In twelve articles, the authors give an illustrated overview on 331 pages of the current state of research on the cathedral monastery, the Busdorf monastery, the early city bishopric and numerous urban properties.
“The starting point of the individual work is the field work of the urban archeology”, explains Dr. Sven Spiong, head of the Bielefeld branch of the LWL archeology for Westphalia and until 2015 head of the Paderborn city archeology. “Your task is to trace the history of Paderborn at the points where the written sources are silent or where they can be enriched with new aspects or have to be reassessed.” This is the archaeologists in cooperation with the city and with the support of the LWL -Specialists in Paderborn’s old town have succeeded several times over the past few years.
For more than 25 years, Paderborn’s urban archeology has been researching, now under the direction of Dr. Sveva Gai, also one of the authors of the book, The Early History of the City. With the fourth urban archeology volume in the series of medieval studies, the new publication takes stock and reports on current research results. A focus of the book are the excavations in the cathedral monastery and in an area of the Busdorfstift.
The most important finds can be seen in the museum
Dr. Martin Kroker, director of the LWL Museum in the Kaiserpfalz and member of the board of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research into the Middle Ages and its aftermath (IEMAN) at the University of Paderborn: “This was the first time that the remains of the former curia of the canons and canons could be identified and examined. The most important finds of urban archeology can be seen permanently in the LWL Museum in the Kaiserpfalz. ”
The fact that the extensive results on urban archeology are now being published is also a result of the close networking of urban archeology and the LWL Museum in the Kaiserpfalz with the universities in Paderborn, Göttingen and Münster as well as other institutions and people who deal with the history of Paderborn. Two articles contain the results of master’s theses on the subject of excavations in urban archeology.
The anniversary volume also sheds light on the early urban environment of the bishopric and its development into a fortified medieval city with firmly established houses. The focus is on the excavations in the urban area between 2009 and 2012. The book is available now.
“Monasteries, Curiae and Merchants’ Houses – 25 Years of Paderborn City Archeology”, ed. v. Martin Kroker and Sven Spiong, Series: Medieval Studies, Volume: 32, Wilhelm-Fink-Verlag, Paderborn, 2021, ISBN: 978-3-7705-6610-5, 59 euros. Also available as an e-book (PDF), ISBN: 978-3-8467-6610-1, 59 euros.
–
