ABSTRACT

The paucity of archaeological scholarship on medieval nunneries is striking, and puzzling, given that monasteries formed the prime interest of the gendeman antiquaries who anticipated the birth of archaeology itself (see Rodwell 1989; Coppack 1990). With a tradition of monastic archaeology which stretches back some three centuries to the publication of Sir William Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (1655-73), why have we not previously considered how, or whether, nunneries were different from monasteries for men? It could be that the scantier remains of nunneries were overlooked, while visually more impressive monasteries were incorporated into landscaped parks of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and served as a focus for the Romantic Movement exemplified by the works of J. M. W. Turner. It could be that the less imposing buildings of nunneries, and their lower rate of survival meant that quite naturally the antiquaries, and the archaeologists who followed, turned their eyes to the more titillating sites of male houses like Fountains and Rievaulx. Or could it be that the attitudes inherent to monastic archaeology have previously precluded the study of women's monasticism? Has this neglect resulted from the politics implicit within monastic archaeology?