Can archaeologist find the poor?
Can archaeologist find the poor?

Summary/Abstract: Archaeology is sometimes perceived more as a searchings for treasures. It is way easier to detach objects that can be related to elites from all found relics. But separating articles which had their connection with poor and the lowest society group is much harder than this. Findings of clothes made of worse fabrics, pieced out and repaired, could be a potential source for the plebs's material culture. However, we also know examples of clothes meant for the elite, made of many smaller pieces of fabric sewed together for the economy. There are some findings of decorated shoes, spoiled, then patched. Many objects used for the next time have been found during excavations in elite's houses or converted from elite's weapon. Researches of towns' buildings bring examples of houses built in low quality, placed in poorest parts of the towns or on the backgrounds. The character of those archaeological material let us being sure which ones of those buildings were inhabited and, mostly, by the poors. From the other hand, a confrontation of sociotopographic analysis with precise archaeological studies do not bring an unequivocal proof for efficacy of this method. Even if many written sources describe some areas as poor, there were a lot of expensive objects found there. It all shows difficulty or even impossibility of reliable archaeological searchings for relics of medieval poverty.

• Details
• Contents