Record · Medieval world · Africa
Churches cut from rock: Francisco Álvares at Lalibela in the 1520s
Francisco Álvares measured Lalibela's rock-hewn churches twice in the 1520s, giving names, spans and a tradition of who built them.
· 1200Medieval world (500 – 1500)
A thousand years of kingdoms, caliphates, steppe empires and trading cities between the fall of Rome and the voyages that joined the hemispheres.
Record · Medieval world · Oceania
How did Polynesians find Hawaii and New Zealand without a compass?
Navigators read star houses, swells, clouds and birds. East Polynesia was settled about AD 1025 to 1290, and Hokulea sailed to Tahiti in 1976.
· 1200
Record · Medieval world · Oceania
Three stones at Heketa, the Haʻamonga ʻa Maui trilithon of Tongatapu
David Burley calls the Haʻamonga ʻa Maui trilithon at Heketa the most impressive commemorative site on Tongatapu, its uprights tied to the 11th Tuʻi Tonga's two sons.
· 1200
Record · Medieval world · East Asia
The Mongol war machine of horses, tens and borrowed engineers
Three or four horses per rider, a decimal army the Khitans and Jurchens already used, relay stations a day apart and Chinese siege technicians.
· 1206
Record · Medieval world · East Asia
Otrar, 1218, the murdered caravan that turned the Mongols west
In 1218 the governor of Otrar killed 450 merchants Genghis Khan had sent to trade; the shah then executed a Mongol envoy, and the Mongols invaded in 1219.
· 1218
Record · Medieval world · South Asia
Iltutmish's written heir: Razia, sultan of Delhi, 1236–1240
Minhaj's Tabaqat-i Nasiri records Iltutmish naming his daughter Raziyya heir over his sons. She ruled Delhi 1236-1240 and died near Kaithal in 1240.
· 1236
Record · Medieval world · Africa
A gold rhinoceros from Mapungubwe Hill, found in the 1930s
The University of Pretoria Museums calls its gold rhinoceros the only artwork of its kind, found in a royal grave on Mapungubwe Hill in the 1930s.
· 1250
Record · Medieval world · The Americas
Cliff Palace, 150 rooms and 23 kivas: Mesa Verde, 1888 to 1906
On December 18, 1888, two ranchers looking for cattle saw Cliff Palace. Eight collections, a Swedish dig and the Antiquities Act of June 8, 1906 followed.
· 1250
Record · Medieval world · South Asia
Konark's Sun Temple: a stone chariot, and a hall filled with sand
The Archaeological Survey of India calls Konark's Sun Temple a stone chariot with twelve pairs of wheels and seven horses; its hall held sand until 2022.
· 1250
Record · Medieval world · The Americas
Mound B and the plaza at Moundville: a town that became a necropolis
About AD 1200 Moundville, Alabama, was a palisaded town around a mound-lined plaza. After 1300 most residents left and it became a burial center.
· 1250
Record · Medieval world · Central Asia
Not as big as Saint Denis: William of Rubruck measures Karakorum, 1254
A Franciscan friar entered the Mongol capital on May 7, 1254, sized it against a village near Paris, and described a silver fountain and Mongke's creed.
· 1254
Record · Medieval world · West Asia
Alamut's library, 1256: what Juvayni kept and what he burned
Rukn al-Din Khurshah surrendered to Hülegü on November 19, 1256. Juvayni, Hülegü's secretary, then sorted the Alamut library, keeping some books and burning the rest.
· 1256
Record · Medieval world · West Asia
From 800,000 to two million: the dead of Baghdad, February 1258
Baghdad fell to Hülegü on February 13, 1258; the caliph died on February 20. A chronicle counted "more than 800,000" dead; copyists made it two million.
· 1258
Record · Medieval world · West Asia
A letter that ended a siege: Baybars at Krak des Chevaliers, 1271
In 1142 the Count of Tripoli gave Hisn al-Akrad to the Hospitallers. In 1271 Sultan Baybars took its keep with a forged surrender letter, Ibn al-Furat records.
· 1271
Record · Medieval world · East Asia
A hull on the seabed off Takashima, the Mongol fleet of 1281
In autumn 2011 a Ryukyu University team found a Yuan warship's keel off Takashima, 23 to 25 meters down. A second hull followed in 2014.
· 1281
Record · Medieval world · Oceania
A 13-year-old's find at Wairau Bar in 1939, and a return in 2009
In 1939 Jim Eyles, 13, found a burial site at Wairau Bar with moa eggs and tools. Radiocarbon dates the graves to the 1200s-1300s; 42 koiwi came home in 2009.
· 1300
Record · Medieval world · The Americas
Chan Chan's adobe walls and the rains of 2016 and 2017
Peru's Ministry of Culture called Chan Chan a masterpiece of pre-Columbian design in 2016, the year Huaca Toledo was excavated and rain closed the site.
· 1300
Record · Medieval world · East Asia
How big was the Mongol Empire next to Rome and Britain?
Rein Taagepera's estimates give the Mongol Empire 24 million km² around 1300 and Rome 4.4 million in its years on top; only Britain's empire grew larger.
· 1300
Record · Medieval world · Africa
Who built Great Zimbabwe, and why was the answer buried?
Ancestors of the Shona built Great Zimbabwe between about 1100 and 1450, a city that lived on cattle, grain and gold. Rhodesia censored the finding until 1980.
· 1300
Record · Medieval world · Oceania
Ash from AD 1314 and the dating of New Zealand's first settlement
Tarawera's Kaharoa ash, dated to about AD 1314, holds rat-gnawed seeds. Rat bones, lake charcoal and a 2022 study date the first settlers decades earlier.
· 1314
Record · Medieval world · Africa
How much gold did Mansa Musa bring to Cairo in 1324?
No record gives a weight; the 100 camels and 12,000 slaves are report, not record. Al-Umari, 12 years on, wrote that the gold mithqal fell from 25 dirhams to 22.
· 1324
Record · Medieval world · West Asia
Ibn Battuta's 29 years: what the Rihla records, and what it invents
He left Tangier on June 14, 1325; dictation ended in Fez on December 9, 1355. Delhi's salary and Mali's court are recorded; the Bulghar ride is invented.
· 1325
Record · Medieval world · Africa
Kulwa in the Travels: Kilwa in 1331 and five coins in Australia
Ibn Battuta reached Kilwa in 1331. Excavations in the 1960s and 2016 and a 2023 DNA study date its origins differently; five of its coins turned up in Australia.
· 1331
Record · Medieval world · South Asia
Fondest of making gifts and of shedding blood: Ibn Battuta's Delhi
Ibn Battuta met Muhammad bin Tughluq on June 8, 1334, and served as qadi at 12,000 dinars a year. In 1342 he left for China and was wrecked at Calicut.
· 1334