Caroline Goodson | University of Cambridge (original) (raw)

Books by Caroline Goodson

An account of the excavations at Villa Magna, near Anagni, which revealed an imperial villa, buil... more An account of the excavations at Villa Magna, near Anagni, which revealed an imperial villa, built by Hadrian, with a magnificent winery, and its successive transformations: a late Roman and early medieval estate, a medieval village, monastery and cemetery, and a late medieval castrum. The publication is accompanied by exhaustive catalogues on the web.

Cities, Texts and Social Networks examines the experiences of urban life from late antiquity thro... more Cities, Texts and Social Networks examines the experiences of urban life from late antiquity through the close of the fifteenth century, in regions ranging from late Imperial Rome to Muslim Syria, Iraq and al-Andalus, England, the territories of medieval Francia, Flanders, the Low Countries, Italy and Germany. Together, the volume's contributors move beyond attempts to define 'the city' in purely legal, economic or religious terms. Instead, they focus on modes of organisation, representation and identity formation that shaped the ways urban spaces were called into being, used and perceived. Their interdisciplinary analyses place narrative and archival sources in communication with topography, the built environment and evidence of sensory stimuli in order to capture sights, sounds, physical proximities and power structures. Paying close attention to the delineation of public and private spaces, and secular and sacred precincts, each chapter explores the workings of power and urban discourse and their effects on the making of meaning.

The volume as a whole engages theoretical discussions of urban space - its production, consumption, memory and meaning - which too frequently misrepresent the evidence of the Middle Ages. It argues that the construction and use of medieval urban spaces could foster the emergence of medieval 'public spheres' that were fundamental components and by-products of pre-modern urban life. The resulting collection contributes to longstanding debates among historians while tackling fundamental questions regarding medieval society and the ways it is understood today. Many of these questions will resonate with scholars of postcolonial or 'non-Western' cultures whose sources and cities have been similarly marginalized in discussions of urban space and experience. And because these essays reflect a considerable geographical, temporal and methodological scope, they model approaches to the study of urban history that will interest a wide range of readers.

In the early ninth century, a critical time in Rome's transformation from ancient capital to powe... more In the early ninth century, a critical time in Rome's transformation from ancient capital to powerful bishopric to new state capital, Pope Paschal I undertook a building campaign to communicate his authority and Rome's importance as an ancient and contemporary seat of power. Combining analysis of contemporary chronicles and documents, architecture, mosaics and new archaeology of medieval Rome, Caroline Goodson examines Paschal's urban project, revealing new patterns of popular saint veneration in resplendent new churches built in traditional architectural vocabularies. These transformations connect the city and the pope to the past and the present, in the same league as the Byzantine and Carolingian capitals and their emperors. By examining the relationships between the material world and political power in early medieval Rome, this innovative study reveals the importance of Rome's sacred and urban landscape in constructing papal rule and influence both in the city and beyond.

Articles and Chapters by Caroline Goodson

Early Medieval Europe, 2019

This article will chart the usage of a rare term, uiridarium, in the documents of early medieval ... more This article will chart the usage of a rare term, uiridarium, in the documents of early medieval Italy in order to explore the history of decorative or pleasure gardens between c.600-c.1000. Property documents and placita, alongside a small body of archaeobotanical evidence, suggest a significant change in the planting of cultivated spaces in Italian cities during the early Middle Ages. A few charters refer to enclosed gardens called uiridaria attached to houses of the highest-status people in Italy: dukes, kings, emperors, and bishops. We have a glimpse of how they were used and this article makes the case that decorative gardens played a role in the urban performance of the highest echelons of power. * I am grateful to Wendy Davies for her perspicacity and advice on gardens, both modern and medieval, and to Patrick Geary, who refused to believe that there were no pleasure gardens in early medieval Italy and facilitated my spending time in Princeton as a visitor to the Institute of Advanced Study to find some in the libraries. I have benefitted from the suggestions of

See how well it [the city of Verona] was founded by evil men who knew not the law of our God and ... more See how well it [the city of Verona] was founded by evil men who knew not the law of our God and worshipped ancient images of wood and stone! 1 Old Rome, your morals decay as do your walls. … Now if the virtue of Peter and Paul do not favour you, you will long be wretched, little Rome. 2 1 Versus de Verona, ed. Pighi: Ecce quam bene est fundata a malis hominibus / qui nesciebant legem dei nostri atque uetera simulacra uenerabantur lignea lapidea!; Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance, pp. 80-7. 2 John Eriugena's translation of Ps. Dionysius the Areopagite's letter to the apostle John:

The Aghlabids and their Neighbors, 2017

Buildings in Society: International Studies in the Historic Era, 2018

The recent excavations at Villamagna (FR), Italy, have revealed the monumental remains of a monas... more The recent excavations at Villamagna (FR), Italy, have revealed the monumental remains of a monastery and abbey
church of the tenth to thirteenth centuries, and the contemporary village where the monastery’s estate workers lived. These
were all situated within the ruins of a substantial imperial Roman villa known as Villa Magna, an ancient name preserved
through the middle ages. These different structures of medieval Villamagna provide a pertinent case study to explore how the
differing topography, construction technique and quality, and uses of buildings in a given community over time might have been
experienced by the people who lived there and used them. Italian medieval archaeology, as a discipline and community of scholars,
brings a Marxian approach to interpreting sites like these, and the assumptions brought to bear in Italian contexts might be
usefully juxtaposed with the approaches of other subsets of our disciplines.

La culture matérielle : un objet en question. Anthropologie, archéologie et histoire, sous la direction de Luc Bourgeois, Danièle Alexandre- Bidon, Laurent Feller, Perrine Mane, Catherine Verna et Mickaël Wilmart

This article reviews the state of research on medieval material culture in England. The particula... more This article reviews the state of research on medieval material culture in England. The particular history of early medieval England has created an emphasis on prestigious objects and sites mentioned in the few preserved texts from the period. Since the 1990s, the rise of commercial archaeology and a major digital database recording metal-detector finds have permitted a very different view of medieval England to emerge, with a very wide range of early medieval settlements engaged in production, and, in the later Middle Ages, a broad distribution of urban fashions and culture into the countryside. In the discipline of archaeology, there has been some reluctance to utilise some of the theoretical developments emerging in anthropological studies of material culture when considering the Middle Ages.

Archeologia Medievale, 2012

Rome: Continuing Encounters, eds. D. Caldwell and L. Caldwell, Ashgate: 2012.

As both antiquarian and more recent studies have noted, bells played a central role in medieval C... more As both antiquarian and more recent studies have noted, bells played a central role in medieval Christianity. This article aims to show that the history and meanings of church bells are more complex than often assumed. Drawing on a mixture of archaeological and textual material, the article demonstrates that a variety of types of bell-and indeed other signaling devices-were found in early medieval Christianity, and argues that the social and spiritual meanings of bells, whilst in some aspects determined by liturgical texts of the eleventh century, could also vary markedly depending upon the context, use, and reception of their sound. A bell calling a community to prayer was thus not simply "marking" the hours; it was summoning and producing the spiritual community, and its voice could be contested and even on occasion rejected.

Draft of piece published in Viator, 43 (2012)

Felix Roma : The Production, Experience and Reflection of Medieval Rome, eds. Éamonn Ó Carragain and Carol Neuman de Vegvar, eds. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 51–80., 2008

Early Medieval Europe, 2007

Examining Pope Paschal I's early ninth-century architectural project of S. Cecilia in Trastevere,... more Examining Pope Paschal I's early ninth-century architectural project of S. Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome, brings to light the diversity of functions of tituli in early medieval Rome. Not only was the church a papal basilica and site of the stational liturgy of Rome, but it was also a shrine to the saint Cecilia, a popular Roman martyr. The architectural arrangement makes clear that the papal project incorporated both the papal cult and the popular cult of the saint by manipulating the archaeology of the site and translating corporeal relics to the urban church.

Early Medieval Europe, 2019

The Aghlabids and their Neighbors, 2017

Buildings in Society: International Studies in the Historic Era, 2018

Archeologia Medievale, 2012

Rome: Continuing Encounters, eds. D. Caldwell and L. Caldwell, Ashgate: 2012.

Draft of piece published in Viator, 43 (2012)

Felix Roma : The Production, Experience and Reflection of Medieval Rome, eds. Éamonn Ó Carragain and Carol Neuman de Vegvar, eds. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), 51–80., 2008

Early Medieval Europe, 2007

Atti del seminario in onore di Hans Peter L’Orange, Istituto di Norvegia, Roma, 2003. Siri Sande, ed. Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia ns 5 (2005): pp. 163–92., 2005

Early Medieval Europe, 2009

Early Medieval Europe, 2010

Book reviewse med_292 92..133 Two Decades of Discovery. Edited by Tony Abramson. Studies in Early... more Book reviewse med_292 92..133 Two Decades of Discovery. Edited by Tony Abramson. Studies in Early Medieval Coinage 1. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. 2006. viii + 202 pp. £40. ISSN 1756 4840.

Early Medieval Europe, 2009

spada, la vela: l'alto Adriatico fra V e VI Secolo. Edited by Andrea Augenti and Carlo Bertelli. ... more spada, la vela: l'alto Adriatico fra V e VI Secolo. Edited by Andrea Augenti and Carlo Bertelli. Milan: Skira. 2007. 160 pp. + 113 colour and 38 b/w illustrations. €30. ISBN 8861301795. Dynamic Splendor: The Wall Mosaics in the Cathedral of Eufrasius at Porec. By Ann Terry and Henry Maguire. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 2007. 2 volumes: I Text, 416 pp.; II Illustrations, 226 colour and 75 b/w illustrations. $95. ISBN 0271028734.

Early Medieval Europe, 2008

Early Medieval Europe, 2012

It is a commonplace assumption that the medieval cities were 'ruralised' by the presence of veget... more It is a commonplace assumption that the medieval cities were 'ruralised' by the presence of vegetable patches, fields, and livestock. Historians and archaeologists have often taken evidence for agricultural cultivation in urban spaces as indicators of the breakdown of medieval urban fabric and economies, but urban gardens were not simply byproducts of decline or devolution. They were created because people living in the city wanted fresh fruits and vegetables and made space to grow them, and because certain structures of property transfer permitted social promotion as well as safeguarded property and use of it for the future. . The evidence from Italy makes clear that residential properties with access to cultivated spaces were tightly controlled. The study of these urban vineyards, veg patches and fields, through their textual and archaeological records, provides us a small window onto shifting social structures within medieval cities, the rises and falls in small-scale markets, and emerging ideals of charity and beneficence.

Urbanism was a key tool of power politics in early medieval Italy, especially in the South. The v... more Urbanism was a key tool of power politics in early medieval Italy, especially in the South. The vast majority of the events and activities which permitted rulership, brought about political legitimacy, and facilitated diplomatic relations happened in cities. More than anywhere in Europe at the time, the elites of Southern Italy channelled resources into the built environment, infrastructure, and social networks established in urban contexts. The built environment was no mere backdrop to this process, rather it was one of the means by which ideas about power were communicated, and through which cultural and political hegemony was practiced. Our theoretical toolkit for understanding the archaeology of medieval urbanism is, however, a bit out of date and mostly borrowed from elsewhere (architectural history, anthropology, sociology). We rely strongly on decoding the symbolic expressions of buildings and social space, between, for example, 'patron/maker' and 'viewer', or the reciprocal persuasions between 'actor' and 'network', or qualifying the economic effects of population density. This paper will review the state of the question of medieval urbanism in Europe, seeking to identify some new pathways forward in our analysis of the cities of the past. I will address both the built (architecture and infrastructure) and the unbuilt (in particular urban cultivation and rubbish) in the period between 600-1100.

Among the many changes to living in Italy in late antiquity was the rise in town houses which inc... more Among the many changes to living in Italy in late antiquity was the rise in town houses which included productive food gardens. Letters of Pope Gregory I describe several properties which were endowed with food gardens in order to the support the religious households located in the middle of Rome, where they were unable, or chose not to, buy onions and lettuces at market. These houses that Gregory’s letters describe find echoes in other cities of Italy in the sixth century. Urban gardening in late antiquity was not simply a by-product of a breakdown in urban density and the disappearance of markets for everyday foods. Two intellectual elements played roles in the phenomenon, lending it a conceptual justification: the legacy of estate management and the value of self-sufficiency for religious communities especially monastic ones and — to a lesser degree — the value of the garden for medicinal purposes and the developing role of religious households as places of curing and sustenance. This paper will discuss the evidence for clerical and monastic fruit and vegetable production in the cities of Italy, evaluating the change in functions of the cities against other cases of episcopal or monastic sponsorship of urban production.

It is a commonplace assumption that the medieval cities were 'ruralised' by the presence of veget... more It is a commonplace assumption that the medieval cities were 'ruralised' by the presence of vegetable patches, fields, and livestock. Historians and archaeologists have often taken evidence for agricultural cultivation in urban spaces as indicators of the breakdown of medieval urban fabric and economies, but urban gardens were not simply byproducts of decline or devolution. They were created because people living in the city wanted fresh fruits and vegetables and made space to grow them. The evidence from Italy makes clear that residential properties with access to cultivated spaces were controlled by urban elites, both private and ecclesiastical. The study of these urban vineyards, veg patches and fields, through their textual and archaeological records, provides us a small window onto shifting social structures within medieval cities, the rises and falls in small-scale markets, and emerging ideals of charity. These issues have previously been very difficult to understand given the paucity of documentation about residential properties and social structures in the early middle ages; they are to some degree revealed by looking at gardens. The combination of property documents with letters, narrative chronicles, and a considerable amount of recent urban archaeology make it now possible to observe urban food provisioning in early medieval Italy and to relate the phenomenon of urban gardening with shifting power structures in the city.

Few excavated sites reveal the full extent of the built environment because of the necessarily in... more Few excavated sites reveal the full extent of the built environment because of the necessarily incomplete nature of the excavation process; even fewer medieval sites are known in their entirety. Extensive excavations at Villamagna, in Central Italy, have revealed a village, monastery and church of the tenth to thirteenth centuries, all situated within the ruins of a substantial Roman villa, the name of which was preserved throughout the middle ages. Through the comparison of these different structures on the site as a case study, I will explore how the differing topography, technique and quality of construction, and uses of these buildings might have been experienced by the medieval community. The different scales of huts, compared to other huts and to contemporary monastic buildings gives a clear indication of hierarchy, but I argue that there are different ways in which we might understand how village societies organised themselves in their buildings. Through comparison with contemporary archaeological research (mostly in Italy of the Central Middle Ages) and analysis of textual records (both from the site of Villamagna and elsewhere in Italy), I will suggest some means by which we can understand the social hierarchy of the community articulated through the built environment. A structuralist interpretation seems applicable here, but other theoretical models (iconography of form, phenomenology of materials) will be explored.

Urbanism played a critical role in the formation of the post-Roman polities of Southern Italy and... more Urbanism played a critical role in the formation of the post-Roman polities of Southern Italy and Ifriqiya. The conventional narrative of the early medieval Mediterranean suggests that in Italy and Sicily, certain Late Roman and Byzantine cities on the coasts and main roads persevered to form the administrative, economic and cultural centres of the Lombard duchies, the Catapanate and Islamic Sicily, while at the same time ancient cities in North Africa dwindled into non-existence at the time of the Arab conquests, to be replaced by new Muslim cities founded as expressions of regime change. These two opposing narratives have run through historiographies of Southern Italy and North Africa for centuries: the legitimising legacy of Roman cities in the medieval states of Italy and the iconoclasm of Maghribi rulers’ building of new cities to redirect commerce and populations away from preceding centres (eg Kairouan for Carthage; Mahdia for Kairouan).
Through the re-examination of existing evidence and new data emerging from archaeology, my current research reviews these paradigms from a comparative perspective and with particular attention to the built environment as material culture. The Papal State, the Southern Lombard duchies and the early Islamic powers of Sicily, Malta, Bari, Ifriqiya and the Maghrib all developed existing cities and urban networks: city walls, urban production centres, municipal amenities, invigoration of urban cult centres as well as some urban residences for rulers. Ninth-century urban structures—both material and political—are more than mere reflections of political, economic and social changes; I argue that they were the agents of those changes. Using case studies from Aghlabid Ifriqiya and contemporary polities, this paper will explore different processes of urban investment and changes in the built environment to develop new lines of thinking about the roles of cities in this part of the early medieval western Mediterranean.

Medieval Rome was like no other city in Europe. It was larger than any of them—in area, in popula... more Medieval Rome was like no other city in Europe. It was larger than any of them—in area, in population, and in fame, as its ancient glory was known to nearly everyone in the medieval world. The city was, however, unmistakably changed from its ancient past. Within the walls there were decaying hulks of abandoned ancient buildings, fields and animals in what had been paved courtyards and Fora, and orchards growing where porticated columns had stood.The imperial-period city had pleasure gardens and leafy suburban retreats, and agriculture was relegated to suburban market gardens. By contrast, in the early medieval city houses often had extensive kitchen gardens, vineyards and orchards, and there were fields for wheat and barley within the city walls. From Rome, there is considerable evidence for the practice ofurban gardening, a practice long overdue for analysis. This paper will review the recent archaeology of the city and its agriculture as well as the documentary evidence from the age of Gregory the Great to ca 1100, revealing the social and political aspects of urban gardening and assessing their significance for the city, its architecture and urbanism.

Over 1300 years of occupation as an agricultural estate and prestigious residence makes Villamagn... more Over 1300 years of occupation as an agricultural estate and prestigious residence makes Villamagna (Italy) a test case for examining post-Roman settlement, society and culture. The villa of the Roman emperor Hadrian, built ca 120 at Villamagna in central Italy, provided the emperor and his successors with a luxurious country estate for hunting and vineyards for exclusive wine. This estate was used and rebuilt over following centuries, manipulating and reusing the original villa and its lands for subsequent institutions: a Byzantine-era fortified estate, a tenth-century monastery with papal immunities, and a fourteenth-century seigniorial residence. This discussion of the material remains, including the excavated church, houses and monastic buildings, 500 excavated graves in the church cemetery, as well as the preserved monastic archive of documents will lay out the case for the importance of the site’s history in constructing social hierarchy through the middle ages. This seminar will focus on two markers of cultural change: housing typologies and burials, evaluated through the property documents and excavated remains of the site.

The fourth season of excavation at the site 1 was aimed more at extending our knowledge of the st... more The fourth season of excavation at the site 1 was aimed more at extending our knowledge of the structures already discovered than at breaking new ground. However, we went well beyond confirming our hypotheses, and this penultimate season has come close to completing our investigation of the three principle structures discovered so far: the winery, the slave barracks, and the church of S. Pietro in Villamagna.

FOLD&R Fasti On Line Documents & Research, 207, 2010

The final season of this series of excavations aimed at completing sites B, the site of the churc... more The final season of this series of excavations aimed at completing sites B, the site of the church and monastery, and F2, within the atrium of the baths, took place in the second half of June 2010; further exploration clarified the plan of the baths to the south of the cella vinaria. Over June and July, the post-excavation research in the laboratory aimed to complete all the catalogues, with a view to comprehensive publication within a reasonable amount of time 1 . with the help of Mark Pinkerton and Edward Jones. The cemetery excavation was supervised by Corisande Fenwick, with Luciano Bruni, Sam Cox, Rachel Heslop and Erika Nitsch. Here, as elsewhere, we benefitted from a large number of volunteers from the Liceo Dante Alighieri at Anagni, coordinated this year by Roberto Mataloni. Fig. 1. View of the excavation, showing the extent of the Roman paving revealed. The arrow at the bottom left indicates the marble-clad wall of the imperial building (C. Goodson).

FOLD&R …, Jan 1, 2006

The first season's excavation at Villa Magna initiates the investigation of both the Roman villa ... more The first season's excavation at Villa Magna initiates the investigation of both the Roman villa and the monastery built over it. Over half of the area of the villa was covered with a geophysical survey whose results give us an extraordinary preview of the structures we are studying. This report gives a brief overview of the significant results of the project, which is sponsored by the 1984 Foundation and is the result of a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania, the British School at Rome and the Soprintendenza Archeologica del Lazio, represented by codirector Sandra Gatti.

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