Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 26th March 2025

Time: 6 - 7.30pm

Venue: Queens Building LT4.2, Exeter University

Description: How did medieval people use material culture to live out their relationships to the sacred, the supernatural and their families and communities? This lecture harnesses a fresh source of archaeological evidence to shed new light on everyday religion in the English Middle Ages (c. 1000-1550 CE). It draws on research in collaboration with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (British Museum) to glean new historical insights from public finds data – objects recovered and recorded by members of the public, principally metal-detectorists. Among the 325,000 later medieval public finds are objects of personal religious devotion, amulets, pilgrim souvenirs and ecclesiastical artefacts. How were they used by ordinary people to provide spiritual protection at critical times? And why did so many of these potent ritual objects end up discarded in plough soil? Roberta Gilchrist FBA is professor of medieval archaeology and Associate Pro-Vice- Chancellor Research for Heritage and Creativity at the University of Reading. She has published extensively on the archaeology of medieval gender and the life course, burial, magic, and monasticism, including major studies of Glastonbury Abbey and Norwich Cathedral. The lecture will be preceded by a postgraduate research symposium (13h-15h, Marchant Syndicate Room, Building: One)

How to book: Book through Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/medieval-lived-religion-the-complex-lives-of-medieval-ritual-objects-tickets-1277840869439?aff=erellivmlt Or contact Gregory Lippiatt (G.E.Lippiatt@exeter.ac.uk) or Thomas Hinton (T.G.Hinton@exeter.ac.uk) for further details

Organiser: Centre for Medieval Studies

Lecturer: Prof. Roberta Gilchrist (University of Reading)

Comments: Zoom link available by contacting Gregory Lippiatt or Thomas Hinton, details above

Region: South-West England

Branch: Exeter & District