Mind the Gap: Exploring Uncharted Territories in Medieval European Archaeology

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.