Martell's PRIME SITES: World History
This annotated list contains selected History websites organized around a set of four themes: countries, events, individuals, and periods. No attempt has been made to be exhaustive. Typically very few sites are listed in comparison to the number of sites actually available. The quality of the site and the availability of images and substantive text are primary considerations.


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EVENTS

Tombs & Mummies
Ancient Olympics
Vikings
Crusades (1099-1250)
Mongol Invasions
Magna Carta (1215)
Castles
Fall of Constantinople
Inquisition
Revolutions of 1848
Spanish Civil War
WW II Battle of Stalingrad

Role of Women




Tombs and Mummies

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Death in Ancient Egypt
  This electronic text by Alexandra O'Brien is well-designed text and has wonderful, fully annotated images, suggested readings, and list of sites.


Egyptian Royal Tombs of the New Kingdom
  A 17-page essay with cross-links to supporting material, fine images, and a wonderful set of tomb plans clearly labeled and described. The creator Kelley Ross has developed a very good site.


Egyptology Egyptology Resources
  A Newton Institute of the University of Cambridge website with an excellent "Essential reference materials for Egyptology." It also has links to personal web-logs and photographs.


Evaluation of an Ancient Egyptian Mummy Using Spiral CT and Reconstructions: Interactive Display Using the World Wide Web
  A detailed 21-page essay with numerous helpful cross-links to other resources, marvelous images, and a short but excellent list of other related sites.


Guardian's Egypt: Mummies
  Mummies on the Web consists of an excellent list of 20 sites. Included are the British Museum, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Manchester Museum, and National Geographic. The list is annotated.


The Tomb of Senneferi
  Discusses an ongoing excavation in Egypt: what the tomb is, how archaeology is done, what is found, and other topics. There are conservation records from the years 1993-1997, a section on wall paintings, and a brief description of Senneferi and his family. Altogether this is an intelligently constructed and designed site.


Who Was Who Among the Royal Mummies
  An article with graphic images by Edward Wente (University of Chicago) from the Winter 1995 issue of the Oriental Institute News and Notes.


Ancient Olympics

Olympics


Ancient OlympicsThe Ancient Olympics
  An appealing well-designed site which is a Special Exhibit of the Perseus Digital Library Project.


Ancient OlympicsThe Ancient Olympics
  This site from the Classics Technology Center has good descriptions, including ten of Olympic events, and texts, images, and links to other sites. A good starting point.


Ancient OlympicsThe Ancient Olympics
  This most attractive site is divided into five sections: Background, Olympia, Games, Events & Athletes, and Impact. Beside the Olympics there were other athletic venues in Ancient Greece, eleven of which are described. The organization of these venues is discussed. Twenty-three buildings at Olympia are briefly described. Short biographies are provided for sixteen famous athletes. Several events are noted. The ideology of sport is discussed and some contemporary opinions on the subject are mentioned. The impact of the Ancient Olympics on future games is also discussed. Images are used freely, adding to the attractiveness of this site.


Olympics Statistics and History
  Billed as the largest Olympics Statistics and History Database Online. Unfortunately the history only goes back to 1896 but if statistics of all the games since then are of interest this site should be viewed.


Wikipedia Olympic Games
  This site has good coverage from the ancient games to the present. It also has excellent links to many of the individuals and events cited.


Vikings

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Jorvik Viking Centre Jorvik Viking Centre
  A visually attractive site with descriptions of Viking life. One page entitled "Downloads" has links to ten short articles, including shipbuilding and coins.


The Keep: The Vikings, The Mongols, and Other Barbarians
  An extensive list of links to Viking sites. The links to Mongols and Other Barbarians are less complete.


Mariner's Museum The Mariner's Museum
  Brief descriptions of Viking explorers, discoveries, and ships with a few links.


blueanstar.gif Regia Anglorum - Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman, and British Living History
  Covers Early Medieval Europe in general and Anglo-Saxon and Viking Britain in particular. Extensive number of full-text articles by author with appropriate images. The site has a fascinating amount ofdetail about the basics of everyday life, e.g., tools and weaving. Member with links to Ring of Vikings, Anglo-Saxon England Ring, and Medieval Studies Ring.


Viking Age History The Viking Age History
  Links to major themes in the Viking Age: (1) Daily Life, (2) Society, (3) Martial Arts, Shipbuilding, and Other Manufacturing, (4) Language, Literature, and the Arts, (5) Myths and Religion, and (6) The Hurstwic Library.


Viking Network Web The Viking Network Web
  Brief descriptions of some of the more important themes in Viking life and history. There are twelve maps of various parts of the Viking world.


The Vikings
  A site describing Viking clothes, farming, burial customs, roads, shelter, ships, and other themes.


Vikings: A Smithsonian Exhibit Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga
  A very attractive exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. There is a map with seven geographical areas, each of which can be accessed by clicking on a number representing the area, e.g., Greenland. There is a video introduction and very brief material on archaeology, sagas, history, and environment.




Crusades

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Crusades
  A 22-page essay from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) with cross-links. This site has good graphics that improve upon the straight text sites.


Crusades: A Guide to Online Resources
  The ORB: On-Line Reference Book for Medieval Studies site has eight short essays by Paul Crawford, bibliographic references, and several texts from the period.


The Crusades The Crusades
  There are descriptions of six of the nine Crusades, the causes and effects of the Crusades, and two timelines.


A History and Mythos of the Knights Templar
  This site has a commercial aspect that competes with the educational. Nonetheless, the history of the templars and their role in the Crusades deserve attention. The subject is divided into history, mystery, legacy and Crusades. Under "History" are eight themes, including Grand Masters, Origins, and Fall of the Order. The Templar Documents section has twelve documents from the 14th century.


blueanstar.gif Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Selected Sources: The Crusades
  This excellent Paul Halsall list of sources uses a contents outline format to link to a wide range of original and secondary materials such as a selection of seven original texts on the Evolution of Crusader Privileges, 1095-1270. Other Crusader sites are also listed in the Sourcebook.


The New Jerusalem Mosaic
  A small nicely designed resource with interesting graphics and brief descriptions of religious sites, costumes, people, food, and water systems.


Odin's Castle - The Monk 's Cell : The History of Religion
  This list of Crusades resources is uneven but is presented in a nice package. Odin's Castle is connected to several valuable history rings.


The Real Story of the Crusades The Real History of the Crusades
  A four to five pages essay by Professor Thomas Madden which attempts to correct [what the author calls] the all-too-common misconceptions of the Crusades.




Mongol Invasions

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Islam and Islamic History in Arabia and the Middle East: The Mongols and Mamaluks
  A 1-page essay from an interesting perspective.


The Mongol Empire
  This entry is from the All Empires Online History Community. There is an eighteen page essay with a list of rulers and a chronology. Although simple, the design is attractive.


Mongol Empire
  A twenty six page Wikipedia article on the Mongol Empire.


Mongol Invasion of Europe
  A sixteen page article with eight sections.


The Mongol Khans
  The main text has 18 pages with some cross-links. The list of the Khans by name and the dates of their rule are major features of this site.


Realm of the Mongols
  Contains essays written by Per Inge Oestmoen on a range of topics including people and history. The essay on Kahn's Yasa (Grand Law) is a 19-page recounting of A Code of Honor, Dignity, and Excellence. Another essay is the 14-page "Mongol History and Chronology from Ancient Times." There is also a bibliography and a list of links.


The Turco-Mongol Invasions of Armenia
  Primarily The Turco-Mongol Invasions and the Lords of Armenia in the 13-14th Centuries, a 1979 dissertation by Robert Bedrosian.


Virtual Mongol
  A photographic site with many images by the Japanese illustrator Kikutake Yuji.




Magna Carta

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Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: The Magna Carta
  Text, definitions, and index to the Magna Carta. This site also contains many other Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance legal documents.


The Charter of Liberties of Henry I
  Text of an earlier Charter that served as the model for the Great Charter of 1215.


Magna Carta
  Complete text of the Great Charter forced upon King John in June 1215 along with definitions and an interpretation.


Treasures in Full: Magna Carta: Original Document
  This British Library site displays an image of the originalMagna Carta. The basics, seven themes, people, and an audio by the curator of the documents are included.




Castles

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ABZU: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East Available on the Internet: Subject Index: Maps and Atlases
  72 photographs from the Oriental Institute Research Archives of Levantine castles and portions of detailed maps showing their locations.


faering.gif The Castles of Wales
  Thissuperb site by Jeff Thomas has a fine design, unusual depth of coverage, and appealing graphics. Over 400 different Welsh castles are in the site's database. The Essays & Perspectives section contains 8 historical overview essays, 10 essays on the evolution of castles in Wales, and 9 additional essays on a variety of interesting topics including Life in a Medieval Castle. There is also a section on Castle Builders and their turbulent times. The project is completed and there are currently no plans to add to it.


Castles on the Web
  History is not this site's primary feature but there are many images and a list of other castle sites. It has a commercial slant that runs in parallel with the educational.


The English Medieval Castle
  Three articles by David Dawson outlining the development of the English medieval castle and describing its major features. There is a good use of images with the text.



Fall of Constantinople

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Constantinople
  This site has hidden strengths and a nationalistic slant. The Falls of 1204 and 1453 are described. There is a chronology of the many Emperors of the Byzantium Empire and fourteen short biographies of other notables. The architecture section has a macromedia flash feature and there is a photos section. Also see the section on Military and Organization.


Hellenism in the Middle Ages
  The Fall of Constantinople is described in a 22-page section that includes an excellent image of the battle, a poem, and a lengthy essay by Dionysios Hatzopoulos.




Inquisition

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The Art of Renaissance Science: Galileo and Perspective
  This is a lengthy essay by Professor Joseph Dauben. There are many images integrated with the text.


blueanstar.gif The Galileo Project
  An impressive hypertext source of information on the life and work of Galileo and the science of his time. A detailed 15-page chronology of his life cross-links to longer texts and related resources. Commentary on career, family, patrons, images, and Inquisition events are presented in a tasteful format. Under the heading of resources there is the Catalog of the Scientific Community of the 16th and 17th Centuries, a searchable database of over 600 individuals. The biography of Galileo is 5 pages in length.


candleS.gif Inquisitio
  "The materials featured on this website are from the University of Notre Dame's Harley L. McDevitt Inquisition Collection. The collection consists of several hundred items, from printed volumes to unique manuscripts and images, all bearing some relationship to the general theme of "inquisition." The Harley L. McDevitt Collection website displays full-text material on Inquisition Manuals, Trials and Sentencing, Auto de Fe, Censorship, Familiars and Officials, Policies and Proceedings, and Polemics and Histories. This site now has material available online that may be considered essential for the study of the Inquisition. The Rare Books & Special Collections staff at the Hesburgh Library at Notre Dame are to be commended for their fine work.


Inquisition
  A fourteen page essay on the Inquisition from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia. Some of the cross-links are substantive. For example, the cross-link to "heresy" has eight pages organized into 13 sections.


Medieval Sourcebook: Medieval Heresy: The Inquisition
  The Inquisition is listed in the contents section under Medieval Heresy. There are 18 texts including a 4-page introduction by David Burr on Inquisition documents and a 22-page commentary by Bernard Maury on the Inquisition process.


Multimedia Catalogue - Room IV - Galileo Galilei
  An attractive site withexcellent images from the Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence, Italy. Includes a very brief biography of Galileo via a cross-link, a Biography Index with over a hundred people who were in some way connected with Galielo, an Index of Artifacts with descriptions and cross-links, and links to other sites.





Revolutions of 1848


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Encyclopedia of the Revolutions of 1848
  More than 50 short essays usually in the range of 2 to 4 pages describe events, people, and other topics such as the 4-page essay on Civil Liberties and the 1848 Revolutions.


Hungary in 1848-1849
  Six texts and documents, 5 of which are chapters from Henry DePuy's Kossuth and His Generals (1852). Part of the more extensive Habsburg Home Page.


The Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Archive
  Contains full-text resources by both Marx and Engels on the revolutions of 1848-49. Marx's Eighteenth Brumiere of Louis Bonaparte deals with the events and aftermath of the revolution of 1848 in France and Engels' The Peasant War in Germany draws parallels between the 1848 revolutions in Germany and the uprisings in the 16th century.


The March Days of 1848
  A fourteen page chapter, "Frederick Wilhelm IV of Prussia and His "Dear Berliners," from Germans and the Revolution of 1848 by Justine Davis Randers-Pehrson.


Modern History Sourcebook: Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869): History of the Revolution of 1848 in France
  A 3-page excerpt from a book by de Lamartine written shortly after the events occurred.






Spanish Civil War

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blueanstar.gif The Spanish Civil War
  This site is oriented toward the work of Buenaventura Durruti and the role of anarchists in the Civil War. In addition to resources on Durruti there are sections on bibliography, graphics, and history. The bibliography includes cross-links to some full-text books and pamphlets. The posters from a collection at Brandeis are wonderful. In the area of history there are 22 well-chosen links including many photos from the book Photo-History: War in Spain.


The Spanish Revolution (1936)
  The role of anarchism in the Spanish conflict is the focus of this site. There is an extensive array of full-text materials related to the subject.


The Spanish Revolution & Civil War
  A provocative site with high impact graphics and a broad range of subjects including weapons and military links, Catholic Church, posters, anarchist origins, and bibliographic material. Essays and other textual material are often extensive. For example, there is a 22-page article on the role of Catholicism in the Second Spanish Republic.


Spanish Revolution of 1936
  Contains a rambling 2-page commentary by Franklin Rosemont of aspects of the working class' involvement in the conflict and a 3-page essay on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade by the site creator Al Filreis.


The Visual Front
  Includes 42 posters of the Spanish Civil War from UCSD's Southworth Collection. Information about the artists and descriptions of the context in which each poster was created is very helpful. There is also a chronology of the war and an extensive bibliography with a few cross-links.




WW II Battle of Stalingrad

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Barbarossa
  A thirteen page article by Bevin Alexander. Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of Russia. This Military History Online site has many articles on WWII and its military operations.


Battle of Stalingrad
  This is a fourteen page New World Encyclopedia article.


Battle of Stalingrad
  This essay by Mike Yoder includes sections on Operation Barbarossa, Operation Blue, The Commanders, Death of a City, Rattenkrieg, and Annihilation and Aftermath.


blueanstar.gifThe Eastern Front
  This is an excellent site with eight subject areas (e.g., timeline, commanders, vehicles, and battles) and lengthy, well-illustrated commentary on the major participants, weapons systems, and other essential subjects.


Kursk Kursk Reconsidered, Germany's Lost Victory?
  A four page article by George Nipe Jr. on the greatest tank battle in history. There are seven related articles and comments on Nipe's article.


Operation Barbarossa
  This thirty-one page Wikipedia site covers most aspects of the Eastern Front campaign and has a multitude of internal links. There is information on the belligerents, commanders, and casualities. The Battle of Stalingrad is a separate fourteen pages and can be found as a link in the introduction


Stalingrad: Battlefield Info Stalingrad: Battlefield Info
  This is an interesting site. There are photographs of battlefield relics picked up by children during the seige; tactical maps and photographs from both the German and Russian forces; Stalin's famous order to his forces; a list of recently released NKVD documents; and diaries, songs, wartime photographs, maps, and a description of the battle.


Stalingrad Winter Tempest in Stalingrad
  A five page article by Pat McTaggart. There are comments and related articles at this HistoryNet.com site


blueanstar.gif WW II Resources
  The On-Line Books from the U.S. Center of Military History section of this major site includes two lengthy pamphlets on German experiences on the Eastern Front. The first is "Operations of Encircled Forces" prepared by former German officers and the second is "Rear Area Security in Russia: The Soviet Second Front Behind the German Lines" prepared by former German generals and general staff officers.




Role of Women

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Distinguished Women of Past and Present
  Search by name or field of activity for brief biographies of heads of states, educators, artists, and others. The links to related sites are extensive.


Internet Women's History Sourcebook
  This site is a subset of texts from Halsall’s three major Sourcebooks (Ancient, Medieval, and Modern). Access is by country, region, and continent to a set of 5 themes -- Great Women, Women’s Oppressors, Structure of Women’s Lives, Women’s Agency, and Gender Construction. The site is well organized and the layout is exemplary.


blueanstar.gif Diotima: Materials for the Study of Gender in the Ancient World
  A truly impressive site with a wide range and depth of resources. There are extensive site- and web-based bibliographies, full-text essays, lectures, journal articles, and books, course materials, materials for biblical study, and images. Many Greek and Roman texts are available online in translation.


Women in the Middle Ages
  This attractively designed site has bibliogaphies, indexes, texts, and articles. There are sections on "Everyday Life" and "Writers, Musicians, and Artists." The site is maintained by Sherron Lux at the University of Houston. It was last updated in July 2004. Ms. Lux expects the site to have fourteen basic categories when it nears completion. There is also an audio feature.


Women's Studies: A Guide to Online Resources
  From the On-Line Reference Book for Medieval Studies this site includes an essay on "Medieval German Women Writers (1100-1450)," primary source material, bibliographies and other online resources. The section on primary source material contains 4 Latin texts in translation on medieval women and background papers such as "The Desert Mothers I: A Survey of the Feminine Anchoretic Tradition in Western Europe."


Women's Studies Women's Studies Resources: History
  This site (maintained by Karla Tonella at the University of Iowa) contains five pages of links to other resources. Besides history the site has other subjects such as art, literature, and feminist theory. It was last updated in August 2006.




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