Objects, Environment, and Everyday Life in Medieval Europe

Ben Jervis, Lee G. Broderick, Idoia Grau-Sologestoa (eds). Pages: xii + 313 p. Illustrations:65 b/w, 20 tables b/w. Language(s):English. Publication Year:2016. Brepols. ISBN: 978-2-503-55503-4. Hardback -- SUMMARY Artefacts and environmental remains are abundant from archaeological excavations across Europe, but until now they have most commonly been used to accompany broader narratives built on historical sources and studies of topography and buildings, rather than being studied as important evidence in their own right. The papers in this volume aim to redress the balance by taking an environmental and artefact-based approach to life in medieval Europe. The contributions included here address central themes such as urban identities, the nature of towns and their relationship with their hinterlands, provisioning processes, and the role of ritual and religion in everyday life. Case studies from across Europe encourage a comparative approach between town and country, and provide a pan-European perspective to current debates. The volume is divided into four key parts: an exploration of the processes of provisioning; an assessment of the dynamics of urban population; an examination of domestic life; and a discussion of the status quaestionis and future potential of urban environmental archaeology. Together, these sections make a significant contribution to medieval archaeology and offer new and unique insights into the conditions of everyday life in medieval Europe. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction BEN JERVIS, LEE G. BRODERICK, and IDOIA GRAU SOLOGESTOA Part 1. Provisioning as Process Zooarchaeology at Medieval Ipswich: From wic to Regional Market Town PAM CRABTREE An Archaeobotanical Perspective on Wooden Artefacts from Medieval Reykjavík DAWN MOONEY Building the Towns: The Interrelationship Between Woodland History and Urban Life in Viking Age Ireland EILEEN REILLY, SUSAN LYONS, ELLEN OCARROLL, LORNA ODONNELL, INGELISE STUIJTS, and ADRIENNE CORLESS Urban Patterns of Animal Husbandry on Three Sites in Medieval Anatolia EVANGELIA PIŞKIN Part 2. Social Dynamics Patterns of Diversity: Using Ceramics to Examine the Social Topography of the Medieval Town of Płock, Poland MACIEJ TRZECIECKI Meat Consumption as Identity of Status and Profession during the Middle Ages: A Review of the Zooarchaeological Evidence from Rome and Latium (Italy) CLAUDIA MINNITI Mounts for Furnishings, Padlocks and Candleholders: Understanding the Urbanisation of Medieval England through Metal Small Finds Recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme MICHAEL LEWIS Part 3. Domestic Life Jeux sans Frontières: Play and Performativity or Questions of Identity and Social Interaction across Town and Country MARK A. HALL Runic Inscriptions on Stave Vessels in Turku: Materialisations of Language, Education, Magic and Domestic Religion JANNE HARJULA Changing Places? Place-making in Anglo-Saxon Hamwic, Southampton and Winchester BEN JERVIS Part 4. Studying the Town The Changing Role of Environmental Science in Archaeological Research in Copenhagen HODA EL-SHARNOUBY Soil Micromorphology in Urban Research: Early Medieval Antwerp (Belgium) and Viking Age Kaupang (Norway) BARBORA WOUTERS, KAREN MILEK, YANNICK DEVOS, and DRIES TYS Human Dental Calculus and a Medieval Urban Environment ANITA RADINI, EFTHYMIA NIKITA, and LISA MARIE SHILLITO.…