ABSTRACT
Archaeologists find rubbish. The animal bones and broken vessels recovered from the backyard pits of medieval towns represent the useless detritus of human consumption. The craft of archaeology is not simply to retrieve that discarded past, but also to revive it, so that evidence is given meaning, context is understood and rubbish is re-invested with its lost value. There are different aims in the interpretation of archaeological evidence, for example to understand technological development, or to reveal patterns of settlement, communication or distribution. This chapter is concerned with the characterization of social status, or class. The context is the medieval English port of Southampton.
