Medievalists.net

Do you have any evidence to back your statements? They appear to me to be personal beliefs which are at odds with my understanding of the development of cartography. So far all you've done is repeat yourself.

My hypothesis is that different northern hemisphere civilizations used different conventions to orient the map. For example, the primary convention for Middle Ages Europe was that east is at the top of the map. This is well attested. See not only the links I gave but the following links:

http://www.turkeyinmaps.com/Medieval.html shows 8 medieval maps. 1) The
T-O map of Isidore, "east is towards the top of the map, 2) Beatus World Map, "The east is to the top of the map", 3) World Map of A-Idrisi, "the south is oriented to the top of the map", 4) Ebstorf Mappamundi
where the map is "superimposed on a background of the figure of Christ crucified; with His head at the top (East), His feet at the bottom (West) and His hands pointing North and South, an orientation that dominated medieval European cartography" (click on the map for that description; emphasis mine), 5) Hereford Mappamundi, "As previously mentioned, East is at the top of the map", 6) Vesconte Mappamundi, "circular in format and oriented with East to the top", 7) Higden World Map, "oriented with East at the top", and 8) The Catalan Atlas (likely north; the link says it was a portolan chart, 'intended to lie on the chart-table of a ship and always was oriented to the necessities of navigation, thus there is…

This is... just plain wrong.

Example: sleep. Insomnia has a history which predates Shakespeare.

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/266971

In fact sleep patterns used to be different. It was normal to wake up for an hour or two in the middle of the night. But people went to sleep much earlier - typically around 7-8pm, woke up for an hour or two about four hours later, and went back to sleep again.

In spite of this insomnia was a known problem.

https://www.medievalists.net/2016/01/how-did-people-sleep-in-the-middle-ages/

So clearly going back to this pattern won't necessarily make everyone sleep better. And so "modernity" is not the issue, and the problem does not have a simple solution.

Likewise weight loss. Telling overweight people to eat less is like telling an alcoholic to drink less, or a depressed person to cheer up. It's pointless, silly, and naive and it won't work.

The real issue with weight loss is a combination of motivation and psychological reprogramming, with some addictive elements, plus education about nutrition. Also peer pressure. And access to healthy vs unhealthy foods.

There may also be underlying medical issues related to metabolism. (And - ironically - sleep patterns also make a difference.)

Again, it's not a simple problem.

This is not to say that tech non-solutions are better. But the idea that you can reduce issues that millions struggle with daily to a simple motivational sentence isn't any more realistic.

Or helpful.

>Like nails, or hinges, or gates, or locks, or tools for other workers.

Most of these would have been luxuries to most, the exception being the tools which would have still been rare belonging to tradesmen.

Nails in the late 1400's a 6 penny nail would have been about 1 USD a piece, a 16 penny nail about 2.60 USD a piece, nails were largely used for nice furniture/chests/affixing hardware which again would have been mostly for those in higher stations in life.

Gates, ha, outside of castles gates were wood or movable stones used to block openings in rock walls (this is what the original Húsafell stone, of Strongman fame, was). Same for hinges, you wouldn't have seen too many doors outside of castles and businesses as you needed skilled tradesmen to even attempt to build structures that had remotely square corners.

For locks, the Medievalist has a good article about them (it's a great site/publication in general) http://www.medievalists.net/2011/03/medieval-padlocks-an-introduction/ the article is actually linked on that page as a PDF after a brief introduction. Didn't want to direct link the PDF for those with bandwidth limitations.

“This type of bath went out of style in Europe for almost a millennium after the fall of Rome, thanks in part to Dark Age scientists’ developing the very unscientific idea that bathing in water invites a host of awful diseases into the body’s pores. For most of the Middle Ages, “most [European] people didn't wash, or even get wet, if they could help it,” Bryson writes. When John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, declared that “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” in a 1778 sermon, he was talking about our garments, not our armpits.

This is a minor statement within the article but one which hints at shallow research in some sections. This makes me less confident in the rest of the conclusions.

Bathing was very common and encouraged during the “Dark Ages”. A few articles which do a better job than I can covering the hows and whys:

https://www.medievalists.net/2013/04/did-people-in-the-middle-ages-take-baths/

https://www.medievalists.net/2013/04/did-people-in-the-middle-ages-take-baths/

http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2013/01/myths-misconceptions-bathing-in-middle.html?m=1

yeah I m a solo publisher, so I do use AI as an assistant to help with editing, formatting, HTML, and other production work that normally be handled by a team. The historical research, fact-checking, source verification, and overall direction are my own, but I rely on AI to speed up the publishing process.

I also take your point about the repetition. That's something I revisit and tighten up, because readability matters more than word count.

but, when I write for external publications, the style is much more traditional because I follow each publication editorial guidelines. On my own site, I experiment more with layout and presentation, which can sometimes make the pages feel different. but it look cool

If you are curious, here are a few examples of my work published elsewhere:

• Medievalists.net: https://www.medievalists.net/2026/06/bell-tower-medieval/

• Family Handyman: https://www.familyhandyman.com/article/history-of-toll-roads/

• Bored Panda: https://www.boredpanda.com/rarest-most-expensive-historical-artifacts-ever-sold-thehistoricalinsights/

> For example there's a reason the dark ages are called dark. Most people of the time (except the few educated) didn't know there was something better in another time and another place. They probably thought that's as good as anyone's ever had.

I am pretty sure you are wrong on multiple counts there.

1. The "dark ages" were called dark because of a lack of written records, after the collapse of the Roman Empire and its centralised systems and imperial bureaucracy.

2. A lot of people did know there had been a different age before. Even if not literate they would regard the literate as the source of knowledge and every village would have some literate people.

3. Life was better for many people. An obvious example was the decline of slavery ( a huge proportion of the population of the Roman Empire) but the descendants of slaves were not the only people who benefitted from the removal of imperial power, and heavy imperial taxes, etc.

https://www.medievalists.net/2023/06/middle-ages-dark-ages/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Ages_(historiography)