This series of conferences aims to explore the use of animals as material culture in medieval Europe. These conferences have created a forum for pan-European dialogue between archaeologists, historians and art-historians working with human-animal relations in the Middle Ages, from students to post-doctoral researchers. The first conference, held at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, in March 2005 (organised by Aleks Pluskowski), focused on the modification of animal bodies and sought to dissolve the hermeneutic boundaries between the study of faunal remains, artefacts, documents and artistic sources. The second conference, held at the Department of Archaeology, University of Foggia, in October 2006 (organised by Giovanni De Venuto and Antonietta Buglione), focused on the movement of animals, particularly transhumance and the importation of exotica. The third conference, to be held at the Vienna Institute for Archaeological Science, University of Vienna, in March 2007 (organised by Günther Karl Kunst and Aleks Pluskowski), will focus on the role of animals in the construction of identity. The fourth in the series will take place at the Central European University in Budapest in 2008. All the proceedings are being published, the first entitled Breaking and Shaping Beastly Bodies by Oxbow Books, available from October 2007.
The fourth conference, Fauna and Urban Space, will take place in conjunction with the interdisciplinary workshop held annually at the Medieval Studies Department of the Central European University (organised by Alice Choyke and Gerhard Jaritz). The first two days will be dedicated primarily to purely historical and art historical aspects of this topic. The third day, to be held at Visegrad, will be aimed more at medieval archaeozoolgical themes.
Urban centers are often associated first in the minds of historians with architecture, topography and political power. Over the past twenty years, however, an increasing number of studies have shown that bi-lateral influences between the human occupants of these towns and their immediate hinterland - and various environmental factors - frequently played key roles in shaping the history and space of Late Antique and medieval urban centers.
The general theme of the interdisciplinary workshop will be to evaluate the range of factors influencing the bi-lateral relationship between humans and the animals that surrounded them within the space created by people in towns and their hinterland.
From animals as urban symbols, urban decoration and representations, to food traditions and meat processing, economic and trade structures, hygiene and disease as well as craft activities involving animal products, a diverse range of species played multiple and varied roles in the lives of medieval townspeople of all classes. Conversely, intimate contact with humans also shaped the lives and behavior of both wild and domestic animals in many profound and subtle ways. All these factors and many others revolving around the animal–human relationship in the close confines of various kinds of urban space, directly or indirectly shaped the lives and experiences of the people inhabiting towns and support networks in the territories immediately surrounding them.
One day of the interdisciplinary workshop will be expressly dedicated to hosting an on-going conference series entitled ‘Animals as Material Culture in the Middle Ages’, organized in co-operation with Aleks Pluskowski at the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading. The aim of these conferences is to maintain a forum for pan-European dialogue between archaeologists, historians and art-historians working with human-animal relations in the Middle Ages, a fundamental aspect of historical environmental studies.
The conference has been planned for March 17th and 18th in Budapest for the interdisciplinary workshop and March 19th for The Animals as Material Culture segment of the conference.
The programme is now available here.
Please email Alice Choyke if you have any questions.
