IMC 2025: Sessions
Session 221: Artefacts and Artisans, II: Knowledge Transfer in the Medieval Masons' Yard - Masons' Marks as Communication Devices
Monday 7 July 2025, 14:15-15:45
| Sponsor: | British Archaeological Association (BAA) |
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| Organiser: | Jenny Alexander, Department of the History of Art, University of Warwick |
| Moderator/Chair: | Jenny Alexander, Department of the History of Art, University of Warwick |
| Paper 221-a | Quarry Marks from the Royal City of Beroun (Bohemia after 1295) (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - General, Architecture - Secular, Technology |
| Paper 221-b | Masons' Marks on Zamora Cathedral in the 12th-13th Century, Iberian Peninsula: Construction Processes, Workshop Organisation, and Beyond (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - General, Architecture - Religious, Technology |
| Paper 221-c | Masons' Marks in the Transept of Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway: Process in the Medieval Workshop (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - General, Architecture - Religious, Technology |
| Abstract | Medieval masons worked in a non-literate environment in which communication relied on the use of ciphers. Information and instructions were conveyed through the use of a system of symbols and ciphers which carried complex messages. In this session three speakers will present their studies of sites from Spain, Norway and the Czech republic which examine the ways in which these ciphers were employed and discuss the ways that these help us to understand better how medieval masons, in the quarries and on the cathedral building sites, transferred information. |