Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The term “Central Europe” is a modern idea that has been adopted mainly out of convenience for historians. Most historians and archaeologists consider the region to include the modern-day nations of Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary. To a lesser extent, the region also includes parts of Austria, Germany, and Romania. The general archaeological and historical records for Central Europe are overshadowed by the neighboring Western and Southern European regions. Part of this can be attributed to a long-term historical perspective during the twentieth century of the region being politically and economically “backward,” with an economy mainly centered around agriculture and extraction of raw materials. Despite these biases and the relative lack of data for the region during the Medieval period (eighth to fifteenth century), particularly regarding the lives of people in general, there remains sufficient information to suggest a high level of sociocultural complexity throughout the region. In this session we will combine studies across a wide spectrum of topics within bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology, with a focus on providing representation of life and death in Medieval Central Europe, including mortuary patterns and concepts of death, mortality, health and nutrition, labor and physical activity, migration and mobility, and childhood.

Other Keywords
Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Mortuary archaeology • Paleopathology • Migration • Mortuary Analysis • Historic • Subsistence and Foodways • demography • Political economy • Spatial Analysis

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Bulgaria (Country) • Georgia (Country) • Europe (Continent) • Ukraine (Country) • Republic of Lithuania (Country) • Republic of Latvia (Country) • Republic of Belarus (Country) • Romania (Country) • Republic of Serbia (Country) • Republic of Estonia (Country)

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-11 of 11)

  • Documents (11)
Documents
  • Conversion on the Periphery: Bioarchaeology of Religious Identities in Early Medieval Bohemia (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Lauren Hosek.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The ninth and tenth centuries in Central Europe have historically been characterized by political consolidations around Christian leadership. As Christianity gained influence in the region, conversion altered far more than religious beliefs: political landscapes, material culture, and bodies were also transformed. The skeletal remains and...

  • Hammer on Vampires: Reconceptualization of So-Called Deviant Funerary Practices of Early Medieval Slavs (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Olga Dec.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Slavic “deviant” funerary practices and dealings with certain dead—including decapitations, mutilations, or crushing cadavers with stones—have been of interest for mortuary archaeologists for many years. The explanation that researchers turned to most often was the one describing these practices as apotropaic in nature, as means of subduing the...

  • Health Status of the Inhabitants of the Medieval Village and Town in Greater Poland (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Joanna Wysocka. Beata Drupka. Paige Lynch. Marcin Krzepkowski.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Studying living conditions of any population in the past using indirect indicators such as skeletal lesions is challenging, as their occurrence can be connected and influenced by different factors such as individuals’ immune systems. However, porous skeletal lesions (porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia), and linear enamel hypoplasias (LEH),...

  • Isotopic Investigations into Dietary Patterns of Early Medieval Communities in Thuringia, Germany (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Jana Meyer. Keith Prufer.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Early Medieval period in Central Europe was a time of pronounced socioeconomic differences, as well as sociopolitical unrest. While the former Roman infrastructure was deteriorating, the costs of importing foods and other material goods into Thuringia increased, exacerbating differences in food availability between the various sectors of...

  • Life and Death by the Lake in Pomerania: Introducing the Late Medieval Cemetery at Żelewo Site 1-3 (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Katarzyna Slusarska. Jacek Karmowski. Ariel Gruenthal-Rankin. Katherine Gaddis. Marissa Ramsier.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The late medieval cemetery in Żelewo is in northwestern Poland, near Miedwie Lake, on the moraine hill named Catherina’s Hill. Excavations began in 2019 and continued in 2023 as a salvage archaeology project. The site is part of the Kołbacz Monastery’s estate—founded in 1173—the oldest Cistercian monastery in Pomerania. The cemetery is related...

  • Migration and Dental Nonmetric Variation in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laresa Dern.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Throughout history, the Carpathian Basin has been a natural crossroads for populations migrating between Europe and the rest of Eurasia. During the medieval and early modern periods, three major migrations shaped the demography of the basin: 1) the migration of the Avars; 2) the conquest of the Magyars; and 3) the invasion of the Ottomans. While...

  • Paleodemography of a Late Medieval Cemetery in Poland (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Arden Brady. Corey Ragsdale.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Paleodemography is useful way of learning about the lives of people in the past, while gaining insight into their cultural and environmental conditions. The Late Middle Ages in Poland saw several cultural and climatic changes. Historical documents provide context for the elites during this period throughout the realm, but information regarding...

  • Population Replacement and Radiation and the Decline of the Great Moravian State (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Corey Ragsdale.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Great Moravia is credited by historians as the first Slavic state, existing briefly in the ninth and early tenth centuries. Internal disputes, Magyar incursions, conflicts with the Frankish Empire, and climate change events contributed to the decline and demise of the Great Moravian state. Although these events are supported by archaeological...

  • Sociopolitical and Environmental Change and its Effect on the Biology of a Medieval Polish Population through Isotopic Analysis (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Paige Lynch.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Late Medieval to Early Modern periods in Poland underwent a shift toward a feudal sociopolitical structure and experienced environmental changes leading to an increase in social stratification and an unequal distribution of power, opportunity, and resources (e.g., food). This project examines how a non-elite Polish population biologically...

  • A Synthesis of Archaeological, Genetic, and Spatial Data in Studying Medieval Families: An Example from the Vanished Village of Gać, Poland (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Maciej Gembicki. Meradeth Snow. Danielle Airola. Marcin Krzepkowski.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In our paper, we aim to demonstrate the use of spatial, genetic, and archaeological data in family studies by using a Medieval cemetery in Gać as our case study. An international team of archaeologists and anthropologists have partially recovered and examined a cemetery situated in the now-vanished village of Gać over three seasons, as part of a...

  • Understanding Resource Allocation and Dietary Stress through the Presence of Scurvy in Nonadults from Gać and Dzwonowo, Poland (Fourteenth to Sixteenth Centuries) (2024)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Meghan Langlois. Erin Riley.

    This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As a result of the energy requirements related to growth and development, non-adults are more susceptible to biocultural change than adults, making them ideal proxies to examine environmental stress within a population. The village of Gać and town of Dzwonowo (fourteenth to sixteenth centuries) in Greater Poland provide a unique opportunity to...