OxTalks is Changing
Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
What are White Storks (Ciconia ciconica) Doing in High and Late Medieval Calendars?
Each year, White Storks (Ciconia ciconia) migrate north to breeding grounds in Europe and back south to their wintering grounds, as far afield as sub-Saharan Africa. These long-distance migrants are large, unmistakable in plumage and behavior, and synanthropic, living near humans and benefitting from anthropogenic environments. How did medieval communities in proximity to stork breeding colonies interpret the comings and goings of these birds? This talk presents preliminary findings on the development of interspecies, place-based temporalities between people and storks in northern France and the Low Countries. This region was a growing population center for the species and produced some of the liveliest renderings of storks in manuscripts c. 1250 to 1515. Focusing on depictions of storks in calendars and psalters produced around the Upper Rhine and drawing upon both zooarchaeological and written records of White Storks, I examine the possibility that depictions of storks’ arrival, departure, breeding, and behavioral choices may have acted as pictorial gauges for a combination of environmental, temporal, and climatic variables, calibrating formulaic occupational and liturgical schedules for seasonal variability by synchronizing them with the rhythm of the avian annual cycle.
Date:
13 November 2025, 12:30
Venue:
Radcliffe Observatory
Venue Details:
Room 20.421, History Hub, Schwarzman Centre
Speaker:
Ryan Mealiffe (DPhil History, Oxford)
Organising department:
Faculty of History
Part of:
Environmental History Working Group
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editor:
Belinda Clark
