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.
Medieval Ritual
MeRit Celebration Event – Yorkshire Museum
With colleagues at the Yorkshire Museum and York St John University, the MeRit project team has been working with representatives of local metal-detecting clubs on a co-curated display of finds relating to medieval lived religion and ritual activity in a landscape context. To celebrate the opening of this display, and animation responses to its themes created by students of York St John, a FREE public event will be held at the Yorkshire Museum on Friday 13 June from 10:30 am.
Walking the Via Francigena: a personal perspective
Going on pilgrimage was an important medieval religious experience. There are many routes to Rome, with the Via Francigena from Canterbury serving as one of the most famous, thanks to the ‘notes’ Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury (r. 990-4) made of his journey over 1000 years ago; nowadays it’s designated a ‘Cultural Route’ by the Council of Europe.
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.
