Routledge Handbook of the Material Culture of the Crusader States, 1099–1571

The great Crusader fortresses are amongst the most enduring and iconic legacies of the Latin East, but they represent only a fraction of the surviving material culture. From the establishment of the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1099 through to the fall of the kingdom of Cyprus in 1571, these complex and energetic societies produced an astonishing variety of items, from textiles to metalwork, from mural paintings to stone carving, and from ceramics to glassware, whilst constructing a huge array of buildings and installations, including houses, churches, ports and fortifications.

This handbook explores the rich material culture from this era whether produced by the Frankish settlers themselves or by the many other communities within the territories they founded. Dovetailing these sources with the surviving textual materials, the chapters contained in this volume demonstrate how items of material culture can illuminate themes as varied as daily life, religious observance, warfare, trade, and technological change.

In particular, this work draws out the cross-cultural trends shaping the Crusader states’ history and the constellation of influences that contributed to its evolving identity. It also extends beyond the Crusader states’ final collapse to consider how cultures in later centuries drew upon these territories’ memory in their own material culture.

Adrian J. Boas is professor emeritus of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Haifa. He has excavated extensively, including a major project at Montfort Castle in northern Israel, and is the author and editor of numerous publications and several books on Crusader period archaeology and history. He is the former president of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East.

Elizabeth Lapina is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in the US. Her main interest is the perceptions and representations of the crusading movement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. She has published a series of articles and edited volumes. Her most recent monograph, Depicting the Holy War: Crusader Imagery in Programs of Mural Paintings in France and England in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (2025), focuses on sacralization of warfare as reflected in visual sources in Western Europe.

Nicholas Morton is an Associate Professor in History at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. He has written extensively on topics connected to the history of the Medieval Middle East and his recent books include: The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East (2022) and The Crusader States & Their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187 (2020). He also co-edits three Routledge book series: “Rulers of the Latin East”, “The Military Religious Orders: History, Sources and Memory”, and “Global Histories before Globalisation.”