Medieval Archaeology: An Encyclopedia

680 Pages·2000·5.95 MB·English

by  Pamela Crabtree

MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY

MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY AN
ENCYCLOPEDIA
EDITED BY
PAM J.CRABTREE
New York University
GARLAND PUBLISHING, INC.
NEW YORK & LONDON
2001
Published in 2001 by
Garland Publishing, Inc.
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Garland is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group.
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or
Routledges’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
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Disclaimer: For copyright reasons, some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
Copyright © 2001 by Pam J.Crabtree
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written
permission from the publisher.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Medieval archaeology: an encyclopedia/edited by Pam J.Crabtree.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-203-80181-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-67780-3 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-8153-1286-5 (acid-free paper)
1. Europe—Antiquities—Dictionaries. 2. Archaeology, Medieval—Dictionaries.
3. Excavations (Archaeology)—Europe—Dictionaries. I. Crabtree, Pam J.
D125. M42 2000
936–dc21
00–056156
For Bernard Wailes
with thanks

CONTENTS

PREFACE ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
CONTRIBUTORS xiii
SITE ENTRIES BY COUNTRY xxi
SUBJECT GUIDE xxiv

1
ENTRIES A TO Z

INDEX 541

PREFACE
Medieval archaeology is one of the fastest-growing fields in archaeology today. Road
construction and urban redevelopment have led to the discovery of new rural sites and to
major programs of urban excavation in cities such as Winchester, York, Trondheim, and
Lübeck. The rich medieval archaeological database has been used to address a range of
important theoretical concerns in contemporary archaeology. Carefully collected faunal
and floral data have been used to address problems of human economy and the natural
environment in the Middle Ages. Data from medieval excavations, especially when
combined with detailed documentary research, are especially well suited to addressing
some of the important issues in post-processual archaeological theory, including
questions of gender, agency, and power. In addition, the Medieval period in Europe
witnesses the origin and growth of cities, the development of long-distance trade and
craft specialization, and the formation of political states. These processes of cultural and
economic change have been of interest to archaeologists since the days of V.Gordon
Childe. As a result, medieval archaeology is playing an increasingly important role in
archaeological thinking throughout the world.
While medieval archaeology plays an increasingly important role in contemporary
archaeological debate, the discipline itself remains fragmented. Although some medieval
archaeologists, especially in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, are housed in stand-
alone departments of archaeology or programs in medieval archaeology, many others find
themselves in departments of history, anthropology, and classics. Medieval
archaeologists also work in museums, and still others are part of ongoing archaeological
units or research programs. In addition, medieval archaeologists are trained in a variety of
ways. Many archaeologists who work in the Dark Ages (migration period) are trained as
prehistorians, while archaeologists who specialize in the High Middle Ages are often
trained as art historians or historians. One of the goals of this encyclopedia is to bring
together in one volume the research of a diverse range of scholars who work on a wide
variety of archaeological problems.
In order to accomplish this goal, medieval archaeology has been defined as broadly as
possible. The Middle Ages begin with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the
fifth century, and end with the dawn of the Modern Era, ca. A.D. 1500. Several entries
also address the Iron Age background to medieval society and the collapse of the Roman
Empire in the West. The geographical range is equally broad. This encyclopedia focuses
primarily on the Latin west, stretching from Poland to Iceland and from southern Italy to
northern Scandinavia. An entry on the important medieval excavations in Novgorod,
Russia, has also been included. However, the encyclopedia excludes the archaeology of
the Byzantine world and the Balkans.
This volume is designed to provide the interested reader with a guide to contemporary
research in medieval archaeology. It includes country and regional surveys for many