🏰 #11 answers: Middle Ages Day

Most of the 12th-century Lewis chessmen, found on a Scottish island, are carved from walrus ivory.

They were found on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland in 1831. A few are made from whale teeth instead.

“The Lewis chessmen (Scottish Gaelic: Fir-thàilisg Leòdhais [fiɾʲˈhaːlɪʃkʲ loː.ɪʃ]) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory.”

The chess queen began as a weak piece that could only move one square diagonally.

She got her modern powers in 15th-century Spain.

“The predecessor to the queen is the ferz, a weak piece originating from the Persian game of shatranj, able to move or capture only one step diagonally.”

Vikings reached North America around 1,000 years ago, and the remains of a Norse settlement survive in Newfoundland.

The site, L'Anse aux Meadows, was first dug in the 1960s.

“L'Anse aux Meadows is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago.”

The idea of a spherical Earth goes back to ancient Greek philosophy, more than 2,000 years before Columbus.

Greek scholars even estimated Earth's size.

“The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in ancient Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC).”

The first eyeglasses were developed in northern Italy in the second half of the 1200s.

The arms that hook over your ears weren't invented until the 1700s.

“The development of the first glasses took place in northern Italy in the second half of the 13th century.”

Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, invented his printing press around 1440, changing how books were made.

Printed books spread much faster than copies made by hand.

“The printing press was invented by the German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, and its subsequent global spread revolutionized literary production and communication during the early modern period.”

At Donegal Castle, people believed that ammonia from the toilet would protect their cloaks from moths.

That's one reason clothes were kept near the castle toilet, the 'garderobe'.

“A description of the garderobe at Donegal Castle indicates that while it was in use, it was believed that ammonia—a byproduct of excretion—would protect visitors' coats and cloaks from moths or fleas.”

Medieval artists often drew knights fighting snails in book margins, as a joke about armour and shells.

Book margins were full of doodles, including cats battling mice and monkeys.

“One study on medieval and Renaissance manuscripts where snails are depicted on marginalia shows that these illustrations are a comic relief due to the similarity between the armor of knights and the shell of snails.”

Cockentrice was a dish made by sewing the front half of a suckling pig onto the back half of a chicken.

Strictly, a capon. Cooks sometimes made the reverse version too, so nothing went to waste.

“Cockentrice is a dish consisting of a suckling pig's upper body sewn onto the bottom half of a capon.”

One medieval feast centrepiece was a model castle holding a swan that was cooked and dressed in its own feathers.

A 15th-century cook to the Duke of Savoy described it, and the dishes inside even breathed fire.

“The castle contained, among other things, a roast piglet, a swan cooked and redressed in its own plumage, a roast boar's head and a pike cooked and sauced in three different ways without having been cut into pieces, all of them breathing fire.”