Household goods of late medieval peasants in Denmark

TY - GEN

T1 - Household goods of late medieval peasants in Denmark

AU - Kristiansen, Mette Svart

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - This paper will address household goods of late medieval peasants in Denmark, c. 1300-1550. There are many indications that late medieval peasants tried to raise their social status through consumption and active acquisition of the elite cultural objects and many could afford it in a time when the ox trade was flowering and an economically strengthened post-plague crisis peasantry was active in local, inter-regional and international trade. The paper will discuss how pictorial, written and archaeological records give different insights into the furnishing of rural houses, the consumption of household goods and social strategies related to them. Late medieval murals in parish churches, many from 1450-1500, were drawing on daily life and contemporary ideas of their audience, the peasants. Here we find several biblical scenes featuring a predefined set of household goods and ideals of wealth. The written records can confirm the murals’ representation of household goods, their quantities and value and relate them to specific households. Complaints related to the looting of farms give an insight into the possessions and investment of profits in valuable household goods where cauldrons, cloth, beds and bedding were part of a late medieval peasant’s capital. The finds from archaeological excavations will also be discussed. Late medieval sites are rare, as are sites with preserved cultural layers. Traces of fixtures and fittings are very rarely preserved and objects are often redeposited in the plough zone. However, amateur metal detectorists have added dramatically to the discovery of metal objects, not only valuable danefæ but also different metal objects from rural households, which will prove valuable to future research in this topic. Keywords: Late medieval Denmark, wealthy peasants, source pluralism, household goods, consumption.

AB - This paper will address household goods of late medieval peasants in Denmark, c. 1300-1550. There are many indications that late medieval peasants tried to raise their social status through consumption and active acquisition of the elite cultural objects and many could afford it in a time when the ox trade was flowering and an economically strengthened post-plague crisis peasantry was active in local, inter-regional and international trade. The paper will discuss how pictorial, written and archaeological records give different insights into the furnishing of rural houses, the consumption of household goods and social strategies related to them. Late medieval murals in parish churches, many from 1450-1500, were drawing on daily life and contemporary ideas of their audience, the peasants. Here we find several biblical scenes featuring a predefined set of household goods and ideals of wealth. The written records can confirm the murals’ representation of household goods, their quantities and value and relate them to specific households. Complaints related to the looting of farms give an insight into the possessions and investment of profits in valuable household goods where cauldrons, cloth, beds and bedding were part of a late medieval peasant’s capital. The finds from archaeological excavations will also be discussed. Late medieval sites are rare, as are sites with preserved cultural layers. Traces of fixtures and fittings are very rarely preserved and objects are often redeposited in the plough zone. However, amateur metal detectorists have added dramatically to the discovery of metal objects, not only valuable danefæ but also different metal objects from rural households, which will prove valuable to future research in this topic. Keywords: Late medieval Denmark, wealthy peasants, source pluralism, household goods, consumption.

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-04-6427-060-0

SN - 978-04-6427-061-7

T3 - Ruralia

SP - 145

EP - 156

BT - Household goods in the European Medieval and Early Modern Countryside

A2 - Tente, Catarina

A2 - Theune, Claudia

PB - sidestone press academics

CY - Leiden

ER -