Medieval mapping project

A journey in place and time

The Medieval Mapping Project charts the places and times of travels, stories and lives lived. A collaboration between students, faculty, and the Humanities Computing and Media Centre, it is an open access resource in the making, where student researchers share with other scholars and with the community their travels in time.

Explore the map here!

Saint Brendan and Columbus

This site compares the fantastical, 6th century voyage of Saint Brendan, and Columbus’ famous first expedition to the Americas in 1492. Through an interactive map and a series of interlocking short essays, the site explores the connections between the two journeys, compares pilgrimage with conquest, and digs into the medieval imagination of ‘far away lands’. 

There are probably more links between early modern colonization and medieval travel literature than you think! You can access the map here.

This site was made for the 2020 ‘Medieval Pilgrimage’ course taught by Alan Mitchell by Medieval Studies Major Soph Dunn-Krahn.

MyNDIR

MyNDIR stands for My Norse Digital Image Repository and the letters that it is comprised of spell the Icelandic word for "pictures."

The pronunciation for MyNDIR consists of two syllables comprised of ‘myn’ and ‘dir’ with the stress on the first syllable.

The letter “i” and the letter "y" are both pronounced the same as the “i” in the English word “hit” or the first "i" in "inside".

Go to MyNDIR.

Crafts of Syria

At a time when traditional manual crafts are disappearing across the Islamic world, it is vital to record the manufacturing practices, daily lives, and rituals of skilled artisans. The practitioners of manual crafts continue to be pressured by industrial production and globalized trade. Political instability and social change bring their own challenges. These factors are particularly acute in Syria.

Many of the monuments and archaeological sites have been looted, with some deliberately destroyed during the conflict. The crafts are another significant component of the rich cultural heritage of Syria, and this site is intended to preserve information on aspects of traditional manufacturing practices of urban and rural areas. It is hoped that this will be a resource for students and researchers working on the material cultures and socio-economic life of Syria and the surrounding regions of the Middle East.

Go to Crafts of Syria