Maxime Poulain

• PhD
• MSCA post-doc at University of Tübingen

In contrast to predominant narratives of abortion and infanticide with medieval sex workers, this case study testifies to the potential care given to prostitutes’ children. It does so through ancient DNA and dietary stable isotope analyses of an infant buried in a 14th-century brothel in Aalst, Belgium. While no pathogens were identified, elevated...

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER is to verify and accept or disprove and reject the long-lived idea of dark living spaces in 15th-century housing culture and to explore the possible social significance of light indoors. Artificial light sources, such as candles, are rarely preserved and associated material culture (from oil lamps to window parts) are seld...

The northeastern coastal plain of Belgium was a well-developed region during the late medieval period when Bruges and a series of smaller harbours became connected to the North Sea via the Zwin tidal channel. Yet, ecological data related to the evolution of the regional environment of the former Zwin region are still lacking. Diatoms, pollen, and m...

Paleoparasitological studies have made important contributions to our understanding of the past epidemiology of parasites, infection in past populations and lifestyle in the past. In some cases, these ancient parasites can also provide evidence for long distance travel or migration of people in the past. Three sediment samples from a 15th–16th c. C...

In contrast to predominant narratives of abortion and infanticide with medieval sex workers, this case study testifies to the potential care attributed to prostitutes’ children. It does so through ancient DNA and dietary isotope analysis of an infant buried in a 14th -century brothel in Aalst, Belgium. While no pathogens were identified, elevated δ...

Large amounts of iron slag were discovered during archaeological excavations in the late medieval harbour of Hoeke (Municipality of Damme, Belgium), one of the main outer harbours of Bruges. This waste product indicates the presence of 13th‐ to 14th‐century pre‐industrial metalworking activities, such as blacksmithing, which involved the production...

A sedimentary investigation was carried out into the rise and fall of mediaeval Bruges’ maritime access. Because the mediaeval metropolis had no direct connection with the North Sea, its maritime connectivity during the High- and Late-Middle Ages depended on a tidal channel, known as the ‘Zwin’. In order to reconstruct the mediaeval physical enviro...

An exceptional archaeological assemblage of pewter was found during excavations at the castle of Middelburg (Belgium). This article gives an overview of the forms and marks that are represented and discusses the chronology and spatial distribution of these tin-alloyed finds. As such, it becomes possible to delineate certain functional zones at the...

Medieval leather finds

For the first time, this volume brings together an international group of experts on the topic of early modern military encampments in Northwestern Europe. Despite the flourishing of conflict archaeology across the continent, the discipline lacks a consistent terminology and adequate typology for describing and interpreting the large variety of str...

Ash cupels were widely used in early modern Europe for small-scale refining of noble metals in artisanal workshops, mints and assay offices. The manufacture and use of cupels display considerable variability from context to context, which poses both challenges and opportunities for modern investigation. Here, we present the analytical study of an u...

In contrast to what films such as Titanic would have people believe, scientific knowledge about ocean liners is fairly limited. These boats and their material culture, however, functioned as symbols of modernity par excellence and thus allow a better understanding of the advent of a new world at the turn of the 20th century. The focus of this artic...

Archaeologia Mediaevalis 44, p. 43-47.

Archaeologia Mediaevalis 43. p. 22-24

Excavations in Sint-Lievens-Houtem (Flanders, Belgium), an important medieval pilgrimage village, uncovered a fourteenth-century refuse pit. This feature contained a fragment of a rare Andalusī moulded lustreware vessel, dating to the mid or second half of the twelfth century. The reconstruction of the vessel’s itinerary aids in understanding how a...

50 free online copies of the online pre-publication at: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/txcgnzizhI2KW8NQCEHM/full Grasslands pose a particular problem in terms of archaeological surveying, as no material is ploughed up to the surface. Although finds in molehills are often the only source of information available on sites with such low visibilit...

In 1595, the Portuguese merchant banker Duarte Ximenez bought the Blauwhof, a castle-like estate in the Flemish countryside. An assemblage of pottery, recovered from the moat adjacent to the estate’s manor house, testifies to the status and hybrid identity of this 17th-century immigrant family. Although they were well assimilated into Antwerp’s hig...

Between 2002 and 2004, excavations on the castle of Middelburg (Belgium) revealed ample pottery assemblages dating to the 16th and 17th centuries. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC–MS) analysis of preserved surface residues on these ceramics allowed the identification of biomarkers for animal and vegetal foods, and thermal processing. This p...

From 2002 until 2004, archaeological excavations were conducted at the castle site of Middelburg (Belgium). A large collection of 15th- to 17th-century ceramics was uncovered, some of which originating from Italy, Spain or Portugal. This find is of particular importance for Flanders, since Mediterranean pottery is hardly recognised in an excavation...

The archaeology of the Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648) in Flanders bears great potential in contributing to the European debate on early modern transformations and in raising public awareness of archaeology as a whole. Thus far, early modern features were however mostly incidentally found on multi-period sites and not as a result from specifi...

The quantification of material culture can make a significant contribution to the answering of social and behavioural questions. However, especially in continental Europe, this aspect of pottery studies remains understudied. In the following article, a status quaestionis of the quantification of post-medieval ceramics in the Low Countries is given....