Because they did not understand the biology of the disease, many people believed that the Black Death was a kind of divine punishmentretribution for sins against God such as greed, blasphemy, heresy, fornication and worldliness. 128132. Although scholars still debate their specific origins, either the Chinese, the Hindus, the Arabs or the Turks were likely responsible for inventing cannons. Then it reached Rome and Florence, two cities at the center of an elaborate web of trade routes. Many colonial-era children learned the alphabet, numbers and other basics (like the Lords Prayer) by using a hornbook, a sheet of paper mounted on a tablet of wood, leather or bone, and covered by a thin strip of transparent horn. "Men living during the early Middle Ages (the ninth to 11th centuries) were several centimeters taller than men who lived . 1300-Present Karin Breuer This is a class about criminal justice, trials, and punishment . Click here for more information: [General Audiences] [For Kids]Listen to "Galileo: An Old Man grieves his Daughter and Writes his Last Book" Episode 1603 from The Engines of Our Ingenuity Crop harvests returned to normal in 1317, but it would be another five years before food . The Black Death was a devastating global epidemic of bubonic plague that struck Europe and Asia in the mid-1300s. The year 1300 was not a leap year in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. Height did not begin to increase again until the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Steckel. the history of the USA as made by our land. Children and less important guests sat in the middle or at the other end of the table, or below the salt., READ MORE: 7 Events That Enraged Colonists and Led to the American Revolution. Steckel wants to continue looking at, and interpreting, fluctuations in height across thousands of years. Timeline 1300-1400: These timelines are intended as a rough guide for students seeking historical context rather than an authoritative research source. During the Middle Ages, Europe suffered from severe economic depressions.