The «material culture» of monasteries in Liguria between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age

In Liguria, the archaeological methodology to be applied in excavations of monastery sites, both male and female, poses significant problems involving integration and comparison with a framework that is certainly more complex than from what emerges from documentary sources. Obviously, these sources refer to specific meanings for particular objects and, at the same time, describe the presence of entire categories of items that, for conservation purposes, are rarely or never included in the excavation documentation. The analysis of the objects that provide evidence of community behaviours with regard to consumption and individual ownership forming the framework of the material culture, so elaborate from written sources, must be limited only to ceramic objects. In this contribution the author intends on examining such materials to verify the possibility of reformulating the economic trends in the religious community, of determining the supply sources and therefore, through ceramic objects, of proposing a social and not just an archaeological interpretation of the religious context.