Villa, Monastery, or Vicus? The Archaeology of Monasteries and Productive Centers across the West ca. 400–1000

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper investigates the emerging questions surrounding the interpretation of archaeologically attested communities which blur the lines between religious, familial, and independent productive centers in the early medieval West. Recent scholarship has begun to appreciate the interrelationship between cult sites and economically productive centers in the premodern period. Such blurred distinctions create problems for interpreting archaeological sites and classifying them into textually created typologies. Nowhere is this more problematic that in the study of monasteries and cult sites in the early medieval period. Newly excavated settlements such as Little Carleton (UK) or Communaux (FR) challenge traditional artifact assemblages and features associated with either monastic communities or secular productive sites. Through analysis of archaeologically attested participation in production at monasteries, this paper seeks to situate early medieval monastic sites within the larger early medieval economy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 1: Landscapes, Food, and Health   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38140.0