Early Modern Towns Research Articles

Towards a Growing Interest in the Urban Archaeology of Early Modern Towns in Finland

Research in historical periods has always had a strong tradition in Finnish archaeology. Past studies and archaeological fieldwork have mostly focused on medieval times; however, in the past 20 years, investigationsof early modern towns (1520–1721 AD) have taken place more often in Finland and have changed the tide.Most archaeological excavations in Finland are currently carried out owing to infrastructure and constructionprojects and can therefore be regarded as contract archaeology. First, this article aims to examine and providean overview of past research in Finnish urban archaeology focused on early modern towns. Second, currentresearch trends are discussed with an emphasis on the possibilities offered by multidisciplinary approaches.Recent research conducted in Turku serves as a case study to illustrate these developments. The article concludes by touching upon the persistent challenges faced by research, primarily stemming from the contractual nature of most archaeological investigations.

The Sheikh’s Advisor: Philip Plant and the Rapid Modernisation in Qatar 1949-1952

This paper is based on research undertaken for the Origins of Doha Project. It is a unique attempt to interrogate the construct of the Arab city against rigorously collected evidence and meticulous analysis of historical urban geography. We have found that Doha in its urban layout, physical development, architecture, and pre-oil demograph-ics, combined its disparate cosmopolitan elements into a blend that probably typified the historic Gulf town, simultaneously encapsulating aspects of the generalised " Arab and Islamic town. " We have found strong structural principles at work in both the traditional and the early modern town, many of which correlate strongly with tribal social organisation, although the historic population of Doha was neither overwhelmingly tribal in character nor entirely Arab in origin. Rather, these constituted prevailing ideologies, social structures, and identities in a diverse and cosmopolitan population

Formation process and urban morphology of the early modern period port towns

Formation process and urban morphology of the early modern period port towns

A Feudal Way to Gentrify? The Modern Concept of Gentrification Versus Changes in the Social Topography of a Medieval and Early Modern Town

Gentrification is a current and often debated concept that concerns social changes in our cities. The concept relates to a development whereby areas earlier inhabited by less wealthy social groups are taken over by middle and upper middle-class residents. In the discussions of these changes, two perspectives have dominated. Representatives for the consumer perspective argue that gentrification occurs as a result of consumption preferences in the middle class. Representatives of the producer perspective argue that inner city areas are gentrified as a result of the movement of capital. In the article it is discussed whether it is possible to use the concept of gentrification, and ifthe conflicting perspectives can be tested, in a non-capitalistic setting. The case-study focuses on the changes in the social topography of the town of Malmö, at the time the second largest town in Denmark. The main issues investigated are whether these changes were produced within the feudal structures, how consumer preferences and agency interacted, and the relations between agency and structural constraints.

The Early Modern Silesian Gallows (15th–19th Century) as an Example of Stray Animals Utilization before the Rise of Institutional Veterinary Care

Simple SummaryThe history of veterinary medicine starts from ancient times. The lack of professional veterinarian education and institutional veterinary services from the Middle Ages to modernity resulted in, partially, a basic realization of these duties by blacksmiths, herders, butcher guilds, municipal doctors, and executioners. Therefore, the archaeological excavations carried out at gallows in three towns of Lower Silesia, together with the archaeozoological analysis of unearthed animal skeletal remains, brought valuable information on human–animal–environment relationships in the past. This includes the role of an executioner or a knacker (in animal population control), the utilization of stray animals, and the use of animal products accessible in a knacker’s yard. This work highlights the history of early modern towns that attempted to solve the problems surrounding the lack of veterinary care, before the rise of modern professional veterinary education, and the introduction of the veterinarian profession in modern human society. The results show that the majority of investigated animal skeletal remains came from adult and healthy animals, and after animal death, some parts of animal bodies were used (e.g., leather, fat, bones) by knackers as sources of additional profits, but the main sanitary problems could not be permanently eliminated.In the past, executioners played an important role in the legal system. Besides sentence executions, they also worked as dogcatchers (i.e., eliminating stray animals or cadavers of dead animals from towns), and were responsible for sanitary conditions within their towns and closest neighborhoods. Archaeological explorations of gallows in the towns of Lower Silesia (Poland) provide evidence of such activities, including animal skeletal remains. Archaeozoological analysis of these materials from the towns Kamienna Góra (Landeshut), Złotoryja (Goldberg), and Jelenia Góra (Hirschberg) are the subjects of this study. Our work also stresses the nature of the executioner’s profession in animal health control and town hygiene maintenance before the development of modern veterinary services. The results show significant differences in the frequency of species and distribution of anatomical elements in accessible assemblages compared with animal skeletal remains unearthed in typical waste pits or classical inhumation, allowing the assumption that the animals were anatomically adults, and their health statuses were generally good. The dominant species, equids and dogs, were represented by skeletal remains, with the predominance of less valuable body parts (distal parts of appendices, caudal parts of the vertebral column). The fragmentation of accessible bone assemblages narrows the ability of larger conclusions (i.e., minimum number of individual estimations). The work enlightens the complex role of executioners pertaining to the hygiene of early modern town communities, a role later replaced by professional veterinarians with all of the consequences of the transition process.

The Oath of a New Burgess from the Comparison Point of View

The Oath of a New Burgess from the Comparison Point of ViewThe role of immigration in the life of the late medieval and early modern town was important. A key part of this process (and best captured in the sources of urban origin) was the integration of a new burgher into existing urban social and economic structures. Like most of the power-economic relations of this time, the individual-burgher relationship to the group was based on mutual guarantees confirmed by an oath taken by a newly-accepted member. The essay will focus on the relevance and usability of early modern and modern codifications of urban oaths to explore the development of urban structures in the late Middle Ages and Early Modernity. It will also focus on comparing the content of the oath of the new burgher both in the general context of the oaths used in the urban environment and in the context of the specific development of the urban community in the area under consideration (Silesian and north Moravian towns based on Magdeburg rights) compared to the situation in the Western part of Holy Roman Empire.

СУСПІЛЬНА ПРАКТИКА ВИКОРИСТАННЯ МІСЦЬ ДЛЯ ПОХОВАННЯ У ГЕТЬМАНЩИНІ У ДРУГІЙ ПОЛОВИНІ XVIII CТ.

Статтю присвячено проблемі вивчення місць для поховання покійних у містах Гетьманщини у другій половині XVIII ст. З’ясовано, що функція майданчика навколо церкви не зводилася лише до місця для поховання. «Чистий» цвинтар контрастував із іншими територіями, де покійні могли знайти останній спочинок (присадибні поховання, скудельниці, «кладбищенские места» тощо).
 Наголошено на різниці між поняттями «цвинтар» і «кладовище». Особливо виокремлено значення цвинтаря у просторі ранньомодерного міста, коли «свої» мерці немовби отримували гарантію спасіння на Страшному суді, спочиваючи в освяченій землі. Визначено, що парафіяльний цвинтар перебував під контролем священника. Однак ця обставина не сприяла належному доглядові цієї території.
 Особливу увагу сфокусовано на спробі російського імперського уряду винести місця для поховання покійних за межі поселень Гетьманщини у намаганні наслідувати західноєвропейські зразки та організувати функціонування «добре регульованої держави». Для цього було створено відповідну імперську законодавчу базу, яка врегулювала облаштування спеціально відведених місць для поховання померлих («кладбищенские места»).
 З’ясовано, що діяльність імперського уряду з облаштування кладовищ і численні церковні вимоги упорядкувати території для поховання небіжчиків не були унікальним явищем для тогочасної Європи. Виявлено, що імперська влада зазнала певних труднощів у сфері організації кладовищ. Це було пов’язано з тим, що безпосередньо займатися цим мали священники. Однак самотужки вони не могли облаштовувати місця для поховання. На допомогу парафіян сподіватися не доводилося, хоча більшість покійників знаходили останній спочинок на цвинтарі. Варто зазначити, що деякі заможні віряни вдавалися до практики присадибного поховання і будували сімейний склеп, а найбідніші парафіяни потрапляли до скудельниць.
 Отже, в Гетьманщині існували інші місця для поховання покійних, а цвинтар був багатофункціональною територією. Імперська реформа мала на меті скорочення кількості варіантів місць для поховання померлих до одного згідно із загальноєвропейськими тенденціями, однак просувалася повільно. Її втілення навіть у містах розтягнулося майже на 100 років.

Burghers and Heraldry: On the Usage of Heraldic Signs by Burghers in Early Modern Hungarian Kingdom

The study presents the state of research into burgher heraldry in Slovakia. It notes the perspectives and possibilities of further research, as well as the importance of the sigillographic study of burgher seals. On the basis of its fi ndings, it demonstrates discoveries on the uses of coats of arms, or more precisely, personal heraldic marks, by burghers in early modern towns of the Hungarian Kingdom (and includes, for instance, the issues of heritability of burgher marks and the ennoblement of burghers from a heraldic point of view).

The Belarusian-Lithuanian borderlands of the 10–13th centuries: from Krevа to Kernavė

Traditional notions on the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderlands and the earlier Lithuania of the 10-13th c. are quite sketchy. In the public consciousness of a population of the historical Lithuania (“Lithuania in the narrow sense”) is significantly inferior in terms of its civilization development of neighboring Rus' and Poland. But already in the 13th century new impulses of state formation began from Lithuania at a time when the entire of the East Slavic region of Europe was in a deep crisis. The article analyzes the results of the latest archaeological and historical research of the four centers of the Belarusian-Lithuanian borderlands and the historical Lithuania in the 10-13th c.: Kreva, Halsany, Kemaй (Kernave), Vilnia (Vilnius). The significant presence of Slavic settlers influenced the existence of urban settlements with a clear administrative and sacred function among the Baltic pagan population of Lithuania in the 12th-14th centuries. On the example of Kreva and Kernave we can see the emergence of regional centers of Lithuania, the first of which is already in the 14th century it will be the domain of Alhierd (Olgierd) and Jagiello, and the second in the late 13th - early 14th centuries it will be the main residence of the Duke Trojdzien and perhaps of Vicien. Halsany become generic possession of the Halsanski princes and early modern town as and Kreva will develop in accordance with the process of urbanization (16-18th cc.). Kreva, Kernave and Vilnius can be described as the sacred center of the Balts. These observations allow us to consider the emergence of a new state, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, as a result of the influence of the Slavic ethnos on the corresponding development of political and economic interests of Lithuanian elites, as well as ethno-cultural interaction.

REGIMENTAL PRISON IN HETMANATE: APPEARANCE AND CONDITION OF BUILDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE XVIII CENTURY

The article attempts to investigate a condition of the buildings for the prisoners and guardians in the middle of the XVIII century in the regimental prisons of the Hetmanate and in Hlukhiv. The prison was an essential public building in the early modern towns. The excellent condition of the walls of the jail was a guarantee of successful punishment for the thieves and the prevention of new offences.In the legal sources (in the Statutes of Lithuania and in the Laws by Which the Little Russian People Are Judged), there are three types of places where prisoners could be held – the “lower” and “upper” prisons and a separate room for convicted prisoners. The appearance of prisons in domestic historiography is poorly researched and untold. The studies indicate that various types of buildings were used as a prison, such as a hut, a shed. However, sometimes researchers mentioned the prisons with a binary structure (upper and lower).Typically, in criminal proceedings, the appearance of prisons was not reported. If the court session ended successfully, that is the punishment of the thief, then the description of the prison in the document was unnecessary. Therefore, the author used the materials, which illustrated the cases of escapes from the prisons. In addition to them, the researcher used the documents of the regimental offices, in which they requested permission from the capital authorities to carry out repair works.As a result of the study, it was found that the prisons of the regimental cities and Hlukhiv in the middle of the XVIII century usually consisted of a prison, an upper (1-2 huts) and a lower jail and a building for security. Sometimes houses of local residents were used to hold the prisoners. Regardless of the location of criminals, prisoners regularly suffered from the weather (cold, snow, rain). Not much better were the conditions for service in the guardians of the prisoners.Natural factors always destroyed wooden structures, even in the absence of fires. The fence around the prison and its walls over time were rubbed, and criminals were given the opportunity to escape. It is worth noting that the construction became much more unusable due to constant attempts to escape criminals. The practice of partial repair of prisons could not solve the problem, and for some time again, there was a need to upgrade the institution.According to the author, there were three ways of providing materials for the construction or repair of prisons. In the first case, resources were taken from the residents of the regiment on the basis of distribution, which was conducted by the regimental office with the consent of the capital authorities. In the second - the money from the treasury was used only for those materials that were not in the inhabitants of the regiment. The third option for carrying out repair works was that the state treasury assumed the funds for the purchase of all materials.

国際シンポジウム「近世都市における個人と集団の記憶」(シンポジウム報告)

国際シンポジウム「近世都市における個人と集団の記憶」(シンポジウム報告)

Mapping the Growth of an Arabian Gulf Town: The Case of Doha, Qatar

This paper is based on research undertaken for the Origins of Doha Project. It is a unique attempt to interrogate the construct of the Arab city against rigorously collected evidence and meticulous analysis of historical urban geography. We have found that Doha in its urban layout, physical development, architecture, and pre-oil demographics, combined its disparate cosmopolitan elements into a blend that probably typified the historic Gulf town, simultaneously encapsulating aspects of the generalised “Arab and Islamic town.” We have found strong structural principles at work in both the traditional and the early modern town, many of which correlate strongly with tribal social organisation, although the historic population of Doha was neither overwhelmingly tribal in character nor entirely Arab in origin. Rather, these constituted prevailing ideologies, social structures, and identities in a diverse and cosmopolitan population

Burghers, Soldiers, and Widows: Social Building Blocks at Nya Lödöse

In this chapter, we will discuss the different actors in the Swedish town Nya Lodose (1473–1624), their interactions and conflicts, and the socio-economic topography of the town according to both archaeological and archival sources. There is reason to believe that there are some phenomena particular to this town while others point to more general conditions in early modern Scandinavian towns.

Townscapes: Utopia and Practice in a Thematic Comparison of Nya Lödöse and Gothenburg

Comparing archaeological features from the various interventions at Nya Lodose with incidents recorded in the historical sources from both Nya Lodose and Gothenburg as points of departure we examine the tension between the idealized and the actual. Such incidences form the groundwork of our discussion regarding the perception, use, and understanding by contemporaries of the urban fabric in the transition from late medieval to early modern city. During this period, we see that despite international events, daily life was often characterized by petty struggles with neighbors and bureaucracy. The form of the town and how the citizens engaged with it is a key aspect of our work. In Nya Lodose structure created when the town was first laid out locked the city to the past; Gothenburg which was intended to represent a peak of perfection and remaining unchanging proceeded to experience change almost immediately. Many typical features of early modern towns never occurred in Nya Lodose despite abandonment and resettlement. Conservatism characterizes Nya Lodose in a time of extreme political uncertainty. On the other hand, Gothenburg seems to be a more outward-looking city from its foundation, welcoming in immigrants from Germany, the Netherlands and the British Isles to become citizens of the city.

The Oath of Office in the Sphere of Food Production, Food Distribution and Utilization of Resources within the Urban Community The Example of Late Medieval and Early Modern Silesian and Moravian Towns

During the significant period between late medieval times (15th century) and the end of early modern era (18th century) the oath was an important tool of communication not only between the town and its lord but also among the members of the municipal community itself. The whole community and its representatives had sworn to the Territorial Lord the oath of loyalty, submission and obedience. To swear an oath of loyalty to the community was an important part of initiation process for every new townsman. Generally we can say the oath was a kind of bond to the town structures. Also, it has been a tool frequently utilized within the judicial process. Besides, from the city scribe to the least servant in the city jail, whenever they were taking up their office, there was also an obligation to swear an oath to the city council and to the community. The course of study of the following paper is the oath of office in the sphere of food production, food distribution and utilization of sources within late medieval and early modern Silesian and Moravian town communities (Wroclaw, Zlotorya, Opava, Olomouc and Swidnica with some additional oaths of office from Klodsko) and relevance of the oath as the source for research on urban structures of those times. The fact that the city, despite its inanimate nature, proves itself to behave like a living organism was noticed and mentioned by many scientists including biologists, sociologists and – of course – historians. Alike the living creatures, the town needs its sources for living and growing. And for the existence of urban structures, the issue of who could control these resources and how, is crucial. We can specify three substantial sources important for living within the walls of medieval and early modern town – water, wood and trade. Analysing each defined sphere we will try to demonstrate the aforementioned functions of the oath of office and the possibilities of its utilization as the historical source for observation of the food production and administration of the sources within the dynamically changing world of late medieval and early modern town.

Creative enterprise from the medieval to the modern period: Alternative perspectives

Entrepreneurs have generated creative ideas for many centuries, and across a range of industries. Two books have recently appeared addressing the issue of entrepreneurial creativity from different perspectives. They are compared and contrasted in this article. Historical precedents for innovation are examined in one, while contemporary examples are the focus of Tsang’s volume. Strategies used to encourage innovation in medieval and early modern towns inform on contemporary debates on the role of traditional industries in India. Experiments in new forms of production were encouraged, rather than deterred, and investment in training helped traditional crafts to retain a reputation for quality and develop regional specialisms. Both books highlight that necessity can encourage innovation, a situation which has parallels to current debates on frugal innovation in India.

Women Alone in Early Modern Dutch Towns

The depiction of the situation of single women in early modern urban society is rather pessimistic. Women without men were portrayed as pitiful, with migrant never-married women as the most vulnerable of all. They were said to have lacked the support of parents and of charitable institutions, and to be legally subordinated, and their opportunities on the labor market were extremely restricted. A considerable and probably growing part of the female population in early modern towns lived alone. These were women who had not yet married or never married and widows, as well as married women living without a husband and divorced women. How, then, did these women without men survive these difficult circumstances? This article readdresses the gloomy depiction of women alone in Dutch towns and examines women’s legal options, their position in court, their work opportunities, and criminal strategies. We argue that in the Dutch Republic, women had more opportunities to exercise independence than is often assumed. The evidence is based on various examinations of women’s legal options, their uses of civil courts, Protestant consistories, work options, and criminal activities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Ellen Decraene, “Boundaries Transcended. Sisters of Religious Confraternities in a Small Early Modern Town in the Southern Netherlands”

Ellen Decraene, “Boundaries Transcended. Sisters of Religious Confraternities in a Small Early Modern Town in the Southern Netherlands”

Replacing the family? Beguinages in early modern western European cities: an analysis of the family networks of beguines living in Mechelen (1532–1591)

ABSTRACTIn many early modern towns of the southern Low Countries, beguinages gave adult single women of all ages the possibility to lead a religious life of contemplation in a secure setting, retaining rights to their property and not having to take permanent vows. This paper re-examines the family networks of these women by means of a micro-study of the wills left by beguines who lived in the Great Beguinage of St Catherine in sixteenth-century Mechelen, a middle-sized city in the Low Countries. By doing so, this research seeks to add nuance to a historiography that has tended to consider beguinages as artificial families, presumably during a period associated with the increasing dominance of the nuclear family and the unravelling ties of extended family.

Beadles, Dunghills and Noisome Excrements: Regulating the Environment in Seventeenth-Century Carlisle

In the current, popular, historical imagination, early modern British towns have become synonymous with images of the contents of chamber pots being thrown from windows onto streets and other public spaces below. This article provides an in-depth case study of how waste was produced, disposed of, and regulated in seventeenth-century Carlisle, including the regulation of so-called “noxious trades”, such as tannery, skinning, and butchery. It reveals that far from the common misconception, that urban inhabitants were disinclined to establish and maintain a sanitary standard in the outdoor public spaces in which they lived and worked, Carlisle’s inhabitants, Carlisle Corporation, and the city’s Court Leet Jurors invested considerable time, money, and effort into cleaning the streets, ensuring the sewers flowed efficiently and that dung and other “rubbidge” was carted out of the city. Some townspeople flouted by-laws and created malodorous, insanitary nuisances, but they constituted only a relatively small minority of Carlisle’s population. The article is split into two sections. The first describes how waste was produced in seventeenth-century Carlisle and the waste-disposal facilities and systems that were available to inhabitants. The second section explains the symmetry between Carlisle Corporation and inhabitants’ efforts to maintain outdoor cleanliness, the socio-economic context of adherence to sanitation by-laws (by relating Court Leet presentments to Hearth Tax data), and how waste management changed over time.