The Tip of the Iceberg: The Material of Skriðuklaustur Monastery and Hospital

Abstract

Material objects from distant societies and cultures have long been an axis for archaeological research. In recent research, however, growing attention has been drawn to exploring simultaneously the conceptual meaning of material substances as the products of humans. The visual appearance of material is in this respect no more than the tip of an iceberg, where only a small part of something largely hidden is evident. In this article, Skriðuklaustur, an Augustinian monastery which operated in Eastern Iceland from ad 1493 to 1554 will thus be approached as embracing the remains of an internationally based society that flourished on the outskirts of the medieval monastic world. An excavation of its ruins has revealed residues of a society whose material is both domestic and international but still reflects the universally based meaning of monasticism. The Catholic Church is in this manner regarded as having fabricated phenomena through its pervasive institutions, upholding a distinct monastic identity. This view does not though involve a general denial of cultural or social changes as it rather underlines the hybrid character of everything that is and, at the same time, the significance of examining the materiality of past cultures as the creation of humans in their relational context.

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