Routledge Coins in Churches: Archaeology, Money and Religious Devotion in Medieval Northern Europe (Religion and Money in the Middle Ages)

This book focuses on the formative period of Church reform in the Middle Ages in Northern Europe, when the Church paved the way for the development of money economy on its own doorstep. Church archaeology provides evidence for patterns of monetary use related to liturgy, church architecture and devotional culture through the centuries. This volume encompasses Alpine European evidence, with emphasis on Gotland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, which opens up a new field of research on religion and money for an international audience. Based on 100,000 single finds of coins from the 11th to 18th centuries from 650 Scandinavian churches, the volume offers an in-depth discussion of the concepts of ritual, liturgy and devotional uses of money, monetary space and spiritual economy within the framework of Christendom, the medieval church and church architecture. Written by international scholars, Coins in Churches will be a valuable resource for readers interested in the history of religion, money, the economy, and church architecture in Northern Europe in the Middle Ages. About the Author Svein H. Gullbekk is Professor of numismatics and history of money at Museum of Cultural History, Oslo University; and is Principal Investigator for the project "Religion and Money: Economy of Salvation in the Middle Ages". Christoph Kilger is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland. He specializes in Viking and medieval archaeology and numismatics, especially relating to social, economic and monetary history of Northern Europe. Steinar Kristensen is Senior Engineer at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo, with responsibility for digital documentation of major excavation projects. He specializes in GIS technology in archaeological contexts. Håkon Roland is Associate Professor of numismatics and classical archaeology at Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. He has a long record of publication on numismatics, archaeology and within Heritage studies.