Miðaldafræðimálstofan Strengleikar Davide Zori, UCLA Archaeology and the Politics of Feasting in the Early Middle Ages Fimmtudaginn 26. september 2013 kl. 16.30 Árnagarði 422 Power and authority in Early Medieval Europe was largely personal and tied to individual kings or chieftains. Political action in such societies—whether among chiefs, between chieftains and supporters, or among commoners—often takes the form of gift-giving and feasting. Unfortunately, large portions of Early Medieval Europe characterized by chiefly political organization lack adequate written texts for even a basic understanding of the political economics of the regional polities. Archaeology has the potential to shed new light on feasting as a key arena of political action. This paper proposes approaches to locating and understanding political action in Early Medieval Europe through a combination of zooarchaeology, paleobotany, palynology, and household archaeology. I conclude by presenting a case study illustrating the potential of this multi-disciplinary line of investigation. The Mosfell Archaeological Project’s excavations of a chiefly longhouse at Hrísbrú in the Mosfell Valley provide the opportunity to examine the archaeological correlates of feasting in Iceland’s marginal environment. Davide Zori (PhD, Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles) works on Viking Age archaeology in Iceland. His dissertation integrated archaeological, textual, and place name data to reconstruct the evolving settlement patterns and power structures in the Mosfell Valley. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the UCLA Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center, and lives and works in Iceland. He joined the Mosfell Archaeological Project in 2002 and has been the project’s field director since 2006.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 09:18:49 +0000
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