Myth vs Mud - What Archaeology Tells Us About the Knights Templar

For over seven centuries, Templar commanderies have fired the popular imagination as fortified bastions of a warrior brotherhood. Yet systematic archaeological investigation across France tells a strikingly different story: one of farms, chapels, cemeteries, and artisan workshops. Can material evidence alone finally displace the myth with historical reality?

Water power, a Templar tool for industrial development

Towards the middle of the Xlle century, the Militia of the Order of the Temple, invested in milling for the agro-industrial sector and cloth fabrication. An example.

Aristocratic and monastic primacy in the 12th century County of Champagne, France

In The Aristocracy in the County of Champagne, 1100-1300, Theodore Evergates sketches the administrative situation in the County of Champagne, France in the 12th century. Champagne is the birth place of the Cistercian monastic Order, and also played an important part in founding of the Knights Templar. A summary.