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Narwhals or Unicorns? Exotic Animals as Material Culture in Medieval Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Aleksander Pluskowski
Aleksander Pluskowski*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge, UK
*
[email: agp21@cam.ac.uk]
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Abstract

Animals from distant lands fired the imaginations of people living in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. This is attested by a considerable wealth of iconographic and written material which has been explored from many perspectives, providing valuable insights into medieval western conceptualizations of the fringes of the known world and the otherness of exotica. However, the physical remains of non-indigenous species – both those recovered from archaeological contexts and extant in private collections – have generally been examined in isolation and rarely incorporated into a broader framework exploring the reception and utility of exotica. This article offers a new perspective on the topic by focusing on the zoological identity of non-indigenous animal body parts as ‘material culture’.

Résumé

Résumé

Les animaux des contrées lointaines ont excité l'imagination des Européens durant tout le Moyen Âge. En effet, la richesse en matériel iconographique et en documents est considérable, et leur étude – sous tous ses aspects – procure un précieux aperçu de la conceptualisation de la périphérie du monde connu et de l'altérité de l'exotique pendant le Moyen Âge occidental. Toutefois, les restes physiques d'espèces non indigènes – aussi bien ceux récupérés dans des contextes archéologiques que ceux subsistant dans des collections privées – ont généralement été examinés isolément et n'ont que rarement été incorporés dans un cadre plus large étudiant l'accueil et l'utilité de ces objets exotiques. Cet article propose une nouvelle approche du sujet en focalisant sur l'identité zoologique des parties d'animaux exotiques comme ‘culture matérielle’.

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Tiere aus fernen Ländern heizten die Vorstellungskraft der Menschen, die während des Mittelalters in Europa lebten, an. Dies wird durch einen bemerkenswerten Reichtum an ikonographischen und schriftlichen Quellen belegt, die von verschiedenen Perspektiven untersucht wurden und die wertvolle Einsichten in die westliche mittelalterliche Konzeptualisierung der Randbereiche der bekannten Welt und die Andersartigkeit von Exotika bieten. Dennoch sind die Überreste nicht-einheimischer Arten – aus archäologischen Kontexten wie auch aus privaten Sammlungen – im allgemeinen isoliert untersucht und selten in einen breiteren Rahmen eingebunden worden, der die Rezeption und Nutzung von Exotika erforscht. Dieser Beitrag eröffnet eine neue Perspektive zu diesem Thema, indem er einen Schwerpunkt auf die zoologische Identität von Körperteilen nicht-einheimischer Tiere als ‘materielle Kultur’ setzt.

Keywords

animalsexoticmaterial culturemedievalmorphologynarwhalstaxonomiesunicornszooarchaeologyzooarchéologieanimauxmédiévalexotiqueculture matérielletaxonomiesmorphologielicornesnarvalsZooarchäologieTiereMittelalterExotikmaterielle KulturTaxonomienMorphologieEinhörnerNarwale
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , 2004 , pp. 291 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Sage Publications 

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