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Gender and Material Culture is the first complete study in the archaeology of gender, exploring the differences between the religious life of men and women. Gender in medieval monasticism influenced landscape contexts and strategies of economic management, the form and development of buildings and their symbolic and iconographic content. Women's religious experience was often poorly documented, but their archaeology indicates a shared tradition which was closely linked with, and valued by local communities. The distinctive patterns observed suggest that gender is essential to archaeological analysis.
Forges innovative connections between monastic archaeology and heritage studies, revealing new perspectives on sacred heritage, identity, medieval healing, magic and memory. This title is available as Open Access.
The aim of this book is to explore how medieval life was actually lived - how people were born and grew old, how they dressed, how they inhabited their homes, the rituals that gave meaning to their lives and how they prepared for death and the afterlife. Its fresh and original approach uses archaeological evidence to reconstruct the material practices of medieval life, death and the afterlife. Previous historical studies of the medieval "lifecycle" begin with birth and end with death. Here, in contrast, the concept of life course theory is developed for the first time in a detailed archaeological case study. The author argues that medieval Christian understanding of the "life course" commenc...
Gender and Archaeology is the first volume to critically review the development of this now key topic internationally, across a range of periods and material culture. ^l Roberta Gilchrist explores the significance of the feminist epistemologies. She shows the unique perspective that gender archaeology can bring to bear on issues such as division of labour and the life course. She examines issues of sexuality, and the embodiment of sexual identity. A substantial case study of gender space and metaphor in the medieval English castle is used to draw together and illustrate these issues.
Offering a social archaeology of lesser monastic sites, this book incorporates a description and analysis of excavated remains and extant structures, a review of the relationship between historical and archaeological enquiry and a theoretical investigation of the nature of material culture and religious belief. Its main focus is on the social and economic functions defined spatially within sites and evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources: topographical setting and landscape management; structural evidence from excavated deposits and standing fabric; iconography; environmental evidence and human remains from excavated cemetaries.
Medieval Archaeology has developed as a distinctive academic domain in the last fifty years or so. It is now taught widely at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and learned societies for Medieval Archaeology flourish across Europe. The subject is more interdisciplinary than most types of archaeology, engaging critically with fields such as History and Art History to provide fresh and independent insights to the medieval world. It draws on sources of evidence that are unique to Medieval Archaeology, such as extant medieval churches. Medieval Archaeology is literally history from below; it offers unique access to people and practices that were never documented by medieval elites. (Medieval ...
Published for the first time ever, the results of thirty-six seasons of excavation at the iconic site of Glastonbury Abbey, one of the key sites for an understanding of early monasticism in Britain.
Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award What explains the layout of the cathedral and its close? What ideas and beliefs shaped this familiar landscape? Through this pioneering study of the development of the close of Norwich cathedral - one of the most important buildings in medieval England - from its foundation in 1096 up to c.1700, the author looks at changes in cathedral landscape, both sacred and social. Using evidence from history, archaeology and other disciplines, Professor Gilchrist reconstructs both the landscape and buildings of the close, and the transformations in their use and meaning over time. Much emphasis is placed on the layout and the ways in which buildings a...
This volume challenges previous assumptions about medieval burial through comprehensive study of excavated monastic cemeteries. Some 8000 graves are analysed from more than 70 cemeteries in England, Wales and Scotland, focusing principally on medieval religious houses (c.1050-c.1600) with comparative evidence from cathedrals, parish churches and Jewish cemeteries. The book is complemented by a fully accessible, web-mounted database archived with the Archaeology Data Service. The study offers an innovative reassessment based on a multidisciplinary framework: medieval visual and written sources are used to identify the distinct temporal and spatial contexts of medieval death. This approach emp...