Objects, Environment, and Everyday Life in Medieval Europe

The papers in this volume, largely drawn from a session at the 2012 Medieval Europe Research Congress, get to the very heart of what it was to be a town-dweller in medieval Europe, questioning the stark contrasts drawn between urban and rural life and considering how experiences of urban life varied between individuals and households based along elements of identity such as ethnicity, gender and profession. Case studies are drawn from across Europe and address a range of themes including domesticity, provisioning processes and ritual and religion. The volume is divided into 4 sections. The first examines processes of provisioning through the analysis of wooden artefacts and animal bone. The second section addresses the dynamics of urban populations and particularly the relationship between urban and rural communities through the study of artefacts and human remains. The third section addresses domestic experience, through the study of gaming pieces, pottery, architectural ceramics and personal devotion. The volume concludes with an assessment of the potential of new approaches and a historiography of urban environmental archaeology. By exploring themes of urbanism, the papers make a significant contribution to urban archaeology, by demonstrating how artefacts and environmental remains can tell us about more than trade and production, to help us get to grips with the conditions of urban life in medieval Europe.