From Historical Memory to Sport Practice: European Medieval Armour and Weapons Reproduction in the Material Culture of Historical Medieval Battles Movement

10.33876/2311-0546/2024-1/89-105

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon within the movement of medieval historical reenactment — historical medieval battles (HMB) — a full-contact sports discipline and the community that has developed around it. HMB involves sport combats using copies of armour and weapons of the 14th–15th centuries. To date HMB has not received wide coverage in the research literature. Using their own field experience of participant observation since 2017, the author gives a brief description of the phenomenon and touches on various aspects of the material culture of the community under study: the use of replicas of European medieval weapons for actual sports needs, practical settings and innovations in manufacturing technologies that affect the independent internal evolution of the HMB «world of objects». The material culture has been influenced by many factors, including the values developed by the reenactors community, the differences between the original medieval combat technique and the realities of our time, the personal motivations of fighters and the 21^st century safety standards. The analysis of the HMB community customs allows to make a number of preliminary remarks about the specific HMB approach to historical memory and artefacts of the past, which require further theoretical development.