Theme:
4. Persisting with Change: Theory and Archaeological Scrutiny
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Abandonment and Opportunities ? Responses to the Late Medieval Desertion
Content:
In recent studies of the late medieval crisis, new methods and source materials have been introduced, and new theoretical frameworks have been applied. Moving away from the traditional deterministic point of view, researchers are now interested in studying the resilience and complexities of settlements, communities, and subsistence strategies, identifying reasons for survival and seized opportunities, or failure and desertion. Approaches include interdisciplinary macro-level surveys with sources ranging from historical records to scientific data. This has brought the research on the late medieval crisis forward and offered a glimpse into a diverse period.
This session wishes to follow up on last year’s EAA session “Reshaping medieval desertion in Europe”. We ask for papers with human-level perspectives, that address either one of the following themes or connect the two:
1) Experiences connected to leaving home and a way of life. What can the archaeological record tell us about people’s actions and decisions when abandoning a place?
2) How did others perceive abandoned places? Who reused these sites and how?
We are interested in different strategies connected to abandonment and re-settlement and how these are manifested in the archaeological material depending, for instance, on different cultural and social spheres, and different settlement types such as a farm, a village, a small town, or a town plot. We also welcome examples that include long-term studies, including the 16th and 17th centuries that can provide information on the later life histories of people who had to leave their homes for different reasons.
We ask for papers that emphasize a human-level approach. The aim is to illustrate different responses to the crisis, focusing on agency, resilience, or mentalities, for example, to highlight further the complexity of the period shown in large-scale studies.
Keywords:
Middle Ages, Settlement dynamics, desertion, reuse of sites
Session associated with MERC:
yes
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Therese Nesset (Norway) 1
Co-organisers:
Tuuli Heinonen (Finland) 2
Affiliations:
1. Museums of Sogn og Fjordane
2. University of Helsinki
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT