Rituals in the manor: a study of the buildings of fourteenth-century manorial curia

Description

This paper will present current research into the archaeology of the buildings of manorial curiae in fourteenth-century England. Manorial accounts can be used to provide a significant amount of information about the buildings that cannot be gained from excavation alone. It will be possible to compare the manors and estates of the great monastic institutions with those of lay lords and the royal estate. These comparisons will reveal how monasteries structured their landscape and buildings. Many manors show how these pious men chose to live in luxury and comfort, and invested large sums to maintain the buildings. Within most manorial curiae there was a chapel, and the parish church was often closely associated with the curia. Within the curia, rituals of a different sort were at play. Agency and habitus had the effect of structuring the layout and appearance of the buildings. Appearance was important to people in the middle ages, possibly more important than has previously been appreciated by archaeologists. Curiae were the interface between the agriculture of the manor and the domestic rituals of the household; animal housing was placed next to the hall and chapel. The lords must have had a reason for placing these very different buildings together. This paper will explore how these buildings were organised, how they appeared, and how they were maintained. These are important questions to address in the study of the medieval rural landscape.

Period	Sept 2015
Event title	RURALIA XI: Theme: “Religion, cults and rituals in the medieval rural environment / Religion, Kult und Rituale in der mittelalterlichen bäuerlichen Umgebung / Religion, cultes et rituels en milieu rural médiéval”
Event type	Conference
Conference number	11
Location	Clervaux, LuxembourgShow on map