Middle Ages
Chaco Canyon and Pueblo Bonito: Ancestral Puebloan Centre
Chaco became the centre of a regional system of great houses and roads, then declined during drought in the twelfth century as population shifted north.
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
Igbo-Ukwu Bronzes: Ninth-Century Masterpieces of Nigeria
Excavations revealed hundreds of finely cast leaded-bronze objects, rewriting the history of metalworking and trade in West Africa.
Middle Ages
Prambanan: Java's Great Hindu Temple Compound
The Mataram kingdom built the largest Hindu temple compound in Indonesia, a complex of 240 shrines centred on a 47-metre temple to Shiva.
Middle Ages
Foguang Temple (857): China's Surviving Tang Wooden Hall
The East Hall survived more than eleven centuries and, after its identification in 1937, became the key evidence for Tang dynasty timber architecture.
Middle Ages
Rus Attack on Constantinople (860): First Clash With Byzantium
The Rus plundered the suburbs and islands around Constantinople and withdrew; the city itself was not taken.
Middle Ages
Rurik (862): The Varangian Prince and the Founding of Rus
According to tradition, Rurik became ruler of Novgorod and founded the Rurikid dynasty, which ruled Rus and later Muscovy until 1598.
Middle Ages
Cyril and Methodius (863): Apostles to the Slavs and Glagolitic
The brothers created the first Slavic alphabet and literary language; their disciples carried this legacy to Bulgaria, where the Cyrillic script emerged.
Middle Ages
Great Heathen Army (865): The Viking Invasion of England
The army destroyed the kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia; only Wessex survived, and Scandinavian settlement created the Danelaw.
Middle Ages
Jorvik: Viking York and the Coppergate Excavations (866)
York became the capital of a Scandinavian kingdom and a major trading town; the Coppergate dig of 1976-1981 revealed its everyday life in exceptional detail.
Middle Ages
Diamond Sutra of 868: The World's Oldest Dated Printed Book
The scroll survived in a sealed cave for about 900 years and is now recognised as the earliest complete printed book bearing a date.
Middle Ages
Martyrdom of King Edmund of East Anglia (869)
Edmund was killed and East Anglia fell to the Danes; he was soon venerated as a martyr, and his shrine grew into the abbey of Bury St Edmunds.
Middle Ages
Zanj Rebellion (869-883): Slave Revolt in Abbasid Iraq
After fourteen years of war the Abbasid regent al-Muwaffaq captured the rebel capital al-Mukhtara in 883 and killed Ali ibn Muhammad, ending the revolt.