The Archaeology of Medieval Schools

Schools were a serious element of medieval society, and both the early medieval cloister education and the late-medieval city schools are well-known and well-studied. But as far as the Latin schools are concerned, these studies have largely limited themselves to the educational theory.

There was a need for studying schools and schoollife based on material culture. This multi- disciplinary research, started in 2001, is based on two main groups of sources. On the one hand, excavations of schoolsites and archaeological finds of school equipment are studied. On the other, depictions and descriptions of schools with all the tangible objects in use there are taken into account. Here, the archaeological dimension of the research will be stressed.