[formerly Medemelach]. The present town of Medemblik is situated on the Zuyder Zee. A monastery is known to have existed at Medemblik from Carolingian times up to the later medieval period, while occupation material suggests that there was an ancillary settlement from the later Meroving ian era during the 8th and 9th centuries. Recent excavations have discovered an earthen bank surrouding an area of intensive late 8th- and 9th-century occupation mostly in the form of storage pits. Buildings appear to be lacking, but they may well have been built of turf and thus have not survived in the archaeological record. Contemporary documents state that Pepin the Short incorporated Medemblik in a grant of land given to the Bishop of Utrecht and that the king continued to maintain an interest here. Medes. An iNDO-EuROPEAN-speaking people of northwest Iran, known mainly from classical sources. Between the 8th and the 6th centuries BC they took part in the complicated power struggles that affected Iran and Mesopotamia at this time. In 612 BC, under Cyax-ares, they conquered Assyria. Subsequently they were united by marriage connections with their one-time rivals, the Persians, and became partners in the Achaemenid empire. Their capital at Ecbatana (Hamadan) has not been excavated, but Median sites have been excavated at Godin Tepe, Baba Jan and Nush-i Jan. By tradition the Medes are credited with the invention of trousers.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied