This volume contains papers from a workshop on “Life in the medieval town – new archaeobiological research” held in November 2019. Results of zoological, botanical and anthropological investigations on find materials from medieval cities are presented. The contributions deal with different facets of urban life, including nutrition and provisioning, trade, handicrafts, demography and the burden of disease among urban populations, as well as questions of environmental and economic history.
This volume contains ten contributions from a workshop held in November 2019, which focused on the life of medieval urban populations from an archaeobiological perspective. One focus is on the results of studies on plant and animal remains from recent excavations in the medieval double city of Berlin-Cölln as well as from the old town of Köpenick and the neighbouring castle on the Schlossinsel. The materials dealt with document peculiarities and differences in the use of plants and animals for food in the residential areas of different social and religious population groups as well as in the area of public buildings (old Berlin town hall) and at Köpenick castle. Similar studies are presented for medieval Poznań in the context of the historical stages of urban development and for the site of Munich-Marienhof. One contribution deals with the supply of stockfish by the Hanseatic League to medieval and early modern towns. Questions of environmental, settlement and economic history of the Middle Ages are the focus of pollen-analytical investigations on a drill core from the old town of Brandenburg an der Havel. Aspects of disease in the Middle Ages are addressed using the dental health of rural and urban populations in Brandenburg. The volume is completed by a methodological archaeozoological excursus and a contribution dealing with the difficulties and opportunities of a reconstructed medieval past using the example of the Düppel museum village in Berlin.
Prof. Dr. Norbert Benecke (dissertation 1984, habilitation 1992) has been working in the field of archaeozoology since 1979 and was head of the Department of Natural Sciences at the German Archaeological Institute from 2003 until his retirement in 2020. His work focuses on the exploitation of animals by prehistoric people in the various landscape zones of Eurasia (Neolithic to Iron Age), animal domestications and environmental history of Europe (Late Glacial and Holocene).
