About the Book
The study of belief, faith and religious practices can provide a deep insight into historical societies, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. They form a constant of human behaviour. Through religion, cult and rituals, multi-layered and complex cultural norms are expressed, demonstrating group affiliation. However, popular devotion and belief in a rural environment can include practices that are out with those of the official religion. Some of these practices discussed in this book can be investigated through archaeology. Important religious sites like churches, monasteries, mosques and synagogues as well as caves, holy wells and hermitages are discussed. Furthermore burials of children, revenants and the condemned are analysed, as they often deviate from normal practice and shed light on particular communities and their beliefs. Rituals concerning the protection of buildings and persons which focus on objects attributed with religious qualities are another area explored.
Through archaeological research it is possible to gain an understanding of popular religion of medieval and early modern times and also to draw conclusions about religious ideas that are not written in documents. By bringing together these topics this book is of particular interest to scholars working in the field of archaeology, history and cultural anthropology. The addressed subjects were the theme of an international conference of the RURALIA association held in Clervaux, Luxemburg, in September 2015. Ruralia promotes the archaeology of medieval settlement and rural life. Current research questions in rural archaeology are discussed in an European wide context. The aim is to strengthen the exchange of knowledge in, and the development of, archaeologically comparable studies, and to make archaeological results available to other disciplines.
Table of Contents:
Foreword - Vorwort - Avant-Propos Claudia Theune Einleitung zum Tagungsband. Christiane Bis-Worch Past and Present meet: Contemporary expressions of faith along the Camino Frances. Observations by a modern pilgrim. Bert Groenewoudt Court-yard sites and their cultic context. Frode Iversen Anomaly or myth? Sami circular offering sites in medieval northern Norway. Marte Spangen Livs' Offering Cave (Latvia): new discoveries. Juris Urtans Les gravures de " la Table des Bergers ". Frederic Surmely Struell : Bathing at midsummer and the origins of holy wells. Finbar McCormick Medieval Hermit Caves and Rock-Cut Hermitages in Great Britain. James Bond Klostergrundungen - in mystischen Waldern oder an urbaren Feldern? Miriam Steinborn Privately Founded Benedictine Monasteries in Medieval Hungary - a case study: Petermonostora, the monastery and a settlement without written history. Edit Sarosi - Szabolcs Rosta The byzantine settlement of Shivta in the Negev desert and its churches: An analysis of their spatial arrangement within the settlement and its social implications. Constanze Rohl Reflexions topologiques sur les eglises anterieures a 1050 dans l'ancien diocese de Tongres-Maastricht-Liege. Philippe Mignot - Frederic Chantinne Le site de Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois (Indre-et-Loire, France) : un nouvel exemple d'edifice religieux/funeraire alto-medieval en contexte d'habitat rural. Cyrille Ben Kaddour Le phenomene de pierres antiques incorporees dans des edifices chretiens au Grand-Duche du Luxembourg - etat de recherche et nouvelles questions. Estelle Michels Rural mosques and settlements: some reflections from the Archaeology of al-Andalus (11th-13th centuries). Jorge A. Eiroa Landjudentum im nordbayerischen Franken. Geschichte und Archaologie. Hans-Peter Suss Priest houses in rural settlements of Medieval Hungary. Tibor Akos Racz Sepultures des marges et sepultures marginales : sur quelques exemples medievaux de la moitie sud de la France. Yves Gleize Rock-cut graves and cemeteries in the medieval rural landscape of the Viseu region (central Portugal). Catarina Tente A Place for the Ancestors: Early Medieval Burial Sites in the Central Area of the Iberian Peninsula. Inaki Martin Viso Mortuary archaeology and variation in death culture in eastern North-Brabant (the Netherlands), c. 900-1900 AD. Nico Arts The identity of the community and the identity of the individual: the burial of the deceased within the settlement in the Middle Ages in Northern Croatia. Sinisa Krznar - Tatjana Tkalcec A Village is pushed aside - The Pilgrimage with Stillborns to the Holy Shrine of the Virgin Mary in Oberburen (Canton of Berne, Switzerland). Daniel Gutscher 'Deviant' Burials in Rural Environment in the High Middle Ages - Ritual, the lack of ritual, or just another kind of it? Maria Vargha Der wurdige und der unwurdige Tod im schlesischen Dorf des 13. bis 18. Jahrhunderts. Pawel Duma The investigation of traces of religious cults and practices in the medieval rural archaeology of Hungary. Miklos Takacs Lay devotion in rural and urban contexts in Medieval Sweden. Elisabet Regner Brabantian fields, blessed land - A study about the origins of artefacts found in arable land. J.P.W. (Johan) Verspay "Building sacrifices" and magical protection. A study at canton of Grisons (CH). Iris Niessen Building offerings from rural farms - folk beliefs with deeper roots. Morten Sovso Archeologie des pratiques apotropaiques entre Lorraine et Luxembourg. Jean-Marie Blaising Zauberbohrungen, magische Zeichen und "Hexenbriefe" - Spuren von Alltagsmagie in Bauernhausern aus Nordwestdeutschland. Heinrich Stiewe Magical dwelling: apotropaic building practices in the New World Dutch cultural hearth. Walter Richard Wheeler
About the Author :
Specialized in medieval and post-medieval archaeology, Christiane Bis-Worch (1966) is curator of the department for medieval and post-medieval archaeology at the Centre national de recherche archeologique (CNRA) since 2004. Her missions include, among others, the archaeological investigations on site and the dispatching of the obtained scientific results in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. She is supporting and supervising scientific research done by students (Bachelor, Master, PhD and post-PhD) in close cooperation with universities. Beside the research on a national and international level, the CNRA sensitizes the public by publishing books, articles and brochures, by organizing conferences and by preparing permanent and temporary exhibitions at the Musee National d'Histoire et d'Art (MNHA). Prof. Claudia Theune is Professor for Historical Archaeology at the University of Vienna with a special/great/deep interest in contemporary archaeology. She studied Prehistoric and early medieval Archaeology, social Anthropology, Christian Archaeology and geology at the Universities in Marburg and Bonn, Germany (1979-1988). In 1988 she received her PhD at the University of Marburg for her thesis on Early medieval graves in the western part of the lake Constance (Fruhmittelalterliche Grabfunde im westlichen Bodenseegebiet (Hegau)), published in 1999: Fruhmittelalterliche Grabfunde im Hegau. She worked as a scientific researcher at the University of Marburg. In 1994 she became Assistant Professor at the Department of Prehistoric and Medieval Archaeology at the Humboldt-University, Berlin. She did her Habilitation in 2001 on the Changes of structures in the Alamannia on the basis of archaeological sources. (Strukturveranderungen in der Alamannia vom 3. - 7. Jahrhundert aufgrund archaologischer Quellen), published in 2004: Germanen und Romanen in der Alamannia Since 2007 she was appointed Full Professor for Medieval and Historical Archaeology at the Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna. Main Research Fields: Early Medieval funeral and social archaeology Medieval archaeology of marginal landscapes, urban archaeology Archaeology of the contemporary past (research projects in the former concentration camps of Sachsenhausen (Brandenburg, Germany), Mauthausen (Upper Austria, Austria) and its sub camps (Loibl-North, Carinthia, Austria; Gunskirchen, Upper Austria, Austria), massgrave Rechnitz (Burgenland, Austria), Five Islands, Trinidad and Tobago) Esteem factors: President of the European Association: RURALIA The Jean-Marie Pesez Conferences on Medieval Rural Archaeology (since 2014) and National Representative of Austria (since 2010). President of the Austrian Association for Medieval Archaeology (since 2012). Member of scientific boards: DFG-Project: Der hochmittelalterliche Landesausbau und die Entwicklung der Siedlungsstrukturen in Brandenburg, Cooperation partner. (PhD-supervisor of Greta Civis: Mull in der mittelalterlichen Wustung von Diepensee, Brandenburg: 2012-2015). VU Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), The Netherlands: The Heritage and Memory of Conflict and War: 2012 - 2015. University of Cambridge: Lager Wick on Jersey, Channel Islands: 2012 - 2015. Freie Universtitat Berlin/Landesdenkmalamt Berlin: Excavation on the Tempelhofer Flugfeld (Ausgrabungen auf dem Tempelhofer Flugfeld): 2012 - 2013. Deutscher Verband der Archaologen: Committee of experts: Archaeology of Modern times (Fachausschuss Archaologie der Moderne): 2015 - ongoing. University of Brno: Archaeological committee Pohansko, 2013 - ongoing. Bezirkeshauptmannschaft Perg: Expert advisor for the National Socialist tunnel system in St. Georgen / Gusen "Bergkristall" - Section Archaeology and Analyses of Aerial Photographs: 2014 - 2015. Peer reviewing activities for funding organizations: Czech Science Foundation / Grantova Agentura Ceske Republiky; National Science Center Poland / Narodowe Centrum Nauki; Croatian Science Foundation / Hrvatska zaklada za znanost; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft; Wissenschaftliche Kommission des Landes Niedersachsen; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, Berlin; Osterreichische Nationalbank; National Geographic Society International scientific co-operations: Project: The Five Islands: Archaeology and History (Archaeology of an internment camp). Cooperation with the University of the West Indies, Campus St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, Faculty of Humanities and Education Recent key publications (see also academia.edu) Cl. Theune, Archaologie an Tatorten des 20. Jahrhunderts. 2. Durchgesehene und erweiterte Auflage (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft: Darmstadt 2016) Th. Kersting / Cl. Theune / A. Drieschner / A. Ley / Th. Lutz, Archaologie und Gedachtnis. NS-Lagerstandorte: Erforschen - Bewahren - Vermitteln. Interdisziplinare Konferenz im Archaologischen Landesmuseum Brandenburg an der Havel 17. bis 19. September 2015. Denkmalpflege in Berlin und Brandenburg, Arbeitsheft 4/2016. (Imhof-Verlag, Petersberg 2016) Cl. Theune, An der Grenze. Die spatmittelalterliche und fruhneuzeitliche Burg Klausegg im Lungau. Museumsportal. Zeitschrift des Lungauer Museumsvereins 3 (2012-2014) (Tamsweg 2014). Cl. Theune, (Un)sichtbarkeiten. Aufgedeckte Spuren und Relikte. Archaologie im ehemaligen Konzentrationslager Mauthausen. In: Daniela Allmeier / Inge Manka / Peter Mortenbock / Rudolf Scheuvens (Hg.), Erinnerungsorte in Bewegung. Zur Neugestaltung des Gedenkens an Orten nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen (Transcript Verlag Bielefeld 2016) 199-218 (peer reviewed). Cl. Theune, Transformations in the Roman West. The Case of the Alamanni. In: S. James / St. Kmnicek (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Roman Germany Cl. Theune, Archaeology and remembrance: the Contemporary Archaeology of Concentration camps, Prisoner-of-war-camps and Battlefields: In: N. Mehler (ed.), Historical Archaeology in Central Europe. Society of Historical Archaeology Special Publications (Rockville 2013) 241-260 (peer reviewed). Cl. Theune, Goldbergbau im Gasteiner Tal. In: Cl. Theune / G. Scharrer-Liska / E. H. Huber / Th. Kuhtreiber (Hrsg.), Stadt - Land -Burg. Festschrift fur Sabine Felgenhauer-Schmiedt zum 70. Geburtstag. (Marie-Leidorf-Verlag: Rahden / Westf. 2013) 395-404. Cl. Theune, Identity Establishing Heritage Sites? Memory, Remembrance and Commemoration at Monuments and Memorials. In: R. O'Riagain / C. N. Popa, Archaeology and the (de)construction of National and Supra-National Polities. Archaeological Review from Cambridge Vol. 27.2 November 2012, 161-177. (peer reviewed) Cl. Theune, Das Gedachtnis der Dinge. In: H. Berger/M. Dejnega/R. Fritz/A. Prenninger (Hrsg.), Politische Gewalt und Machtausubung im 20. Jahrhundert. Zeitgeschichte, Zeitgeschehen und Kontroversen. [Festschr. G. Botz] (Wien, Koln, Weimar 2011) 543-560.
