Revisiting the medieval Scandiavian ceramic censers - new comparisons, new interpretations

• In 2019, archaeologists carried out a large excavation of parts of the Dominican convent in the centre of Lund, in Scania, Sweden, which yielded a substantial medieval ceramic assemblage. This article aims to compare selected sherds from this assemblage with a collection of funerary pots, or censers, retrieved further south in the same town block during excavations in the convent church in 1906. Questions concerning the function of these vessels are discussed anew, following research by Per Kristian Madsen. It is suggested that they had a symbolic value, besides their function as containers, which could explain their use or reuse in medieval burials. When opinions concerning death changed in the 13th century, individuals believed that they now had a personal responsibility before God and the funerary pots/censers thus became symbols of piety and poverty, intended to reduce time in purgatory for the deceased.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- Archaeology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)