Western Europe (Geographic Keyword)
226-250 (350 Records)
The southern coast of Ireland in the early-17th century enjoyed a booming trade in exotic goods like pepper, cinnamon and other spices. This was underscored by an even brisker trade in pleasures of the flesh where the women in the pirates’ lives ran successful businesses of their own, providing safe houses, taverns, inns and brothels that tapped into the business of plunder. This was a time and place when illicit activity was the norm, when ships bringing plundered goods operated openly and...
The Pitch Tar Mill – the material memory of specialized production site in the town of Oulu, Northern Finland (2015)
The town of Oulu, northern Finland, had one of the northernmost pitch tar mills in global scale. Thousands of barrels of tar were cooked into a pitch tar in the island of Pikisaari annually during the 18th and 19th centuries. The island has been specialized production site for pitch tar and ship building during the 17th and 19th centuries and metal industry at 20th century. Thus, the pitch was not the only product of the mill area. There have been found artifacts, like tools and stone ware and...
The Pitch Tar Mills in the Gulf of Bothnia’s Early Modern Coastal Towns, Northern Finland (2016)
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, every coastal town in northern Finland’s Gulf of Bothnia had their own pitch tar mills. The pitch was produced from boiling tar and used as creosote to make wooden sailing ships watertight. The global need for pitch and tar made these products an important export product for early modern Swedish trade. The pitch tar mills were often located near towns on the mainland’s coast or on offshore islands nearby. Since 1640 in the town of Oulu, for instance, the...
Places for Others: Archaeological Perspectives on the Carceral Society (2013)
According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, by December 2009 approximately 7.25 million American adults were under some form of correctional supervision – a category that includes probation, parole, jail and prison. This population represented 724 people per 100,000 – or 3.1% of adult US residents. The evolution of our carceral society was neither inevitable nor accidental. This paper explores archaeological perspectives on institutional confinement to question why a leading modern state...
Plans without Plants? – The Early Modern Status Garden in the North (2018)
Garden culture reached the northernmost Sweden, creating new spaces by locals and newcomers from Central-Europe. The history of status gardens in the north affiliate with the spread of ironworks and trade connections. The idea of formal gardening arrived in Tornio during the late 17th century as garden drawings from Tornio and Kengisbruk ironworks imply. The garden fashion, which studied using macrofossils and maps, was visible more in structures and plans than in plants. However, gardens and...
The politics of landscape depiction in the Finnish WWII army photographs (2018)
We will discuss the role of landscape photography in a conflict situation. The Finnish Information Company photographers took numerous pictures in East Karelia, present-day northwest Russia during WWII. East Karelia had been the focus of Finnish romantic nationalism long before World War II – it was the supposed birthplace of the Finnish tribe, a place of pure and primal Finnish culture. During the Continuation War Finnish troops occupied parts of East Karelia and the Information Company...
Populations and Settled Areas for Medieval European Cities (2016)
Data analyzed in the paper, "Population-Area Relationship for Medieval European Cities," by Rudolf Cesaretti, Jose Lobo, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, Scott G. Ortman, and Michael E. Smith, published in PLOS ONE in September, 2016.
Ports and port systems in the Modern and Contemporary periods within a comparative study of the Portuguese and British maritime empires. (2013)
Islands and ports, as structural elements, have often been essential to the building of empires, so we aim to understand the different solutions used for the transformation of the occupied island and port landscapes, and how this occupation ordered or helped the definition of expansion models. Using both archaeological interpretation and cartographic and documentary sources, the intent is to show how the construction of structures proceeded, and how the creation of administrative systems worked...
Ports and Settlements in the Gulf of Oristano. A Coastal and Underwater Archaeological Approach (2013)
In recent years, multidisciplinary teams from the universities of Cagliari and Sassari (Sardinia, Italy) have undertaken research on ancient Sardinian, initiating a series of Global Archaeology research campaigns. Major attention has been placed on the area surrounding Oristano (Central-West Sardinia), focusing on maritime landing sites and port facilties but also on local settlement dynamics in a territory characterised by wetlands and large lagoons, some of which formed during historical...
Portuguese Ceramics from Newfoundland, Canada. (2013)
This paper will discuss the presence of Portuguese ceramics found on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. The Newfoundland cod fishery became an important part of European trade networks which expanded across the Atlantic during the early modern period. A multinational seasonal fishery was established on the island in the sixteenth century, with this seasonal presence being augmented by permanent English and French colonies during the seventeenth century. An extensive collection of Portuguese...
Portuguese ceramics in Plymouth (UK) (2013)
Although Portuguese ceramics are present in many cities across England, Plymouth is an extraordinary case of quantity and quality. Thousands of fragments of red coarsewares and tin glaze wares were identified across the city. One of the most extraordinary aspects is related to the type of these artefacts which are very similar to what Portuguese populations would use in Portugal. This aspect motivated the search for people and ships taking such cargo from Portugal and there is evidence of a...
Portuguese Faience and its worldwide distribution (2013)
The project "Portuguese Faience (PF) across the world (16th to 18th centuries )", sponsored by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia aims to study the distribution of PF across the world. Not that well recognized outside Portugal, the PF production started in middle 16th century in Lisbon and in the early 17th century it was already being made in other workshops across the country. The huge development of this ware was in part related to Portuguese commercial intensification, namely in its...
Portuguese Faience in Brazil’s 17th century Capital (2013)
The colonial Brazilian territory, organized and structured following the metropolitan model of society and administration, suffers an economic convulsion after the dynastic union in 1580 that modifies a major part of its social and cultural structure. The Portuguese faience fragments collected in the Praça da Sé, Colégio dos Jesuítas and in the remains of the shipwreck Galeão Santíssimo Sacramento (all in the city of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil), are testimonies of the social and economic matrix...
Portuguese finds in Velha Goa (2013)
As the former capital of the Estado da Índia, the Portuguese influence on Goa is evident throughout the region—in its architecture, cuisine, music, religious practices, etc. In Velha Goa (or Old Goa), perhaps the most striking example of this influence is the well-preserved Catholic churches that dominate the landscape. However, beyond the few excavations in Velha Goa that centered on these churches, there is a limited archaeological understanding of material culture outside of ecclesiastical...
Portuguese fine red coarsewares (2013)
Known outside Portugal as "Merida type red micaceous wares" or "Portuguese Merida-type ware", and believed to have originated in the Western Castilla and latter from Alentejo, called "terra sigillata from Estremoz", "redware", "feldspar inlaid redware", or modelled ceramics, these ceramics originated in southern Portugal. The production presents very diverse but elegant shapes crossing Classic, Islamic and Baroque influences with specific characteristics such as clean red fabrics, plastic...
Portuguese olive jars. Production and distribution (2018)
For many years, archaeologists believed that the type of jar known as an 'olive jar' was exclusively made in Southern Spain. The possibility that Portuguese kilns also produced these jars was not considered, despite these botijas, being frequent references in Portuguese documents, particularly in reference to ships' cargos. Until recently only a few olive jar sherds had been recovered in Portugal and, although we suspected a possible production due to the similarities between some olive jar...
Portuguese settlement in Mumbai region, India: territorial occupation throughout structural remains (16th-18th centuries) (2013)
Most parts of Greater Mumbai belonged to Portugal between 1534 and 1739, except for the island of Bombay, handed over to the British in 1665. The territory of Bassein, the ancient capital of this region, was the first settlement of Estado da Índia to occupy a significant area. The Portuguese enjoyed territorial stability during its first century in Bassein. This favoured the Portuguese annexation of land through the incorporation of pre-existing structures, the application of solutions used in...
Pots, Pipes & Plantation: Material Culture & Cultural Identity in Early Modern Ireland (2016)
Existing sectarian divides in Northern Ireland are still perceived to originate from the 17th century expansion of British colonial control into Ireland, most resolutely seen in the atrocities of the Northern Irish Conflict, or ‘the Troubles’. However an explosion of urban historical excavations in recent years has illuminated an archaeological record that appears to contradict dominant political powerhouses and rhetoric. Archaeological investigations throughout the former transatlantic port...
Potteries: Ceramics and the 50th Anniversary of the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology (2016)
Ceramics analysis is central to historical archaeology on both sides of the Atlantic; indeed, the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology [SPMA], which is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2016, originally grew out of a group dedicated to the study of post-medieval ceramics in Britain. This poster outlines some key components of SPMA's internationally significant contribution to ceramics analysis in historical archaeology over the last 50 years, as part of the celebration of this significant...
Pottery assemblage data from Roman Britain (2023)
Data analyzed in: Ortman, Scott, Olivia Bulik, Rob Wiseman, José Lobo, Luis Bettencourt and Lisa Lodwick (2023) Transport Costs and Economic Change in Roman Britain. European Journal of Archaeology:1-24 AND Wiseman, Rob, Olivia Bulik, José Lobo, Lisa Lodwick and Scott G. Ortman (2023) The Impact of Transportation on Pottery Industries in Roman Britain. Open Archaeology 9(1).
Pottery in the colonies: the silent marker revisited (2013)
The contact between the European and the Native American worlds was the beginning of a period of conquest and colonization that disrupted the tradition of the native populations, giving pass to a new political, economical, religious, and town-planning period. While the first European foundations were just survival driven ones, they became a strategic foundation in order to develop a proper colonial enterprise. The European culture arrival into the Americas brought also a new material culture...
Poultry in Motion: Chickens and Other Domestic Birds in Post-Medieval Cities (2013)
Chickens, turkeys and other domestic avian taxa were brought to and sold at city markets, kept by city-dwellers for various products and contributed to the general sensory experience of being in a city. Unlike other livestock, poultry were inexpensive and possible to husband successfully within the confined spaces characteristic of city life. Little is known about poultry husbandry in the post-medieval period apart from what can be gleaned from documentary sources and research has been limited...
Practical Applications of Underwater Laser Scanning in Maritime Archaeology Compared to Micro-bathymetry Sonar and Photogrammetry (2017)
Advances in multi-beam sonar have produced high density (and in the case of photogrammetry) textured, photo-realistic results of various underwater archaeological sites by rapidly capturing information in areas that are difficult or otherwise inaccessible to diving. In recent years, these technologies have been accompanied by underwater scanning, a method, which offers a step change in resolution, and consequently, significant interpretative potential. However, each method has inherently...
Preparing children’s burials in Post-Medieval Finland: Emotions awaken by sensory experiences (2018)
The sensory experiences create emotions that are culturally constructed and constituted. In order to understand how individuals were mourned, it is important to examine the ritual of preparing the dead for burial. The ritual is packed with sensory experiences, for instance the smell of death and sight of the coffin. Through examining Post-Medieval Finnish funerary material (textiles, accessories, coffins), this paper will sense by sense demonstrate the experiences of those individuals that took...
"Presenting Archaeological Conservation to the public at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation." (2013)
Recently, archaeology has become more popular and better understood within a wider public audience; arguably this has not been the case for archaeological conservation. Images of artifacts at burial sites are often publicized but when objects are miraculously revealed clean and ready for museum display, this completely overlooks a whole series of important and interesting processes that take place to get to this finished object. Having already shown an interest in the discovery of archaeological...