of glaze so that they were easier to wash and more aesthetically appealing. In 2007, six cemeteries from Germany to Denmark were tested. Interestingly, lead was virtually nonexistent among the serfs and other poor, but it was dangerously high in the urban dwellers.

The lead on the dishes could be absorbed by the acidic foods that were frequently consumed by urbanites of the times. When salty foods were stored in lead-covered containers, the glaze would dissolve and the lead could leak in and contaminate the stored food. These dishes were hard to come by in poor rural towns, so lead poisoning distinguished rural and urban dwellers even more than the rich and poor.

4 Samurai Makeup Poisoning

During the Edo period of Japan’s history (1603–1867), many samurai suffered from their own beauty expectations. When the bones of 70 men, women, and children from that time were tested, researchers were shocked to discover lead levels as high as 120 times the harmful level in the bones of samurai children.

Environmentally, lead levels were actually low during the Edo period. But there was a surprising source for the contamination: mother’s makeup. Aristocratic women used a cosmetic white face powder that children may have encountered while nursing. Lead based and incredibly toxic, this face powder probably caused many children to die or suffer severe mental impacts.

3 Lead In Commercial Paints

Despite the lead industry knowing about the danger of lead in paint for decades, lead continued to be used in paints well into modern times. As far back as the 1920s, paint companies fought to have safety labels removed from their products even though as much as 70 percent of a can of paint was made of lead pigments.

A mere thumbnail-sized chip could cause a young child to have convulsions. When children became ill from this, the lead companies claimed that it was the fault of the parents, especially “uneducable Negro and Puerto Rican” parents who “failed” to stop children from placing their fingers and toys in their mouths.

In 1949, Maryland’s House of Delegates passed a bill banning lead in children’s toys. But this was repealed after overwhelming pushback. In 1959, the New York City Board of Health banned interior paints containing more than 1 percent lead. In 1971, the federal government banned lead paints in public housing. But it wasn’t until 1978 that the federal government banned lead in virtually all paints.

2 Ghost Factories

Lead production in the US may have shut down decades ago, but the toxicity remains. Wherever there were once lead factories—now dubbed “ghost factories“—high amounts of lead can still be found in the soil. From the 1930s to the 1960s, many of these factories operated by smelting lead from the various ores that contained it.

William Eckel, an environmental scientist, first called attention to this after writing that as many as 400 unknown shuttered factories could be contaminated by lead. He paid to have the soil tested at eight locations, with all but one testing positive for high lead levels.

Despite the EPA ordering the clean-up of lead in the soil in 2001, there has been virtually no action. Children who live and play near these factories are particularly affected.

1 Leaded Gasoline

In 1921, Thomas Midgley Jr. invented tetraethyl lead, a compound that would make cars incredibly efficient. Tetraethyl lead remained in gasoline until it was banned in 1986 due to the debilitating mental and physical effects it caused.

Since the ban, blood-lead levels in US residents have dropped by 75 percent. Before lead gasoline was phased out, it is estimated that 5,000 Americans died every year from lead-related heart disease.

There is also a high correlation between the rise and fall of lead gasoline and the rise and fall of violent crimes committed throughout several countries in the 20th century. Twenty years after lead gasoline was introduced, crime rates skyrocketed. But after lead gasoline was banned, crime began to fall, which shows just how significant this gasoline really was.

Gordon Gora is a struggling author who is desperately trying to make it. He is working on several projects, but until he finishes one, he will write for for his bread and butter. You can write him at [email protected].

In June 793, an Anglo-Saxon priest wrote mournfully that “heathen men came and miserably destroyed God’s church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter.” The Viking raids had begun. But while many of the wild Scandinavian raiders remain well known, some of the most feared and powerful figures of the age have been all but forgotten.

10Hastein

The Viking chief Hastein had a long and bloody career raiding England and France. But in his day, he was most notorious for his expedition to the Mediterranean in AD 859. After raiding Algeria, the Vikings found an island to wait out the winter. To their astonishment, the Mediterranean remained warm all through the winter months.

Hastein was also surprised to learn he was near Rome. The headquarters of the Church would surely be a glittering prize, and Hastein resolved to plunder it. Sailing down the west coast of Italy, the Vikings came across the greatest town they had ever seen. It was surely Rome.

Hastein knew the walls were too mighty for him to take the city by force. Instead, he pulled ashore and had his men explain that their dying leader wanted a Christian burial. The Italians were touched and agreed to allow Hastein carried through the gates. Of course, the chieftain soon sprang from his coffin and sacked the city.

He sailed away loaded with loot. and it was apparently some time before he learned that he had mistaken a town called Luna for the great city of Rome.

9Sigurd The Stout

Sigurd the Stout was the Norse ruler of Orkney, a large island on the north coast of Scotland. He extended the power of Orkney over the Hebrides islands and large areas of mainland Scotland.

He was well known for his use of a raven banner, a mysterious pagan totem flown by several Viking raiders. The sagas say that Sigurd’s raven banner was made by his mother (a powerful shaman) and made him invincible in battle.

However, Sigurd was overwhelmed by the Norse king Olaf Tryggvason, who forced him to convert to Christianity and took his son back to Norway as a hostage. The son died, and Sigurd was able to renounce his conversion. He took his raven banner with him to the Battle of Clontarf, where he was killed by the forces of the Irish king Brian Boru.

8The Donkey-Rider

The Persian philosopher Abu Miskawayh and the Kurdish chronicler Ali ibn al-Athir both recorded a raid on the distant Caspian Sea in AD 943. According to Miskawayh, a powerful Viking Rus fleet ported overland to the Caspian and then rowed up the Kura River to attack the rich city of Barda’a. The leader of the expedition rode a donkey, but the Muslim writers apparently didn’t know his name.

After crushing a force of 5,000, the Vikings looted Barda’a and slaughtered many of the citizens after being pelted with stones. The Persian governor of the region brought up reinforcements and placed the city under siege, but his men were intimidated by the invaders and the Vikings were only forced to retreat after an epidemic of dysentery thinned their ranks.

The donkey-riding chief died in a breakout attempt, but his surviving men were able to slip away at night and made it to the safety of their ships. The locals at once dug up the graves they left behind to retrieve the valuable swords buried with the dead warriors.

7Ingvar The Far-Traveled

The Vikings returned to the Caspian in the 1040s, when the warrior Ingvar the Far-Traveled led an expedition south from Sweden. After spending a few years with the Rus, Ingvar headed off again in search of plunder.

Georgian chroniclers mention a group of Vikings who helped King Bagrat IV of Georgia in a war against some rebels. These are generally assumed to be Ingvar’s men, especially since the landscape in a saga about him matches up well with the Georgian terrain.

After that, Ingvar is believed to have headed further east, into Muslim lands around the Caspian sea. The sagas and various runestones agree that his entire expedition died of disease there, a rather underwhelming end for such a powerful warrior.

6Brodir Of Man

After Brian Boru became High king of Ireland in AD 1002, Viking power in the Emerald Island was seriously under threat. The Norse king of Dublin, Sigtrygg Silkbeard, decided to back a rebellion against Brian. He was encouraged by his mother Gormflaith, who was Brian’s estranged wife.

At Gornflaith’s urging, Sigtrygg recruited warriors from all over the Viking world, including Sigurd the Stout. He also sent word to the Isle of Man, which was ruled by two brothers named Brodir and Ospak, who were reputedly powerful sorcerers. Brodir agreed to fight, but Ospak thought that they would lose and he ducked out under cover of darkness to join Brian.

At the Battle of Clontarf, Brodir was said to have cut down dozens of Irishmen. But Clontarf was a bloodbath and Brodir sensibly ran away into the woods when the opportunity presented itself. According to Njal’s Saga, he accidentally ran into the elderly King Brian, who was waiting to hear the outcome of the battle. Overwhelming Brian’s guards, Brodir personally killed the king.

The Saga later relates that Brian’s brother Wulf the Quarrelsome later tracked Brodir down, nailed his intestines to a tree, and forced him to walk around it until they were all pulled out.

5Raud The Strong

According to the 12th-century Icelandic poet-historian Snorri Sturluson, Raud ran afoul of King Olaf Tryggvason, who was trying to convert Norway to Christianity. Raud refused to convert and openly mocked the Christians.

This infuriated Olaf, who had Raud seized. When the stubborn pagan still refused to be baptized, Olaf had him tied down and rammed a drinking horn down his throat. Then he pushed a snake into the horn and poked it with a hot iron until it crawled down Raud’s throat and into his stomach.

According to Snorri, Raud died when the snake chewed its way out through his side. Since snakes can’t really chew, the story may be worth taking with a grain of salt.

4Ivar The Boneless

According to Ragnar’s Saga, Ivar the Boneless was the son of the legendary warrior Ragnar Lodbrok, pictured above. That may or may not be true (the same saga has Ivar fighting a magical cow), but we do know that Ivar and his brothers commanded the Great Heathen Army, a mighty force that invaded England in 865.

They overran the kingdoms of Northumbria and East Anglia and did serious damage to the kingdom of Mercia. King Aelle of Northumbria was tortured to death, while Edmund of East Anglia was shot full of arrows in a church. After that, Ivar returned to York and disappears from the record, leaving command of the army to his brothers.

Ivar’s nickname has been the subject of much speculation. The sagas agree that he had to be carried around on a shield, and Ragnar’s Saga claims that he had “only the like of gristle where his bones should have been.” This has led some historians to suggest that he suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition that leaves bones fragile and easily broken.

3Imar

Before Ivar the Boneless appeared in English records, a Viking leader called Imar was active in Ireland, where he took control of Dublin and fought in numerous raids and small wars. After Ivar left England, Imar reappeared in Scotland, where he besieged the great stronghold at Dumbarton Rock.

The siege lasted four months, but the Vikings were eventually able to cut off the water supply, and the fortress surrendered. The king of Strathclyde was taken prisoner and, it took 200 ships to carry away the loot. Imar then returned to Ireland, where he died of a “hideous disease” in 873.

Most historians speculate that Imar and Ivar are the same person, although the Scotch-Irish records never make reference to the “boneless” nickname.

2Gunderedo

The earliest Viking raid on Spain sacked the Muslim city of Seville in 844. Subsequent attacks on Muslim Spain went poorly, and the largest Viking campaign in Spain focused on the Christian north.

The raid started when Richard of Normandy called in Danish assistance for a campaign in northern France. Once that wrapped up, the Danes raided Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain. They were led by a “sea-king” the Spanish called Gunderedo.

Gunderedo’s men pillaged the great shrine of Santiago de Compostela and killed the bishop in battle. After that, no Galician was willing to challenge the Danes and they ran riot across the countryside for three years. Its not clear why they eventually left, but probably Galicia was too poor to hold their attention for longer.

1Thorstein The Red

Thorstein the Red was the son of King Olaf of Dublin and his famous queen, Aud the Deep-Minded. Aud’s family ruled the Hebrides, and Olaf had married her in the hope of gaining an alliance. But the islanders continued to raid around Dublin, and Olaf eventually sent Aud and the infant Thorstein home in fury.

Olaf’s power grew, and he took control of the Hebrides, forcing Aud to flee to Scotland with her son. Thorstein grew up into a fierce warrior, who raided across Scotland and “was ever victorious.” The desperate Scots even granted him an independent kingdom in the northern tip of Scotland.

But Thorstein wanted more, and the Scots conspired to have him murdered in AD 900. Heartbroken, Aud took her followers to Iceland, where she became the ruler of a powerful clan. She was buried on the beach, so that the tide would always wash over her grave.

The Middle Ages are an enduring staple of our popular culture; many films, books, and television series draw on the medieval period as a backdrop for their plots and characters. These fictional works often represent a view of magic in medieval Europe that lacks the fascinating (and often bewildering) complexity of beliefs medieval people held.

10Belief Was Considered A Pagan Superstition

In the early Middle Ages, it was not respectable to admit to a belief in magic. St. Augustine, an influential late antique theologian, denied that demons could grant people magical powers, allowing only that they could deceive people into thinking they had magical powers. This line of thought was followed by most early medieval legal and theological writing.

A Carolingian capitulary issued for the newly conquered (and newly Christianized) region of Saxony forbids killing a woman on suspicion of witchcraft on penalty of death, describing the crime as something done, “in the pagan manner.” The 10th-century text the Canon Episcopi instructs priests to preach to their flocks that the “phantasms” sent by the devil are false.

9Sailors From A Realm Of Clouds Would Steal Crops

Of course, church condemnation doesn’t mean people stop believing. Around the same time as the Capitulary for Saxony was written, the Bishop of Lyons, Agobard, composed a treatise denouncing belief in magic. In the process, he tells us a lot about what people actually believed.

Agobard mentions that it was thought that weather mages could raise storms—and, most remarkably, sailors from the land of clouds sailed the sky and stole crops in collaboration with these weather mages. Although he does not mention crop stealing, Gervise of Tillsbury repeats stories about aerial sailors, including one who “drowns” in the earthly atmosphere almost 400 years after Agobrad. A possible explanation for the commonness of these stories is the phenomenon of the superior mirage, which can fool the eye into thinking there are indeed ships in the air.

8Most Witchcraft Trials Involved A Single Defendant

While early medieval authorities were skeptical of the reality of magic, changing philosophical and theological opinions meant that by the 14th century, magic was considered a crime. However, these medieval witchcraft trials were different from the mass hysteria around witches that consumed the 16th and 17th centuries. There were very few cases where large numbers of unrelated people were tried at once.

The vast majority of witchcraft trials involved a single defendant or occasionally a small group. In cases were a group was tried, there was usually a relationship connecting them all, like belonging to the same household (servants being charged along with their masters or mistresses seems to be a common combination) or being political conspirators. The one exception is Philip the Fair’s mass executions during the suppression of the Templar order.

7Religious Figures Practiced Magic As Well

The popular image of the medieval witch hunt would not be complete without an accompanying priest or monk to signify the supposed role of the church in the persecution of suspected witches. But sometimes, clergy themselves practiced magic, particularly forms that required learning and access to written materials.

The monks of St. Augustine’s in Canterbury kept 30 magic books in their library. The texts gave information on the rituals needed to summon spirits. Priests, particularly rural parish priests, might also be called upon to perform rituals that mixed magic with orthodox rites. A 12th-century English ritual to make fields fertile involved sprinkling clumps of earth with milk, honey, oil, herbs, and holy water, reciting passages from the Bible, and saying four Masses over them.

6Not All Magic Was Serious

Medieval people also enjoyed that staple of Las Vegas stage and child’s birthday parties: sleight of height and magic tricks. A 14th-century book with the lofty title Secretum Philosphorum is mainly devoted not to the weighty matters of the Queen of the Sciences but to fun little experiments and tricks. One section instructs the reader on how to use invisible ink to play pranks on their friends, make an object appear to turn by itself, and escape after having their hands tied behind their back.

5The Norse Were More Suspicious Of Male Magicians

Temporarily turning away from medieval Christendom, we look to pre-conversion Scandinavia. While the Norse considered respectable for a man some things we would recognize as magic, like using runes or poetry to supernatural affect, they saw seidr as a woman’s domain. Men who practiced seidr were considered to have demeaned themselves.

In the sagas, male characters who practice seidr are portrayed in negative terms, and the texts comment on their unmanliness. Despite this, the chief god Odin is explicitly identified with seidr. But even Odin could not avoid being mocked, for Loki denounces him for it. This is in contrast to the respect paid to women practitioners when they appear in the sagas, as shown by the ritualistic and reverent welcoming of Thorbjorg in Eirik the Red’s Saga, “when she entered, all men thought it their duty to offer her becoming greetings.”

4Late Medieval People Thought Magic Respectable Science

In the High and Late Middle Ages, ideas such as astrology were part of respectable intellectual discourse. As an example, Albertus Magnus, who was one of the leading theologians in medieval Europe and wrote widely on natural philosophy, believed that stones had special curative powers and astrology was a genuine predictive science.

Many medieval royal and noble courts patronized astrologers and alchemists and even consulted the stargazers about important political decisions.

3Most Witchcraft Trials Were Carried Out By Secular Courts

We often assume that the Inquisition, the body of clergy authorized to combat heretics, played a leading role in witchcraft trials. Although some Inquisitors pursued suspected witches, most witchcraft trials were carried out by the secular authorities.

According to a survey of records of English witch trials, not only were most carried out by the government, but the alleged magic use was to carry out another crime like murder or treason. In 1258, Pope Alexander VI decreed that Inquisitors should not involve themselves in witchcraft cases unless there was a clear element of heretical thought. (However, authors of inquisitorial handbooks, like Bernard Gui, continued to advise inquisitors about how to question and prosecute sorcerers.)

2The 15th Century Started The Panic Around Witchcraft

The 15th century is critical in the history of witchcraft because it laid much of the intellectual foundation for the mass witch hysteria of the early modern period. It also marks a critical departure in legal practice from earlier medieval witch trials. There was a new focus on the alleged nature of the demonic pact that supposedly underlay all sorcery, as opposed to trials focusing on magic as the means by which another crime was committed.

It is in the early 15th century that the notion of the witches’ Sabbath, wherein witches gathered to commune with the devil, became both widely acknowledged as fact and a key element of witchcraft prosecutions. The stories about witches’ Sabbaths may have spread particularly quickly as a result of their strongly sensationalistic and prurient character.

1The Author Of The Malleus Maleficarum Was Unsuccessful In Convicting Witches

Possibly the most famous medieval text on magic, the Malleus Maleficarum was written in the 1480s as a practical guide for conducting your own witch hunts but also to justify its primary author, Heinrich Kramer, and his ideas about magic. Kramer was a member of the Dominican order and an inquisitor active in Germany in the late 15th century. Prior to writing the Malleus Maleficarum, Kramer tried to prosecute suspected witches but provoked outrage from the local citizenry.

Between 1482 and 1484, Kramer was stymied by local churchmen, who objected to his questioning local women about their sex lives in the course of his inquisition. Kramer sought to confirm the authority of inquisitors to investigate witchcraft, and the pope backed him. Even armed with this, he made little headway.

Initially, the Bishop of Innsbruck, Golser, acceded to Kramer. However, Kramer’s heavy-handedness caused the bishop and the local archduke to intervene. Bishop Golser halted the trial and ordered all the suspects to be released. It was only after this failure that Kramer wrote the Malleus, justifying his methods and exaggerating his own successes in witch-hunting.

+ Further Reading

For a further education on witches, warlocks, magic, and more, check out the following lists from our archives:

10 Ancient Books That Promise Supernatural Powers
10 Surprising Facts About Magic And Superstition In Ancient Rome
10 Folk Magic Traditions Of The Early Modern Era
Top 10 Magical Societies

Jim Lyons is a student who is passionate about history, speculative fiction, and traditional music.

Under the heavy influence of the Church, sexual acts during the Middle Ages were policed to an extreme. Despite this state of oppression, people still liked sex. And as you are about to find out, sex during those times was far more interesting than you would expect.

10 Prostitution Was Considered a Necessary Evil

Prostitution was rife throughout the Middle Ages, and while the clergy weren’t happy about it, they made little effort to stop it. Clerics realized that many men needed this outlet and that a lack of prostitution could do more harm than good. They feared that otherwise, men would corrupt respectable women or, even worse, turn to homosexuality.

Despite being tolerated, some ordinances reflected the prostitutes’ lowly standing in society. They were obligated to wear certain types of clothing so that they could be distinguished from respectable ladies. In addition, they had to live in certain areas of the city and had no legal standing in a court of law.^[1] Brothels were usually thinly disguised as bathhouses or craft shops like embroideries, where women could serve as “apprentices.”

9 Impotence Was Grounds for Marriage Annulment

Many European countries during the Middle Ages had laws that regarded consummation as an integral part of the marriage ceremony. Therefore, if someone was unable or unwilling to procreate, their partner could request an annulment. In addition, an inability to perform the marital duty could result in a trial where the man had to prove that he was physically capable of having sex.

There are dozens of reported cases of impotence trials in medieval times.^[2] One of the most famous occurred in 1198, between King Philip II of France and his second wife, Ingeborg, the daughter of the Danish king, Valdemar I. For some reason, Philip hated Ingeborg and didn’t want to have her as queen of France. In a strange twist, the man was actually the one arguing that the marriage had not been consummated, pleading “temporary impotence.”

8 Women Used Contraceptives

Since ancient times, humans have developed numerous techniques to avoid conception. However, until recently, historians believed that usage of contraceptives dropped sharply during the Middle Ages. For starters, the Catholic Church frowned greatly upon them since they saw procreation as a gift from God and the entire reason to get married. Furthermore, scholars believed that women would not be interested in limiting pregnancies due to high infant mortality rates.

However, demographics studies show that pregnancy rates decreased significantly in women over 30, suggesting that they employed various contraceptive methods. Even so, written records of these practices are very scarce due to the Church’s influence and staunch opposition to contraception. Historians believed this created an “oral culture of contraception,” where the “tricks of the trade” were passed down from midwife to midwife. Coitus interruptus was a common birth control method, as were plant-based contraceptives, such as a pessary made out of lily root and rue.^[3]

7 The Church Thought Midwives Forced Women Into Sex With the Devil

The late Middle Ages were characterized, among other things, by prolific witch hunts, which saw tens of thousands of people (mostly women) persecuted for witchcraft. Numerous “suspicious” practices could get you declared a witch, and sometimes, this included midwifery.

Things got worse after Pope Innocent VIII issued the papal bull Summis desiderantes affectibus in 1484, acknowledging the existence of witches and approving their prosecution. In response, inquisitor Heinrich Kramer wrote the Malleus Maleficarum, still considered the most important treatise on witchcraft. Kramer claimed that nobody harmed the Catholic Faith more than midwives.^[4] He accused midwives of tricking young women into having sex with the Devil and then using unbaptized infants for witchcraft.

Despite the influence of the Malleus Maleficarum, many historians now argue that midwives were rarely accused of witchcraft. Although they are mentioned in other demonology texts, “midwives-as-witches” is regarded as a modern myth brought on by works of earlier historians like Margaret Murray.

6 Clergymen Could Sometimes Get Married

During the Middle Ages, the history of clerical marriages is long and convoluted, with numerous changes occurring over the centuries. At the start of the era, Byzantine emperor Justinian annulled all marriages of members of the Holy Order and declared all of their children illegitimate.^[5]

The law of celibacy remained in place for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t always enforced with particular fervor. There was also a distinction made between clergymen who were allowed to marry and married men who were allowed to become clergy. The latter was more common, although typically only if it was their first marriage, and the men were usually expected to show sexual continence once they joined the clerical ranks.

After the Great Schism of 1054, both churches became stricter, and celibacy was enforced again. Clerical marriages were prohibited at the First Council of the Lateran in 1123. These marriages became common again during the Protestant Reformation, as Martin Luther himself was married to Katharina von Bora.

5 Lesbianism Was Considered a Medical Problem

While homosexuality was a “hot topic” during the Middle Ages, attention was usually focused on men. Consequently, there is very little mention of female homosexuality. One of the few medieval laws that specifically target lesbianism comes from the mid-13th-century French treatise Li Livres de jostice et de plet (The Book of Justice and of Pleas). Female sodomy received a similar punishment to its male counterpart: mutilation for the first two offenses and burning for the third.

Lesbianism was regarded as a medical problem brought on by one of two disorders: The first came from the ancient Greek physician Galen, who advised that lack of sex would cause a seed buildup in women’s wombs. The treatment involved an orgasm, generally brought on by a midwife with a hot poultice.^[6] The other condition was called “ragadia of the womb.” It was believed that women could develop penis-like protuberances outside their vaginas, which would make them want to have sex with other women.

4 They Used Sex Toys

While sex toys were not invented during the Middle Ages, they were used. Actually, the first sex toys appear in the archaeological record about 30,000 years ago. They existed in various shapes and sizes, made from a wide range of materials, including stone, wood, ivory, tar, teeth, limestone, and even bones. Art from ancient Egypt depicts dildos—for both men and women. And the ancient Greeks—that’s a whole other list right there. Rather than earlier versions of stone or wood, the Greeks made theirs of leather or animal hair, using olive oil as a lubricant.

During the Middle Ages, dildos were commonly made of bread (something the ancient Greeks also did).^[7] Their use was generally done in secret as not to incur the wrath and punishment of the Church. Women would bake loaves of bread until they were hard enough to be used as dildos. I can’t imagine how that would’ve worked out. They must have hurt…

3 There Was Cross-Dressing

Cross-dressing hasn’t been regarded as an accepted practice until recently, and it’s still frowned upon in many parts of the world. Unsurprisingly, it was taboo in medieval England, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. One Oxford study presented the cases of 13 women who were cited for cross-dressing in England during the 15th century. Records show that male cross-dressing was just as, if not more, prevalent.^[8]

Most cross-dressers tended to be prostitutes who engaged in this practice for their (or their partner’s) sexual desire. Authorities of the time went to great lengths to downplay the pervasiveness of such acts, claiming they were vices from other cultures perpetrated by foreigners.

2 Missionary Was the Preferred Position

The Church considered sex a means to an end for procreation. That’s how missionary became the default position; man-on-top and face-to-face was thought to give the best chances for pregnancy. They feared that any other position might confuse the natural order. Some positions like sex a tergo (from behind) were considered “beastly” and were thought to blur the lines between man and animal.

Church authorities strictly forbade oral and anal sex throughout the Middle Ages. Since there was no chance of procreation, these would have been purely for sexual pleasure, which was viewed as a lustful sin.

As time passed, certain officials became somewhat more progressive. During the 13th century, German friar Albertus Magnus ranked five positions from most to least natural: missionary, side-by-side, seated, standing, and a tergo. While missionary was still the number-one pick, he regarded the others as “morally questionable but not mortally sinful.”^[9]

1 There Were Punishments for Every Sexual Sin

When it came to punishments, the Church wanted to make sure they got things right. That’s why the Middle Ages saw the appearance of penitentials—books detailing the rules for penance for every sin under the sun. They came about from priests who started documenting the sins they heard during confession and the penances set for each one.

Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few sins involving sex. There were also quite a few penitentials, but one of the most influential was the Paenitentiale Theodori by Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury.

According to Theodore, men fornicating with men or with animals had to do penance for 10 years. Women fornicating with women had to do penance for 3 years. Masturbation meant that men had to abstain from meat for four days, while women had to repent for a whole year. This only applied to virgins or widows, as married women earned more penance, of course. Ejaculating seed into the mouth was the worst evil and required penance for life.^[10]

Mankind has always wondered what exists beyond the stars, and searched for signs of intelligent life ‘out there’. It is interesting that when examining new phenomena, we interpret the evidence of our eyes through our previous experiences. Whenever we look at an object, our brains rapidly assess visual clues to make a determination of what we are seeing. Some of these processes will involve ‘implicit cognition’, where our unconscious memory, experience and perception will determine how the brain decides what it is seeing. So that, for example, if we look at a dog, we can recognize it as a dog, even if we have never seen that breed of dog before.^[1]

See Also: 10 Signs That Aliens Could Be Contributing To Our World

However, when the object we see is unlike anything we have encountered before—an alien perhaps, or a UFO—the brain has less data to work with, and so, more of these unconscious cognitive processes will need to be used in order to decode what we are looking at. All the conscious entity of our brain can do, is theorize within its current knowledge base. In order for our brain to put itself to its fullest use, it must rely on these intuitive, and not always reliable, assumptions.

This may be one explanation of why reported alien phenomena often closely corresponds with current beliefs about the world and our place in it.

That’s one explanation. There are, of course, others.

Here are 10 different ‘looks’ that alien-lifeforms have adopted.

10Classical Aliens

The Greek historian, Plutarch gave a written account of an extra-terrestrial sighting on a battlefield during the third Mithidratic war, sometime between 75 and 63 BC. He wrote, “the air opened and appeared a rapidly descending object resembling a flame, which appeared like a vase in shape and like a glowing annealed metal in color. Both armies, frightened by the sighting, withdrew.”

The alien ship seemed, in fact, to resemble a Greek urn.

The Roman historian, Livy, recorded in The History of Rome, written around 27 BC “phantom ships had been seen gleaming in the sky”. Although these ships may have been alien craft, they looked like entirely conventional ships. It is also possible that this sighting was an example of a Fata Morgana optical illusion, where light is refracted through air of different densities, and bends upwards.

Because our eyes view things in a straight line, it can appear that objects, such as a ship, sitting in the sea, can appear to be floating above it.^[2]

9 A War Between Heaven and Hell

In April 1561, the skies over Nuremberg were filled with strange objects, and smoke could be seen rising from the ground, as if some of the objects had crashed.

The scene was captured by Hans Glaser, wood-cutter, which was the medieval equivalent of a photo-journalist. He depicted a variety of shapes, including blood-red crosses, lead-black orbs and a long spear.

The scene was said to have been witnessed by a number of Nuremberg residents, who saw it, naturally enough, as a sign from God. Glaser wrote, “At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise, there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips…”

Which certainly sounds alarming.

He claimed that these objects then began to fight with the sun for more than an hour, each eventually falling burned to the ground. Glazer viewed the phenomenon as a sign that Nurembergians should “mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath.”

Germany had been in the midst of the Protestant Reformation since Martin Luther pinned his 95 Theses to the door of a church in 1517, and God, and the possibility of eternal damnation was never very far from anyone’s mind.^[3]

8Aliens in a Zeppelin 1897

The first airship was built in France in 1852, and the first Zeppelin was built in Germany in 1893, changing aviation’s future from single operator vehicles to a passenger aircraft. The distinctive cigar-shaped body of the Zeppelin was instantly recognizable and the public interest in this revolutionary mode of travel spread around the world.

Beginning in November 1876, and continuing for 20 years, mysterious sightings of cigar-shaped craft were reported across California, Texas and the Great Lakes. In 1897, one of these craft were witnessed by the occupants of a courthouse in Nebraska, including the jury, lawyers and even the judge. It was recorded as having “bright white light and colored lights around it, and was oval shaped with a box-like structure hanging from it and a propeller at the stern”, which sounds rather like a cross between a zeppelin and a hot air balloon. And the judiciary of Harrison, Nebraska, were not alone. Dozens of other sightings were reported, not all of them quite so credible.

In 1897, Alexander Hamilton told how he saw a zeppelin-esque craft with “6 of the strangest beings I ever saw” standing in the basket, winching up one of his cows into the craft and sweeping it from existence. The craft apparently then rose out of sight. Hamilton went so far as to get sworn affidavits of his honesty from his neighbors, and the story spread as quickly as the common cold.

Eventually, however, it was revealed that Hamilton belonged to a liars club, where he was known to be an avid storyteller and his credibility was irrevocably doomed.^[4]

7 Fiery Foo Fighter Nazi Aliens

During World War 2, Germany was rumored to have developed unusual prototype aircraft, and was known to have been experimenting with propulsion technology and rockets. There were several sightings of these fighter air craft, dubbed foo fighters because ‘foo’ meant something ridiculous or strange.

It is certainly true that the Germans have built some strange machines, but these new machines were unlike any other aircraft of the time. They were also made of fire.

Witnesses said the machines were said to be able to rise and hover like a helicopter, with ‘a great power’ used to launch them, and they moved with a speed that was almost as surprising as its combustibility. No other terrestrial machine could match it.

Despite this obvious advantage, the Germans did not seem to capitalise on their invention, and after the war was over, the machines disappeared from sight, said to have been smuggled from their ‘secret underground bases in Antarctica’, where they had been built. This prompted sightings across America.

Whether the Germans had managed to create a technology far in advance of any then known, or whether, as some proposed, they somehow acquired alien technology is unknown.^[5]

6The Original Flying Saucer Aliens

In 1947, flying saucers (and a crescent shaped craft) were spotted over Mount Rainier in Washington. The report was regarded as credible because the witness were two airline pilots, with experience in recognizing aircraft. One of the pilots maintained that, although he had never seen anything like it, he was sure that it must have been an experimental craft built by the government in some top-secret facility. The other was not so sure.

The two airmen, who were pilot and co-pilot on a commercial flight, maintained that the disc-shaped craft were traveling at high speeds. They saw one very large saucer, leading four others. As the first group disappeared over the horizon, another group appeared. They managed to follow the strange ships for 15 minutes, and noticed that they left no vapor trails in their wake.

Luckily, the aliens seemed to have come in peace. The pilot said, ‘Whoever controlled them wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.’

Which makes sense, because advanced civilizations are seldom barbaric, apparently. The descriptions that they gave of the flying saucers were so detailed they have remained in the public consciousness ever since.^[6]

5 The Bright Aliens of Salem

In 1952, America underwent its own alien invasion. There was a wave of sightings, including over the White House itself, and many Americans began to wonder whether judgement day had arrived. For two weeks in July 1952, objects were sighted by pilots, and by radar operators. Fighter jets were even sent to intercept craft, which disappeared as soon as they were approached.

The objects were described as orange balls of fire. President Truman was even said to have asked the Air Force for an explanation. They maintained that the phenomena were caused by mirages due to temperature variations, creating the same Fata Morgana illusions that had been seen in Ancient Rome, mixed with a large dollop of mass hysteria.

A photograph of the mysterious objects was taken in Salem, Mass by a Coast Guard who took the picture through a window. The four craft were also seen by another coastguard.

It has been alleged that the bright elliptical images seen in the picture may be either the result of a deliberate hoax through a double exposure of the negative, or it may simply be the reflection of some rather more home-grown street lights in the glass.^[7]

4 The Original Alien Kidnappers

Up until 1953, alien invaders appear to have been entirely peaceful tourists, just passing through. However, when they, allegedly, kidnapped a US airplane, they seemed to be more predator than hitchhiker.

In November 1953, radio operators in Michigan reported an unidentified target in the restricted airspace of the Great Lakes, which marks the border between America and Canada, and a fighter jet was scrambled from Kinross Air Force Base to investigate.

The pilot and his radar operator reported that they were having problems tracking ‘the bogey’, and air traffic controllers on the ground watched the two blips on the screen, as the fighter plane closed in on its target. The blips grew closer together, and then appeared to merge into each other. It was feared that the two craft had crashed, but they had not.

The unknown craft proceeded on its course into Canadian airspace, and the fighter plane, simply disappeared. No further response was received from the fighter plane, and a search and rescue operation was launched, with Canadian assistance.

No trace was ever found of the plane or its crew, and many theories have been put forward about what happened, including suggestions that the Kinross plane was swallowed up by an alien craft, which then simply flew away.^[8]

3The First Sexual Contact

There are all kinds of encounters with aliens, some of them close, and some very close. Elizabeth Klarer was the first woman to claim to have had an encounter with extra-terrestrials that resulted in the birth of a child.

She had her first alien experience at the age of seven, meeting an alien named Akon, with whom she communicated telepathically. As an adult, living near Johannesburg in South Africa, she witnessed a space ship land on a nearby hilltop (later dubbed Flying Saucer Hill). Her childhood friend Akon was aboard the ship, and waved through a porthole at her, but a ‘barrier of heat’ prevented him leaving the ship.

However, this problem was resolved a few months later when he took her for a tour of his space ship and she was able to see its ‘earth observation lens’, before they were transported to the mothership. When she was returned to the hilltop, Elizabeth and Akon kissed and he revealed that she was, in fact, a reincarnated Venusian and his long-lost soul mate.

The visits continued, and at the age of 49, Elizabeth conceived a child. She apparently delivered the child on the alien’s planet and left him there to be raised by his father (of course). The entire trip, including pregnancy and delivery, took around 4 months. That is, in earth time. In alien time, it was closer to nine years.

However, the time was not wasted, because Elizabeth Klarer came back to earth with a message of ‘cosmic consciousness’, that people should have love, peace and understanding.^[9]

2 The Hitchhiking Aliens

When considering reported sightings, one of the most important factors that investigators consider is the credibility of the eye-witness, so when an Anglican missionary priest reports seeing a UFO, it is worth considering.

In 1959, the Reverend William Booth Gill was working as a missionary in Papua New Guinea when he noticed a ‘sparkling object’ in the sky. For the next four hours the Reverend took notes and watched the light, along with around 30 other witnesses.

After about 45 minutes the light disappeared briefly, then came back, bringing with it 3 smaller objects. The ‘mothership’ then began to emit a blue light, and it came so close to the missionary that he could see 4 alien figures standing on the top of the ship.

They only left when it began to rain. The following night the ships were back, and the 4 figures were again standing on the top of the ship. This time they were waving. Rev Gill waved back. Then they all went to dinner. After all an alien is an alien, but a man has to eat.

The Australian government was so convinced by the missionary’s report and by his credibility as an eye witness, that they ordered an investigation. They concluded that the phenomena probably had a natural cause, and the ‘human shapes’ might be due to variations in ‘cloud density’. Which is a polite way of saying, ‘Cobblers, mate’.

The missionary, however, believed that the aliens may have been stranded and their waving was their way of trying to thumb a lift. Reverend Gill spent much of the rest of his life talking and writing a guide about his experiences.^[10]

1 The First Robotic Alien

Even aliens evolve. While early encounters with aliens seem to have been with exotic but definitely humanoid forms, by 1973 they seem to have morphed into alien-robot type creatures. When police chief Jeff Greenhaw received a call from a woman who said she had seen aliens land in his town, he decided to investigate, sensibly taking his gun and his camera with him.

On his arrival, he found nothing unusual, but as an extra precaution, he searched a dirt road near the site. Then, in his headlights, he noticed a figure walking strangely. Chief Greenhaw was concerned that he was injured. When he drew up alongside him, he realised that the creature was wearing a metallic body-suit that seemed to emit a bright light. The officer asked the stranger if he was ok, but he did not reply. And so, the police officer did what anyone would do, he started taking pictures. However, the flash of the camera seemed to frighten the creature, who ran off into the night with ‘inhuman speed’.

The photographs were examined by experts and were considered legitimate, at least in the sense that they had not been tampered with. They even discovered UFO-like objects on the negatives that could not be seen on the prints.

It does not always pay to be the messenger. Some people felt that he had simply been bored, and he was pranking his community. When the mysterious female caller who had alerted him to the visitor could not be found, he was fired from his job, his wife left him, and his home was mysteriously burned to the ground.

Which is unfortunate for the officer. But, the truth, it seems, is out there. Jeff Greenhaw stuck by his story, and continued to keep a watch over his neighborhood. Which seems sensible, because you just never know when you will need to prepare for an age of extinction.^[11]

The term ‘dark ages’ was coined by a 14th century Italian scholar called Petrarch, and has since been informally used to refer to the period between the fall of Rome and the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe. While historians rarely use the term anymore, many people still hold the notion that it was a period of relative ‘darkness’ in the history of Europe, Middle East, and Asia, when the knowledge and culture gained during the Greek and Romans eras was destroyed and replaced by anarchy and war, until the ‘light’ of the Renaissance.

Of course, as historians are gradually finding out, the period was anything but dark. The so-called Dark Ages was a time of dynamic change across the world, marked by pivotal inventions in mathematics, navigation, manufacturing, architecture, and countless other fields. Some of the most crucial inventions in history directly come from early innovations during this period, from printing to clocks to modern finance.

10. Astrolabe

The idea of the medieval mariner’s astrolabe could be traced back as far as Ancient Greece, though it was only from the sixth century AD that it could be mass-produced for common use. Simply put, an astrolabe is a device used to measure the positions of celestial bodies, initially developed for navigation and later adapted for various astronomical purposes. It was widely used in the Middle Ages across the Arab world, Byzantine Empire, India, and Europe, and then in Islamic Spain around the 10th century. 

The astrolabe would prove to be a groundbreaking invention in the Age of Exploration, when mariners at sea relied on an adapted version called the mariner’s astrolabe for navigation. For the first time in history, they had a device that allowed them to calculate their latitude by measuring celestial bodies like the Pole Star or the Sun. Portuguese seamen used the astrolabe to determine their return trips from West Africa, followed by the famous journeys made by Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus to India and the Americas, respectively. 

9. Eyeglasses

Salvino degli Armati is often credited with the invention of the first eyeglass between 1285 and 1299. While magnifying lenses and other similar innovations had already been made in the Arab world and other places much earlier, Armati’s invention – combined with the rise of the Italian glassblowing industry – allowed it to be produced at a mass scale for the first time in history. 

His eyeglass consisted of two simple convex lenses joined together with a central joint, with a frame made of materials like bone, wood, wire, or leather. Unlike earlier similar prototypes like reading stones, these eyeglasses could be comfortably placed on the nose.

It wasn’t just a revolutionary invention for reading, but also many other inventions further down the road, like the early microscope developed by Zacharias Janssen and his son Hans in the late 16th century. Galileo Galilei further perfected the combination of a concave and convex lens in the compound microscope in 1625.

8. Woodblock Printing

Woodblock printing was invented during the Tang and Song eras in China. It was the beginning of mass dissemination of knowledge and literacy, believed to have emerged around 600 AD from ancient practices of stone seals and inked rubbings. The process would be perfected by the end of the Tang dynasty, involving engraved characters on wooden blocks, inking the blocks, and then transferring the text to paper.

Woodblock printing was soon being used across China for various purposes, including printing books on agriculture, medicine, calendars, and calligraphy. The year 762 was a major milestone in the field of printing, when the first commercially-printed books were sold in Chang’an. 

Despite its importance at the time, however, woodblock printing was time-consuming and laborious. It would take many more years for it to be faster and accessible enough for mass production, which came with the invention of moveable-type printing in the Song era. 

7. Mechanical Clocks

Invented around the 13th century, mechanical clocks marked a significant advancement in timekeeping technology, evolving from ancient water clocks that had been in use for millennia. The key innovation that distinguished mechanical clocks from earlier designs was the escapement mechanism, allowing a steady rhythm of movement with gears to move in a series of equal jumps. 

The true significance of this innovation wasn’t immediately clear to early clockmakers, as it was just an incremental improvement over water clocks at that point. As we know now, it was the beginning of a new age of precision timekeeping, allowing innovations in other fields like navigation. The earliest mechanical clocks quickly spread across the region spanning northern Italy to southern Germany by the late 1200s, eventually completely replacing water clocks as the preferred timekeeping device of the age. Mechanical clocks would play an instrumental role during the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution eras. 

6. Tidal Mills

Tidal mills were an important medieval invention dating back to the seventh century. Primarily used to grind grain with the power of the tides, they were soon extensively used across modern-day England and Ireland. They were strategically placed in low-lying coastal areas or river estuaries for maximum effect, functioning like traditional watermills that relied on tides instead of the wind. 

At their most basic, tidal mills were constructed with a dam equipped with a passageway to control the flow of water, allowing it to enter during high tide and storing it for later use with a water wheel during low tide. The earliest excavated tidal mill was constructed around 619 AD, discovered at the Nendrum Monastery in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland. The concept had gained widespread adoption by the 18th century, when most of the world’s tide mills were concentrated in and around London. 

5. Musical Notations

While musical notations existed in some form as early as the late 10th century, Guido of Arezzo is usually credited as the first musician to come up with staff notations. It’s still the foundational notation system for western music, largely invented by Guido as a tool to notate sacred music during the Middle Ages, as it was a time when sacred melodies were still orally passed on due to the lack of a proper system to record them in manuscript form.

Guido’s system introduced four lines or staff and letters, which wouldn’t make sense to most people but would be an instrumental tool for musicians for centuries to come. His system revolutionized music education and vastly reduced the time required to train singers and instrumentalists. Guido also introduced solmization – a technique that assigned syllables to specific intervals and gave way to the ‘do-re-mi’ system still used in Latin music. 

4. Medieval Castles

It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact origins of the medieval castle, as empires and kingdoms have been building fortified perimeters around their settlements for thousands of years. It’s much easier to trace the medieval European castle that we all recognize, however, which really began to take shape during the ninth century. This transformation was particularly rapid in Western Europe, especially in France, and the castles during this period were usually made with a high mound encircled by a ditch along its circumference. 

While they worked well in the beginning, these early timber fortifications were soon found to be vulnerable to fire weapons and general rot over time. The first stone castles were built by King William after the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Stone castles of all kinds would soon crop up across medieval Europe, as builders and monarchs experimented with new designs and techniques to make them more secure. 

3. Algebra

Algebra is a major branch of mathematics that deals with symbols, variables, and equations. Its origins can be traced back to the works of the Persian mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, during the ninth century. The word ‘algebra’ itself is derived from one of his works, Hisab al-jabr w’al-muqabala, which was arguably the first treatise ever to describe the modern concepts of the field. It was later translated into English as The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, bringing the science to Europe and other places during the Renaissance period.

Muhammad al-Khwarizmi provided systematic solutions for linear and quadratic equations, with real-life applications in fields like calculating inheritance and trade. He worked in the famous House of Wisdom in Baghdad – perhaps the largest library and hub of knowledge in the world at that time.

2. Paper Money

Paper money revolutionized the concept of currency and paved the way for modern finance. While it originated in the Song era in China some time around the 11th century, the idea had already taken root during the Tang Dynasty, when promissory bonds or bills issued by trustworthy agents were already in use on the Silk Road. These were not true paper notes, however, as they still required private individuals to authenticate their value. 

During the Song Dynasty, the state established licensed deposit shops where individuals could deposit coins and receive government-issued notes. The state took direct control of the system in the 12th century, introducing the world’s first government-produced paper currency called jiaozi. These notes were printed with woodblocks, using six colors of ink and varying paper fiber mixes to discourage counterfeiting. 

The Song Dynasty introduced a national currency backed by precious metals in 1265, which could be used across the empire in denominations from one to one hundred strings of coins. While the innovation was short-lived, thanks to the Mongol invasion of 1279, it laid the basis for the extensive system of paper money deployed in the latter Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.

1. Gunpowder

Gunpowder could be called one of the most influential technological innovations in history. It was initially developed by alchemists in Tang-era China in their quest for a true elixir of life. According to legends, one unknown alchemist accidentally came up with the perfect composition for gunpowder some time around 850 AD, using 75 parts saltpeter, 15 parts charcoal, and 10 parts sulfur. It would soon be put to military use, especially against China’s more-formidable enemies like the Mongols. 

The Song Dynasty employed gunpowder in a wide variety of weapons, including ‘flying fire’ type arrows and hand grenades, and even early landmines and flamethrowers. The concept spread further through Mongol conquests, eventually reaching the Middle East and Europe by the 13th century. In the 14th century, Europeans stumbled upon something now known as ‘corned powder’ – an enhanced explosive paste that vastly improved upon the durability and safety of earlier mixtures

[Editors Note: Over the years has published numerous lists pointing out the positive aspects of the so-called “dark ages”. At the time this was a somewhat contrarian view. Not being one to shy away from contradiction and controversy, here we present you with the opposing opinion from a brand-new writer!]

Nowadays, it is all the rage among modern historians to reject the traditional view that the fall of Rome ushered in a “dark age.” This new orthodoxy was popularized by the historian Peter Brown, following publication of his book The World of Late Antiquity in 1971.^[1] Because of his pioneering work in the field of late antiquity, the traditional view, which saw the period following the collapse of Rome until the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 AD as one of catastrophic decline, was replaced with a positive assessment of the intervening centuries as a period of religious and cultural innovation. The problem with this view, as historian and archaeologist Bryan Ward-Perkins explains in his masterful The Fall of Rome (2005), is that it places historians in the unusual position of being at odds with the archaeological evidence.

Top 10 Reasons The Dark Ages Were Not Dark

10 Violence and Bloodshed

The fall of the Western Roman Empire was primarily caused by invading Germanic barbarians and their violent seizure of power. This happened during the fifth century. The barbarians invaded the empire, not out of bitterness toward Rome, but because they envied her abundant material wealth. These invasions would lead to the dismemberment of the empire and shrinkage of the tax base, a devastating blow to the power and prestige of Rome. Without an adequate tax base, it became difficult for Rome to maintain professional armies.

Historian Peter Brown would have you believe these invasions were really a peaceful accommodation between Romans and barbarians. This would have come as a surprise to the people directly affected by the chaos. The reality is the invasions were largely unpleasant and disruptive for those who lived through them. When Rome was besieged by the Goths in 410, the Romans turned to cannibalism to avoid starvation. The violence and devastation of barbarian conquest affected all areas of the empire, some more than others. In Gaul, the violence lasted for almost a century, only ending with the replacement of the Imperial government with Burgundian and Frankish kingdoms by the sixth century.^[2]

9 Most of the Empire was Affected

The Dark Ages were not an isolated phenomenon; they affected most areas of the Roman Empire. However, not everywhere experienced decline at the same time or witnessed similar levels of decline. North Africa, North and Central Italy and Britain were in decline centuries before the Aegean World. In the case of Britain, the decline was particularly drastic. The Romano-Celtic civilization that had once flourished on the island virtually disappeared, returning its inhabitants to a prehistoric level of existence. By the seventh century, all territories formerly under Imperial administration, with the exception of Constantinople and the Levant (which continued to flourish under Arab Muslim rule), had experienced calamitous decline.^[3]

8 The Decline of Economic Complexity

The disappearance of considerable economic complexity, which resulted in the end of prosperity across the empire, is powerful evidence of widespread decline. This was the sophistication of Roman manufacture and distribution of high quality goods, which had benefited most of the empire’s inhabitants. During the fifth century, political infighting among Romans and barbarian invasion had virtually destroyed regional economies, putting an end to complexity.

The disappearance of complexity was by no means uniform; there is some inter-regional variation. By 400 AD, this economic complexity had begun to recede in the West; by 600, the eastern Mediterranean was affected, with the exception of the Levant. Britain had experienced the most drastic decline in terms of economic complexity, sinking below the level of the pre-Roman Iron Age. Europe was not to see the same level of material sophistication that had existed in Roman times until sometime between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, the period otherwise known as the Late Middle Ages.^[4]

7 The Decline of Pottery

The most abundant evidence of Roman decline comes from study of pottery. There are three features of this pottery that were not to return again to the West until centuries later: these are its excellent quality and standardization, its production in massive quantities and its widespread geographical diffusion. High quality Roman pottery was not only found among the rich, but also among the poor.

By the post-Roman period, these three features were no longer in evidence. All sophistication in the production and trading of pottery receded, virtually disappearing in Britain and parts of Spain. The overall quality of Roman pottery had declined, becoming more basic and impractical; the amount of pottery in circulation had decreased substantially and its geographical distribution from the great manufacturing centres, such as those of Roman North Africa, became increasingly restricted.^[5]

6 The Decline of Monumental Building

Additional evidence of Roman decline comes from the study of housing. During Roman times, even the humblest dwellings were made of mortared stone and brick and had tiled roofing. In both urban and rural areas, houses with marble and mosaic flooring, underfloor heating and piped water were ubiquitous. In the post-Roman Mediterranean region, use of stone and brick to build dwellings had declined significantly. Most domestic housing was largely made of perishable materials: timber walls, dirt floors and thatched roofing.

Bryan Ward-Perkins tells us all new buildings constructed during the fifth and sixth centuries in Britain were made of perishable materials. The church and monasteries of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, built towards the end of the seventh century, are among the first stone structures in England since the Roman period. To build these structures, the Northumbrian abbot Benedict Biscop had to import artisans from Gaul because there was no one in Britain trained in masonry and glazing. The Venerable Bede (673-735) writes:

“After the interval of a year, Benedict crossed the sea into Gaul, and no sooner asked than he obtained and carried back with him some masons to build him a church in the Roman style, which he had always admired. … When the work was drawing to completion, he sent messengers to Gaul to fetch makers of glass, (more properly artificers,) who were at this time unknown in Britain, that they might glaze the windows of his church, with the cloisters and dining-rooms. This was done, and they came, and not only finished the work required, but taught the English nation their handicraft … All other things necessary for the service of the church and the altar, the sacred vessels, and the vestments, because they could not be procured in England, he took especial care to buy and bring home from foreign parts”.

Bryan Ward-Perkins tells us that in post-Roman Italy, only kings and bishops continued to enjoy a Roman-level standard of living in terms of housing.^[6]

Top 10 Reasons We Should Revive the Dark Ages

5 The Decline of Metalworking

Recent evidence from ice caps in Greenland reveals the presence of large-scale manufacturing operations in Roman times. By reconstructing the history of atmospheric pollution from ice cores, researchers have determined that lead, copper and silver smelting was actually quite widespread during antiquity. Research shows this metalworking declined significantly, returning to prehistoric levels in the post-Roman period. It was not to reach Roman levels again until the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, which is around the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.^[7]

4 The Decline of Coinage as a Medium of Exchange

During Roman times, coinage in gold, silver and copper was abundant. Its use as a medium of exchange was a common feature of daily life. Not only did the rich have access to coinage, the poor did so as well. By post-Roman times, the use of coinage had almost totally disappeared in Britain. Excavation of archaeological sites without Roman phases of occupation and settlement rarely uncover evidence of coin usage.

In the western Mediterranean, the decline of coinage was less dramatic. From the fifth to seventh centuries, copper coins were rarely issued and circulated. The main exception to this pattern of decline was the city of Rome itself, where large numbers of copper coins were still in circulation. In the eastern Mediterranean, with the exception of Constantinople and the Levant, the use of coinage had become scarce by the seventh century.^[8]

3 The Decline of Literacy

Although it is impossible to assess the prevalence of literacy among ancient Romans, we can say with confidence that reading and writing were widespread. Inscriptions such as dedications and funerary epitaphs and casual writing, such as graffiti, were ubiquitous in urban areas and not unknown in rural. Some of these inscriptions were humorously obscene. In a Pompeian lupanar or brothel, one happy customer scribbled on a wall:

“Here Phoebus the perfume-seller had a really good f———”.

Certain sectors of Roman society were heavily dependent on the written word. Reading and writing were common among members of the imperial bureaucracy and army. Things had to be labelled and counted, collected and distributed, making the ability to read and write virtually indispensable. Like Roman officials, aristocrats were also expected to be literate. Basic functional literacy was not enough; the aristocrat needed to be well-versed in Greek and Latin language and literature. Among the Roman upper classes, we can be certain illiteracy was rare.

This state of affairs changed in the post-Roman period. In Anglo-Saxon Britain, literacy vanished completely. In the western Mediterranean, the numerous stamps, seals and inscriptions that had once characterized Roman commercial and military life almost disappeared. Casual writing, such as Phoebus’ graffiti (mentioned above), became rare. Because the world had become simpler, reading and writing were no longer needed in daily life.

In contrast to the high literacy of the Roman aristocracy, it was not uncommon for rulers in the barbarian West to be illiterate. Even a great ruler like Charlemagne struggled to master the Latin alphabet. The clergy was the only segment of early medieval society with anything approaching a high degree of literacy.^[9]

2 The Almost Total Loss of Ancient Learning

By 500 AD, copies of most Latin authors were still easily obtainable in Rome and other areas of the West, despite the ravages of war and the neglect and hostility of Christian intellectuals. However, by the post-Roman period, the transmission of pagan Latin manuscripts had virtually ceased. In their 1983 book Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, Reynolds and Marshall observe:

“The copying of classical texts tapered off to such an extent during the Dark Ages that the continuity of pagan culture came close to being severed”.

For the Greek East, most pagan literature was lost because of both economic factors and Christian hostility. In his 1991 book Kallimachos: The Alexandrian Library and the Origins of Bibliography, Classicist Rudolf Blum estimates that one percent of all classical Greek literature has come down to us.

The loss of ancient literature was both substantial and virtually unprecedented in the history of antiquity. Scholars estimate that between 1 to 10% of all ancient literature survived the Dark Ages.^[10]

1 The Vanishing Population of Post-Roman Europe

Field surveys conducted north of the city of Rome indicate a sharp decrease in the number of rural settlements in the post-Roman period. This is not necessarily definitive evidence of widespread depopulation, as most buildings were made of perishable materials in post-Roman times.

There is, however, some evidence of declining agricultural output, of the kind needed to support a large urban population. Cows increased in size from the Iron Age to the Roman period, then decreased in size during the early medieval period to prehistoric levels, suggesting large-scale contraction of the food supply. Although tentative, the preponderance of the evidence points to declining agricultural productivity and with it, a corresponding decrease in population size across post-Roman Europe.^[11]

Top 10 Signs We Are Entering A New Dark Age

The Middle Ages spanned from roughly AD 500 to AD 1500. It was a period filled with famine, plague, and war. Ruled by the king, the people of medieval England lived under a feudal system heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church.

During the Middle Ages, both laws and the penalties for breaking them were very different from the ones we are familiar with today. From football being outlawed to the practice of witchcraft being punishable by death, here are ten ludicrous laws from the Middle Ages that, thankfully, are no longer in place.

Related: Top 10 Ridiculous Laws That Are Still Enforced Across The World

10 Playing Football Was Forbidden

While football players today have a reputation of being dramatic over the smallest of injuries, their predecessors were the exact opposite. Medieval football was a violent game. While there were not as many rules, there was a lot more bloodshed. Rather than a ball, an inflated pig’s bladder was kicked up and down the entire length of a village, with the goals sometimes miles apart. Players could kick and punch both the bladder and their opponents, resulting in many injuries and the occasional death.

Football was banned in 1349 by Edward III, not because he was concerned about public health but rather about national security. Not only was England at war with France in 1349, but the country was also suffering the loss of many lives due to the Black Death, a global epidemic of the bubonic plague. Edward III wanted his remaining, healthy men to be focused on their archery practice rather than getting distracted by football. The punishment for playing football was six days imprisonment.^[1]

9 Blowing One’s Nose Was Illegal

Newmarket, a town in the English county of Suffolk, is known as the birthplace of horse racing. The practice dates back to the 12th century, but James I popularized it after building a palace there in 1606, which drew in a lot of people.

Over time horse racing in Newmarket grew into a large business, and the town was forced to establish laws to protect the horses, including one that made it illegal for people to blow their noses in the street. This was to reduce the risk of the horses getting sick. What a nightmare it must have been for people with hay fever!

Blowing one’s nose wasn’t the only thing that could get a person in trouble. Anyone walking around with a head cold or temperature had to pay a fine. Obviously, Horse racing was a serious business.^[2]

8 You Had to Have Your Master’s Permission to Get Married

Today, it’s daunting enough having to ask the father of your partner for their child’s hand in marriage. While this practice is done out of respect, the answer given does not decide your future, and you can still get married—even if the father does not give his blessing. This, however, was not the case in the Middle Ages.

Societal rank played a large role in medieval life, especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid. Peasants and serfs working and living under landowners essentially had no freedom. A man wanting to get married not only had to get the father”s permission but also their landowner’s.

For a woman, the situation was even worse. If her husband died, the landowner could force them to marry another man in a relatively short amount of time. If they refused, they could receive punishment. ^[3]

7 Wearing Long, Pointy Footwear Was Forbidden

Fifteenth-century Britain was a time of flamboyance. Along with short shirts, long, pointy-ended shoes known as crackows, or pikes, had become the height of men’s fashion. It was believed that the longer the toe, the more masculine and rich the wearer, so much so that shoes sometimes extended up to five inches beyond the toe. This led to the ends occasionally having to be tied around the wearer’s ankles.

As the fashion continued growing and peasants began wearing more extravagant clothing, the English crown finally decided to step in. They wished to preserve the feudal hierarchy and stop people from dressing above their social rank. Between 1463 and 1604, a law passed that said that “No knight under the rank of a lord, esquire, or gentleman, nor any other person, shall wear any shoes or boots having spikes or points which exceed the length of two inches.” The punishment was a fine of three shillings and four pence, which is just over US$136.^[4]

6 People Could No Longer Eat More Than Two Courses

In the Middle Ages, there were many sumptuary laws that restricted what people could eat and drink. They were intended to reduce excessive eating and prevent people of lower social status from matching the lifestyles of those above them.

In 1336, a law banned that people, no matter their rank, shall be served a meal with no more than two courses. Soup, it made sure to specify, counted as a full course meal and wasn’t just a sauce. The exception to the law was on certain festivals, such as Christmas, where three courses were allowed.^[5]

5 Commit a Crime, Go through an Ordeal

In medieval England, the peasants had strength in their numbers. To stay in power and prevent revolts, the upper-class authorities made it so that even the smallest of crimes committed had harsh penalties. The idea of this was to make the poor fear stepping out of line. Even petty crimes (theft, disturbing the peace—which often meant the king—or vagrancy) sometimes resulted in harsh punishments, from flogging to having some part of the body cut off (hands were quite common). Until 1215, even being accused of a crime resulted in the punishment of enduring an ordeal that revealed a person’s innocence or guilt.

There were three ordeals:

Ordeal by fire: The accused held a red-hot iron bar in their hands and walked three meters. After three days of being bandaged up, the wound on the hand would be looked at to determine the accused’s fate. If it was healing, they were innocent; if it wasn’t, they were guilty.

Ordeal by water: The accused was tied up and thrown into a body of water. If they sank, they were innocent. If they floated, it was seen that the river had not accepted them, and, therefore, they were guilty.

Ordeal by combat: This was combat between the accused and accuser. It was believed that God would give strength to the innocent. It must be noted that the fight often ended in the loser’s death.

The practice of ordeals was declared over by the Pope in 1215 and was replaced by a jury process.^[6]

4 No Sex on Certain Days of the Week

Throughout the Middle Ages, there were a number of religious laws that tried to restrict when a person could have sex. In an average seven-day week, a married couple could only have sex on four of the days. Days in which sex was prohibited included Thursday and Friday because people were supposed to prepare for Holy Communion and Sunday—because it was the Lord’s day.

And that wasn’t all. Throughout the year, there were many other periods where sex was banned, including 47 to 62 days during Lent, the 35 days before Christmas, and the time around the Feast of Pentecost, which could be anywhere from 40 to 60 days.

Medieval people believed that eye contact was an important part of sexual attraction. It was said that “the eye was not a passive receiver but was instead active in sending out rays of sight toward the object of vision. The very act of looking could stimulate desire in the observer and the observed.” Women were advised to be careful about when they looked at men—so as to not tempt them at the wrong time.^[7]

8 Playing Tennis Was Forbidden

Football wasn’t the only sport banned in the Middle Ages. In 1485, it became illegal for young men who weren’t nobles to play tennis, with the only exception being on Christmas day. Medieval tennis was believed to disrupt labor and encourage gambling in workers because participants were left in unsupervised situations without their masters around.

The banning of tennis in the lower classes helped to maintain the feudal hierarchy. Tennis began to be seen as an exclusively upper-class sport because it needed expensive equipment and required an understanding of complex rules and social etiquette.

Tennis eventually became known as “the sport of kings,” with Henry VII and Henry VIII both apparently very into the game. A Venetian Ambassador who watched Henry VIII play in his youth said, “It was the prettiest thing in the world to see him play; his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture.” Thankfully today, tennis can be played by all.^[8]

2 Blasphemy Resulted in the Loss of One’s Tongue

In the Middle Ages, people had to watch their tongues, both physically and metaphorically, to avoid breaking the religious law regarding blasphemy, the action of speaking ill about God or sacred things. The law was put in place by the medieval Catholic Church to maintain control and order.

The church viewed blasphemy as a severe crime and gave it an equally severe punishment. The penalty for blasphemers was harsh. Often a person would be bound and tied while their tongue was removed with hot pliers, leaving them mute for the rest of their lives. Other punishments included stoning and hangings.^[9]

1 Practicing Witchcraft Was Punishable by Death

In the Middle Ages, people did not understand how many things worked around them, especially natural phenomena, as much was unknown to the scientific world. Humans, in general, do not like uncertainty, and the people of the Middle Ages were no different. Usually, God was their answer for things that could not be explained. However, when it came to naturally occurring ill-fortunes such as sickness, bad harvests, and the deaths of animals, they blamed witches because God, in their eyes, could not do evil.

Witches were believed to be able to summon evil spirits and demons, but in reality, they were usually just poor, elderly women who owned a cat. While widespread witch trials throughout Europe didn’t reach their peak until the late fifteenth century, certain women were ostracized and punished when seen as different.

In 1542, the Witchcraft Act was passed by parliament and established that witchcraft was a crime punishable by death. Witch-hunting became huge after that, especially in southeast England, and it is believed that over 500 people were put to death between the 15th and 18th centuries.^[10]

In 2022, cannibalism became a popular subject again for mass media purposes. First, there was the 2022 three-part series House of Hammer about disgraced actor Armie Hammer who was accused of sexual abuse and cannibalistic fantasies. Then there were shows like Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Yellowjackets as well as the movies Fresh and Bones and All.

Cannibalism is nothing new, though. Shakespeare even tackled the subject in Titus Andronicus. By and large, cannibalism involves one adult eating another. However, there’s a long, dark, and forgotten corner of history about cannibals eating children. This article examines some of the most terrifying cases from the medieval ages about filial cannibalism or the cannibalism of children.

10 The People of Lamuri

Odoric of Pordenone is a Franciscan friar who lived from 1286 to 1331 and documented his travels during the 14th century. Odoric’s reports were subsequently popularized and even later plagiarized by Sir John Mandeville, who is likely to have never left his abbey or dispensary.

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville are how great minds like Columbus, da Vinci, and Shakespeare first learned about the wonders of the ancient East.

One of the many places that Odoric visited was Lamuri, a kingdom in northern Indonesia that lasted until the beginning of the 16th century. The area is believed to be one of the earliest places where Islam arrived in the Indonesian archipelago.

During Odoric’s travels, he passed through Lamuri, which is derived from the medieval Arabic word for the area of Sumatra, where the population traded. The populace of Lamuri walked around without clothing and made fun of Odoric for his clothes. The people of Lamuri also did not believe in marriage, sharing all women among each other. Odoric, however, noted that the people of Lamuri had one “wicked habit”: children were bought if adequately “plump” or reared until they were bigger. The people of Lamuri commented to Odoric that child flesh was the “sweetest meat in the world.”^[1]

9 The Siege of Ma’arra

The Siege of Ma’arra occurred in late 1098 in what is now Syria during the First Crusade. After capturing Antioch, Crusaders moved to the south and began raiding and pillaging each town they found, which is where they encountered the city of Ma’arra on December 11, 1098. It was a peaceful city whose economy was based on the growth of olives, figs, and grapes. Ma’arra was subsequently devastated by the Crusaders, who killed thousands of people.

But Ma’arra was also the site of cannibalism. Radulph of Caen, who chronicled the genocide, observed that adults classified as pagans were boiled in pots while children were impaled on spits, then grilled and eaten. Fulcher of Chartres, another observer at the time, wrote that the Crusaders, driven by hunger, removed the buttocks from corpses found in the city, which they then cooked and ate mostly rare.^[2]

8 The Waldenses

The Waldenses began as a Christianity movement in France during the late 1170s. The group was named after its founder, Peter Waldo, who was a wealthy Lyon merchant. Waldo had heard a troubadour sing about St. Alexius, the patron saint of beggars and pilgrims. This song, combined with the loss that Waldo experienced at the sudden death of his friend, led him to believe that all his belongings were worthless. This led him to give away his property to the poor and begin street preaching.

The Waldenses were persecuted heavily throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1655, the Duke of Savoy ordered the Waldenses to attend Mass or be removed from their homes. The Waldenses had twenty days to sell their land. The Waldenses chose to leave their homes and move to the upper valley, which required them to make a trek through the Alps in the middle of winter. The Duke sent his troops after the Waldenses and required the Waldenses to allow the troops into their homes, which gave the troops easy access to the group.

On April 24, 1655, a signal for a massacre was given, known as the Piedmont Easter. Writer Peter Liegé observed that children were separated from their mothers, clasped by their feet, and smashed against rocks or held between two soldiers and torn apart. During the Piedmont Easter, troops also cooked the arms and legs of people, including children. Other people were roasted alive.^[3]

7 The Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty ruled China from 1368 to 1644, during which time China’s population increased substantially. The Ming Dynasty is remembered for expanding trade, creating long-lasting drama and literature, and making porcelain.

The Ming Dynasty popularized a practice that had become popular during the earlier Tang Dynasty. In the 700s, a physician, Ch’en Tsang-ch’I, became the first Chinese doctor on record to prescribe human flesh for various ailments. Three requirements were necessary before the good doctor prescribed human flesh. First, the act must be voluntary—the donor had to donate parts of themselves for this intended purpose. Second, the donor and the recipient needed to bear a close relationship, which often meant that the donor was a child or child-in-law. And finally, the recipient could not know they were consuming human flesh, so the flesh was disguised in ordinary food.^[4]

6 The Great Famine of 1315

In the 14th century, cold weather and famine in England led to the Great Famine of 1315 to 1322. Before the cold came, Europe pushed itself to the limits of its resources. Four centuries of mild temperature led the country’s farmers to grow crops on vast quantities of land that were previously not suitable for agriculture. This led to an increased food supply which led to a population explosion and tripled the number of people in Europe. When these lands stopped being able to produce food due to frosts and floods, millions of extra mouths needed to be fed. This led to civil wars and rebellions. Two harvest failures in 1314 and 1315 turned into years of famine.

While all of Europe was hit, Europe’s towns were where the Great Famine hit the worst. Corpses piled up in streets, bodies were flung into open pits, and countless stories abound of cannibalism and child abandonment. The cannibalism of children was so common during this time that the folk tale “Hansel and Gretel” was created.^[5]

5 The Tupinambá

The Tupinambá are a group of South American Indians who speak the Tupian language and live on the eastern coast of Brazil. In the past, the group lived in villages that ranged in size from 400 to 1,600 people who supported themselves by farming and fishing in the ocean. War among the Tupinambá was a common occurrence. The group was focused on war and is alleged to have practiced cannibalism.

Manuel de Nóbrega was a Jesuit priest who lived from 1517 to 1570 and founded the Jesuit mission in Brazil. Nóbrega wrote in his book Reports on the Lands of Brazil that the Tupinambá only waged war out of hatred for the enemy. Nóbrega wrote that the Tupinambá fought one another and that when enemies were captured, they were kept as prisoners. At the same time, their daughters were taken as wives, and the prisoners were then killed with great celebration. They smoked corpses in the fire and then ate them. If the enemies left children, these were eaten too.^[6]

4 The Caribs

The Caribs are indigenous people on the northern coast of South America. Today, the Caribs live in villages along the shores of Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, and French Guiana and speak a language called Carib. Christopher Columbus was the first to report on cannibalism among the Caribs. Amerigo Vespucci wrote that the Caribs ate little meat except that which came from humans and that the Caribs ate all of their enemies, whether man or woman.

Observing the Caribs, Padre Augustin de Frias wrote that the Caribs from the Guarapiche/Guanipa area chose to eat young children instead of prisoners. The Caribs in this area also practiced a form of euthanasia in which the elderly were eaten so they would not have to face a lingering death. Some historians argue that these practices were merely the result of propaganda against Indigenous people, though, who resisted the Spanish.^[7]

3 The Aztecs

The Aztecs began sacrificing humans in the early fourteenth century. At first, sacrifices were uncommon but grew in number as time passed and the empire expanded. The Aztec sacrifice of humans was inspired by the idea that the human body contained energy that kept the sun in motion through the sky and subsequently renewed time, crops, and human lives.

During Aztec sacrifices, human hearts were offered to the sun, and blood was smeared on the walls to make sure Aztec temples were coated with energy. In addition to men and women, children were sacrificed too in the first quarter of the Aztec year. Children were purchased from their parents specifically to be sacrificed. Hernando Cortes’s man allegedly came across roasted babies, which the Aztecs carried as provisions but abandoned when they noticed the Spaniards.^[8]

2 The Korowai

The Korowai tribe of Papa New Guinea practices a type of revenge cannibalism that impacts children. The Korowai were in full swing during the Middle Ages and, for centuries, have believed in sorcery, witchcraft, and revenge on a widespread social level. Abnormal behavior among the Korowai can lead a person to be accused of participating in sorcery. Additionally, because the culture has had no breakthroughs regarding medicine and health, they have their own methods for explaining sicknesses.

Before someone passes away in the Korowai tribe, they might claim that they know who the sorcerer is. This might lead to a child being named. After the person’s death, the alleged sorcerer is then found, made to stand in a clearing, shot with arrows, cooked, and eaten. The alleged sorcerer’s body is then dismembered and placed on branches to warn others.^[9]

1 The Siege of Suiyang

China’s An Lushan Rebellion started in 755. The following year, the rebel Yan army had control of most of northern China. In 757, emperor An Qinxu ordered general Yin Ziqi to take control of Suiyang (which is the current day site of Shangqiu, Henan) because the city was situated between two major ones. Yin Ziqi’s 130,000-man army then took control of Suiyang while fighting against Zhang Xun and the Xu Yuan army of around 6,800 men.

Through clever tactics, Zhang Xun was able to kill around 5,000 Yan troops at first. Zhang Xun then killed general Yin Ziqi, which greatly disorganized the Yan army. In 16 days, the Yan army had lost around 20,000 men, which led Yin Ziqi to order a retreat. Yin Ziqi returned to take Suiyang later with 20,000 new men. The Xu Yuan and Zhang Xun had prepared for the battle by storing food inside the city of Suiyang. This was lessened when it was shared with neighboring kingdoms. Soldiers received very small rations. Zhang Xun was soon left fighting 1,600 soldiers who were starving and sick. The soldiers grew further desperate without outside help. Before long, Zhang Xun’s men were eating tree bark, tea leaves, and paper.

The dwellers of Suiyang during this time traded their children to eat and cook corpses. Zhang Xun even killed his concubine in front of his soldier and proceeded to cook and consume her flesh. When the woman was eaten, the troops ate the old and young. Before long, there were no more people to eat. Eventually, Suiyang fell to the rebels, and Zhang Xun was captured.^[10]