Delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond, the British Academy’s flagship Lecture programme showcases the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. This event is part of the Albert Reckitt Archaeological Lecture Series.
How did medieval people use material culture to live out their relationships to the sacred, the supernatural and their families and communities? This lecture harnesses a fresh source of archaeological evidence to shed new light on everyday religion in the English Middle Ages (c. 1000-1550 CE). It draws on research in collaboration with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (British Museum) to glean new historical insights from public finds data – objects recovered and recorded by members of the public, principally metal-detectorists. Among the 325,000, later medieval public finds are objects of personal religious devotion, amulets, pilgrim souvenirs and ecclesiastical artefacts. How were they used by ordinary people to provide spiritual protection at critical times, such as childbirth? And why did so many of these potent ritual objects end up discarded in plough soil?
The lecture will be followed by a short introduction to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), a project that records archaeological finds made by the public in England and Wales, managed by the British Museum in England. Head of Portable Antiquities & Treasure at the British Museum, Michael Lewis, will speak about PAS and its value to researchers as an archaeological dataset of predominantly rural finds. Some recent medieval finds from the Thames foreshore will also be showcased as part of this event.
Medieval Lived Religion: The Complex Lives of Medieval Ritual Objects

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