Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This session brings to light traditionally understudied topics in the archaeology of medieval Europe (c.400-1500CE). Although medieval archaeologists have made tremendous methodological and theoretical advancements over the past several decades, many important questions continue to go not only unanswered, but unasked. The papers in this session seek to address lacunae in our knowledge of the Middle Ages, whether in terms of liminal communities (e.g. early medieval steppe nomads; Ottoman-era Islamic converts), disregarded periods (e.g. Late Medieval North Atlantic), or under-investigated themes (gender in early medieval Ireland; landscape development in Merovingian France). These papers aim to begin critical conversations about new and exciting avenues for medieval archaeology in the twenty-first century.

Other Keywords
Historic • Medieval • Ethnohistory/History • Geoarchaeology • Historical Archaeology • Zooarchaeology • Paleoethnobotany • Urbanism • Pastoralism • Landscape Archaeology

Geographic Keywords
Europe (Continent) • French Republic (Country) • United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort (Country) • Ireland (Country) • Isle of Man (Country) • Kingdom of Belgium (Country) • Bailiwick of Guernsey (Country) • Principality of Monaco (Country) • Bailiwick of Jersey (Country) • Kingdom of the Netherlands (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-10 of 10)

  • Documents (10)
Documents
  • Archaeologies of the Norman Conquest (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Naomi Sykes. Elizabeth Craig-Atkins. Ben Jervis. Aleksandra McClain.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite the long-standing truism in archaeology that the Norman Conquest of England is largely invisible in ‘the stuff of everyday life’, an abundance of material remains dating to the 11th and 12th centuries has been recovered through excavation and still survives above ground. It is now becoming clear that...

  • Care and the Disregard of Care in Medieval Ireland (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only John Soderberg.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, bioarchaeologists have become interested in developing archaeologies of care. Their goal is to articulate evidence of disease/trauma/impairment on skeletons with social processes that shape healthcare and other forms of assistance. Realizing the full potential of this perspective requires...

  • A Case for Islam: Bioarchaeological Research on the Ottoman Period in Southeast Europe (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Kathryn Grow Allen.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The introduction of Ottoman control and the arrival of Islam in Southeast Europe during the late medieval period greatly influenced both historical and modern populations. In spite of this impact, this cultural and religious influence remains a topic understudied in archaeology. With Christianity the dominant...

  • Comparative Eurasian Statecraft: al-Andalus in the context of the Medieval West (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James Boone.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Attempts to describe and explain differences between Western and Asian state structures have a long history, starting with Marx’s Asiatic Mode of Production and Wittfogel’s Oriental Despotism.The bottom-up approach offered here argues that differences between the two forms are due largely to the way primary...

  • INRAP and the Changing Early Medieval Landscape in France (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Bailey Young. Isabelle Catteddu.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When the first "modern" monograph of a Merovingian settlement site excavation, Brebieres, near Douai, was published in 1974, it re-inforced the then common impression among historians of a little-developed and unstable rural hamlets, inhabited by impoverished peasants with crude technologies—in striking...

  • Just Beyond the ‘Land of Women’: Examining Gender in Early and Late Medieval Ireland (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jennifer Shaffer Foster.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1996, historian Lisa Bitel published "Land of Women: Sex and Gender in Early Ireland," a critical study of medieval gender, which remains influential over 20 years later. While more recent historical and literary research is available, there have been relatively few archaeological investigations of gender...

  • The Missing Medieval in the North Atlantic (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Douglas Bolender. Elizabeth Sweet.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeological research in the North Atlantic has overwhelmingly focused on the long-term political and environmental impacts of the Viking Age colonization of these remote, marginal islands. In places like Iceland, these impacts were profound and resulted in the radical transformation of the previously...

  • The (Missing) Archaeology of the Early Medieval Nomads (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Florin Curta.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The goal of this paper is to take a fresh, critical look at the work done on medieval nomads, especially in Eastern Europe, over the last three decades or so. It will focus on three crucial aspects. First, the relation between pastoralism (a separate problem for medieval archaeology) and nomadism, and the...

  • Reconsidering Cereal Production and Consumption in the North Atlantic: A case study from Northern Iceland (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Melissa Ritchey. Heather Trigg.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the Viking Age, the Norse settled Iceland, a sub-arctic volcanic island at the climatic margin of cereal production. These settlers brought with them a distinctive subsistence economy involving animal husbandry and cereal production, most notably barley. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) has been noted by...

  • Towns under the Microscope: Revising Historical Narratives on the Development of Medieval Towns and their Markets in Northwestern Europe (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Dries Tys. Barbora Wouters.

    This is an abstract from the "Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The central markets of medieval towns in Northwestern Europe, and more specifically the Low Countries, are considered to be the theatres of late medieval urban identity. They are often associated with the origins of these towns, or at least their glory as merchant towns in the past. In reality, these...