Meet the Middle Ages

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Meet the Middle Ages in Tjust
Find your own Middle Ages
Places to visit in Tjust
Experience the Middle Ages
Most people were peasants
How do we know so much about the Middle Ages?

Meet the Middle Ages in Tjust
What was it like to be one of Bo Jonsson Grip ´s tenant farmers in 1380? What was life at the farm like? What did the farm-house, meadows, cattle look like? How were relations with Bo and his bailiff? What was it like when you came to pay your taxes, or to re-write your lease? How often did one go to town? What did one buy?

What was life like at Vinäs? How was an ordinary week-day for the servants and maids? What was it like when Sir Bo lived there, when he entertained royalty and noblemen in his hall?

How did one live at Stäkeholm? Soldiers, wars, feasts? How did merchants and craftsmen live in Västervik? What was it like to live on the coast, with fishing and hard weather? Did one eat a lot of fish?

Imagine your own life in the Middle Ages. Choose an event, find facts and write your own medieval story. Re-create medieval life at a historical site near your school or home.

 

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Find your own Middle Ages
Tjust has many historical sites, but they are not always easy to find. In some places, though, there are still visible remnants from the Middle Ages. Make an imaginary trip to these sites, perhaps relatives of yours lived there long ago! Medieval farmland still exist in many places, but it can be quite difficult to spot. In Tjust, many farmers were fishers as well, and traces of their settlements can still be found on the coast and on the archipelago islands. Visit your church to find out if parts of it are medieval.

 

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Places to visit in Tjust:

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Experience the Middle Ages
Re-create medieval life at a farm, manor or castle. Historical sites can be found in a lot of places. Try old crafts and prepare a Medieval meal. Kalmar County Museum can help you with suggestions and give you practical advice on how to arrange and prepare a medieval day. The museum has many years ´ experience of historical/educational events.

 

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Most people were peasants.
In the Middle Ages, almost everybody was a farmer. However, none of the houses of the medieval farmers have survived in Tjust. New land has been cleared and new houses have been built where these farms once lay. Medieval farmland is still to be found here and there. Even though the farm-houses are gone, perhaps you can imagine what it would be like to be a farmer ´s son or daughter in the 14th century.

"During the morning, the fishing-boats will come in. Now, you and your mother have work to do. You must take care of the catch. You will also help to clean the fishing-nets. The catch has been a good one, mostly perch and flounder. Most of it will be salted, but some is cleaned to be eaten straight away. You boil the fresh fish as your mother lays the table with dishes, bowls and jugs. Your father and brother are laughing outside the house where they are cleaning the nets. Why are they laughing? They seem very secretive. When you sit down to eat, your father asks your mother whether she is pleased with today ´s catch. She looks surprised, but says that she is pleased enough. Your father, who has been hiding his hand behind his back, now shows what he has hidden – a beautiful amber necklace. Everyone at the table is astonished – never have they seen such a beautiful piece of jewellery! Your father gives it to your mother as he tells of how it was found in the fishing-net! How did it get there? Has someone lost it from a large ship? Is there a shipwreck in the archipelago?"

 

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How do we know so much about the Middle Ages?
To learn about what it was like in other times one has to read old books. One must also do archaeological excavations or digs. This means that one digs the earth in places where people have lived or been. One might find foundations of houses or churches, pieces of pottery, parts of a boat or remains of a meal. These objects will be cleaned carefully and a drawing will be made of it and of the place where it was found.

If, for example, one is digging a site where once a fortified manor lay, one might find combs, a leather shoe, cups and a die. Then one knows that the people who lived there combed their hair, wore shoes, drank and played games.

Most medieval houses were wooden, so by now most of them have disappeared. Not many houses were built of brick and stone, but some of these still exist.

Objects and buildings keep for different lengths of time, depending on where they are left. If a wooden bowl is left in a place where air or perhaps animals come into contact with it, it may be destroyed rather quickly. If, however, this bowl has fallen into a well or lake, it might keep for hundreds and hundreds of years The preservation of an object also depends on what kind of material the it is made of. A woollen dress will disappear much faster than a nail made of iron.

The things we find from the Middle Ages are just a tiny part of all the things that existed at the time. The objects that we do find are those that are not so easily destroyed. The archaeologist who is digging must be thinking: Why do I find this object here? What other things might have been here before they disappeared? The work of an archaeologist is a bit like that of a detective. There are many ways to find out how old something is.

From the Middle Ages we have manuscripts – for example law-books, annuals (the "Tänkebok") and the Revelations of St. Birgitta. When one reads medieval manuscripts one can learn what people thought on different matters. There are even history books written in the Middle Ages!

 

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