Floor Maintenance as a Possible Cultural Behavioural Status? Preliminary Interpretations of Floor Formation Processes from Medieval Brno, Czech Republic

0532697 - GLÚ 2021 RIV CZ eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Lisá, Lenka - Staněk, P. - Zůbek, A. - Nejman, L.
Floor Maintenance as a Possible Cultural Behavioural Status? Preliminary Interpretations of Floor Formation Processes from Medieval Brno, Czech Republic.
Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica. Natural Sciences in Archaeology. XI, č. 1 (2020), s. 63-72. ISSN 1804-848X
Grant CEP: GA ČR(CZ) GA17-23836S
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985831
Klíčová slova: micromorphology in archaeological context * living space * timber and earth architecture * masonry burgher architecture * domestic floors
Obor OECD: Archaeology
Způsob publikování: Open access
https://www.iansa.eu/papers/IANSA-2020-01-lisa.pdf

The way people used different types of buildings and how they used their living space in the past is often imprinted into the floors of buildings. The term floor is quite complex and to understand it, more than macroscopic observations are needed. One useful method is the application of soil micromorphology in an archaeological context. The timber and earth architecture of medieval Brno is still not well known. A rescue archaeological excavation of block 601 near Veselá Street revealed a unique situation where above-ground floors dated to the 13th–14th century had survived while buried under a garbage dump and discarded construction material. Two groups of buildings excavated in superposition within different parts of a single plot revealed that it is possible to track different maintenance practices through time and space. In the first building, the hypothesis of sweeping maintenance practice was proposed. In the younger building situated in the same area, the degradation or the removal of a wooden plank floor could have been the origin of the observed micro-structure. In the third and fourth buildings, the maintenance practices were different again due to a wetter environment. The third (older) building revealed hay and straw covering followed by sweeping while mat coverings were laid on the surfaces and swept in the fourth (younger) building. The information deduced from micromorphological observations has not fully solved the questions about the floors, but it has certainly elucidated possible interpretations of the oldest phases of the town’s development.
Trvalý link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0311749