And the Middle Ages saw a diverse range of cultures, religions, and ethnicities.
The Middle Ages refers to a 1,000-year period stretching from the 5th century to the 15th century in Europe. Contrary to popular belief, people in the Middle Ages were not uneducated and ignorant, as literacy rates increased alongside the establishment of monasteries, convents, and universities. Ancient knowledge was not lost, as Greek and Roman texts continued to be studied. Furthermore, people in the Middle Ages had methods for preserving meat, and spices were not used to cover the taste of rotten meat as was popularized in the 1930s. Public bathhouses were also common, and people used soaps, mouthwash, and spices to stay clean. Torture devices were not used as much as people think, and many of the devices attributed to the Middle Ages are actually fabrications from the 19th century. Chastity belts were also likely a joke from the 15th century, not an actual device. The term Middle Ages was popularized by scholars biased towards the Classical and Modern periods, and later Romantic European nationalist thinkers romanticized the Middle Ages to emphasize white, Christian societies. However, knights played a minimal role in medieval warfare, and the Middle Ages was a diverse period of different cultures, religions, and ethnicities. The Middle Ages saw large-scale interactions, with ideas flowing into Europe along Byzantine, Muslim, and Mongol trade routes. Merchants, intellectuals, and diplomats of diverse origins visited medieval European cities. However, the biggest myth may be that the millennium of the Middle Ages can be defined as one distinct, cohesive period of European history. It was originally defined less by what it was than what it wasn’t, and became a ground for dueling ideas, fueling more fantasy than fact.