The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Middle Ages: towns
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Figure 12.6 Apiece of animal bone (a pig’s jaw-bone) used for trying artistic designs that were to be
cut into leather or possibly metal objects. From an eleventh-century pit on the Milk Street site, London.
Source: Museum of London Archaeology Service
hides, burning lime for construction work, and blacksmiths’ workshops. The majority of the
evidence is from finished or half-finished pieces, or from manufacturing waste (Figure 12.6).
Objects of fine workmanship fill our museums, and now we are beginning to understand how
they were made (Biddle 1990; Blair and Ramsay 1991).
Were these industries efficient or innovative? We must be careful here, for these are modern
terms. There is little evidence for technological innovations in British towns, though like all towns
they probably acted as ‘electrical transformers’ (the phrase used by the French historian Fernand
Braudel, for example in Braudel 1979) in transmitting and experimenting with new ideas from
elsewhere in Europe and the Muslim world. Around 1200, increased sophistication in the
production of pottery is apparent, and more complex joints in carpentry allowed the heightening
of timber-framed buildings to two, three or more storeys to accommodate more people in towns
(Milne 1992). Several luxury industries, such as the provision of marble tombs and brasses, were
concentrated in the big cities. Literacy and schooling were always features of towns, and at the
end of the period, printed books became more available. We would therefore expect new fashions
in architecture, or dress, to be apparent in the archaeological record of towns before appearing in
the countryside. It is also likely that technological or fashionable changes moved along lines of
communication from town to town, bypassing areas of relatively backward countryside.
The medieval urban environment
Towns were small parts of larger rural landscapes, and very little food was grown within the walls.
In medieval towns, we can study the way in which food was provided, the economic and therefore