DISCUSSION

 
Medieval Times, Middle Ages, and Dark Ages are generally referring to the same period
of time from 500 to 1500 AD. That's 1000 years! It covers the time from the fall of the Roman
Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Europe experienced an intellectual revitalization,
especially with regard to the investigation of the natural world.
 
Here are some of the famous inventions during Medieval times:
1. Military technologies such:

a. Counterweight trebuchet is a revolutionized medieval siege weapon which uses

counterweights and hurling of huge stones to very far distances. It was first used in the
eastern Mediterranean basin.

b. Longbow with massed, disciplined archery was used by the English against the French
during the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453). The Longbow was powerful, accurate and
contributed to the eventual demise of the medieval knight class.

c. Steel cross bow was the first hand-held mechanical crossbow. This European innovation
came with several different cocking aids to enhance draw power.

d. Complete Full plate armor appeared by the end of the 14th century. The armor chain
mail was made front thousands of metal rings and the armor was a long cloak called a
hauberk. Plate armor is considered the best in personal armor in terms of body protection
and showed the skills involved in working metal.

2. Agricultural Innovations such as the heavy wheeled plough, three-field system,

horse collar, the stirrup, and horseshoe were developed.

a. Heavy wheeled plough was important in the cultivation of rich, heavy, often wet soils of
Northern Europe that advanced their agricultural practices.

b. Horse collar went through multiple evolutions from the 6th to 9th centuries. It allowed
more horse pulling power, such as with heavy ploughs, while Horseshoes let horses adapt
to rocky terrain, mountains and carry heavier loads. They may have been known to the
Romans and Celts as early as 50 BC.

c. Artesian well is composed of a thin rod with a hard iron cutting edge placed in a borehole
and repeatedly struck with a hammer. Underground water pressure forces the Tater up the
hole without pumping. Artesian wells are named as such for Artois, a region in France,
where the first was drilled by Carthusian monks in 1126.

d. Wheelbarrow is used in construction, mining, and farming for carrying materials from
place to place. Wheelbarrows appeared in stories and pictures between 1 170 and 1250 in
North-western Europe.
 3. Other inventions

a. Blast furnace or cast iron first appeared in Middle Europe around 1150.

b. Hourglass was made from a dependable, affordable and accurate measure of time,
believed to be a medieval innovation first documented in Siena, Italy. Mechanical clocks
is a European innovation, these weight-driven clocks were used primarily in clock
towers.

c. Vertical Windmills is a pivot able post mill efficient at grinding grain or draining water.
The first mention of one is from Yorkshire in England in 1185.

d. Spectacles is composed of convex lenses to help far-sighted people to see.

e. Chess — it is said that the earliest predecessors of the game originated from India, in the
6th century AD and spread through Persia and the Muslim world to Europe.The game
evolved to its current form in the 15th century.

f. Mirrors were made in I 180 by Alexander Neckharn who said “Take away the lead which
is behind the glass and there will be no image of the one looking in".

g. Oil paint was invented by a Flemish painter Jan van Eyck around 1410 who introduced a
stable oil mixture. Oil was used to add details to tempera paintings.

h. A tide mill is a special type of water mill driven by tidal rise and fall. A darn with a
conduit is created across a suitable tidal inlet, or a section of river estuary is made into a
reservoir. As the tide comes in, it enters the mill pond through a one way gate, and this
gate closes automatically when the tide begins to fall. When the tide is low enough, the
stored water can be released to turn a water wheel. The earliest excavated tide mill,
dating from 787 AD, is the Nendrum Monastery mill on an island in Strangford Lough in
Northern Ireland.

i. The spinning wheel was probably invented in India, though its origins are ambiguous. It
reached Europe via the Middle East in the European Middle Ages. It replaced the earlier
method of hand spinning, in which the individual fibers were drawn out of a mass of
wool held on a stick, or distaff, twisted together to form a continuous strand, and wound
on a second stick, or spindle.

 
By 1000s, the first universities were developed — they trained the middle class of the cities
in theology, medicine, and law. By 1100s, modern universities emerged throughout Western
Europe such as Oxford and Cambridge in England.
 
In the 14th century, Crisis of the Late Middle Ages was underway. A plague called Black
Death came, it wiped out so many lives it affected the entire system. It brought a sudden end to
the previous period of massive scientific change. The plague killed 25—50% of the people in
Europe, especially in the crowded areas of the towns, where the heart of innovations lay.
Quarantine technique was established, initially a 40-day-period, the Quarantine was introduced
by the Republic of Ragusa to prevent the spreading of diseases like the Black Death. Venice
began quarantines, and then the practice spread around in Europe.