Peculiar Elements of the Built Environment: The Problem of ‘Special Rural Settlements’ and Identification of Rural Social Hierarchies. Archaeological Evidence from a Medieval Village in the Western Periphery of the German Central Uplands

• Roman Zabolotnîi ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Bamberg

     University of Bamberg

     Kreisfreie Stadt Bamberg, Alemania

     
• Localización: New Frontiers in Archaeology: proceedings of the Cambridge Annual Student Archaeology Conference 2019 / Kyra Kaercher (ed. lit.), Monique Arntz (ed. lit.), Nancy Bomentre (ed. lit.), Xosé L. Hermoso Buxán (ed. lit.), Kevin Day (ed. lit.), Sabrina Ki (ed. lit.), Ruairidh Macleod (ed. lit.), Helena Muñoz Mojado (ed. lit.), Lucy Timbrell (ed. lit.), Izzy Wisher (ed. lit.), 2019, ISBN 978-1-78969-794-0, págs. 262-273
• Idioma: español
• Enlaces
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• Resumen

  • An extended archaeological excavation near Wetzlar-Dalheim (Hesse, Germany) has revealed a sequence of medieval occupation deposits belonging to a rural settlement dating from a period spanning from the Merovingian up to the late Middle Ages. Several features, associated with buildings and rubbish pits with building debris, as well as the artefacts found within are unusual for a peasant domestic space of the time. This paper investigates the significance of a group of specific features, while trying to find the meaning of these peculiar traces of the built environment and stress their social relevance and the possible special character of the settlement. I also consider a potential connection of the above to the iron metallurgy practised at the site, which is represented in the archaeological record.