New research methods bring surprising results

Using modern technology, researchers publishing in the journal “Royal Society Open Science” reported that bindings of medieval manuscripts from Clairvaux were in several cases made from the fur of seals. Methods such as electrostatic zooarchaeology and ancient DNA testing made this analysis possible. Historians may be sceptical of such empirical methods, but at the very least they open up new avenues of inquiry. The traces of seals suggest a strong connection to the English abbeys. This is nothing completely new, but valuable nonetheless. 

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