Kirstine Haase

In 1492 a man named Mattes Goldsmith sold his house located in the very centre of the Danish town Odense to a man called Master
Bartholomew Doctor. As the names of these men indicate - and the location of the house suggest - the area was inhabited by the
upper layers of society in medieval Odense. In 2013-14 the area was excavated. Another large excavation took place from 2010 to
2014 at the medieval harbour of Copenhagen. In the 15th century Copenhagen became the capital of Denmark and the home of the
Royal court. The harbour area, Gammel Strand, was located just across from the Royal Castle and from the 1400s it was recorded as
being an area inhabited by merchants, mayors and other members of the Copenhagen elite.
Together these two excavations present a vast amount of well-preserved artefacts and structures that can shed light on the life
styles and social strategies of the people who inhabited these central areas in the medieval and early modern period.
Based on the artefacts from the excavations in Odense and Copenhagen this paper presents a diachronic study that aims to demonstrate
how social identities were negotiated by applying a consumer strategy model that allows all classes of artefacts and their
archaeological and cultural context to be taken into consideration – not just the outstanding and precious, single finds. By doing so
the intention is to investigate how different consumption strategies were at play in the medieval an early modern towns and how the
changing networks, the urban culture and character of the towns influenced this development. We specifically wish to address the
question: Is it possible to identify specific social communities such as the elite in the archaeological record?