Session: #565

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
The archaeology of material culture, bodies and landscapes
Session format:
Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Title & Content

Title:
Ecclesiastical landscapes in Medieval Europe. A comparative approach
Content:
Churches and monasteries are one of the most commonly studied structures in Medieval Archaeology and thousands of excavations have provided insights into their architecture and material culture across Europe. However it has been much less explored how this wide variety of Christian buildings (chapels, local churches, monasteries, oratories...) influenced (or were influenced by) their surrounding landscapes in physical, economic, political or symbolic terms. There has been a reluctance to look up from the site plans and to consider the wider context in which the site was founded and functioned. This session will explore this topic by means of different case studies from across Medieval Europe in order to highlight and discuss the variety of relations and contexts between ecclesiastical buildings and their surrounding medieval landscapes. Topics to be covered include (but are not limited to): the interrelation between different groups of churches, the archaeology of dependences outside the monastic walls, the physical transformation of the landscapes by ecclesiastical institutions (new crops, marshland drainage, bridges, the setting up of new economic activities like mining, salt production), strategies of Christianisation of the landscapes and the adaptation of pre-Christian sacred elements. In addition to the papers presented, a final discussion will be promoted in order to identify similarities and differences among the cases explained in this session.
Keywords:
Landscapes, Christianisation, Churches, Monasteries, Medieval
Session associated with MERC:
yes
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no

Organisers

Main organiser:
Jose Carlos Sanchez-Pardo (Spain) 1
Co-organisers:
Dr. Emmet Marron (Ireland) 2
Professor Ioan Marian Tiplic (Romania) 3
Dr. Maria Tiplic (Romania) 4
Affiliations:
1. University of Santiago de Compostela
2. Newcastle University
3. ”Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu
4. Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities Sibiu