Material Culture on Display. Archaeological Accessory or Science-Based Medieval Mediator?

Archaeogical Accessory or Science-Based Medieval Mediator?

Abstract

The artefact plays a central role in modern medieval archaeology. “Things” have increasingly set the agenda within Scandinavian urban research, for instance throughout the discussion in the 1980s and 90s regarding research on the abundant find material that had been collected up until that point in time. Not least was the relatively small and limited use of the artefact as a source category discussed, among other things in light of the influence the subject of history has traditionally had on medieval archaeology.

The nature of the use of material culture as an exhibition object within that
same period can also be questioned. This article engages with the first two permanent exhibitions at Bryggens museum in Bergen, from 1976 and 1986, respectively, Norway’s first and only museum dedicated to medieval history. Despite the primarily archaeological expression, a large number of artefacts on exhibit, and the seminal Bryggen excavation, these exhibitions can be read as historical portrayals of the Middle Ages, where written sources form the theoretical framework and the archaeological artefact to a larger degree plays the role of illustration. Rather than being a conscious devaluation of the archaeological artefact as a source category, it is argued that this illustrative role first and foremost reflects an early phase of
mediaeval archaeology in general – with a short research history and a substantial inheritance from the subject of history.