London Wellcome Library charm against toothache

Exploring Medieval Ritual Landscapes: A Celebration at the Yorkshire Museum

On Friday the 13th of June the Yorkshire Museum played host to a special event marking the opening of a new co-curated display celebrating the work of the Medieval Ritual Landscape or MeRit Project, an AHRC-funded research collaboration led by the University of Reading and the British Museum, with partner organisations across England, Denmark, and the Netherlands. Focused on the period AD 1000–1600, this fascinating project has been investigating the material traces of religious experience and exploring ‘medieval lived religion’ and ritual activity through in different ways across the country. In York metal-detected finds, particularly those unearthed by local detectorists and recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) were used to explore these themes.

Divine protection in everyday objects?

Through local finds, discover how medieval people used objects to connect with their faith in The Yorkshire Museum’s new display, co-curated with representatives from the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the local metal-detecting community.

Pilgrim badges at Lynn Museum

Monday is often an interesting day at Lynn Museum, because it’s closed. The gift shop is dark, the front door is shut and the Savages carousel, normally lit up and playing jaunty carnival tunes, is silent and still. As the front of house team relax at home on their day off, it’s the curators who open the back door of the museum to researchers and investigators, taking advantage of the lack of visitors to open the cabinets and look more closely at the collection.

Medieval Ritual Landscape Project at the Yorkshire Museum

In Yorkshire, Michael Lewis (British Museum) and Rebecca Griffiths (Yorkshire Museum) are working with representatives of the local metal detecting community to co-curate a display in the Museum foyer. On 17th January 2025 we held our second workshop at the Yorkshire Museum. At this workshop, we began refining ideas for our display.

PAS finds recording guides

The Finds Recording Guides (FRGs) are technical guides intended for Portable Antiquities Scheme staff and volunteers. They provide guidance on how to record objects on the Scheme’s database. MeRit aims to produce new FRGs relating to the medieval ritual landscape

European Association of Archaeologists meeting 2024

The EAA Annual Meetings bring together colleagues from all over Europe to discuss important issues in research, heritage management and commercial practice, ethics and theory, and the newest results of fieldwork.

Welcome to our posts!

Welcome to the MeRit project posts section. Here you can find out about upcoming MeRit project events and activities to help advance knowledge of the medieval ritual landscape.

Claire Costin

Resources Manager, Portable Antiquities Scheme
British Museum