Ecclesiastical Landscapes In Medieval Europe An Archaeological Perspective

By presenting case studies from across Eastern and Western Medieval Europe, this volume aims to open up a Europe-wide debate on the variety of relations and contexts between ecclesiastical buildings and their surrounding landscapes between the 5th and 15th centuries AD.

In this volume two important veins of interdisciplinary research into the medieval period in Scandinavia and the Baltic region are merged, namely the Christianization process and landscape studies. The volume authors approach the common theme of sacrality in landscape from such various viewpoints as archaeology, philology, history of religion, theology, history, classical studies, and art history. A common theme in all articles is a theoretical approach, complemented by illustrative case studies from the Scandinavian, Baltic, or Classical worlds. Aspects of pagan religion, as well as Christianity and the establishment of the early Church, are considered within both geographical setting and social landscape, while the study of maps, place names, and settlement patterns introduces new methodologies and perspectives to expose and define the sacral landscape of these regions. The contributions are put into perspective by a comparison with research into the sacral landscapes of Central Europe and the Classical world. New interdisciplinary research methods and new models have been developed by the contributors to present new vistas of sacrality in the Scandinavian and the Baltic landscape. To open up these case studies, a selection of over sixty images and maps accompanies this cutting-edge research, allowing the reader to explore sacralization and the Christianization process within its medieval setting.

Landscapes across Europe were transformed, both physically and conceptually, during the early medieval period (c AD 400-1200), and these changes were bound up with the conversion to Christianity and the development of ecclesiastical power structures. While Christianity represented a more or less common set of beliefs and ideas, early medieval societies were characterized by vibrant diversity: much can potentially be learned about these societies by comparing and contrasting how they adapted Christianity to suit local circumstances. This is the first book to adopt a comparative landscape approach to this crucial subject.

This book seeks to address the journeying context of pilgrimage within the landscapes of Medieval Britain. Using four case studies, an interdisciplinary methodology developed by the author is applied to four different geographical and cultural areas of Britain to investigate the practicalities of travel along the Medieval road network.

Transylvania has some of the most valuable monuments of medieval architecture in Europe: the easternmost churches built in Romanesque style, Cistercian monasteries, Gothic buildings, and fortified churches. This book explores archaeological sources to bring to light the hidden past of these monuments.

This paperback edition of a book first published in hardback in 2002 is a fascinating and provocative study which looks at castles in a new light, using the theories and methods of landscape studies.

This is a book that explores the nature of sainthood in a region at the margins of medieval Latin Christendom. Defining the model of sanctity that characterized Transylvania between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, the study considers how the cults of saints functioned within specific local social and cultural contexts. Analyzing case studies from a multi-ethnic region influenced by both the Latin and Eastern Christian traditions, this book provides a close reading of little-surveyed primary sources and offers a comprehensive understanding of sainthood in Transylvania, enhancing the broader study of medieval saints’ cults and their relationship to social power structures. It will be of great interest to scholars of medieval religion, researchers in medieval studies, and religious studies scholars engaged in comparative research.