Mandrake Fruit!

The Cloisters’ garden blog has a nifty picture of a mandrake and its unripe fruit, and the mandrake in bloom earlier.

(As you may recall from Genesis, Rachel was very fond of mandrakes, and Leah used to her bargaining advantage some mandrake fruits that her kids found.)

The Archeology of Medieval Sinusitis

If you have really, really bad sinus problems, it changes your maxillary sinus bones.

So yes, there are medieval sinusitis archeology studies.

“Chronic maxillary sinusitis in medieval Sigtuna, Sweden”.

“Maxillary sinusitis in Medieval Chichester, England”.

“Comparative study of the prevalence of maxillary sinusitis in later medieval urban and rural populations in Northern England“.

So if you have sinus problems, now you know your ancestors survived sinus long enough to reproduce…. :)