Session: #92

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Archaeological small finds of the High to Late Middle Ages (c.1100-1550) are amongst the most common artefact types found by archaeologists and others, but not always the focus of rigorous academic study or research. It is not clear why this is so, especially as the Middle Ages resonates with the public, being close in time and culture, and that the small finds themselves have great potential for scientific research and academic investigation.

The purpose of this session is two-fold. First to explore methods of how to interpret and understand archaeological small finds of medieval date, whether this is through new digital or scientific techniques or more traditional approaches. We would be particularly interested in papers that explore medieval finds within the historic landscape, and how this data is then presented to the wider public to help them visualise and understand the medieval past.

Second, we are interested in the relationship between finds types, and how they help us understand life in the medieval past. Papers might consider, for example, the relationship between particular object types and specific peoples, human activities or social hierarchy. It might be that papers offer different approaches to understanding and interpreting material culture, such as through typologies, style or their composition, or explore archaeological data through historical and art historical evidence. Likewise we are interested to here of diverse approaches from different parts of Europe, to foster the transfer of information and ideas.

Finds Medieval Landscape Data

yes

no

no

Dr Michael Lewis (United Kingdom) ^1,2

Dr Mirjam Kars (Netherlands) ^3,4
Ms Mette Højmark Søvsø (Denmark) ⁵
Dr Jakub Sawicki (Czech Republic) ⁶