Pottery and social life in medieval England
Subtitle: towards a relational approach
By: Ben Jervis
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Oxford; Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9781782976592
Subjects: Medieval Pottery; Social aspects; Medieval Archaeology; Material culture; History; Antiquities
Description: How can pottery studies contribute to the study of medieval archaeology? How do pots relate to documents, landscapes and identities? These are the questions addressed in this book which develops a new approach to the study of pottery in medieval archaeology. Utilising an interpretative framework which focuses upon the relationships between people, places and things, the effect of the production, consumption and discard of pottery is considered, to see pottery not as reflecting medieval life, but as one factor which contributed to the development of multiple experiences and realities in medieval England. By focussing on relationships we move away from viewing pottery simply as an object of study in its own right, to see it as a central component to developing understandings of medieval society. The case studies presented explore how we might use relational approaches to reconsider our approaches to medieval landscapes, overcome the methodological and theoretical divisions between documents and material culture and explore how the use of objects could have multiple implications for the formation and maintenance of identities. The use of this approach makes this book not only of interest to pottery specialists, but also to any archaeologist seeking to develop new interpretative approaches to medieval archaeology and the archaeological study of material culture. --Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references(pages 162-178)
Table of contents: title: The emergent discipline: pottery and medieval archaeology; title: Towards a relational archaeology; title: Emergent objects: situating pottery in the material world; title: Emergent people: pottery and identity; title: Emergent landscapes: pottery, people and places; title: Pots in motion: pottery, meaning and change.