Abstract
Since the implementation of the Treaty of La Valetta in 1993 (by the Council of Europe), and especially as developer-funded archaeology started flourishing about a decade later, thousands of excavations have taken place in Flanders (Belgium), not least in the region’s historic towns featuring a rich medieval past. However, further study of the combined results of this ‘Malta archaeology’ in Flanders has been limited, and this is specifically true for medieval metalwork. This chapter introduces the ‘Medieval Metal’ project, which aimed to collate and make accessible two decades’ worth of finds data pertaining to medieval metalwork from urban excavations in Flanders. It outlines the background, aims and approach of this project, presents the preliminary results of a quantitative analysis, and offers some perspectives towards both improving the (digital) accessibility of artefact data in the future, and the uses for such data in a European context.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See oar.onroerenderfgoed.be; here, search for the series ‘Rapportage Onroerend Erfgoed Vlaanderen’.
References
Bakx, R. (2021). Metaal en metaalslakken. In O. van Remoorter (Ed.), Archeologische opgraving Mechelen, Korenmarkt 27–29-Onze-Lieve Vrouwestraat 22, project Hof van Cortenbach (BAAC Vlaanderen Rapport (Vol. 1649)) (pp. 251–255). BAAC Vlaanderen.
Billemont, J., Terryn, B., & Vanoverbeke, R. (2019). Gent Sint-Michielsstraat. Vondsten achter de veste (BAAC Vlaanderen Rapport (Vol. 1230)). BAAC Vlaanderen.
Brandsen, A., & Lippok, F. (2021). A burning question – Using an intelligent grey literature search engine to change our views on early medieval burial practices in the Netherlands. Journal of Archaeological Science, 133, 105–456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105456
Crema, E. R. (2012). Modelling temporal uncertainty in archaeological analysis. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 19, 440–461. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-011-9122-3
De Groote, K. (2008). Middeleeuws aardewerk in Vlaanderen. Techniek, typologie, chronologie en evolutie van het gebruiksgoed in de regio Oudenaarde in de volle en late middeleeuwen (10de–16de eeuw). Vlaams Instituut voor het Onroerend Erfgoed.
Deckers, P. (2021). LOD typology: Land of opportunity? Germania, 98(2020), 222–225. https://doi.org/10.11588/ger.2020.85273
Deckers, P., Bleumers, L., Ruelens, S., Lemmens, B., Vanderperren, N., Marchal, C., Pierson, J., & Tys, D. (2016). MEDEA: Crowd-sourcing the recording of metal-detected artefacts in Flanders (Belgium). Open Archaeology, 2, 264–277. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2016-0019
Dubbe, B. (2012). Huusraet: het stedelijk woonhuis in de Bourgondische tijd. PolderVondsten.
Egan, G. (1998). The medieval household: Daily living c. 1150–c. 1450. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
Egan, G., & Pritchard, F. (1991). Dress accessories: c. 1150–c. 1450. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO).
Goodall, A. (1991). Objects of copper alloy. In P. Saunders (Ed.), Salisbury Museum medieval catalogue (Part 4) (pp. 90–142). Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum.
Hansen, G. (2015). After the town burned! Use and reuse of iron and timber in a medieval town. In I. Baug, J. Larsen, & S. S. Mygland (Eds.), Nordic Middle Ages – Artefacts, landscapes and society: Essays in honour of Ingvild Øye on her 70th birthday (pp. 159–174). University of Bergen.
Jervis, B. (2017). Consumption and the ‘social self’ in medieval southern England. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 50, 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/00293652.2017.1326978
Kars, M., & Heeren, S. (2018). Archaeological small finds recording in the Netherlands: The framework and some preliminary results of the project Portable Antiquities of the Netherlands (PAN). Medieval Settlement Research, 33, 21–30. https://doi.org/10.5284/1017430
Koldeweij, A. M. (2007). Opgespeld geloof en bijgeloof. Geloof en magie. In H. L. Janssen & A. A. J. Thelen (Eds.), Tekens van leven. Opgravingen en vondsten in het Tolbrugkwartier in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (pp. 147–189). Matrijs.
Krabath, S. (2001). Die hoch- und spätmittelalterlichen Buntmetallfunde nördlich der Alpen. Eine archäologisch-kunsthistorische Untersuchung zu ihrer Herstellungstechnik, Funktionalen und zeitlichen Bestimmung. Verlag Marie Leidorf.
Lewis, M. (2016). Mounts for furnishings, padlocks, and candleholders: Understanding the urbanisation of medieval England through metal small finds recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. In B. Jervis, L. G. Broderick, & I. Grau Sologestoa (Eds.), Objects, environment, and everyday life in medieval Europe (pp. 157–185). Brepols.
Moens, J. (2019). De archeologie van leren schoeisel in de middeleeuwen en nieuwe tijden in Vlaanderen: Een chronologische, technische en typologische studie: Analyse en interpretatie. [Unpublished Doctoral dissertation]. Universiteit Gent.
Nijhof, E., & Janssen, H. L. (2007). Huisraad. In H. L. Janssen & A. A. J. Thelen (Eds.), Tekens van leven. Opgravingen en vondsten in het Tolbrugkwartier in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (pp. 190–217). Matrijs.
Nord, A. G., Tronner, K., Mattsson, E., Borg, G. C., & Ullén, I. (2005). Environmental threats to buried archaeological remains. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 34, 256–262.
Oksanen, E., & Lewis, M. (forthcoming). Evaluating transformations in small metal finds following the Black Death. Medieval Archaeology, 67(1), 159–186.
Oksanen, E., Rantala, H., Tuominen, J., Lewis, M., Wigg-Wolf, D., Ehrnsten, F., & Hyvönen, E. (2022). Digital humanities solutions for pan-European numismatic and archaeological heritage based on linked open data. In K. Berglund, M. La Mela, & I. Zwart (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Digital Humanities in the Nordic and Baltic Countries Conference (DHNB 2022) (pp. 352–360) https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3232/
Orton, D., Morris, J., & Pipe, A. (2017). Catch per unit research effort: Sampling intensity, chronological uncertainty, and the onset of marine fish consumption in historic London. Open Quaternary, 3, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5334/oq.29
Roesdahl, E., & Verhaeghe, F. (2014). Material culture – Artefacts and daily life. In M. Carver & J. Klápště (Eds.), The archaeology of Medieval Europe Vol. 2 – Twelfth to sixteenth centuries (pp. 189–227). Aarhus University Press.
Sawicki, J., & Levá, K. (2022). Late medieval dress accessories in rural communities in Central-Eastern Europe. European Journal of Archaeology, 25, 61–79.
Smith, S. V. (2009). Materializing resistant identities among the medieval peasantry. Journal of Material Culture, 14, 309–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/135918350910642
Sturtewagen, I. (2009). ‘Een gouwen rync ende een ransse’: de gerimpelde hoofddoek in het modelandschap van de Lage Landen der late middeleeuwen: een interdisciplinaire studie. [Unpublished Master’s thesis]. Universiteit Gent.
Sturtewagen, I. (2016). All together respectably dressed: Fashion and clothing in Bruges during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. [Unpublished Doctoral dissertation]. Universiteit Antwerpen.
Thomas, N., & Saussus, L. (2020). Cycle de l’objet, recyclage de la matière : Réparer, détourner, fondre et refondre le cuivre et ses alliages (Ve–XVIIIe siècle). In Y. Henigfeld, P. Husi, & F. Ravoire (Eds.), L’objet au Moyen Âge et à l’époque moderne: fabriquer, échanger, consommer et recycler (pp. 355–368). Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales (CRAHAM).
Tys, D., & Deckers, P. (2021). Economic objects: Economic objects in the European Middle Ages. In J. Lund & S. Semple (Eds.), A cultural history of objects in the Medieval Ages (pp. 71–95). Bloomsbury Academic Press.
Weinstein, R. (2011). The archaeology of pewter vessels in England 1200–1700: A study of form and usage. [Unpublished PhD thesis]. Durham University.
Wessman, A., Thomas, S., Lewis, M., Heeren, S., Dobat, A. S., & Deckers, P. (2023). Hobby metal-detecting as citizen science: Background, challenges and opportunities of collaborative archaeological finds recording schemes. Heritage and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2022.2098654
Willemsen, A. (2012). ‘Man is a sack of muck girded with silver’: Metal decoration on late-medieval leather belts and purses from the Netherlands. Medieval Archaeology, 56, 171–202. https://doi.org/10.1179/0076609712Z.0000000006
Internet databases
Raakvlak – database for Bruges and its surrounding region -https://collectie.raakvlak.be
SOL database, Museum of Southwest Jutland in Denmark -http://sol.sydvestjyskemuseer.dk/.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the editors for their highly useful comments, and to Eljas Oksanen and Michael Lewis to share their manuscript on medieval metalwork data from PAS and English towns ahead of publication.
Medieval Metal was a collaborative project; consequently, this chapter is further indebted to numerous people and institutions. The archaeological services of Ghent and Antwerp, Center for Artefact Research and CO7 – and in particular Maarten Berkers, Femke Martens and her colleagues, Dana Piessens, Stefanie Hoss and Jan Decorte – have taken great effort in collecting standardised data and photographs of medieval metalwork. In addition, SOLVA and Raakvlak need to be thanked for providing access to finds assemblages and allowing the inclusion of existing datasets. Ron Bakx and Ingrid De Weert assisted greatly in entering and processing data from a variety of sources; Ron also generously shared his considerable expertise in the identification of medieval metal small finds. Bert Lemmens and Nastasia Vanderperren (meemoo), and Jan Vansteenlandt (WeOpenData) assisted with the design and development of the digital aspects of this project. Stijn Heeren and Miriam Kars (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam/Portable Antiquities Netherlands) ensured access to the PAN reference typology and collaborated in updating it. Valuable feedback and support during this project were given by Bart Lambert (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Marnix Pieters and Jan Moens (Flanders Heritage), and Dries Tys. The project was funded by Flanders Heritage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Deckers, P. (2023). Masses of Medieval Metal: A Quantitative Approach to Metalwork from Medieval Cities in Flanders (AD 1000–1600). In: Sawicki, J., Lewis, M., Vargha, M. (eds) A United Europe of Things. Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48336-3_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48336-3_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-48335-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-48336-3
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)