urban archaeology session 8 - domestic archaeology
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Domestic Archaeology
Behind Closed Doors?
Today
• What is ‘domestic’ archaeology?• What can it tell us about social history?• Social revolutions and personal adaptations
The rich man in his castle,The poor man at his gate,
He made them, high or lowly,And ordered their estate.
Ce cil F. Al ex an der, Hymns for Litt le Child ren, 1848
Our domestic arrangements reveal a lot about the society in which we live.
Domestic Spaces
Of or belonging to the home, house, or household; pertaining to one's place of residence or family affairs; household, home, ‘family’ Oxford English Dictionary
How have our domestic habits changed?What can be considered domestic?Can we see the signs of this changing world?
Permenance & Domesticity
Unlike industrial archaeology changes in the fundamentals of domestic architecture tend to be superficially slight…
© goldring
Scara Brae ©Malcolm Morris
A Modern Kitchen©Pbroks13
Kuchemaistrey Nuremberg, 1485 East End Kitchen
© ceridwen
Social Changes and Personal Responses
• Actually though changes in the ways that people live can be enormous.
• Changes in society which we have already looked at caused changes in lifestyle and housing
• But peoples houses were (and are!) also adapted and modified to suit their needs and aspirations.
Houses are the manifestation of the personal, family and social relationships which make up
domestic life.
Public and Private Spaces
We have come to associate the domestic with the private this is a very recent innovation in thinking which even today doesn’t make much sense.
Social RevolutionsWe tend to think about changes in housing in terms of major social changes which have characterised the 19th and 20th Centuries.
Actually though, changes have been constant and have often been driven by the changing lifestyles as much as by ‘external forces’ such as industrialisation, slum clearance or post-war reconstruction.
Cash’s Houses Coventry © Dr Neil Clifton
Scotstounhill Tower Blocks © Chris Upson
Personal RevolutionsOnce of the most significant changes in the British use domestic space was the move from public to private living.
In many ways this can be seen to represent the break between the medieval and the modern.
But it often gets lost in the ‘romance’ of the old house.
Developments in housing in the late 20th century were often built with the nuclear family in mind.
House of medieval origins on the Assington Rd., Newton near Sudbury. ©Jurek and Trish Sienkiewicz
Houses on Collyer Road, Calverton, Nottinghamshire© Copyright Alan Murray-Rust
Large Scale Changes
We can see these large scale changes in the urban landscape. A little bit of detective work can give us clues to:
• Why an area looks as it does• When an area was developed• Who an area was built for
Adaptation
New houses are built all the time but we don’t stop using the old ones.
All Images geograph
Hall HouseHouse of medieval origins on the Assington Rd., Newton near Sudbury.©Jurek and Trish SienkiewiczPartially Jettied Medieval House
Stratford-upon-Avon © Tim Knight Terraced house façades, Montague
Street Hartlepool. © Copyright Andrew Curtis
AdaptationChanges are still taking place, things which today seem like they might be small additions (conservatories) minor changes (knocking through into the dining room) or adaptations which are now taken for granted (conversion of houses to flats) may be seen as ‘watershed’ moments in the development of housing.
Conclusion
Domestic archaeology is the archaeology of changing public and private space.
Changes happen quickly and can be seen in the houses we live in (we are often responsible!)
During Coffee…
Changes in domestic life happen very quickly
How many cupboards do you remember in your parents or grandparents houses when you were a child?
Who remembers seeing an outdoor toilet?
Optional Further ReadingDomestic InteriorsDowney, GeorginaOxford, Berg 2013
English houses 1300-1800: vernacular architecture, social lifeJohnson, MatthewLondon, Longman, 240pp. 2010
StuffMiller, DanielCambridge, Polity Press, 2010
Space, Property, and Propriety in Urban EnglandHarding, Vanessa.Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Volume 32, Number 4, Spring 2002,pp. 549-569 (Article)Published by The MIT Press
Domestic Space: reading the nineteenth-century interiorBryden, Inga and Floyd, JanetManchester and New York; Manchester University Press, 1999
Domestic Interiors Project Bibliography: http://csdi.rca.ac.uk/didb/biblio.php
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