Middle Ages
Oseberg Ship Burial (834): Norway's Finest Viking Ship Grave
The richest known Viking Age grave was excavated in 1904; its ship and finds are among the best-preserved objects of the period.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Viking Dublin (841): The Norse Longphort on the Liffey
A Norse fortified base was established at Dublin; it grew into Ireland's leading town and a centre of the Viking trade in slaves and silver.
Middle Ages
Battle of Fontenoy (841): Charlemagne's Heirs at War
Victory for Louis the German and Charles the Bald; Lothar retreated, leading to the Oaths of Strasbourg and the Treaty of Verdun.
Middle Ages
Oaths of Strasbourg (842): The Earliest Text in Old French
Louis and Charles sealed their alliance against Lothar; the oaths survive as the oldest text in early French and an early text in Old High German.
Middle Ages
Kenneth MacAlpin (c. 843): Picts, Scots and the Birth of Alba
Kenneth became king of the Picts; his descendants ruled the kingdom later called Alba, the core of medieval Scotland.
Middle Ages
Treaty of Verdun (843): How Charlemagne's Empire Was Divided
The empire was split into West Francia, Middle Francia and East Francia; Lothar kept the imperial title but lost overall authority.
Middle Ages
Viking Sack of Paris (845): Reginherus and the Danegeld
The Vikings plundered Paris and left after Charles the Bald paid them 7,000 pounds of silver and gold.
Middle Ages
Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution (845): Emperor Wuzong's Purge
Buddhist monasteries were closed and their wealth seized; foreign religions were banned; the policy was largely reversed after Wuzong died in 846.
Middle Ages
Arab Raid on Rome (846) and the Building of the Leonine Wall
The raiders plundered the basilicas outside Rome's walls; Pope Leo IV then enclosed the Vatican with the Leonine Wall (848-852).
Middle Ages
Great Mosque of Samarra: The Spiral Minaret of the Abbasids
A vast congregational mosque with a spiral minaret was completed in the Abbasid capital; its ruins and the Malwiya survive as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Middle Ages
Invention of Gunpowder in China: From Elixir to Weapon
Gunpowder became a standard Chinese military material by the 11th century and, via the Mongol era, spread to the Islamic world and Europe.
Middle Ages
Banu Musa Brothers and the Book of Ingenious Devices
The brothers produced the earliest surviving Arabic treatise on mechanical devices and influential works on geometry, and became leading patrons of science in Baghdad.