{"id":2,"date":"2018-05-25T09:06:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T08:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/medieval-ritual-landscape\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-11-19T17:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T17:00:14","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/medieval-ritual-landscape\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h3><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Medieval Ritual Landscape: Archaeology, Material Culture and Lived Religion project (MeRit) is a collaboration between the University of Reading and the British Museum&#8217;s Portable Antiquities Scheme.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:0,&quot;335559740&quot;:240}\">MeRit will explore the archaeological evidence for everyday religion in medieval England (c. 1000-1600), i.e. material culture used in household devotion, healing, protective charms, grave goods (e.g. pilgrim badges, papal bullae, book fittings, dress accessories\/objects with sacred inscriptions). It will compare religious objects recovered as public finds (PAS) with those referenced in a range of historical sources as well as those excavated from archaeological contexts in a case study region (North Yorkshire including York). The regional case study will give insight to local patterns of religious belief and provide important contextual and chronological understanding. The methodology will focus on spatial and statistical analyses (digital humanities methods). English evidence will be placed in comparative context, drawing particularly on public finds from Denmark and the Netherlands. Existing data from multiple sources will be integrated in a project database and made publicly accessible through ADS on completion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The project responds to current research questions in medieval archaeology and history, highlighting the beliefs and religious agency of ordinary people. It recognises the untapped potential for the study of later medieval PAS data and the possibilities for using digital humanities methods to identify patterning in material culture and religious behaviours at regional, national and transnational scales.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_779\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-779\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-779\" src=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/medieval-ritual-landscape\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2023\/09\/1.-St_Nicholas_church_and_Salthouse_marshes_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_3871896.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of St Nicholas church with a ploughed field and trees in the foreground in front of the church, and saltmarshes and sea in the background behind the church.\" width=\"600\" height=\"598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/medieval-ritual-landscape\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2023\/09\/1.-St_Nicholas_church_and_Salthouse_marshes_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_3871896.jpg 640w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/medieval-ritual-landscape\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2023\/09\/1.-St_Nicholas_church_and_Salthouse_marshes_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_3871896-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/medieval-ritual-landscape\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2023\/09\/1.-St_Nicholas_church_and_Salthouse_marshes_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_3871896-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-779\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">St Nicholas&#8217; church and Salthouse marshes, Norfolk by\u00a0Evelyn Simak, CC BY-SA 2.0 &lt;https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MeRit reveals the history of ritual practices in medieval England, performed by ordinary people as part of their everyday lives<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":756,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"coauthors":[14],"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8.1 - 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