Mapping urban assemblages: Simulating material culture and social dynamics in a flea market context

Jakub Sawicki; Jan Hasil

doi:10.35686/AR.2025.258

Authors

Jakub Sawicki Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, Letenská 4, CZ-118 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1198-0713
Jan Hasil Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, Letenská 4, CZ-118 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4643-8767

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35686/AR.2025.258

Keywords:

medieval market, flea market, contemporary archaeology, medieval archaeology, material culture, active site, survey

Abstract

Although urban archaeological research yields a wealth of information, interpreting material culture in a complex context complicates the estimation of the artefact-space-human relationship. Drawing on the archaeological research on active (still operating) sites, this study presents a simulation of those dynamics using as an example a vibrant flea market, which is considered a space with a condensed assemblage of relationships between people and objects in a confined area. This approach allows for a better understanding of the dynamics of archaeological sites and social relations. We assume that multiple human activities, like trade, have their material reflection in waste and can be archeologically investigated. We surveyed a flea market (Cieplice, SW Poland), mapping finds of discarded or lost items and assigning them to different functional categories. The results show a partial correlation between the stalls and finds, varying on the object kind. However, the finds, given that as contemporary humans we understand the ‘total’ context, allow unobvious interpretations, opening a new perspective also for medieval and postmedieval urban archaeology.

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