Urban life in an early byzantine small scale house
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 11/01/2017

The early byzantine settlement of Caričin Grad in southern Serbia, which is supposed to be the imperial city Iustiniana Prima, existed for merely 90 years. Without any marks of earlier or later occupation, the excavations provide undisturbed insight into everyday life in an early medieval settlement of the 6th century. Excavations in Caričin Grad take place since 100 years. The early campaigns concentrated on representative buildings like churches, while the emphasis nowadays is on the living quarters. Considering the concept and methodology of Household Archaeology, one single room house was excavated in 2014 and 2015 in high resolution with integration of archaeobiology and soil science. The finds indicate a habitational function. The interpretation of the building bases on the results of the interdisciplinary research. The simple configuration of the house and the multiplicity of potential types of use in a single room structure challenge the examination. This is the crucial point where field work and the theories of Household Archaeology come together. Working with an elementary constructed house andna few objects connected with specific activities restrict the possibilities which houses with many rooms and outdoor-areas may provide. It is necessary to examine the activities in- and outside the building to understand the function the household fulfils in the settlement system regarding social, religious and economic aspects. The building accommodated one or more persons who belonged to an average or low social stratum. Taking their perspective on the settlement raises the question of their everyday life. The household can be seen as the place where social roles are negotiated in daily routine and thus as a social landscape which reflects the mentality of the dwellers. The analysis of installations and formation processes helps to understand activities carried out in daily routine and how the domestic space may be used. The distribution of finds is imbalanced between the inside of the house and its exterior what depicts the pattern of disposal organisation. This and other domestic activities display in little the organisation of the whole settlement. Working on households provides information of how the dwellers contributed to the development of the society. Changes and continuities in the ceramic spectrum and the settlement structure may indicate cultural but also economic transformations which concerned the ordinary people directly.
The talk will examine if it is generally possible to work with the household concept if there are unspecific structures or if it is rather necessary to apply it to gain more information. For this purpose it will place the archaeological remains of a specific small house into the context of the organisation of a settlement.

Author - M.A. Steinborn, Miriam, Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz, Mainz, Germany (Presenting author)