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The Village of Uderna in the Middle Ages and Early
Modern Period
Summary
This text reconstructs the characteristics of the life of the one-time inhabitants of the
villagers of Uderna II, to the extent that such a reconstruction has been possible. There
have emerged the many and various labours and other activities which constituted the
daily lives of the villagers, such as agricultural labours, working wood, leather, metal or
textile, processing and consuming foodstuffs. Ethnographic data has proven to be
invaluable in analyzing archaeological artefacts, because only on the basis of the former
does it become possible to estimate the representativeness of the latter; that is, how
much time and energy of the life of a villager did a certain form of labour consume. As
it appears, it might not be possible to see any evidence of a labour process itself and the
large number of its products in the archaeological material itself. Based on different
types of sources, we can also speculate about the gender division of labour in Uderna, as
well as the kinds of roles performed in a family’s daily life by the children and the
elderly. Discussion of these topics fulfils the main goal of this work – to draw out the
idiosyncrasies of the villagers of Uderna as well as of their activities.
Despite the existence of continuous archaeological findings on the site, literature and
written sources show that, due to wars, epidemics and famines, the composition of the
villagers of Uderna underwent dramatic changes. Written sources are particularly
valuable in estimating the continuity of archaeological source materials. We can see that
events that had a strong influence on the village community in the mediaeval and early
modern periods might not be easy to trace from the archaeological material. If we take
into account the written sources, a picture emerges in which the environment of
Uderna’s inhabitants undergoes multiple dramatic changes throughout history, such as
after the Livonian War. However, if we compare the written sources to the
archaeological material, we can see the remarkable endurance and long span of
temporal continuity of the village settlement itself. In brief, written sources have a
significant role in outlining an image of the life of Uderna’s inhabitants.
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