Material Culture from Textual Sources: Documentary Archaeology in Medieval Marseille and Beyond

Presentation Date: 

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Location: 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract: This presentation articulates the basics of a methodology that allows material culture described in textual sources to be approached as one would museum or archaeological objects. Using advanced digital tools, this methodology enables researchers to interrogate substantial datasets of material culture—combining tangible and textual objects—making sophisticated, large-scale computational analyses feasible. The approach is illustrated with an example using household inventories from medieval Marseille, and the possibility of extending this methodology to other areas and time periods is highlighted through a proof-of-concept trial that looks at ITS records containing information about personal possessions confiscated from concentration camp prisoners.