The Bayeux Tapestry, an enormous length of embroidered cloth depicting events culminating in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, has long been a mystery, but the once-forgotten artwork might have finally found its place.
While it's almost universally agreed that the tapestry was designed by monks who lived at St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, England, and made by a team of skilled embroideresses, we're still not totally sure why it was created, or where it was hung.
Historian Benjamin Pohl presents his theory in a new paper: The tapestry, he believes, was mealtime reading material for the monks at St Augustine's, or someplace like it.
"I wondered whether a refectory setting could help explain some of the apparent and puzzling contradictions identified in existing scholarship," Pohl says, referring to the communal dining halls where monks shared meals.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member