Medieval Archaeology as Historical Archaeology, or Why Anthropological Archaeologists Should Take the European Middle Ages Seriously

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Though by strict definition the study of any literate society might be considered “historical archaeology,” in practice American historical archaeologists largely focus on the centuries after 1492—in other words, the archaeology of the modern world. But modernity was not immaculately conceived; the themes, things, and questions that characterize historical archaeology find origins in the long and heterogenous European medieval period. This paper presents an argument for placing the Middle Ages within the framework of historical archaeology, the case here being the study of colonialism. While Europe would later become colonizer of the globe, it was the product first of its own internal and diverse varieties of medieval colonialism. In appreciating the complexity of colonial experience from the archaeology of medieval Ireland and Wales, Central and Northern Europe, Iberia, and the Levant, we can catch a glimpse at the genealogy of modern colonialism, better informing and contextualizing more contemporary material cultures and mentalités of great interest to historical archaeologists.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37981.0