A RTS AND L ITERATURE IN THE M IDDLE A GES The middle ages began around 500 AD and went until about 1500 AD in western Europe. Lords ruled the lands at the time, along with the peasants.

A RCHITECTURE The most famous buildings in the middle ages were the many castles and cathedrals. They were all mainly constructed out of stone, unlike many buildings from early that were made from wood. The stone buildings were les likely to rot and be destroyed by fire.

S CULPTURES Stone, wood, and ivory were used to decorate furniture/doors in homes, statues, churches by the sculptors. To make a sculpture the carver first had to remove a large piece of stone/wood/ivory using an ax so that there would be a rough outline of the shape needed. Chisels were used to carve out the smaller pieces. The sculptures are polished, painted, and decorated with thin sheets of gold.

P AINTING AND M OSAICS Medieval did paintings in books and on church walls. For most of the middle ages realistic style was not used. To show that saints and rulers were higher up then others they would be drawn much larger. Often painted on backgrounds of gold/colorful patterns rather then just natural settings.

P OTTERY, M ETALWORK, AND W EAVING The medieval craftspeople were very skilled when it came to working with metal, jewels, cloth, and clay. Bowls, pots, and jugs were made from the clay.

B EAUTIFUL BOOKS Books were hand copied for most of the middle ages by scribes. Manuscripts took the longest to make and the materials that were needed to make books, were very expensive. The only people that really had books were nobles, churches, and wealthy merchants.

L ITERATURE Most of the medieval books were written in Latin. Latin was the language most commonly used by the church and educated people. The books were about poetry, myths, history, science, philosophy, and religion.

M USIC Music: the two main types of music are- ~religious(played and sung during worship) and ~non-religious(singing and dancing for entertainment) Instruments: Peasants played homemade pipes and drums. They were made from reeds, bones, animal horns, wood, and animal skins. Dancing: Medieval people danced at social gatherings and danced inside and outside. It was seen as inappropriate to dance in churches or church yards. You would dance in a circle and the musicians would play tunes on there pipes and drums

M YSTERY P LAYS A series of short plays that were preformed in towns on the holy days. Each of the plays told a bible story or taught some sort of a Christian lesson.