Reflections: 50 Years of Medieval Archaeology, 1957-2007: No. 30: 50 Years of Medieval Archaeology, 1957-2007 (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs)

Gilchrist, Roberta

Politics & Social Sciences

Routledge

Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women

Gender and Material Culture is the first complete study in the archaeology of gender, exploring the differences between the religious life of men and women. Gender in medieval monasticism influenced landscape contexts and strategies of economic management, the form and development of buildings and their symbolic and iconographic content. Women's religious experience was often poorly documented, but their archaeology indicates a shared tradition which was closely linked with, and valued by local communities. The distinctive patterns observed suggest that gender is essential to archaeological analysis.

History

Ancient Civilizations

Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past

Gender and Archaeology is the first volume to critically review the development of this now key topic internationally, across a range of periods and material culture. ^l Roberta Gilchrist explores the significance of the feminist epistemologies. She shows the unique perspective that gender archaeology can bring to bear on issues such as division of labour and the life course. She examines issues of sexuality, and the embodiment of sexual identity. A substantial case study of gender space and metaphor in the medieval English castle is used to draw together and illustrate these issues.

Reference

This book considers the archaeology of 'the other monasticism', a range of religious vocations and associated settlements - hospitals, preceptories of the military orders, monasteries for women and hermitages - that were constant and integral to medieval life, yet have remained on the margins of modern scholarship.Evidence for the social and religious roles of the monasteries is outlined, together with a consideration of their relationships to lay society and the changing nature of religious mentalities. Archaeological and historical evidence is brought together in an examination of the meaning of monasticism to medieval people. Monastic identities are explored through the connection between material culture and issues such as belief, gender, membership of a monastic order, patronage and a sense of liminality, or otherness.

Contemplation and Action: The Other Monasticism (Archaeology of Medieval Britain)

Religion & Spirituality

UNKNO

Glastonbury Abbey was renowned in the Middle Ages as the reputed burial place of the legendary King Arthur and the site of the earliest Christian church in Britain, believed to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the first century AD. New insights into the abbey’s origins and historical development have been revealed by thirty-six seasons of archaeological excavation that took place at the site during the twentieth century, directed by such iconic figures as Sir William St John Hope, Sir Charles Peers, Sir Alfred Clapham and Dr Courtenay Arthur Ralegh Radford. The results of these antiquarian excavations, only published in the past in the form of brief interim statements, can now be examined critically for the first time, thanks to a joint project by the University of Reading and Glastonbury Abbey, funded principally by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. This volume reports on the comprehensive study of the archaeological archives and artefact collections and a new geophysical survey. Previous interpretations are challenged and new evidence is presented for the Saxon and later medieval phases of the abbey, including an important complex of early glassworking furnaces, dated c 700. For the first time, archaeological evidence is revealed for the Norman and later medieval monastic ranges and the luxurious abbot’s hall and court. The rich ssemblage of material culture includes devotional objects, fine imported vessels, locally produced ceramic floor tiles and stained glass and sculpture of the highest quality. Many retrospective elements are evident in the architecture of Glastonbury Abbey, perhaps suggesting a deliberate strategy to cultivate memory and to promote the antiquity of its Christian heritage.

Glastonbury Abbey: archaeological investigations 1904–79

Green, Cheryl

Europe

Society of Antiquaries of London

Roberta Gilchrist critically evaluates the concept of sacred heritage. Drawing on global perspectives from heritage studies, archaeology, museology, anthropology and architectural history, she examines the multiple values of medieval Christian heritage. Gilchrist investigates monastic archaeology through the lens of the material study of religion and reveals the sensory experience of religion through case studies including Glastonbury Abbey and Scottish monasticism. Her work offers new insights into medieval identity and regional distinctiveness, healing and magic, and memory practices in the sacred landscape. It also reflects on the significance of medieval sacred landscapes as contested heritage sites which hold diverse meanings to contemporary groups. This title is also available as Open Access.

Sacred Heritage: Monastic Archaeology, Identities, Beliefs

World

Cambridge University Press

Sacred Heritage

Cambridge ; New York, Ny : Cambridge University Press, 2020

Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award What explains the layout of the cathedral and its close? What ideas and beliefs shaped this familiar landscape? Through this pioneering study of the development of the close of Norwich cathedral - one of the most important buildings in medieval England - from its foundation in 1096 up to c.1700, the author looks at changes in cathedral landscape, both sacred and social. Using evidence from history, archaeology and other disciplines, Professor Gilchrist reconstructs both the landscape and buildings of the close, and the transformations in their use and meaning over time. Much emphasis is placed on the layout and the ways in which buildings and spaces were used and perceived by different groups. Patterns observed at Norwich are then placed in the context of other cathedral priories, allowing a broader picture to emerge of the development of the English cathedral landscape over six centuries.

Norwich Cathedral Close: The Evolution of the English Cathedral Landscape (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 26)

Religious Studies

Boydell Press

The aim of this book is to explore how medieval life was actually lived - how people were born and grew old, how they dressed, how they inhabited their homes, the rituals that gave meaning to their lives and how they prepared for death and the afterlife. Its fresh and original approach uses archaeological evidence to reconstruct the material practices of medieval life, death and the afterlife. Previous historical studies of the medieval "lifecycle" begin with birth and end with death. Here, in contrast, the concept of life course theory is developed for the first time in a detailed archaeological case study. The author argues that medieval Christian understanding of the "life course" commenced with conception and extended through the entirety of life, to include death and the afterlife. Five thematic case studies present the archaeology of medieval England (c.1050-1540 CE) in terms of the body, the household, the parish church and cemetery, and the relationship between the lives of people and objects. A wide range of sources is critically employed: osteology, costume, material culture, iconography and evidence excavated from houses, churches and cemeteries in the medieval English town and countryside. Medieval Life reveals the intimate and everyday relations between age groups, between the living and the dead, and between people and things. ROBERTA GILCHRIST is Research Dean and Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading.

Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gilchrist, Roberta. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gilchrist, Roberta

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gilchrist, Roberta. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Reflections: 50 Years of Medieval Archaeology, 1957-2007: No. 30: 50 Years of Medieval Archaeology, 1957-2007 (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monographs)

Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women

Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past

Contemplation and Action: The Other Monasticism (Archaeology of Medieval Britain)

Glastonbury Abbey: archaeological investigations 1904–79

Sacred Heritage: Monastic Archaeology, Identities, Beliefs

Sacred Heritage

Gender and Archaeology: Contesting the Past

Norwich Cathedral Close: The Evolution of the English Cathedral Landscape (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 26)

Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course