Caves and Ritual in Medieval Europe AD 500–1500, ed. Knut Andreas Bergsvik and Marion Dowd (Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2018; rpt. 2022), vi, 314 pages, color and b/w ill.

Abstract

Abstract European medievalists know that in the past caves, cut-rock enclosures, and catacombs could become churches, places of monastic retreat, burial sites, and loci of saintly power. Perhaps too commonly, however, we have little memory of caves and their medieval uses inside Europe, recalling more easily the use of caves outside of Europe, for instance in Egypt or the Middle East, or on Europe’s periphery, as in Anatolia or the southern Iberian coast. One reason that so few examples come to mind of medieval Europeans putting caves to use has to do with archeological priorities. As the editors of this volume assert in page one of their opening remarks “cave archeology has become synonymous with the Paleolithic” and “of all archeological periods, it could be argued that the medieval usage of caves has been the most overlooked.” In this splendid collection of essays, twenty-four researchers, mostly archeologists but also historians, art historians, anthropologists and others, offer the successful beginnings of a remedy to the paucity of studies on the uses of caves and rock shelters in medieval Europe.