Abstract:

Although household goods are a well-establish topic in Medieval and Early Modern archaeology, more recent research is overcoming simple typological and technological aspects and pointing to broader approaches, which relates to the understanding of goods’ production, consumption strategies, other economic activities and structures of social organization. Thus, the understanding of past societies and cultures relies heavily in the study of their household goods to understand people, groups and societies.

In this context, the aim of the Ruralia XIV Conference was to emphasize the significance of household archaeology to the study of the European countryside in Medieval and Modern times under a cross-cultural approach. Detailed analysis of single contexts, small parts of sites, faunal, botanical and soil studies enables us to reconstruct common peoples’ activities and interactions within their homes. House functions can be detected by means of specific installations but also by inventories and location of goods, evidence for particular activities inside, such as cooking and eating, storage, weaving, refuse disposal, resting, etc. or by a comprehensive overview of outdoor surroundings.

All this is evidence of functional purposes but it can also tell us about the rank and wealth of their owners, their daily lives, household compositions, family concepts and even gender statuses. Moreover, structural analysis can give evidence about spheres of interaction and patterned behaviours within a house.

In different sections (archaeology and household; temporary households; living conditions; spatial structure; household objects and social and economic status) case studies across Europe are presented.

Contents

Foreword and Introduction

Household goods in the European medieval and early modern countryside – an introduction
Catarina Tente, Claudia Theune

Archaeology and Household

Is that all there is? Reflections on the presence and survival of household goods in archaeological contexts
Bert Groenewoudt, Rowin van Lanen

Household goods illuminated by motivation and need theories in Hanfelden Castle in the early modern countryside of Styria, Austria
Iris Winkelbauer, Claudia Theune

Household and home life in the Russian Countryside during the sixteenth to first half of the eighteenth century, according to archaeological finds in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda
Irina Zaytseva

Tenth-century peasant houses and household goods. The potential and limitations of the archaeological record from Beira Alta (Portugal).
Tente, Gabriel de Souza, João LuísVeloso, Catarina Meira

Temporary households

Exploring the “extended” household? Historical landscapes, material culture and building materials at the Monte Fasce settlements, Liguria, Italy (17th-21st c.)
Giulia Bizzarri, Anna Stagno

Household in a settlement dealing with large animal husbandry from the 10-11th century in west Hungary
Ádám Pátkai

Living conditions and household

Making a house a home: odd deposits in ordinary households in later medieval Ireland 1200-1600 AD
Karen Dempsey

Checking-in at the multispecies hotel: Natureculture and the early medieval house
Rachel Brody

Households from early medieval rural settlements in Alto Alentejo (Central Portugal): material culture and social structures
Sara Prata, Fabián Cuesta-Gómez

Spatial structure and household

Refitting the past. The spatial distribution of finds as a key for understanding activities and the use of space in medieval farm buildings in the Northern Netherlands
Jan van Doesburg

Kecskemét-Törökfái-dűlő: structure and topographical elements of an Árpádian-age settlement in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve Region, Hungary
Nikoletta Lukács

Social and economic status and household

Household goods of late medieval peasants in Denmark
Mette Svart Kristiansen

Household goods from excavations at homestead in Kopaniec (Seifershau), Poland
Paweł Duma, Jerzy Piekalski

Contextual value of iron household goods in the late medieval countryside: testimony of the Czech Lands
Tomáš Klir, Martin Janovský, Lucie Hylmarová

Peasant household – noble household: objects and structures. Some remarks on household archaeology of late medieval Hungary
László Ferenczi, Edit Sárosi, Csilla Zatykó

Social inequality and household goods in central Iberia during the early middle ages
Carlos Tejerizo

Lord in the Village: Can houseware and personal equipment indicate the presence of a social class?
Andrej Janeš

Local societies and early medieval domestic economies in the light of the Basque Country archaeological record (8th-10th centuries)
Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo

Particular activities – particular household objects

Pottery in medieval rural households – perspectives of archaeological research in Southern Germany
Rainer Schreg

Household goods for winter travel and leisure in Norway – objects, games and processes of enculturation
Marie Ødegaard, Kjetil Loftsgarden

Household goods of Ottoman soldiers in the rural fortified settlements of the 16th–17th century in Hungary
Ágnes Kolláth, Bianka Kovávs, Gyönyi Kovács, Zsófia Nádai

A sign of wealth or everyday objects? The use of stoneware vessels in medieval and early modern Southern Finland
Tuuli Heinonen

Artefacts of osseous and keratinous materials from the Netherlands – the project
Jørn Zeiler, Marloes J. Rijkelijkhuizen, Marloes, Joyce van Dijk