Monastic and Church Archaeology

Abstract

Major advances in church and monastic archaeology are discussed in terms of two distinct waves, ca. 1970–1995 and 1995 to the time of writing (2014). The first wave was influenced by landscape history and processual archaeology; scholarship focused principally on historical, economic, and technological questions and targeted individual sites and monuments for study. The second wave has been informed by postprocessual approaches and considers change and complexity in religious landscapes and perspectives on religious space, embodiment, and agency. In conclusion, this article calls for a more holistic approach to the archaeology of medieval Christian belief, one which moves beyond the focus on institutions and monuments that has characterized monastic and church archaeology and extends archaeological study to include the performative rituals of Christian life and death in the Middle Ages.

Pots, chicken and building deposits: The archaeology of folk and official religion during the High Middle Ages in the Basque Country

“…Individuals feel their personal belief system as believers to be official Primiano 1995: 47). From a very different perspective, R. Gilchrist has recently explored the ritualization processes that occurred at the private sphere (Gilchrist 2012), in funerary practices (Gilchrist 2008) or in religious contexts (Gilchrist 2014), suggesting that medieval religion had in fact a highly hybrid and dynamic character, and showing that sometimes re-interpreted pagan practices and official liturgic rituals were integrated in different situations. Our Basque examples seem to support this view.…”

Enchantments of stone: Confronting other-than-human agency in Irish pilgrimage practices

“…Such concepts, of course, each have their own affordances and limitations depending on questions posed and materials assessed (Pétursdóttir and Olsen, 2017). Within medieval archaeology, research focused on mortuary assemblages, architecture, sculpture, and ceremonial landscapes has investigated how human interactions with materials frame devotions, generate memories, and cultivate ideologies of authority and personhood (Gilchrist, 2014; Gleeson, 2012; Maldonado, 2016; Ó Carragáin, 2010; Williams et al., 2015). Building on such work, I center my own relational analysis on the concept of taskscape.…”

Monastic meals: The role of birds in the diet of the Poor Clares at the Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes (Barcelona, Spain) from medieval to modern periods (14th to 19th centuries AD)

“…These records shed light on food production, on the purchase of food products and on the organization of the kitchen in the monastic houses. However, they also show the complexity of the elements that played a part in the daily routine of the monastic establishments, varying according to the religious order, gender, and the status of the monastic house, and so on (Gilchrist, 2014; Kuechelmann, 2012; Moreno‐García & Detry, 2010). Moreover, written sources are not always consistent with one another, and while the rules usually describe fasting and abstinence as essential components of living behavior on monastic properties, the account books record livestock both kept and slaughtered for subsequent storage and consumption (Ervynck, 2004; Moreno‐García & Detry, 2010; Murray et al, 2004).…”