Tamale History

I came across this great little article today and thought it was worth sharing. The information about pre-contact tamales was really useful, even if the author doesn’t give all her sources. It answers a number of questions I had when living in El Salvador.

I have made tamales before, but they are a lot of work. Now I want to make them again. Maybe a project for a camping event, cooking them directly in the ashes instead of steaming? It could go very badly, but it would be fun.

A Salvadoran tamale on a fresh green leaf

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Diversity in the Middle Ages

This is a big and contentious topic sometimes, but I have had the privilege of traveling abroad and discovering what the time period covered by the European Middle Ages looked like elsewhere. I think we do ourselves a real service by learning bout the achievements and travels of people in Africa, Asia and the Americas. It takes more work for those of us who have focused on European history and resources in languages we already speak, but it is worth it.

Thanks to #medievaltwitter I am finding new resources; blogs, books, academic articles, and sometimes simple tweets with images and their sources.

Here are a few examples, just from today:

I’d suggest Lars Brownsworth’s “Lost to The West” as a quick introduction to Byzantium. It’s a great read and covers the entire Byzantine period from Constantine to 1453.

— Varangian Chronicler (@Varangian_Tagma) January 4, 2023

My article:

"Mansa Musa and the royal pilgrimage tradition of west Africa: 11th-18th century"

Why Africa's caravans of gold stopped travelling to Arabia…https://t.co/BgI39yzVUx pic.twitter.com/0khaQ1Np3V

— isaac Samuel (@rhaplord) January 1, 2023

The Medieval Globe devotes an entire issue to the most recent research on the Asian origins f the Black Desth: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/48929

"Tang Barbie", wearing Iranian pearl roundel & facing birds designs pic.twitter.com/9zp6vKTNHL

— Ancient Iran (@iran_antigua) January 4, 2023

Not everything is from outside Europe, but I do look particularly for things outside the normal history topicsX such as this newer book on battlefield surgery:

And here is my current reading, a history that aims to dispel some of the myths about the Middle Ages. I haven’t read much of it yet, but already I am intrigued after learning about Galla Placidia, a powerful Roman woman (mother and sister to emperors, and who effectively ruled for 12 years until her son came of age). She married a Gothic leader, moved from Italy to Spain and back, and had close relationships with the Eastern Emperoros in Byzantium. All this happened after the “fall of Rome” that has been so central to our understanding of the medieval period in Europe.

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