Education

• Archaeology and Palaeoecology (UG)
• Geography (UG)
• Disability Officer

Module content

Peasants working the fields, weavers at their looms in the towns and traders importing goods from continental Europe: the lives of all these people in the late Middle Ages can be described in considerable detail. This course looks at their houses in the towns and villages, their fields, the industry and the goods they used. Archaeology is used as the main element in the reconstruction of lives and societies of medieval people, but it is supplemented by information from other disciplines, including written records and depictions. In the late Middle Ages, for the first time in human history, we can reconstruct with fair certainty the nature of the day-to-day world of common people. We know the houses they lived in, the clothes they wore, the objects they had around them and the work they did.

The module covers the period from the eleventh to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and concentrates mostly on England, but with consideration of other parts of Britain. It studies the patterns of settlement against the background of the social and economic history of the period. Teaching is based on a series of lectures which introduces topics, some of which are explored in greater detail in tutorials.

The course is divided into three parts. The first looks at the archaeology of rural settlements and is subdivided into sections on (i) the landscape and economy, (ii) settlements and (iii) buildings and (iv) diverse themes. The second section looks at the archaeology of urban settlements and consists of subsections on (i) urban economy, (ii) urban plans and (iii) urban buildings. The third picks up themes which have been touched upon in the earlier parts, and looks at the (i) monastic economy, (ii) transport and (iii) regionalism.

A number of the key controversies in late medieval archaeology are examined during the course, including the arguments about building survival. The course also looks at what questions medieval archaeology can answer, and what it cannot. It touches upon some of the current directions in medieval archaeology, and looks at what might be next.

Lecturer

Assessment