Sveinsd¨®ttir¡¯s research project ¡°The Materiality of Medieval Healing Rituals¡± entails a study of the Cultural History Museum¡®s collection of medieval artefacts connected to illness and healing in the medieval period (including relics, lead amulets and anatomical votives).
The collection will be used as a case study to explore how the material culture at hand was used as a medium in healing rituals, including practices rooted in popular belief as well as miraculous healing, in order to reflect on how the medieval worldview shaped people¡¯s relationships with their bodies as well as attitudes towards illness and impairments.
Background
Sveinsd¨®ttir has a MSc (distinction) in archaeology from the University of Glasgow with a specialism in Material Culture & Artefact Studies. She has worked as a find¡¯s specialist on numerous excavation projects at the Institute of Archaeology, Iceland as well as teaching at the Archaeology Department of the University of Iceland. Go to Sveinsd¨®ttir's people page at KHM's website to read more.