tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post1935951837951433007..comments2024-03-18T20:50:36.597-07:00Comments on Rural Revolution: Six months in the Middle AgesPatrice Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06012022335047974670noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-72097513168310897502014-02-14T04:02:55.515-08:002014-02-14T04:02:55.515-08:00I'm amused by all of this. Until around 1350 b...I'm amused by all of this. Until around 1350 baths were common. As were dental care (although different) and OTC medicines. Only one person in a village ground grain, it was generally illegal for others. Community was important, so oxen tended to be owned by one but leased out for everyone to turn soil with. You did give allot of the acre grown stuff to the lord, but had a private garden and even fruit trees. He also paid you for your work. Bread was also communally made, and the average person loved on stew (potage) & bread (1 lb sense loaves). Think a lot of kale, leeks and peas. Yes, it was dark and smelly compared to now. But women shaved (body hair was gross), men had free time (most women used their annual barley payments to open beer halls), and kids got the raw deal being married of by fourteen (regardless of sex).<br />I lived this way until I was a teenager. It wasn't traumatizing. Candles are fine to read by, harvesting crops was fun, and I did feel that I worked much less when I have farmed. Because you can only do what you can do, so you stop stressing about things you can't control. It's not easier, it's not harder, it's just different. I would agree most people I know couldn't handle it. They would be hungry all the time, be bored,miss luxuries, not be able to forage, be cold and loose a lot of weight. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-67268816210127294572013-10-09T18:41:22.649-07:002013-10-09T18:41:22.649-07:00Aside from the fact that isolated and/or non-estab...Aside from the fact that isolated and/or non-established scenarios are the meat and bread of those like you with worthless degrees, your very reasoning is enough to peg your bent as Feminist anyway.<br /><br />On to the topic at hand, one I have never left by the way and one you have never actually addressed. It's simple really. The invention and use of electricity and the internal combustion engine pretty much guarantees that today's farmers work more hours than any Medieval or Dark ages peasant. Simply because they can work well past or before sun light and in conditions that would keep the farmers of the medieval period in doors. Also production numbers prove that when a farmer is producing for himself he works longer and produces more than someone in a feudal or earlier more communal setting. <br /><br />Now if you want to say that Ulrich the plowboy worked harder overall than Fred down the road, well that's your fight to have face to face so have at it.<br /><br />Of course as any trained Feminist shill is guilty of you cannot see the forest because of a few mostly made up trees. <br /><br />Funny now a 4 oxen team is equivalent to your 10 - 12 team you started out with and you are now an expert on the psalter but couldn't recall it being there off the top of your head.<br /><br />Like I could I might add.<br /><br />I tell ya what. Go back to your cherry picked little works written by modern day affirmative action PHD's. Sit down open up another box of wine and leave the hard topics to those of us who can look at the entire picture.<br /><br />Oh and for your own information. When plowing using an old type of draft animal drawn plow pulling the thing can be done much easier than holding it upright and straight. You may not get very far very fast but if you had to divide the two between humans, pulling is by far the easier job.<br /><br />PioneerPreppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09269878017447335944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-33835177868933301902013-10-09T13:54:25.994-07:002013-10-09T13:54:25.994-07:00So getting your butt kicked by a girl means I'...So getting your butt kicked by a girl means I'm an evil feminist? And facts and logical argument are "dramatic"? LMAO! I was actually trained as a New Historicist, which means a literary text can only be analyzed within its historic context. It is influenced by Marxist thought, so since I am talking about peasants' means of production, perhaps you should instead accuse me of being an EVIL MARXIST!!!! Was the feminist part where I suggested you may be scraping the bottom of the barrel survival-wise if you have to have your wife pull the plow? A feminist argument would have point out how amazing and valuable strong women were in such a society. I just pointed out a simple fact. <br /><br />Anyway, on to the debunking. First, a basic reading comprehension correction: if you re-read carefully, you will see that the refernce to Tuchman was strictly as required reading for preppers, NOT in support of my overall argument, that medieval peasant life was far more difficult than modern farm life. It was just an illustration of how bad things could get. Subsistence farming was pretty brutal even in the best of times.<br /><br />Also, you seem to have lost sight of your original contention which made me basically call you an idiot. Here is your thesis, best expressed in your 2nd post: "Medieval peasants worked no harder nor longer than today's farmers and more than likely worked overall less hours if truth be told."<br /><br />Now, in the post above, you seem to be saying we have to talk specifically ONLY about 9th century Russian peasants, as that is what the article is about, but then your arguments cite Anglo-Saxon land units, Norman record-keeping and the Luttrell Psalter, which is from 1300s England, exactly the time period you say is out of bounds. Seems like you would have made it clear earlier that only 9th century Russia was in play; very inconsistent and not logical.<br /><br />By the way, you get another sticker for mentioning the Luttrell Psalter, an incredibly gorgeous work of art. However, the ploughman image clearly shows a team of 4 oxen, which correlates with my stats for the late middle ages: <br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Plowman<br /> Surely you aren't mistaking the single horse harrow for a plow, are you? That would be embarrassing. http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/medieval/rurallife/large14878.html You are correct that the Domesday book includes a sprinkling of some raggedy patched-together plow teams for villeins, although the 8-oxen team is the gold standard.<br /><br />At any rate, may I now assume your argument's goalposts have moved to "9th century Russian peasants worked no harder nor longer than today's farmers and more than likely worked overall less hours if truth be told"? The peasants of the high and late middle ages at least had significant legal protections; a peasant along the Volga or the Don had a much rougher time of it, in the face of Viking raids and eventual domination, the Viking-Byzantine-Arab trade routes you mention (the primary trade good being pretty blond-haired girls and boys ripped from the farms) and the endless warring of Slavic tribes. England actually had it pretty easy comparatively.<br /><br />Finally, I know that things like math and yields and such can be a little confusing in a discussion about agriculture, but here's a quick quiz. Would you prefer to attempt to keep you family alive on:<br /><br />a) the standard medieval wheat yield of 1:2 (poor harvest) to 1:7 (rich harvest)<br /><br />or<br /><br />b) the modern US corn yield of 1:493.6 (2012 drought) to 1:621.2 (2013 yield). Based on USDA numbers and assuming 30,000 seeds to the acre.<br /><br />Explain the rationale behind your answer and please relate it back to your thesis, which would hold that a) is an easier living than b). <br /><br />--Mama Bear<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-59175214736492071522013-10-08T11:01:37.099-07:002013-10-08T11:01:37.099-07:00Perhaps you should stay within your niche of liter...Perhaps you should stay within your niche of literature with the typical modern day Feminist bent that has been sprinkled in, because your entire rant said little, especially about the specific time period that is being discussed here.<br /><br />Tuchman, Which I believe I read right before starting my masters program at UMC, was a work focused almost completely on the latter half of the 1300's and early 1400's if memory serves. A time of much reduced populations, cooler climates and many changes to regional agriculture. The period of the Black Death brought with it changes that can not be used as a measure against any other time It also is as far removed from the 9th century as we are from the 14th.<br /><br />High Feudalism was not even thought of in the 9th century nor were there plows in wide use that required more than a few oxen or other draft animals. In fact throughout all the periods smaller teams were used along with locally produced implements regardless of where one looks, which if memory serves, is clearly illustrated in the Luttrell psalter and mentioned in the Domsday Book as well.<br /><br />Kingdoms, if you wish to call them that, were much smaller and more tribal in nature and the local nobles had much more skin in the game and production stayed local. There were of course good and bad local strongmen but the more centralized feudal system was far from being in use. While I will certainly admit my knowledge is based about as far West from Russia as one can get at that time. I certainly do not recall any significant differences ever being mentioned for that area. <br /><br />Yields varied widely across Europe during that period and again have little to do with the topic at hand anyway. Your frequent mentioning of trade as a matter of fact would prove far easier for the Russian area peasants as Norse trade routes were well established through those regions running down into Greece and Turkey.<br /><br />I realize you have a taste for the dramatic but attempting to find specific instances of "worst case scenarios" and applying them to the entire period as a rule is misdirection to the extreme.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PioneerPreppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09269878017447335944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-5818595601133876512013-10-08T08:06:01.979-07:002013-10-08T08:06:01.979-07:00Wow, you know a fact about Anglo Saxons (which is ...Wow, you know a fact about Anglo Saxons (which is a non-sequitor to the argument at hand, as it doesn't disprove my contention that draft animals were a burdensome expense); you earn a sticker, but let's now take a more thoughtful look. <br /><br />You're right that there was a community. Alas, you appear to forget the feudal structure of medieval society. Thus, approximately half your work went to the landowner to whom you owed fealty; you paid in labor and your own personal produce (grain, animals, wood, etc.). So even if there was a famine, he still got his full cut and your family might starve. Oh well! The church also extracted a significant chunk of your labor and produce. After all that, you got to tend to what actually kept your family alive over the winter. <br /><br />Since you want to talk about draft animals and plowing, here is a relevant statistic: in the early middle ages it took 10-12 oxen to pull a plow; in the late middle ages it took 4-6 oxen to pull a plow due to improvements in plow and harness technology. You had to be well off to own even a single ox: as traction animals they eat (a LOT...food out of your babies' mouths) all year round but are only productive for a brief portion of the year; they don't produce milk or offspring. If you are not wealthy enough to own multiple teams of oxen, you are going to have to pay dearly to have these very expensive animals come and plow your field, and for that you need money or trade goods. Average peasants would largely serve as their own traction animals (or rather, they often used their wives as tracction animals, no fooling), with the heaviest burden on them in the spring and early summer, during the "Hungry Gap" when they were grinding pea pods into their bread and largely subsisting off leftover cabbages and turnips. Ya think that makes farming a little more difficult?<br /><br />Oh, by the way, I should mention that the oxen stats come from the book "Agriculture in the Middle Ages: Technology, Practice and Representation" (ed. Sweeney, U of Penn Press, 1995). It's one of the scores of books on the middle ages that I have sitting around after getting my AM in medieval literature and culture from The University of Chicago. So, yeah, I don' t know as much about medieval peasant life as I would like, but I have gleaned what I can from well over a thousand primary sources, scholarly articles and books. <br /><br />You've already doubled down on your ignorance; if you would like to quadruple down, perhaps we can discuss medieval grain yields or approximate peasant caloric intake or maybe the challenges of farming when you are dead from disease. Hint: it's really hard.<br /><br />If, on the other hand, you would like to correct your ignorance, and at the same time enhance your survival knowledge, I would recommend Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror," which provides a fascinating overview of the 14th century, which profoundly sucked due to famine, war and disease, and that was just in the years before the Black Death popped up (which was the topic of my master's thesis). <br /><br />This is not to say modern farmers don't work extremely hard; I have several family members with ag degrees from Purdue running the successful family farm that has been in our family for well over 150 years. Not one wife has been forced to serve as a traction animal, we are proud to report.<br /><br />--Mama Bear<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-59980607537456727252013-10-07T12:19:50.759-07:002013-10-07T12:19:50.759-07:00An addition to my last post:
My wife is a modern...An addition to my last post: <br /><br />My wife is a modern hippie-leaning woman. She works full time in the business world but LONGS for the life you describe everyday in your blog mixed in with some 60's idealistic views of possible ocmmunal living :-) <br /><br />I am the first generation in my family born "in town". My folks were born during the depression, and survived and thrived on dirt-poor dust bowl farms and ranches in West Texas. <br /><br />When she speaks longingly of 'simpler times' I remind her that my folks and almost all their numerous brothers and sisters moved to town at the first opportunity. The simpler life is harder.<br /><br />JB Green JB Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156970309629930409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-16517050648020939982013-10-07T12:13:49.236-07:002013-10-07T12:13:49.236-07:00All,
I don't think "simpler life" c...All,<br /><br />I don't think "simpler life" captures it well at all. Rather, living that way connects people directly with what they NEED, not what they WANT. And, since we all hunger for meaning in our lives that type life can be very attractive. Simpler though? No. You have to know all, master all, be all in a way most modern people never master anything.<br /><br />In the modern world most of us lives of attention-filtering distraction. We're distracted/divided/diluted to the point of never have to discover what we're really capble of. realizing what we can do. <br /><br />Whenever I read writings from authors who lived prior to the modern era (Chesterton comes to mind) it's amazing to me the detail and thoroughness with which they considered, evaluated, analyzed, and described the world/thoughts etc. Most of us now never scratch the surface of most topics.<br /><br />Thanks for your blog!<br />JB Green<br />JB Greenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08156970309629930409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-58332182498346642602013-10-07T08:36:36.593-07:002013-10-07T08:36:36.593-07:00I agree, simple means getting one birthday/holiday...I agree, simple means getting one birthday/holiday present instead of 6 or 7 and not expecting more, no more elaborate birthday parties for your 2 year old, no rushing to take your kids to their soccer, dance, football, and piano lessons, or even to school, no coupon shopping, no more excessive papers, bills, etc....definitely not an easy life, but simplified in the idea that everyone stays closer to home, you eat, sleep, and work, and your kids learn to do the same, with none of these "fillers" we are expected to do in our society today...The Provident Plannerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08824075189614791011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-26287630863213022632013-10-05T08:18:22.590-07:002013-10-05T08:18:22.590-07:00Weren't daily baths also simply unheard of in ...Weren't daily baths also simply unheard of in the middle ages? Even weekly ones? <br /><br />Will he use some of the water he has to haul "9th century style" to satisfy his 21th century knowledge of daily hygiene? <br /><br />And - as "anonymous #2" above notes - does that young enactor have a working knowledge of how a middle ager would have alleviated common small maladies...a headache...constipation....a splinter wound...a bee sting...? Did I miss that part in the article?<br /><br />Really interesting notion! This opens up a whole new subject! <br /><br />Just Me<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-44981137597247324312013-10-04T21:06:56.523-07:002013-10-04T21:06:56.523-07:00i think you keep putting 'simple' and '...i think you keep putting 'simple' and 'easy' in the same category. life back then was simpler, if you wanted milk you went outside and milked the cow/goat then strained and you were good to go, same with eggs, meat, vegetables, they where either right outside your door or someone you knew grow it and could trade. It was very simple compared to the process used today to get milk and meat to the average person's home, easier? no, but much simpler. that's just my 2 cents thoughAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-41111394536991955352013-10-04T19:59:21.898-07:002013-10-04T19:59:21.898-07:00Obviously you know little of Medieval life nor the...Obviously you know little of Medieval life nor the actual break down of family duties and responsibilities. That doesn't surprise me either. Few if any peasants lived in a vacuum and less than 10% of them in any given enclave or village group did all of the things you mention. Individually very few owned draft animals but you can bet each village did. The mere use of these animals was so widespread by the Saxon invasion of Briton that the amount tilled per day was used as their system of land measurement.<br /><br />As with any agrarian life there is always something you can do or needs doing but Medieval peasants worked no harder nor longer than today's farmers and more than likely worked overall less hours if truth be told.<br /><br /><br />PioneerPreppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09269878017447335944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-31091839554784825922013-10-04T18:28:52.629-07:002013-10-04T18:28:52.629-07:00What about what we consider small health ailments ...What about what we consider small health ailments like headaches, hangnails, a sore tooth, or anything we take an OTC for?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-68019545163643746282013-10-04T18:27:24.656-07:002013-10-04T18:27:24.656-07:00I was thinking of the Little House books, too! Ho...I was thinking of the Little House books, too! How hard Ma and Pa worked in their the hardscrabble life, the constant moving and coping with weather, sickness, locusts, and the like. Remember how Laura thought she was rich if she had new hair ribbons, and the sacrifices they made to send Mary to college. However, every page brimmed with the love the family had for each other and Pa's fiddle keeping things lively.<br /><br />Do we know what hard work and sacrifice mean now? Some do, I suppose, but most have been accustomed to living as post Industrial Revolution. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-73949253785378839072013-10-04T16:56:15.597-07:002013-10-04T16:56:15.597-07:00He's going to have a tough time of it, no doub...He's going to have a tough time of it, no doubt. He's in for some learnin'. <br /><br />I notice the house, the barn, a water source, the animals and even the grain stores are all in place already. I kinda wish he would have had to at least harvest and set aside his own grain.<br /><br />Just Me Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-1730169800735008932013-10-04T16:39:47.944-07:002013-10-04T16:39:47.944-07:00I saw this series a few years ago - maybe it was a...I saw this series a few years ago - maybe it was a different one. Mine was on PBS. <br /><br />The one thing that still stands out was when someone was being filmed doing something outside someone else's window, and out through the window came the contents of a chamber pot. <br /><br />It seems even a modern day citizen, with all the knowledge of modern hygiene, under the duress of 1620 life, eventually succumbed to the ease of throwing it out the window, instead of carrying it to the pit.<br /><br />Also --- I always thought there was a certain amount of "cheating" in the re-creation I saw. The people chosen to participate arrived at the village with all the houses already built and grain stores already in place.<br /><br />I enjoyed it all just the same. <br /><br />Just MeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-89005137312525786712013-10-04T12:19:18.762-07:002013-10-04T12:19:18.762-07:00You're so right, Frank. If we should find ours...You're so right, Frank. If we should find ourselves living in the 9th century again, I believe those without cows or chickens or even a garden will be able to barter for food and other necessities. Most people I know are handy at a lot of things: blacksmithing, gunsmithing, construction work, electric motor repair (many will have wind turbines and solar panels that will need repair now and then), etc. It will be a hard life, but I don't think it will be as bad as our liberal-progressive-minded people want us to think! --Fred in AZ Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-28163460783894033842013-10-04T11:01:20.777-07:002013-10-04T11:01:20.777-07:00I suspect that the article is not a terribly well ...I suspect that the article is not a terribly well researched one. Medieval peasants worked their butts off, summer and winter.<br /><br />If you were poor, here is what you did in the middle of the winder, at night, by moonlight:<br /><br />Good King Wenceslas looked out<br />On the feast of Stephen<br />When the snow lay round about<br />Deep and crisp and even<br />Brightly shone the moon that night<br />Though the frost was cruel<br />When a poor man came in sight<br />Gath'ring winter fuel <br /> <br />If you had rights to a forest, you could cut wood, particularly from a coppice; if you didn't have rights you scrounged for twigs. All. Winter. Long. <br /><br />In the late fall you would have significant labor with your butchering duties--first you would work for the various nobles to whom you had a feudal obligation, then you could do your own, if you were lucky enough to have a spare animal to butcher. You would mend your house, barns, outbuildings and fences. You would dig carrots, leeks, turnips and parsnips. You would carve your household utensils out of wood. You would repair tools, nets, harnesses, and clothing. You would scrounge nuts and mast for your pigs. You would spin wool and flax in order to cloth your family, probably on a drop spindle unless you could afford the high-falutin' advanced technlogy of a wheel. You would malt barley, brew beer, grind grain, smoke meat, make sausage, and make candles if you were wealthy enough to access extra tallow or (heavenly!) beeswax. This is the kind of work a fairly prosperous peasant would have done over the winter, in addition to his farm chores (mucking stalls, milking, feeding animals, etc.)<br /><br />Sure, they had holidays, but this was their welfare or charity system back then--the richer people of the community would sponsor feasts as rewards for the working people and to help keep them from starving. But if there was a bad harvest, well, the poor starved. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-30804471675086940452013-10-04T10:21:20.065-07:002013-10-04T10:21:20.065-07:00Are you serious? You obviously haven't studied...Are you serious? You obviously haven't studied much in the way of history. <br /><br />First of all, in the middle ages, draft animals were equivalent to the fancy air-conditioned, GPS-guided tractors on today's farms. Especially in the early middle ages, serfs and the poorer peasants had to plow and dig their own fields. By hand. With shovels that would have been hand-forged and would have cost them dearly. So, when we refer to back-breaking work, it was literally so for them, particulary since they lacked access to even the barest of (mostly ineffective) medicine of the era. <br /><br />Are the "long stretches of idle time" you refer to the winter months when the peasants had the "fun" of ranging far and wide to glean a few sticks and manure and turves so they could have the luxury of some cooked food in their hovel? Or building their fencing out of wattling rather than just driving their flatbed down to Tractor Supply for their "elaborate fencing"? Or building their house out of sticks and mud with their own bare hands, and trying to grow enough cereal to thatch it? And when is the last time you had to protect your livestock from wolves or bandits or Vikings using a stick or a pike or whatever other sorry weapon serfs were allowed to own?<br /><br />And all this while basically starving and having to knit their own underwear, if they were lucky enough to own any!<br /><br />Obviously there were wealthier peasants, with hand-made linen underwear and oxen, but even they worked far, far harder than even the most traditional Amish of today work.<br /><br />--Mama Bear Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-8610163527443248402013-10-04T09:40:53.528-07:002013-10-04T09:40:53.528-07:00Read "Slow Apocalypse" by John Varley or... Read "Slow Apocalypse" by John Varley or "An Ill Wind" by Kevin Anderson..both deal with a sudden collapse of the petroleum infrastructure caused by genetically engineered oil-eating bacteria. We depend on petroleum as much as we do moving electrons.<br /> Technology is a grand thing-and the guy in the experiment had a way out if something went truly wrong (a medical emergency fer-instance) that those in medeival times would not.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-49757747751445848472013-10-04T08:48:37.476-07:002013-10-04T08:48:37.476-07:00I have to respectfully disagree with the assertion...I have to respectfully disagree with the assertion that millions in cities "will make life impossible no matter how far out in the boonies you might live".<br /><br />As SurvivalBlog correctly explains, it is a simple case of math known as the 'Inverse Square Law'. Refugee density will drop exponentially with increasing distance from cities.<br /><br />Also, grid down means no gas. With an average 1/2 tank of gas, even if roads were open refugees will forced to abandon their vehicles within 200 miles. They will be instantly find themselves in a whole new world.<br />Montana GuyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-49209155011962209132013-10-04T03:48:38.354-07:002013-10-04T03:48:38.354-07:00Ever since we moved out of the caves, houses and f...Ever since we moved out of the caves, houses and farms were built and handed down while being improved the entire time. I'm sure with his experience if he had a younger body he could start out with building the house / farm. I just can't believe the amount of people scared, really scared to be without electricity or government safeguarded food supply. Wake up and know we were designed to survive. My only concern is the huge population in the cities dependent on the system to supply their needs. They will be looking for your small farms to take them in or take over by force.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-25017439535311907792013-10-04T03:05:55.123-07:002013-10-04T03:05:55.123-07:00Tens of millions dogs and cats would assist during...Tens of millions dogs and cats would assist during the food shortage. When you are hungry, truly hungry any animal is a possible source of protein.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-76648417127973968442013-10-04T02:39:52.564-07:002013-10-04T02:39:52.564-07:00I also had read about this experiment. The first t...I also had read about this experiment. The first thing that stuck me was that most people (even in the middle ages) did not live as hermits because, you guessed it, the back breaking work it takes to survive. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-11867803637279494822013-10-03T23:07:22.835-07:002013-10-03T23:07:22.835-07:009th century in Russia was the time when vikings we...9th century in Russia was the time when vikings were setting up trading posts and eventually forming first kingdoms in the area. There was no mongol hordes at that time (they came at 13th century).<br /><br />Regarding the amount of physical work an average peasant would do at middle ages, I just read an interesting article which said they actually worked less than an average people today. Of course there were times of long working days like when it was harvesting time. But for example, for several months during winter it was simply too dark to work. Just something small could be done in the light given by fire. Then, as somebody pointed out here, they took their faith seriously and didn't work at Sunday or other numerous religious holidays. They had more of them than we have currently here in Europe (this of course differs a lot between countries) and definitely much more than in USA.<br /><br />Also, I think you are really correct pointing out how their life really wasn't simple. Not even "not complex" as someone pointed out here. I think it was really complex in many regards, as they had to know everything. One couldn't just go to supermarket and buy something she needed. I think the amount of knowledge an average person had at that time was simply astonishing! Jaakkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06469049088472454413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5526768924178592295.post-18742004911620125942013-10-03T23:07:00.139-07:002013-10-03T23:07:00.139-07:009th century in Russia was the time when vikings we...9th century in Russia was the time when vikings were setting up trading posts and eventually forming first kingdoms in the area. There was no mongol hordes at that time (they came at 13th century).<br /><br />Regarding the amount of physical work an average peasant would do at middle ages, I just read an interesting article which said they actually worked less than an average people today. Of course there were times of long working days like when it was harvesting time. But for example, for several months during winter it was simply too dark to work. Just something small could be done in the light given by fire. Then, as somebody pointed out here, they took their faith seriously and didn't work at Sunday or other numerous religious holidays. They had more of them than we have currently here in Europe (this of course differs a lot between countries) and definitely much more than in USA.<br /><br />Also, I think you are really correct pointing out how their life really wasn't simple. Not even "not complex" as someone pointed out here. I think it was really complex in many regards, as they had to know everything. One couldn't just go to supermarket and buy something she needed. I think the amount of knowledge an average person had at that time was simply astonishing! Jaakkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06469049088472454413noreply@blogger.com