Household goods in the late medieval countryside in the Czech Lands: archaeology and written history
Abstract
Czech archaeology disposes of an extremely large and diverse dataset, which informs the study of late medieval rural settlements, their households and every-day life. Archaeologists have been attracted particularly to settlements that were deserted violently and suddenly.
The analysis of the discovered objects and environmental data make it possible to understand the layouts of houses, the occupation and economic strategies of its inhabitants, the size and composition of households, their social status, interaction with the market and the urban centres, or cultural customs. Recently, the knowledge of the late medieval peasantry based on the written sources has expanded significantly.
For example, huge sources available for the territory of the Cheb city state bring new depth to our understanding of social inequalities and mobility, intergenerational transfer of wealth, local rural-rural migration, the degree of commercialization and also the norms and customs that regulated human relationships and activities. The paper will integrate the archaeological and written sources from the late medieval Czech lands and explore the possibility of modelling the value, meaning and circulation of various categories of household objects depending on the social status of peasant households, subsistence strategies and their market integration (1350-1500).
We will focus on the results of the recent archaeological excavation of the deserted medieval village of Spindelbach (Ore Mountains) and models elaborated on the fascinating Cheb city state data (between Fichtelgebirge and Ore Mountains).