Materielle Welten – Der virtuelle Salon am IMAREAL

Mittwoch, 26. April 2023  17:00 Uhr 

 

United Europe of Medieval Small Finds. Production and consumption of late medieval dress accessories

Jakub Sawicki, Institute of Archaeology/ Department of Historical Archaeology, Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague

The idea of ‘unity of culture’ in Medieval Latin Europe is well known in historical texts, especially when it concerns the so-called ‘Europe North of the Alps’. Scholars had often suggested that due to long-distance trade, universal knowledge of Latin and shared religious ideas, we can observe cultural similarities across Late Medieval Europe. This bold statement is only partially true, as the medieval world is much more nuanced and the portable material culture (archaeological small finds).

In this presentation, I aim to discuss two main subjects. The first is a more practical problem regarding the difficulties and opportunities of studying the Pan-European horizon of dress accessories and other small finds. The second issue is the technological (r)evolution that influenced the production and consumption of dress accessories in the thirteenth century, impacting many aspects of medieval social life.

Vortragssprache / Language: English

Jakub Sawicki completed his studies in archaeology in Wrocław, where he also defended his doctoral thesis entitled „Medieval secular badges in Poland against a European background“, which was published in 2014. Jakub Sawicki also studied at the Christian-Albrecht Universität in Kiel and completed a research scholarship at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Since 2016, he has been working at the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, where he was, among other things, the PI of a grant project on the consumption of dress accessories at the example of Prague and Wrocław, and participates in a Czech-Polish project on Luxury, standard and poverty in early modern towns in Central and Eastern Europe. He is treasurer of the Medieval Europe Research Community, a member of the European Association of Archaeologists and the advisory board of the journal Medieval Archaeology. His research interests are in the field of urban archaeology, especially the material culture of the late Middle Ages and modern times. He is the author of three books and numerous articles and book chapters in, among others, the European Journal of Archaeology and the International Journal of Historical Archaeology.

 

The lecture will take place online via Webex.

Please use our conference tool to register for the event. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us via sekretariat.imareal@plus.ac.at.