In medieval Europe, people’s experience of the world around them through the senses was deeply connected to power systems, beliefs, and other social factors of the period.
According to new research, such sensory experiences from centuries ago are exemplified in rare artifacts and other archaeological evidence spanning roughly A.D. 500 to 1800, revealing “sensory regimes” in which ancient societies structured perception and made it embedded in their culture.
The recent research, which appeared in the journal Antiquity, revisits archaeological finds from curious artifacts to everyday objects, as well as architecture and urban layouts, all of which played a role in shaping religious authority, the politics of the day, and even the social norms of Europe’s ancient medieval inhabitants.
The Hidden World of the Ancient Sensory Experience
For people in the Middle Ages, sensory perception represented more than just how the body interprets the world around us—it was a unique aspect of human existence that connected us beyond the physical world.
Similar to the way modern science now recognizes the existence of many additional senses beyond the common five senses of sight, taste, touch, hearing, and scent, ancient beliefs incorporated “internal” or spiritually oriented senses, which medieval thought recognized as ways through which individuals can perceive deeper truths about reality, such as divine concepts and moral order.
Modern scholars have long recognized these concepts and know that they were not abstract but were reinforced by physical objects and other aspects of the medieval environment, all of which guided behavior and shaped beliefs of the era. From this, the argument that material culture, through the incorporation of household items, religious artifacts, and a range of ancient devices and objects—from the rare to the common- played a significant role in the establishment of “sensory regimes” that regulated how people experienced and interpreted the world around them.
The Exeter “Puzzle Jug”: An Artifact That Challenged Authority
According to Matthias Friedrich, a researcher with the University of Vienna Institute for Prehistory and Historical Archaeology, evidence suggests that some artifacts played an important role in social and cultural processes.
One unique example Friedrich points to includes a 14th-century “puzzle jug” discovered in Exeter, England. This unique object combines humor and sensory engagement with satirical imagery of clergy.
According to Friedrich, this unusual object, replete with humorous images and absurd figures engaged in a range of odd activities, is a remarkable example of how artifacts from the Middle Ages exemplify the unique side of the ancient sensory experience.
“[T]he decoration, with ambiguous and humorous images and figures, is remarkable,” Friedrich writes. “The body of the vessel forms a tower with two naked bishops in its centre, while women and musicians celebrate below. The jug is multicoloured, sporting various ornaments, and the handle and spout transform into human and mythical creatures.”
However, beyond the weird imagery it presents, the jug conveys deeper social messages.
“Besides the multisensory experience drinking wine from a vessel with various images and figures, the jug ridicules the Church and its hypocrisy towards its own sensory regime through the very pleasure of the senses,” Friedrich says. “The Exeter Puzzle Jug, with its humorous depictions of naked bishops, exemplifies how material culture sensorially critiqued religious regimes through visual (imagery), tactile (object) and gustatory engagement (wine jar).”
Such artifacts strike at the heart of Friedrich’s research, which focuses on material and visual culture from late Antiquity throughout the Middle Ages, and especially the early medieval period. In the case of the curious Exeter Puzzle Jug, its appearance and functionality invited tactile interaction, while simultaneously opposing the religious authority of the period through one of history’s most common manifestations: pure mockery. In this way, the jug is more than just a medieval curiosity; it represents a material object capable of offering a cultural critique of the era’s dominant institutions through a multisensory experience.
Other examples include decorative stove tiles that employed imagery similar to that of the Reformation period, challenging Catholic authority. Although they were common items, their decoration in this instance enabled them to transform heated living spaces into places where ideological expression and social interaction were encouraged, and blended a sensory experience of physical comfort through the warmth they provided with visual commentaries on the religious conflict of the day.
Prosthetics with a Hidden Purpose
While some artifacts challenged norms, others reinforced them. Examples include the discovery of prosthetic devices from medieval Europe, which were more than just functional tools: they appear to have carried both symbolic and social weight.
For instance, ceramic objects shaped like shoes recovered from a burial in Pleidelsheim, Germany, were uncovered by archaeologists near the remains of one woman who had been missing both feet.
“The initial anthropological and archaeological report suggested the female—otherwise ‘in good health’—had lost both feet perimortem without specifying the exact cause,” Friedrich notes. However, these shoe-shaped objects were not placed in the anatomical position one would most likely expect for such a burial, but instead were located “adjacent to the missing appendages in the south-east corner of the burial chamber.”
Theories about their appearance alongside the woman’s remains have included interpretations as stilts or even “a symbolic act against the undead,” though Friedrich disagrees.
“Both interpretations miss the point,” he argues. “[T]he prostheses from Pleidelsheim—functional or not—restored the body and its sensory faculties. It did not matter that the shoe-shaped vessels were impractical because they were a means for the bodily and sensorial restoration of the deceased.”
In essence, this interpretation of the items reflects ideas about physical completeness and its relationship to moral and social identity. Thus, in this case, an example of material culture—shaped like the woman’s missing extremities—aided in bridging the gap between physical impairment and social inclusion.
Medieval Spectacles: Mechanical Aid for Sights Unseen
Another example Friedrich points to is spectacles, the earliest of which were developed in the late 13th century and, in many cases, also carried a deeper meaning.
Beyond merely improving their wearers’ vision, spectacles physically enabled clergy to read sacred texts, a reality that helped reinforce both intellectual and spiritual authority in religious settings. One might even link such centuries-old concepts to the common depictions of bespectacled scholars or practitioners of arcane arts in various modern media.
“By enabling the clergy to read and comprehend sacred texts—both externally and internally—glasses as prosthetic objects reinforced the medieval scholastic sensory regime,” Friedrich writes. “Their use in ecclesiastical or monastic settings, such as Wienhausen Abbey, demonstrates how prostheses could exceed their technical function, facilitating both sensory and spiritual experience.”
Making “Sense” of the Medieval Experience
Taken together, Friedrich’s work illuminates the many ways in which life in the Middle Ages was shaped by forces beyond belief, political structures, and other social factors. The senses also played a formidable role in the lives of ancient societies, shaping medieval life through sensory experiences that guided material culture and influenced authority, individual identity, and forms of resistance against dominant ideologies.
Hence, for Friedrich, examinations of how people experienced their environment through clues such as curious artifacts can reveal not only what people did and the objects they created, but also what those items meant to their creators and how they helped shape their sensory experience.
Friedrich’s paper, “Archaeology and sensory regimes in medieval and Early Modern Europe,” appeared in the journal Antiquity and was published online by Cambridge University Press.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.