Archaeology of early medieval coastal societies by Pieterjan Deckers
Deckers, P. 2022. “Site Formation and Artefact Assemblages.” In Northern Emporium I. The Making o... more Deckers, P. 2022. “Site Formation and Artefact Assemblages.” In Northern Emporium I. The Making of Viking-Age Ribe, edited by S.M. Sindbæk, 271–300. Moesgaard: Jutland Archaeological Society.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102455
We use 3D digital image reconstruction to recreate ... more https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102455
We use 3D digital image reconstruction to recreate a unique anthropomorphic pendant from a group of casting mould fragments found in a workshop at the Viking-age emporium Ribe, Denmark. The image showing a figure in female dress and carrying weapons links a production site to ‘valkyrie’ pendants found in England, Denmark and southern Sweden.
We compare three different set-ups for 3D recording and their results in terms of model quality, amount of data and cost-effectiveness, based on methodologies now widely accessible for documenting cultural heritage: photogrammetry, structured light scanning and blue LED laser scanning. We identify parameters and procedures for a viable application to the digital reconstruction of casting mould fragments and demonstrate how digital image reconstruction of small artefacts provides essential tools for archaeological analysis of workshop relations, craft technologies, and iconographic innovation.
S. Croix, P. Deckers, P & S. M. Sindbæk (2020). Recasting a Viking warrior woman from Ribe: 3D digital image reconstruction compared’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 32, 102455.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
https://doi.org/10.11588/ak.2019.1.75450
Ein spätrömischer Goldhalsring mit Inschrift wurde 2016... more https://doi.org/10.11588/ak.2019.1.75450
Ein spätrömischer Goldhalsring mit Inschrift wurde 2016 in Veere, Teil der ehemaligen Insel Walcheren, gefunden. Die Inschrift lässt sich als VICTORINVSFVIMB lesen und als »von Victorinus hergestellt, mit einem Gewicht von 6 Unzen, bestellt (oder kontrolliert) von MB« interpretieren, wobei MB Ministrator Barbaricariae bedeuten könnte: Meister der Werkstatt für Geschenke in das Barbaricum (Gold- und Silberschmuck und -gefäße) und / oder Waffen. Ausweislich stilistischer Parallelen und vergleichbarer Inschriften auf anderen Objekten sowie der Legierung, die Münzgold aus der Zeit von 220-346 ähnelt, datiert das Stück in die erste Häfte des 4. Jahrhunderts. Die Daten zur Legierung wurden am Ring und an 25 Goldmünzen zum Vergleich mit einem portablen XRF-Scanner erhoben. Die Entdeckung des Halsringes lenkt unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die spätrömischen Aktivitäten an der Zeeländischen Küste, die bisher nicht geklärt waren, und bezieht die bisher magere Fundlage mit ein.
Heeren, S., and P. Deckers. 2019. A Late Roman gold neck ring with inscription from Walcheren (prov. Zeeland/NL). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 49: 149–163.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Deckers, P. 2018. Cultural convergence in a maritime context: language and material culture as pa... more Deckers, P. 2018. Cultural convergence in a maritime context: language and material culture as parallel phenomena in the Early-medieval southern North Sea region. In Frisians and their North Sea Neighbours: From the Fifth Century to the Viking Age, edited by J. Hines and N.L. IJssennagger. Boydell Press, Woodbridge: 173–192.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Deckers, P. 2017. Een vergeten tijd gedetecteerd. Metaalvondsten uit de Vlaamse kuststreek, 600-1... more Deckers, P. 2017. Een vergeten tijd gedetecteerd. Metaalvondsten uit de Vlaamse kuststreek, 600-1100 n.Chr. (West-Vlaamse Archaeologica 22). V.O.B.o.W., Roeselare (117 p.).
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Les cultures des littoraux au haut Moyen Âge Cadres et modes de vie dans l'espace maritime Manche... more Les cultures des littoraux au haut Moyen Âge Cadres et modes de vie dans l'espace maritime Manche-mer du Nord du III e au X e s. REVUE DU NORD Hors série. Collection Art et Archéologie. N° 24. 2016. Université de Lille. Sciences humaines et sociales Textes réunis par Inès Leroy et Laurent Verslype
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Tys, D., Deckers, P., Wouters, B., 2016. Circular, D-Shaped and Other Fortifications in 9th- and ... more Tys, D., Deckers, P., Wouters, B., 2016. Circular, D-Shaped and Other Fortifications in 9th- and 10th-Century Flanders and Zeeland as Markers of the Territorialisation of Power, in: Christie, N., Herold, H. (Eds.), Fortified Settlements in Early Medieval Europe. Oxbow, pp. 175–191.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
R. Annaert (ed.) Conference book of the 67th International Sachsensymposion, Antwerp, 17th-21st of September 2016. Early medieval waterscapes. Risks and opportunities for (im)material cultural exchange, pp. 35-74
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Deckers, P., 2015. The maritime cultural landscape of early medieval Northumbria: small landing p... more Deckers, P., 2015. The maritime cultural landscape of early medieval Northumbria: small landing places and the emergence of coastal urbanism, in: Barrett, J.H., Gibbon, S.J. (Eds.), Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World, Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph. Maney, Leeds, pp. 138–155.
The maritime cultural landscape of early medieval Northumbria was characterized by a recurring spatial and functional relationship between centre and landing place. Central places were usually set back from the waterfront and served by spatially distinct landing places, consistently situated at the closest navigable point to the centre. Although a number of coastal central places in Northumbria at first sight do not seem to conform to this model, it is argued that many of these still reflect the
basic features of spatial separation between centre and landing place. The emergence of coastal urbanism from the 11th century onwards implied a drastic reorganization of this settlement configuration, reflected in a process of (functional) nucleation and reversal of the hierarchical relation between centre and landing place.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Deckers, P., 2015. De vroegmiddeleeuwse bewoning van de Vlaamse kustvlakte: van kustmoeras tot cu... more Deckers, P., 2015. De vroegmiddeleeuwse bewoning van de Vlaamse kustvlakte: van kustmoeras tot cultuurlandschap. West-Vlaamse Archaeologica 25, 37–59.
Het huidige karakter van het Vlaamse kustlandschap, als poldergebied, kwam vooral tot stand door grootschalige bedijkingen vanaf de 10e eeuw n. Chr. In tegenstelling tot wat nog vaak gedacht wordt, was de onbedijkte kustvlakte in de eeuwen daarvoor geen onbewoonbaar, desolaat land-schap dat enkel 's zomers door schaapherders werd bezocht. Integendeel, verschillende gebieden werden al in de 7e en 8e eeuw volop bewoond. Door middel van historische, archeologische en to-ponymische bronnen wordt in deze bijdrage een poging ondernomen de grote lijnen van dit koloni-satieproces te reconstrueren.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Deckers, P., 2014. Between Land and Sea. Landscape, Power and Identity in the Coastal Plain of Fl... more Deckers, P., 2014. Between Land and Sea. Landscape, Power and Identity in the Coastal Plain of Flanders, Zeeland and Northern France in the Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1000) (unpublished PhD dissertation, 2 vols.). Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussel.
Through a multidisciplinary combination of geomorphological, historical, toponymic and archaeological evidence, this study tracks the development of a settled landscape in the coastal wetlands of Flanders (Belgium), Zeeland (NL) and Northern France from the 6th to the 10th century, an end-date determined by the onset of the large-scale embankment of this present-day polder area. It is demonstrated that the development of this cultural landscape at least from the mid-7th century onwards was closely tied to the natural processes gradually making the landscape suitable for occupation. On the basis of the disparities between the spatial distribution of early settlement, as inferred from the archaeological and (partly redated) place-name evidence, and the pattern of historically attested 8th-/9th-century and later monastic estates, often granted from royal property, it is suggested that royal authority, including the enforcement of the so-called wilderness regalia, was only effectively established at a secondary stage, at the earliest from the late 7th century onwards.
The expansion of royal and, from the later 9th century, comital power resulted in a hierarchisation of society and landscape, visible in the increasing manifestation of a regional elite and the establishment of central places with administrative, economic, military and religious functions. The attempts of the king as well as lower-ranked, regional elites to control exchange fit into this pattern. On the basis of the first review of the full finds assemblage from the important site of Domburg, best known as a Carolingian trading centre, it is suggested that the site derived its economic importance from its earlier role as a cult centre and assembly place on the remote coastal barrier. Furthermore, occupation and activity at Domburg continued for some time after the 9th century, perhaps in the role of a fortified, eventually failed portus. In the wider study area, various 8th-century and later sites can be placed in the framework of increasing elite control over the locations of economic exchange.
The socio-political developments also led to changing social relationships of the coastal communities with both the interior and the wider North Sea area. In the Merovingian period, the linguistic convergence model explaining the similarities between the North Sea Germanic languages forms an analogue for cultural developments, as evidenced in socio-technological practice such as house-building. This implies regular, close social interaction, perhaps focussed on the type of assembly places with a ritual as well as a social significance exemplified by Domburg.
Just like in the subsequent development of languages around the North Sea this cultural convergence process was interrupted around the 8th century by the expanding Frankish hegemony, which by the 9th/10th century resulted in the integration in a larger, more or less homogeneous community of practice. However, the inhabitants of the coastal plain, including the regional elite, in some respects continued to draw on cultural traits in the North Sea area to self-consciously assert a distinct identity.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Medieval and Modern Matters 3 (2014), 21-43
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
R. Annaert et al. (eds.), 2012. The very beginning of Europe? Cultural and social dimensions of Early Medieval migration and colonisation (5th-8th century), Relicta Monografieën 7, Brussels: Flanders Heritage Agency.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Journal of the English Place-Name Society 44 (2013): 12-33
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
D.C.M. Raemaekers, E. Esser, R.C.G.M. Lauwerier, and J.T. Zeiler (eds.) 2012. A Bouquet of Archaeozoological Studies. Essays in Honour of Wietske Prummel (Groningen Archaeological Studies 21) Groningen: Barkhuis/Groningen University Library.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
A. Willemsen & H. Kik (eds.) 2010. Dorestad in an International Framework. New Research into Centres of Trade and Coinage in Carolingian Times, Turnhout: Brepols, p. 159-168., 2010
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Terra Incognita, Jan 1, 2006
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Call for papers
Session 142 EAA 2017
Maastricht 30 August -3 September
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Archaeology of early medieval coastal societies by Pieterjan Deckers
We use 3D digital image reconstruction to recreate a unique anthropomorphic pendant from a group of casting mould fragments found in a workshop at the Viking-age emporium Ribe, Denmark. The image showing a figure in female dress and carrying weapons links a production site to ‘valkyrie’ pendants found in England, Denmark and southern Sweden.
We compare three different set-ups for 3D recording and their results in terms of model quality, amount of data and cost-effectiveness, based on methodologies now widely accessible for documenting cultural heritage: photogrammetry, structured light scanning and blue LED laser scanning. We identify parameters and procedures for a viable application to the digital reconstruction of casting mould fragments and demonstrate how digital image reconstruction of small artefacts provides essential tools for archaeological analysis of workshop relations, craft technologies, and iconographic innovation.
S. Croix, P. Deckers, P & S. M. Sindbæk (2020). Recasting a Viking warrior woman from Ribe: 3D digital image reconstruction compared’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 32, 102455.
Ein spätrömischer Goldhalsring mit Inschrift wurde 2016 in Veere, Teil der ehemaligen Insel Walcheren, gefunden. Die Inschrift lässt sich als VICTORINVSFVIMB lesen und als »von Victorinus hergestellt, mit einem Gewicht von 6 Unzen, bestellt (oder kontrolliert) von MB« interpretieren, wobei MB Ministrator Barbaricariae bedeuten könnte: Meister der Werkstatt für Geschenke in das Barbaricum (Gold- und Silberschmuck und -gefäße) und / oder Waffen. Ausweislich stilistischer Parallelen und vergleichbarer Inschriften auf anderen Objekten sowie der Legierung, die Münzgold aus der Zeit von 220-346 ähnelt, datiert das Stück in die erste Häfte des 4. Jahrhunderts. Die Daten zur Legierung wurden am Ring und an 25 Goldmünzen zum Vergleich mit einem portablen XRF-Scanner erhoben. Die Entdeckung des Halsringes lenkt unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die spätrömischen Aktivitäten an der Zeeländischen Küste, die bisher nicht geklärt waren, und bezieht die bisher magere Fundlage mit ein.
Heeren, S., and P. Deckers. 2019. A Late Roman gold neck ring with inscription from Walcheren (prov. Zeeland/NL). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 49: 149–163.
The maritime cultural landscape of early medieval Northumbria was characterized by a recurring spatial and functional relationship between centre and landing place. Central places were usually set back from the waterfront and served by spatially distinct landing places, consistently situated at the closest navigable point to the centre. Although a number of coastal central places in Northumbria at first sight do not seem to conform to this model, it is argued that many of these still reflect the
basic features of spatial separation between centre and landing place. The emergence of coastal urbanism from the 11th century onwards implied a drastic reorganization of this settlement configuration, reflected in a process of (functional) nucleation and reversal of the hierarchical relation between centre and landing place.
Het huidige karakter van het Vlaamse kustlandschap, als poldergebied, kwam vooral tot stand door grootschalige bedijkingen vanaf de 10e eeuw n. Chr. In tegenstelling tot wat nog vaak gedacht wordt, was de onbedijkte kustvlakte in de eeuwen daarvoor geen onbewoonbaar, desolaat land-schap dat enkel 's zomers door schaapherders werd bezocht. Integendeel, verschillende gebieden werden al in de 7e en 8e eeuw volop bewoond. Door middel van historische, archeologische en to-ponymische bronnen wordt in deze bijdrage een poging ondernomen de grote lijnen van dit koloni-satieproces te reconstrueren.
Through a multidisciplinary combination of geomorphological, historical, toponymic and archaeological evidence, this study tracks the development of a settled landscape in the coastal wetlands of Flanders (Belgium), Zeeland (NL) and Northern France from the 6th to the 10th century, an end-date determined by the onset of the large-scale embankment of this present-day polder area. It is demonstrated that the development of this cultural landscape at least from the mid-7th century onwards was closely tied to the natural processes gradually making the landscape suitable for occupation. On the basis of the disparities between the spatial distribution of early settlement, as inferred from the archaeological and (partly redated) place-name evidence, and the pattern of historically attested 8th-/9th-century and later monastic estates, often granted from royal property, it is suggested that royal authority, including the enforcement of the so-called wilderness regalia, was only effectively established at a secondary stage, at the earliest from the late 7th century onwards.
The expansion of royal and, from the later 9th century, comital power resulted in a hierarchisation of society and landscape, visible in the increasing manifestation of a regional elite and the establishment of central places with administrative, economic, military and religious functions. The attempts of the king as well as lower-ranked, regional elites to control exchange fit into this pattern. On the basis of the first review of the full finds assemblage from the important site of Domburg, best known as a Carolingian trading centre, it is suggested that the site derived its economic importance from its earlier role as a cult centre and assembly place on the remote coastal barrier. Furthermore, occupation and activity at Domburg continued for some time after the 9th century, perhaps in the role of a fortified, eventually failed portus. In the wider study area, various 8th-century and later sites can be placed in the framework of increasing elite control over the locations of economic exchange.
The socio-political developments also led to changing social relationships of the coastal communities with both the interior and the wider North Sea area. In the Merovingian period, the linguistic convergence model explaining the similarities between the North Sea Germanic languages forms an analogue for cultural developments, as evidenced in socio-technological practice such as house-building. This implies regular, close social interaction, perhaps focussed on the type of assembly places with a ritual as well as a social significance exemplified by Domburg.
Just like in the subsequent development of languages around the North Sea this cultural convergence process was interrupted around the 8th century by the expanding Frankish hegemony, which by the 9th/10th century resulted in the integration in a larger, more or less homogeneous community of practice. However, the inhabitants of the coastal plain, including the regional elite, in some respects continued to draw on cultural traits in the North Sea area to self-consciously assert a distinct identity.
We use 3D digital image reconstruction to recreate a unique anthropomorphic pendant from a group of casting mould fragments found in a workshop at the Viking-age emporium Ribe, Denmark. The image showing a figure in female dress and carrying weapons links a production site to ‘valkyrie’ pendants found in England, Denmark and southern Sweden.
We compare three different set-ups for 3D recording and their results in terms of model quality, amount of data and cost-effectiveness, based on methodologies now widely accessible for documenting cultural heritage: photogrammetry, structured light scanning and blue LED laser scanning. We identify parameters and procedures for a viable application to the digital reconstruction of casting mould fragments and demonstrate how digital image reconstruction of small artefacts provides essential tools for archaeological analysis of workshop relations, craft technologies, and iconographic innovation.
S. Croix, P. Deckers, P & S. M. Sindbæk (2020). Recasting a Viking warrior woman from Ribe: 3D digital image reconstruction compared’, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 32, 102455.
Ein spätrömischer Goldhalsring mit Inschrift wurde 2016 in Veere, Teil der ehemaligen Insel Walcheren, gefunden. Die Inschrift lässt sich als VICTORINVSFVIMB lesen und als »von Victorinus hergestellt, mit einem Gewicht von 6 Unzen, bestellt (oder kontrolliert) von MB« interpretieren, wobei MB Ministrator Barbaricariae bedeuten könnte: Meister der Werkstatt für Geschenke in das Barbaricum (Gold- und Silberschmuck und -gefäße) und / oder Waffen. Ausweislich stilistischer Parallelen und vergleichbarer Inschriften auf anderen Objekten sowie der Legierung, die Münzgold aus der Zeit von 220-346 ähnelt, datiert das Stück in die erste Häfte des 4. Jahrhunderts. Die Daten zur Legierung wurden am Ring und an 25 Goldmünzen zum Vergleich mit einem portablen XRF-Scanner erhoben. Die Entdeckung des Halsringes lenkt unsere Aufmerksamkeit auf die spätrömischen Aktivitäten an der Zeeländischen Küste, die bisher nicht geklärt waren, und bezieht die bisher magere Fundlage mit ein.
Heeren, S., and P. Deckers. 2019. A Late Roman gold neck ring with inscription from Walcheren (prov. Zeeland/NL). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 49: 149–163.
The maritime cultural landscape of early medieval Northumbria was characterized by a recurring spatial and functional relationship between centre and landing place. Central places were usually set back from the waterfront and served by spatially distinct landing places, consistently situated at the closest navigable point to the centre. Although a number of coastal central places in Northumbria at first sight do not seem to conform to this model, it is argued that many of these still reflect the
basic features of spatial separation between centre and landing place. The emergence of coastal urbanism from the 11th century onwards implied a drastic reorganization of this settlement configuration, reflected in a process of (functional) nucleation and reversal of the hierarchical relation between centre and landing place.
Het huidige karakter van het Vlaamse kustlandschap, als poldergebied, kwam vooral tot stand door grootschalige bedijkingen vanaf de 10e eeuw n. Chr. In tegenstelling tot wat nog vaak gedacht wordt, was de onbedijkte kustvlakte in de eeuwen daarvoor geen onbewoonbaar, desolaat land-schap dat enkel 's zomers door schaapherders werd bezocht. Integendeel, verschillende gebieden werden al in de 7e en 8e eeuw volop bewoond. Door middel van historische, archeologische en to-ponymische bronnen wordt in deze bijdrage een poging ondernomen de grote lijnen van dit koloni-satieproces te reconstrueren.
Through a multidisciplinary combination of geomorphological, historical, toponymic and archaeological evidence, this study tracks the development of a settled landscape in the coastal wetlands of Flanders (Belgium), Zeeland (NL) and Northern France from the 6th to the 10th century, an end-date determined by the onset of the large-scale embankment of this present-day polder area. It is demonstrated that the development of this cultural landscape at least from the mid-7th century onwards was closely tied to the natural processes gradually making the landscape suitable for occupation. On the basis of the disparities between the spatial distribution of early settlement, as inferred from the archaeological and (partly redated) place-name evidence, and the pattern of historically attested 8th-/9th-century and later monastic estates, often granted from royal property, it is suggested that royal authority, including the enforcement of the so-called wilderness regalia, was only effectively established at a secondary stage, at the earliest from the late 7th century onwards.
The expansion of royal and, from the later 9th century, comital power resulted in a hierarchisation of society and landscape, visible in the increasing manifestation of a regional elite and the establishment of central places with administrative, economic, military and religious functions. The attempts of the king as well as lower-ranked, regional elites to control exchange fit into this pattern. On the basis of the first review of the full finds assemblage from the important site of Domburg, best known as a Carolingian trading centre, it is suggested that the site derived its economic importance from its earlier role as a cult centre and assembly place on the remote coastal barrier. Furthermore, occupation and activity at Domburg continued for some time after the 9th century, perhaps in the role of a fortified, eventually failed portus. In the wider study area, various 8th-century and later sites can be placed in the framework of increasing elite control over the locations of economic exchange.
The socio-political developments also led to changing social relationships of the coastal communities with both the interior and the wider North Sea area. In the Merovingian period, the linguistic convergence model explaining the similarities between the North Sea Germanic languages forms an analogue for cultural developments, as evidenced in socio-technological practice such as house-building. This implies regular, close social interaction, perhaps focussed on the type of assembly places with a ritual as well as a social significance exemplified by Domburg.
Just like in the subsequent development of languages around the North Sea this cultural convergence process was interrupted around the 8th century by the expanding Frankish hegemony, which by the 9th/10th century resulted in the integration in a larger, more or less homogeneous community of practice. However, the inhabitants of the coastal plain, including the regional elite, in some respects continued to draw on cultural traits in the North Sea area to self-consciously assert a distinct identity.
Since almost immediately after the fighting ended, the First World War (WWI) sites of conflict in Western Flanders, Belgium, have attracted attention from visitors and collectors. Heritage management questions came to the fore especially in the run-up to WWI’s centenary years (2014–2018), and professional archaeologists representing the authorities in Flanders had already begun to take a greater interest in the war’s archaeological remains. The activities of hobbyist amateurs, particularly metal detectorists, came under greater scrutiny. In this article, we explore the perspectives of local hobbyist enthusiasts and heritage professionals in the context of changing attitudes towards and values associated with the material heritage of the WWI in Western Flanders. We reflect upon the tensions that emerge when different interest groups clash, the disagreements between professional and amateur interests, and also upon the particular context of conflict heritage when there are numerous interests and stakeholders involved.
Suzie Thomas & Pieterjan Deckers (2020) ‘And now they have taken over’: hobbyist and professional archaeologist encounters with the material heritage of the First World War in western Belgium, International Journal of Heritage Studies, DOI: 10.1080/13527258.2020.1858142
P. Deckers (2020) Archaeology’s awkward allies, Antiquity 94, 1068–1070.
Dobat, A., Deckers, P., Heeren, S., Lewis, M., Thomas, S., & Wessman, A. (2020). Towards a Cooperative Approach to Hobby Metal Detecting: The European Public Finds Recording Network (EPFRN) Vision Statement. European Journal of Archaeology, 23(2), 272-292.
Since 2016, hobby metal-detecting is legal in Flanders (Belgium), although it was unofficially tolerated for many years before. However, research on metal-detected artefacts in Flanders is hindered by a low reporting rate. The MEDEA project aims to address this by encouraging detectorists to record their finds on an online platform. Finds experts are invited to enrich records with further information and thus instigate a rewarding feedback cycle. This paper discusses MEDEA’s ‘Human-Centred Design’ development process and the design choices underpinning the platform. MEDEA may be seen as an example of ‘Open Archaeology’ and related trends in digital humanities.
This paper is a review and a critical evaluation of the development of (aspects of) legislation, policy and practice regarding non-professional archaeological metal detecting in Flanders. It argues that, by unofficially adopting a policy of tolerance towards this practice which is prohibited by law, the government heritage agency has created a legal grey area which had only limited success in encouraging detector users to report their finds or to make metal-detected data more easily available for research. New legislation has partly amended this situation, but other fundamental problems remain.
Through an exploration of successful examples from abroad, a way forward is proposed. An active, inclusive approach that directly involves detector users in the archaeological research process, thus providing rewarding feedback, could be more effective in collecting metal-detecting data for research and heritage management purposes. On this basis, the MEDEA project is briefly introduced as a recently started, ongoing effort to create an online platform with exactly this goal.
Deckers, Pieterjan. 2019. Archaeological Metal Detecting by Amateurs in Flanders: Legislation, Policy and Practice of a Hobby. In Competing Values in Archaeological Heritage, edited by Stuart Campbell, Liz White, and Suzie Thomas. Springer International Publishing, Cham: 103–123.
Recently, new augmented recording techniques have entered archaeological fieldwork. We review a major urban excavation in Ribe, Denmark, which has adopted a systematic use of 3D laser scanning and intensive soil and sediment micromorphological sampling as part of the excavation recording practice. Both methods represent a major advance in field documentation, achieving a higher degree of detail and precision for the recording of archaeological features. We argue that these technologies also challenge the current paradigm of single-context recording, i.e. the separation of layers and features as all-encompassing units of recording. First, 3D digital recording implies that contexts are defined in a more definite way than previously, with less flexibility for recursive revision. Second, micromorphology demonstrates how the strata separated in excavation are only a subset of those created in deposition. We call for a new approach, which takes into consideration the fact that excavation units do not always mirror depositional events, as assumed by single-context theory, and that different kinds of observations may not overlap, as assumed in single-context practice. Instead, interfaces, matrices and assemblages are restored as separate units to record and feed into the interpretation cycle. This may be described as recording metacontext: observations that go across or between contexts. We demonstrate how a systematic metacontext registration can lead to a manageable and more detailed excavation record, more faithful to the archaeologists’ observations.
Croix, S., Deckers, P., Feveile, C. et al. Single Context, Metacontext, and High Definition Archaeology: Integrating New Standards of Stratigraphic Excavation and Recording. J Archaeol Method Theory 26, 1591–1631 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-019-09417-x
For about thirty years, especially since the publication of Caroline Walker Bynum’s Holy Feast and Holy Fast in 1987, the study of women and gender in medieval religion has been a flourishing subfield. The work of such scholars as Nicole Bériou, John Coakley, Dyan Elliott, Kaspar Elm, Roberta Gilchrist, D. H. Green, Jeffrey Hamburger, Hildegard Elisabeth Keller, Susan Marti, Bernard McGinn, Tanya Stabler Miller, Anneke Mulder-Bakker, Elizabeth Petroff, Sarah Salih, Walter Simons, David Wallace, Nicholas Watson, Karen Winstead, and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne – to name only a few – has radically changed the way we understand such topics as mysticism, heresy, literacy, preaching, sainthood, art and architecture, and the growth of religious orders. Where do we stand now ? Since the old master narrative has crumbled, has a new one taken its place ? Have the “linguistic turn” and the “material turn” played themselves out, or is there still more to be learned from them ? What comes after the old model of authoritative male clerics teaching compliant women and the newer model of a clerical elite suppressing resistant women ? What have we learned definitively about female agency, initiative, and oppression ? What are the hot-button issues and the most fruitful points of departure for future work ?
This masterclass is a joint organisation of the Flemish Medievalist Association (Vlaamse Werkgroep Mediëvistiek) and the Network of French-speaking Belgian Medievalists (Réseau des Médiévistes belges de Langue Française). The History Department of the Vrije Universiteit Brussels will act as host (details to be provided).
Keynote speaker : Prof. Barbara Newman (Northwestern University)
Organisé en collaboration avec le soutien de l’Henri Pirenne Institue for Medieval Studies (UGent) et de la Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).
Medieval societies were fundamentally unequal. The long-term social dominance of a restricted group of domini which exercised power over the rest of society, controlled access to resources, and extracted production surpluses was a key phenomenon during the medieval era. The domination of this aristocracy of clerics and lay lords was mainly based on land ownership, control of coercive power, means of production, and social representations elaborated into the single most influent institution in the Middle Ages, i.e. the Church. These asymmetrical power relationships will be at the heart of the conference that the Flemish Medievalist Association (Vlaamse Werkgroep Mediëvistiek) and the Network of French-speaking Belgian Medievalists (Réseau des Médiévistes belges de Langue Française) will organize in June in Brussels. Our aim is to examine the strategies developed by dominant elites in order to maintain their power, ensure their social reproduction, and legitimate their predominant position in medieval societies. On the other hand, we will investigate why a large part of the population contested, or tolerated out of necessity, its submission to a small elite of aristocrats, a question that was already raised towards the middle of the sixteenth-century by Étienne de La Boétie in his Discourse on Voluntary Servitude.
The study of acts of resistance and rebellion to elites might provide an interesting approach to social dominance. Indeed, the power of medieval domini can not be described as absolute. Often, the predominance of clerics, landlords, or patricians was contested by social groups that did not exercise power. It is therefore essential to examine the relationships between the dominant elites and the groups – sometimes living at the margins of society –challenging their authority. In this perspective, we would like to analyze the strategies and rituals of resistance these groups adopted in order to challenge the elites. Their actions encompass violent rebellion, such as the eleventh and twelfth-century urban revolts in northern France, the peasants’ revolt in England in 1381, or the urban uprisings in Flanders during the late Middle Ages, but also more subtle negotiation and communication strategies developed by late medieval peasant communities (Gadi Algazi), forms of literary subversion used by poets, such as Rutebeuf, or calls for a return to an older “golden age”. It would be interesting to determine whether these strategies of resistance challenged the structures of the social system, or whether they were only responses linked to specific political, social, or economic circumstances. Issues of gender fit very well into this topic, insofar as some medieval women displayed a creative resistance that carved out a niche for themselves in spite of male predominance. More radical were heresies as they were linked with the will of subversion of the whole society. More largely, and given the importance of cultural hegemony in establishing a social domination, we will investigate the written evidences and discourses as well as the visual elements mobilized to ensure or to challenge this hegemony. Additionally, we would like to examine how the dominant elites reacted against the groups challenging their authority. A particular attention will be paid to the way these conflicts and disputes were remembered in medieval written evidences, which were usually produced by dominant groups.