“The popularity of Internet sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace might make social networking seem relatively modern. But a team of French researchers has challenged this idea by trawling through medieval documents to create the oldest detailed social network ever constructed.
Working from records of land transactions dating back as far as 1260, computer scientists have reconstructed the social ties that bound 10 villages in the province of Lot in southwest France. The result is a rare look at how medieval peasants and lords were connected.”
Read the rest at Nature News …
That sounds fascinating! Too bad I don’t have a nature.com log in to read the rest. Bugmenot.com doesn’t have a working account either.