Vernacular buildings and urban social practice- wood and people in early modern society.
Short description
The study and importance of vernacular wood constructions in urban environments have been largely neglected within Swedish research. A very large portion of the vernacular urban building stock from the early modern period is either gone, due to demolishment, or moved and thus lost its former context, another issue is far reaching restorations. Archaeology is thus the key provider of knowledge to understand these early modern living environments today. However, many disciplines occupy themselves with the built environment and this is an interdisciplinary study of early modern living environments above and below ground. Wood constructions are indeed a very intricate part of the Swedish building stock through history and remain so today. The wooden building can provide a warm indoor climate which is needed in Northern Europe. Read more below
Very little has been know about the timber-framing tradition north of the two most southern regions Skåne and Halland and this work is shedding some light on this issue. Log timber buildings were common place and a significant part of the ‘usual’, yet almost missing from the urban data today. Post & plank buildings have been common but rarely discussed in detail within archaeological research. Another important contribution of this study comes from acknowledging the ubiquitous presence of mixing building techniques in one building. The aim is to understand more about the layout, uses, social- and geographical contexts and datings of these kind of urban buildings. These building techniques reaches back in time to the late Viking Age Urbanisation and follows a very traditional layout and size all the way to the 19th century. This very urban form of constructing dwellings and outhouses has not previously been much discussed in Swedish research which makes this an important contribution.