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IMC 2022: Sessions

Session 109: Cologne's Medieval Jewish Quarter, I: Daily Life, Topography, and Archaeological Findings

Monday 4 July 2022, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Malin Drees, MiQua, Landschaftsverband Rhineland (LVR) - Jüdisches Museum im Archäologischen Quartier, Köln
Moderator/Chairs:Jörn Roland Christophersen, Seminar für Judaistik, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main / Arye Maimon-Institut für Geschichte der Juden, Universität Trier
Malin Drees, MiQua, Landschaftsverband Rhineland (LVR) - Jüdisches Museum im Archäologischen Quartier, Köln
Paper 109-aTaking a Look at the Medieval Jewish Quarter in Cologne: Topography, Infrastructure, and Jewish-Christian Inter-Relations
(Language: English)
Tanja Potthoff, MiQua, Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) - Jüdisches Museum im Archäologischen Quartier, Köln
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Daily Life, Geography and Settlement Studies, Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Paper 109-bDaily Life and Archaeological Findings
(Language: English)
Michael Wiehen, Dezernat für Kunst und Kultur, Stadt Köln
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Daily Life, Hebrew and Jewish Studies
Paper 109-cMedieval Slate Fragments from Cologne's Jewish Quarter: Drawings
(Language: English)
Malin Drees, MiQua, Landschaftsverband Rhineland (LVR) - Jüdisches Museum im Archäologischen Quartier, Köln
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Daily Life, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Religious Life
Abstract

The excavation in the medieval Jewish quarter, which has been ongoing since 2007, has uncovered a large number of finds that provide a unique insight into Jewish life in the High and Late Middle Ages.

Animal bones from latrines and rubbish pits provide evidence of kosher cooking, but also show what was actually served on the table. Toys, musical instruments, children's rattles, but also finds that indicate a variety of handicrafts in the quarter prove that the medieval Jewish quarter hardly differed from the Christian environment in terms of everyday objects. A number of written sources allow us to put the archaeological features and finds into a larger frame.

This panel will discuss the quarter's topography together with its archaeological findings. A large part of the finds come from the destruction of the devastating pogrom of 1349 in Cologne, which no member of the Jewish community survived. Belonging to this find complex, the drawing on slate fragments will be a special focus.