Online book descriptionĪbstract: Although linking smell and sanitation has been previously discussed by scholars as an early modern development, this article argues that controlling smells from human and animal wastes was a primary motivator for medieval urban sanitation regulation as well. Ulrike Krampl, Robert Beck and Emmanuelle Retaillaud-Bajac (Tours: Presses Universitaires François-Rabelais, 2013), 301-313. In Les cinq sens de la ville du Moyen Âge à nos jours, ed. "The medieval sense of smell, stench, and sanitation" The constructed dichotomy of medieval filth versus modern cleanliness obscures our contemporary waste problems and reinforces a physical and mental distance from our own waste. Interpretations like that in Filthy Cities reflect more on our modern condition than the medieval one. ![]() Rather than being based on medieval evidence, our notion of the dirty medieval city is built on modern ideas of civility and scientific progress. Through an examination of historical records from London, I show that the early fourteenth-century medieval street was not nearly as filthy as portrayed in Filthy Cities. Using the television episode “Medieval London” of the Filthy Cities series aired by BBC Two in 2011 as a spring board, I discuss the realities of medieval waste management and modern conceptions of it. ![]() This article challenges the common presentation of the medieval street as a mud- and muck-filled cesspit. (my dissertation haiku posted on Dissertation Haiku) Publications "Modernity and medieval muck"įorthcoming in Nature + Culture, fall 2014 I have discussed medieval environmental history as a discipline and my own work in the field in two podcasts: 2013, Umeå Group for Premodern Studies and 2009, Environmental History Resources. My primary focus has been waste handling and disposal choices and their effects on streets, empty plots, and waterbodies in the cities and towns. ![]() I am interested in how medieval Europeans dealt with sanitation problems in the growing urban areas.
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