Dr. Matthias Friedrich, MA BA
Contact
- University of Vienna - Institute for Prehistory and Historical Archaeology
Franz-Klein-Gasse 1, A-1190 Vienna - Email: matthias.friedrich@univie.ac.at
- Phone: +43-1-4277-40457
- Office hours: Wednesday, 10-11:00 during term time (Room A3.10)
Profile
Matthias Friedrich is an archaeologist working on material and visual culture from late Antiquity throughout the Middle Ages, with a particular focus on the early medieval period. His book 'Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West' with Cambridge University Press explores post-Roman art and archaeology and emphasises aesthetic variety over ethnic and religious dichotomies. He obtained degrees in archaeology and art history from the Universities of Bonn, Freiburg, and York. For detailed information including CV and publications, please refer to his personal website: matthiasfriedrich.hcommons.org.
Key Research Topics
- Late antique and medieval art and archaeology (Merovingian Europe)
- Archaeology and visual culture from a cross-disciplinary perspective
- Archaeological chronology and dating methods
Habilitation Project
Medieval Material Culture and the Senses
The Habilitation project aims at investigating the field of sensory experience and material culture in the European Middle Ages. This includes every-day and elite objects as well as the built environment, and more broadly the medieval landscape. This future project combines literary accounts on the medieval perception of the senses and current archaeological approaches towards sensory perception to reconstruct how medieval people ‘sensed’ and perceived their environment through material culture.
Grants and Scholarships
2020–2021: DAI Travel Grant (Reisestipendium des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts)
2018: Barbara Scholkmann Early Career Award for Historical Archaeology, for the book 'Archäologische Chronologie und historische Interpretation'
2016–2018: German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), 3-Year PhD Fellowship
2013–2015: German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), Student Fellowship
Publications
- Publications on u:cris
- Publications on academia.edu
- ORCID: 0000-0002-4252-8634
Highlights
Friedrich, Matthias 2023. Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West: New Perspectives on Post-Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Friedrich, Matthias and James M. Harland (Hrsg.) 2021. Interrogating the ‘Germanic’: A Category and its Use in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 123. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021.
Friedrich, Matthias 2016. Archäologische Chronologie und historische Interpretation: Die Merowingerzeit in Süddeutschland. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde 96. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
Friedrich, Matthias. 2022. Zu viel des Guten? Materielle Kultur und sinnliche Wahrnehmung im frühen Mittelalter. In Curiositas. Edited by Andreas Speer and Robert M. Schneider, 559-574. Miscellanea Mediaevalia 42. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
Academic Career
Since 2019: University Assistant (post doc) at the University of Vienna
Academic Education
2019: Doctorate (summa cum laude), Archaeology, University of Freiburg, Germany
2016: MA (by research), History of Art, University of York, UK
2014: MA in Archaeology, University of Freiburg, Germany
2012: BA in Archaeology (major) and History (minor), University of Bonn, Germany
Website content: M. Friedrich, December 2023