I need help to find a subject for this essay

[Celtik Militia]

Hi, i got this sort of "essay" to do in medieval archeology. Its not really an essay, i forgot the word for it.. its not just a paper, i gotta do an oral report and bring some stuff in to show the class.. objects, pictures, photocopies, videos..etc..

And i don't really know what i could do it on, the problem is that the teacher wants us to be "physically active" for our report. For example, if i do it on medieval war machines i'll need to go see a museum where some of these war machines are exposed. This is a problem because it means i couldn't do it on viking longboats for example.. cause that means i'd need to go to norway (or sweden) and see that longboat in the museum.. so the report has to be accessible... if i do it about forgery it would be better if i interviewed a forger..etc...

Anyway, you could help me find a subject cause they can be pretty vast.. it just needs to be related to the middle ages. the examples she gave were like "the middle ages and how its depicted in movies" (and the teacher gave the example of what students did for her a previous year : vikings in movies... i was so mad cause i had thought about doing this but i'm not gonna take her example)..


I had thought about historical reinactments of middle ages.. like how they reinact the battle of Hastings in england... i have friends who do that and have gone there so that does my "physical activity" of interviewing them..

I was also wondering if there were any pagan temples or other things like that built between the 5th and the 15th century (thats officially the middle ages for my teacher).


anyway, i'd like to do something about norse, celts or pagans if possible.. can anyone think about a cool subject? (its gotta be a somewhat precise subject btw.. not too vast like "the franks"..)

just give some ideas if you think of any, that would be helpfull.. i want something quite original and cool ^^

PS: sorry for such a long post, thanks for your help.

 

[Timmy the Viking]

Hmm...
You live in Paris so you havent any viking museums near
But maybe you should search on internet something about history museum near your town. 9 for 10 museums of history have models and plans of medieval machines or castles
Btw, i am making model of medieval castle and medieval village from wood and stones

 

[TheLastWithPaganBlood]

Sex in the middle ages... or Sex in monastries?
What about evidence of paganism in christianity? Like how different churches were built over temples or certain pagan ideas that were merged into chritianity?

 

[Erzebeth.Rouge]

what christianity took for sorcery during inquisition?

 

[Celtik Militia]

Timmytheviking, my physical activity could be something else then visiting a museum, it could be interviewing specialists of subjects and shit.. just to proove i moved my ass a little.

TheLastWithPaganBlood, nice idea... i'm gonna have to search this a little more cause this could be a hard subject, and it could be quite hard for some "physical activity" involving this. And objects.. apart from an example of The DaVinci Code i wouldn't know what to bring perhaps i could make a model of something.. anyway good subject, i'll look into it. does anyone have any precise examples of this?
edit: i was talking about the paganism in christianity idea.. not the sex one hehe

Erzebeth.Rouge, yeah but the problem is that this is a cliché of the Middle Ages.. they hardly burnt witches during the middle ages. i believe the inquisition and really big massacres were after the 15th century.
ok, there was Charlemagne who killed some pagans and all, but this is supposed to be a presentation with objects. think of it like "show and tell". i need objects to support my presentation, i don't see what i could bring for that.

shit, this is

 

[Tyra]

How about taking Belgar's lead and discuss beer-making or wine making in your local area. You will, after all, need to do a lot of sampling. Then you can interview me!
The Normans invented all sorts of new weaponry. You ought to be able to find one that you can look at. Start out where you live and figure out if there are any old buildings - that includes bridges and such structures. You might find that one specific family paid for them all, for example. A favourite thing to do for people that want to do foreign cultures or old cultires in their own area is to look at place names. How many Norse or Celtic words, names, gods or whatever is in your county? Do they say anything about which gods were worshipped there, or who settled there, or are the only confined to a specific kind of landscape? Why?
If all else fails, so something like "the development of hairstyles in X area". Then you can go to a museum and look at paintings of hairstyles or fashion trends (and use the Bayeux tapestry to illustrate funny Norman shaved heads).

 

[Bates]

I'd second PaganBlood's idea of the "churches built over pagan sites". If I remember correctly, we had a pretty good discussion on that a while back, and you had been surprised that one cathedral you were familiar with was raised over a grove or some such. I'll bet there's plenty more in the area that you could go check out.

 

[Pessimism]

^That sounds like a good idea - there is a plethora of information about such things. If worse comes to worse you can still do the evolution of farmhand tools into weapons or something (such as the Flanders 'Gutentag'...all hail the mighty Gutentag!)

 

[Tyra]

Or you could look for pagan symbolism in Christian churches. That's always interesting. Then you can take pictures and bring to class, or make drawings etc. Start with that church that sat on that pagan site, for example, then you can do an exposé on how paganism was incorporated over time and how pagan symbols changed meanings to become Christian in the process.

 

[Crushing Fist of Death]

I like what LastWith PaganBlood said about Christianity's use of pagan structures and beliefs. For example Easter. Look it up on the net to find the origins of that holiday. It's actually really cool origins. Not to mention great marketing on the church's part to convert pagans.