Session: #435

Content:

Post-medieval Europe experienced profound social, economic and cultural change which was both represented in material culture and landscapes. Moreover, these changes were in part communicated and mediated through the material world. This session investigates comparative experiences of such changes across the period from the 16th to the 20th century, and across the varied regions of Europe. How were new religious horizons expressed materially, and what ways were in the processes and effects of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation reflected in archaeological remains? To what extent are the new beliefs and behaviours, and the ways in which confiscated church resources were reallocated and used in the early modern, visible in the archaeological record? Widening horizons and the expansion of contacts with, and exploitation of, the rest of the globe transformed economies across Europe. What were the impacts in eastern European and the Mediterranean world compared with those of western and some northern European countries? Does archaeology reveal how new horizons in science and technology led to the transformation of production and consumption of goods? Widening horizons of possession and materialism. partly also fed by colonialism and migration, led to industrialisation and the effects on the climate that we see today; how do artefact studies increase our understanding of these processes? Post-medieval and historical archaeologists widen archaeology’s horizons to understand the present in the light of the last half millennium of our history.

Session: #435

Theme & Session Format

Title & Content

Organisers