Ben Jervis
Having completed my PhD in archaeology at the University of Southampton, I worked in heritage management before taking up a lectureship in later medieval archaeology at Cardiff University.
My main areas of research are medieval pottery and the application of new interpretive approaches (particularly those grounded in Actor-Network Theory and related approaches) to the study of medieval material culture. I am also developing a research project into the archaeology of medieval small towns.
I am also involved in a number of other projects, including the analysis of the medieval pottery from the Noviodunum Archaeological Project (Romania).
Supervisors: Dr. Andrew Jones
My main areas of research are medieval pottery and the application of new interpretive approaches (particularly those grounded in Actor-Network Theory and related approaches) to the study of medieval material culture. I am also developing a research project into the archaeology of medieval small towns.
I am also involved in a number of other projects, including the analysis of the medieval pottery from the Noviodunum Archaeological Project (Romania).
Supervisors: Dr. Andrew Jones
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Papers by Ben Jervis
chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to reconstruct dietary habits for this particular site. The results show that the vessels were used for preparing ruminant fats,
vegetables (mainly cabbage) and marine foods. Beeswax was found once and most likely relates to a sealing function or to honey. Remarkable features were the isomeric mixture of 8-
to 16-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid and the co-occurrence of C17:1, C19:1 and isoprenoid fatty acids. These features were proposed as biomarkers for ruminant and aquatic food sources, respectively. Furthermore, the carbonyl position distribution in mid-chain ketones was used to identify mixtures of animal and plant derived ketones. Other detected biomarkers included odd-chain fatty acids, vicinal dihydroxy fatty acids, w-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids and steroids. The paper highlights the difficulty in interpreting complex lipid signatures which show a mixture of various foods, as observed in the majority of the samples. This was linked to the preparation of stews or the recycling of vessels.
change are reflected in the material record. In this paper I propose a new approach to the analysis of this
material. By reconstructing how people interacted with objects, we can see how the agency to create Anglo-
Norman England was distributed through material engagements. Furthermore, rather than reflecting continuity
or change, these flowed through engagements with objects, generating unique meanings and experiences,
challenging our existing ontology for understanding this period in relation to overbearing political developments
and ethnic identities.
considered using data derived from archaeological excavations. Several indicators are used to assess differences in urban fortunes and to critique the concept of urban ‘decline’. The interpretive framework of assemblage theory is then used to examine why the fortunes of these ports varied. The article argues for a turn from discussions of decay and decline towards considerations of changes, continuities and transformations in urban life in late medieval England.
Rezumat: Cercetările întreprinse în cadrul Proiectului Arheologic Noviodunum (NAP) au condus la înregistrarea unei mari cantităţi de ceramică medievală provenită din contexte arheologice bine stabilite. Acest lot a fost cuantificat ţinând cont de modul de fabricare, forma recipientelor şi context, încercându-se reconstituirea modului de aprovizionare a sitului cu ceramică, atât prin producţie locală cât şi prin import. Lucrarea reprezintă un stadiu preliminar al acestor investigaţii care au fost coroborate şi cu date cronologice absolute furnizate de descoperiri monetare şi datări 14C.
The main types of pottery present are outlined and themes of distribution, use and deposition are discussed.
chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to reconstruct dietary habits for this particular site. The results show that the vessels were used for preparing ruminant fats,
vegetables (mainly cabbage) and marine foods. Beeswax was found once and most likely relates to a sealing function or to honey. Remarkable features were the isomeric mixture of 8-
to 16-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid and the co-occurrence of C17:1, C19:1 and isoprenoid fatty acids. These features were proposed as biomarkers for ruminant and aquatic food sources, respectively. Furthermore, the carbonyl position distribution in mid-chain ketones was used to identify mixtures of animal and plant derived ketones. Other detected biomarkers included odd-chain fatty acids, vicinal dihydroxy fatty acids, w-(o-alkylphenyl)alkanoic acids and steroids. The paper highlights the difficulty in interpreting complex lipid signatures which show a mixture of various foods, as observed in the majority of the samples. This was linked to the preparation of stews or the recycling of vessels.
change are reflected in the material record. In this paper I propose a new approach to the analysis of this
material. By reconstructing how people interacted with objects, we can see how the agency to create Anglo-
Norman England was distributed through material engagements. Furthermore, rather than reflecting continuity
or change, these flowed through engagements with objects, generating unique meanings and experiences,
challenging our existing ontology for understanding this period in relation to overbearing political developments
and ethnic identities.
considered using data derived from archaeological excavations. Several indicators are used to assess differences in urban fortunes and to critique the concept of urban ‘decline’. The interpretive framework of assemblage theory is then used to examine why the fortunes of these ports varied. The article argues for a turn from discussions of decay and decline towards considerations of changes, continuities and transformations in urban life in late medieval England.
Rezumat: Cercetările întreprinse în cadrul Proiectului Arheologic Noviodunum (NAP) au condus la înregistrarea unei mari cantităţi de ceramică medievală provenită din contexte arheologice bine stabilite. Acest lot a fost cuantificat ţinând cont de modul de fabricare, forma recipientelor şi context, încercându-se reconstituirea modului de aprovizionare a sitului cu ceramică, atât prin producţie locală cât şi prin import. Lucrarea reprezintă un stadiu preliminar al acestor investigaţii care au fost coroborate şi cu date cronologice absolute furnizate de descoperiri monetare şi datări 14C.
The main types of pottery present are outlined and themes of distribution, use and deposition are discussed.
Neither explanation is satisfactory, instead I propose we address the question by collapsing the social and material worlds into each other, to attempt to compose what is termed a ‘symmetrical’ view of the world. Following Actor-Network Theory I will demonstrate how the pottery is situated within a network through which meaning and action is distributed between human and material actors. By taking this approach we can examine how the pottery played a part in building context, how its relations with humans distributed agency and thus created a meaning, or logic, to what seems to us to be a illogical choice of material culture.
This will be illustrated through the use of a case study from Hamwic (mid-Saxon Southampton) where there have been large scale, open area excavations over several decades and where there have been some pioneering studies into site formation processes which have, until now, largely been divorced from social interpretations of the town. The study will principally use data from ceramic analysis, such as fragmentation analysis and cross-fit analysis. Rather than being considered a terminal point in an objects biography I will consider deposition as a transitional point in an artefacts life. Whilst some material is middened, meaning that it potentially finds a secondary use as manure, I argue that even that waste discarded as ‘useless’ finds a social role, participating in processes of closing, spatial reconfiguration or in maintaining the landscape. By considering the intersection between the biography of the artefacts within features and of the features themselves I intend to demonstrate that no deposit consists of ‘just rubbish’ and that all deposits can be interpreted as highly contextual, being the product of more concerns than simply disposing of waste.
• The relationship of categories of vessels formed in use to categories of waste. For example, are cooking and serving vessels treated differently?
• The role of rubbish in defining urban space, particularly the maintenance of boundaries.
• The social role of rubbish in forming both an urban category of people and creating or maintaining social differences within towns.
• The perception of rubbish within and between these social groupings.
Using a case study from high medieval (c1250-1350) Southampton I will compare waste management practices at several sites in order to answer these questions. These interpretations will be presented against a backdrop of methodological concerns, principally how the formation of these deposits can inform, or indeed hinder, our understanding of chronology and how excavation methods can affect our interpretations. It will be demonstrated that the social aspects of rubbish disposal must be taken more seriously in order to fully understand the formation processes behind, and therefore the dating of, archaeological features in urban settings.
I consider whether ceramic use follows this patterning, or whether more widely prescribed or more localised patterning occurs. By demonstrating the fluidity of ceramic categories, I propose that the population of Hamwic can be categorised in a fluid manner, based on the practices which they engaged in. Secondly, I examine whether these groupings continued through the deposition of ceramics. Was rubbish created through certain activities treated in a particular way, or was pottery classified as generic ‘waste’ and how did social groupings develop through depositional practice? By demonstrating that pottery categories are fluid and develop through the life of a ceramic vessel, I will argue that the ways in which people engaged with material culture created groupings, which are equally transient. Pottery’s disposability meant that people belonged to several groups simultaneously, bringing about notions of self and belonging through participation in, and memory of, social activity.
The theoretical framework I will be discussing today is designed to address this contradiction and to engage with the materiality of Early Medieval pottery, an approach which can be transferred to the study of any objects be they portable, monumental or living. Firstly I shall explore what a study of materiality means before presenting a case study from Chichester, West Sussex, in order to demonstrate how we can use material culture to learn about the people who occupied the Late Saxon town.
The integration of environmental and artefact assemblages is a central theme of these papers. Artefacts, animals and plants formed coherent assemblages in the medieval home, but as the result of archaeological analysis these are typically separated and considered in isolation. By considering these multiple strands of evidence as a whole, these papers present a considerably more nuanced and fine grained understanding of town life in medieval Europe than has been achieved through previous studies, centred on broad economic trends and urban topography. Drawing upon case studies from Britain, Ireland, the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and central Europe these papers present a truly pan-European understanding of what it was to be urban in the middle ages.