Floor Maintenance as a Possible Cultural Behavioural Status? Preliminary Interpretations of Floor Formation Processes from Medieval Brno, Czech Republic

imprinted into the floors of buildings. The term floor is quite complex and to understand it, more than
macroscopic observations are needed. One useful method is the application of soil micromorphology in
an archaeological context. The timber and earth architecture of medieval Brno is still not well known.
A rescue archaeological excavation of block 601 near Veselá Street revealed a unique situation where
above-ground floors dated to the 13th–14th century had survived while buried under a garbage dump and
discarded construction material. Two groups of buildings excavated in superposition within different
parts of a single plot revealed that it is possible to track different maintenance practices through time
and space. In the first building, the hypothesis of sweeping maintenance practice was proposed. In
the younger building situated in the same area, the degradation or the removal of a wooden plank
floor could have been the origin of the observed micro-structure. In the third and fourth buildings, the
maintenance practices were different again due to a wetter environment. The third (older) building
revealed hay and straw covering followed by sweeping while mat coverings were laid on the surfaces
and swept in the fourth (younger) building. The information deduced from micromorphological
observations has not fully solved the questions about the floors, but it has certainly elucidated possible
interpretations of the oldest phases of the town’s development.