The Prospects for Geoarchaeological Interpretations of Medieval Dwelling Floors
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 16/10/2017

The beginnings of Medieval towns in Central Europe (13th Century) are known just from archaeological excavations, therefore the demarcation of the medieval burger´s plots is the main interest of urban archaeology. One of the discussed issues in medieval archaeology is recognition of differences between dwelling houses and farming-out buildings. Their type of construction, type of used construction material as well as floor plans are quite similar. One of the possibilities how to study differences between those two types of dwellings is to study their infillings. The basic methodological tools we suggest are micromorpohology, geochemistry and phytolith analyses. There were macro and microscopically described laminated deposits within Medieval Age objects of different age and usage in the Centre of Brno. The sites are located at the edge of the old Brno Centre near town walls (Bašty) as well as in the very centre (Panenská street). The interpretation of the oldest object is farming house with preserved stabling (but not visible as a stabling in macro). According to the micromorphological study there was identified the composition of floor layers and using phytolith analyses was interpreted the composition of stabling. Grass and straw was used for bedding. Using micromorphology we can be sure that phytoliths found there are from stabling not from excrements. The interpretation of younger object is dwelling house with preserved deposits originated during daily use of house. Trampling was documented there. The material similar to the stabling was recognized also in deep hole nearby (working pit?, storage pit?, waste pit?). Upper part of the laminated infilling recorded in this pit was burned. The interpretation of this finding might be connected with the maintenance of the storage pit. The lamination documented in the infill of the storage rooms was interpreted as a relict of the floors covered by remediation loess layers.

Lenka Lisá 1, Marek Peška 2, Aleš Bajer 1, Pavel Lisý 1

1 Institute of Geology CAS, Prague, Czech Republic

2 Archaia Brno, o.p.s., Czech Republic

3 Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic