Early Middle Ages

A castle could have different functions. In most cases, it was the building from which the neighbouring territory was controlled. This could be a town, an important road or a larger area. Often soldiers were encamped, a garrison...

The most commonly used ink was black, dark brown or brown. One used for this Arabic gum, different minerals (including iron), soot, ash et cetera...

The image we have of the Middle Ages is often about the king at his castle, knights and ladies, jokers et cetera. But the truth was much different...

Well, in those days, as soon as it would even be possible, children had to give a hand at home, for example with raising the even younger children. Many of those things would nowadays be called 'child labour', but that was how it was...

A medieval castle - like the one from Eindhoven - often was the house in which the Lordship lived. Often it was the only stone building in the area he owned...

Domestic animals (dog and horse in Stone Age, the sheep with the first farmers, the pig, chicken with the Romans - roughly said) are wild animals which were domesticated by humans for own use...

Most people built their houses in the Middle Ages just like in prehistory: a wooden frame, walls of plaited branches covered with clay and a straw thatched roof. Only later in the Middle Ages, only the rich could afford using stone or bricks...

Both in the Middle Ages as in prehistory the same story: using a bread oven. For a bread, you need to grind corn (a very time consuming effort), make dough of it and let it rise with yeast...

Well, far from everybody thought so. It was long before this, Pythagoras (580 - 500 BC) got to the point, the world was round. After him, many people followed - each with own reasons who thought the world was round, even in the Middle Ages...

Averagely 35 years. Many children died before they turned 5 years old and very few people got really old (50 - 70 years). http://www.literatuurgeschiedenis.nl/thema.asp?ID=8 (in Dutch)...