Contemplation and Action: Minor Monasteries and Religious Houses (Archaeology of Medieval Britain) - Tapa dura

Offering a social archaeology of "lesser monastic sites", this book incorporates a description and analysis of excavated remains and extant structures, a review of the relationship between historical and archaeological enquiry and a theoretical investigation of the nature of material culture and religious belief. Its main focus is on the social and economic functions defined spatially within sites and evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources: topographical setting and landscape management; structural evidence from excavated deposits and standing fabric; iconography; environmental evidence and human remains from excavated cemetaries. With particular emphasis on the transmission of religious ideas across medieval Europe, it deals with different monument types (including charitable establishments, military institutions and eremetic environments), looking at their corresponding differences in religious vocation and settlement function. Within a challenging framework, Robertson Gilchrist's approach brings to light information on a traditionally neglected area of medieval monastic history.