VI. The Pilgrims' Hall, Winchester. Hammerbeams, Base Crucks and Aisle-Derivative Roof Structures

Archaeologia ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 109 ◽  
pp. 129-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Crook

The roof of the so called ‘Pilgrims’ Hall’, Winchester, now dated to c. 1308, has long been recognized as one of the earliest surviving examples of hammerbeam construction. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that the complete medieval structure, of which the Pilgrims’ Hall forms rather less than half, has not previously been investigated in detail. In its original form it was a six bay building covered by a single roof, which, though of one constructional phase, employed a variety of principal truss types (fig. 1). The three bays at the north end of the complex have masonry walls: they comprise the actual Pilgrims’ Hall, whose most impressive feature is its pair of hammerbeam trusses (pl. XLa). The other three bays had timber framed walls, and were subdivided into a second, two bay hall with a central base cruck truss, and a single bay at the south end of the building. In this paper the term ‘Pilgrims’ Hall’ is used to denote only the three bay hammerbeam hall, while the entire original structure is referred to as the ‘Pilgrims’ range’.The roof and timber framing of the complex must surely rank with those few structures that, in the words of the late R. T. Mason, ‘stand out for their contribution to overall knowledge’. The outstanding significance of the Pilgrims' range in the study of early medieval carpentry is that it included four major ‘aisle-derivative’ roof truss types in a single building: a true aisled truss, a base cruck truss, two hammerbeam trusses, and at least one raised aisle truss. The existence of continuous longitudinal members (arcade plates, cornice plates and a central purlin) and the uniform upper roof structure throughout the length of the range show that the entire roof was erected in a single campaign.

Author(s):  
Alastair MacLaren ◽  
Ewan Campbell ◽  
Gordon Cook ◽  
Janet Hooper ◽  
L Wells ◽  
...  

Two rescue excavations at the northern edge of a rather sparsely occupied part of the interior of Caithness are reported here, lying near to one of the largest clusters of archaeological sites in the modern county. In the event, the monuments were not threatened, and survive.Because of the limited nature of the excavation at Loch Shurrery (NGR ND 043568),the main value of the evidence about the hut circle relates to its structure and dating. The excavated remains represented a medium-sized oval house with a west-facing entrance. It had an off-centre hearth of rectangular construction. It was rather different in structure to the majority of the small group of such sites which have been excavated in the northern part of the Scottish mainland, as it did not appear to have an internal ring of post holes. In addition, its western entrance is not matched at the other sites, where entrance orientations are to the south, east or south-east. The wall of the Loch Shurrery house was fairly thick and the excavation suggested that it was complex, while the entrance passageway was quite long. The existence of door checks is also an unusual feature and may relate to the entrance structures of brochs and other substantial roundhouses. Two samples of charcoal from the hearth inside the hut circle were submitted for radiocarbon dating: the determinations produce calibrated ranges (at 2-sigma) of 346-4 cal BC and 341 cal BC-1 cal AD. It is likely that most of the excavated, undecorated pottery is also Iron Age, part of a broad tradition of very coarsely tempered pottery. Not-withstanding evidence of extended occupation, the whole period of construction and occupation may have occurred within the Iron Age.The mound of Lambsdale Leans (NGR ND 051548)lies in Reay parish, situated on low-lying ground at the head of Loch Shurrery and close to where its main tributary (the Torran Water) enters the loch from the south. The main characteristics of the this partially-excavated site are the presence of what appeared to be two extended inhumations and the remnants of possible structures associated with several layers of burnt material. Lambsdale Leans itself was a natural mound, of elongated shape and composed largely of sand, into which were set the burials and structural remains. The burials (one certainly female, the other probably so) were not in cists. The structural remains, while not fully excavated, accord well with the general tenor of the available evidence of later first millennium AD buildings in the north of Scotland. Both structures at Lambsdale Leans had floors comprising roughly laid paving, edged with upright slabs, and with an outer kerb of stones. The earliest-dated pottery sherds, unstratified, are from a single grass- tempered handmade vessel whose form cannot be determined. Overall,on one interpretation the Lambsdale Leans evidence favours a context within the Early Medieval period in Caithness. The pottery however, being mostly C12-C13 oxidised wheel-thrown vessels, can be seen to support the suggestion that occupation on the site may have begun in the Medieval period.


1985 ◽  
Vol 24 (95) ◽  
pp. 327-340
Author(s):  
Francis Thompson

The Irish land act of 1881, it is generally agreed, was a victory for the Land League and Parnell, and nationalist policy with regard to the act and the attitude of southern tenants towards it have been many times subjected to detailed examination by historians of this period. In these analyses of the events of 1880–81, however, little reference is normally made to the part played by the different parties and interests in the north of the country. It is often assumed, for example, that the Ulster tenants held aloof from the campaign for reform, lending no more than occasional vocal support to the agitational efforts of tenants in the south and west. Indeed, they were later excoriated by William O'Brien, Michael Davitt and others not only for giving no support to the land movement but also for sabotaging Parnell's policy of testing the 1881 act by precipitately rushing into the land courts to take advantage of the new legislation: ‘that hard-fisted body of men, having done nothing themselves to win the act, thought of nothing but turning it to their own immediate use, and repudiating any solidarity with the southern and western rebels to whom they really owed it’. If, however, northern tenants were harshly judged by nationalist politicians in the years after 1881, the part played by the northern political parties in the history of the land bill has been either ignored or misunderstood by historians since that time. The Ulster liberals, for example, are rarely mentioned, the implication being that they made no contribution to the act even though it implemented almost exactly the programme on which they had been campaigning for much of the previous decade. The northern conservatives, on the other hand, are commonly seen as leading opponents of the bill, more intransigent than their party colleagues in the south, ‘quick to denounce any weakening of the opposition’ to reform, and ‘determined to keep the tory party up to the mark in defending the landlord interest’


The chief circumstance that induced Capt. Flinders to think his observations Upon the marine barometer were worthy of attention, was the coincidence that took place between the rising and falling of the mercury, and the setting in of winds that blew from the sea and from off the land, to which there seemed to be at least as much reference as to the strength of the wind or the state of the atmosphere. Our author’s examination of the coasts of New Holland and the other parts of the Terra Australis, began at Cape Leuwen, and con­tinued eastward along the south coast. His observations, which, on account of their length, we must pass over, show, that a change of wind from the northern half of the compass to any point in the southern half, caused the mercury to rise; and that a contrary change caused it to fall. Also, that the mercury stood considerably higher When the wind came from the south side of east and west, than when, in similar weather, it came from the north side.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mordechai Cogan

Beginning with the death of David and the rise of Solomon, 1 Kings charts the history of Israel through the divided monarchy, when Ahab reigned in the north and Jehoshaphat reigned in the south. This new translation, with introduction and commentary by biblical scholar Mordechai Cogan, is part of the Anchor Bible Commentary series, viewed by many as the definitive commentaries for use in both Christian and Jewish scholarship and worship. Cogan's translation brings new immediacy to well-known passages, such as Solomon's famously wise judgment when asked by two prostitutes to decide their dispute regarding motherhood of a child: "Cut the live son in two! And give half to one and half to the other." With a bibliography that runs to almost a thousand articles and books, Cogan's commentary demonstrates his mastery of the political history described by 1 Kings, as well as the themes of moral and religious failure that eventually led to Israel's defeat and exile.


Author(s):  
Peter Thomson

The Barguzin River flows out of the Barguzin Mountains, through the town of Barguzin and then the coastal community of Ust-Barguzin before it finally loses itself in a broad cove of Baikal known as Barguzin Bay. The only way across the river for miles upstream from the lake is a ramshackle little wooden ferry with a tiny, corrugated steel shed with a wood stove in it and room on its deck for about half a dozen cars. The ferry slips noiselessly away from the end of the road on the south bank, and looking west toward the lake, two ghostly, rusting timber loading cranes loom on the horizon while the river spills over into a grassy marsh on its north bank. Turning back to the east, there’s a small motorboat laboring to get upstream—laboring because it’s attached to a tow rope, which is attached to the ferry. The ferry, it turns out, is just a hapless little barge, at the mercy of the river without the guidance of the motorboat pilot on the other end of the towline. Our crossing takes less than five minutes, and connected to it by nothing but that single strand, the pilot directs the barge into place perfectly on the far side. But the deckhand fails to secure it, the ferry swings wide in the current, spins ninety degrees, and slams butt-end into the dock. The pilot scowls as he turns the motorboat around and uses its blunt bow, covered in a tractor tire, to push the barge back into place, where the deckhand finally lashes it to the dock. The Barguzin is Baikal’s third largest tributary, after the Selenga to the south of here and the Upper Angara to the north. It carries about six percent of the water flowing into the lake, along with migratory fish like omul and sturgeon, born in the shallow gravel beds upriver before wandering downstream to spend most of their lives in the lake. And even though it flows through only two towns between its headwaters and the lake, the Barguzin carries a significant pollution load into Baikal, as well, especially organic chemicals from timber operations.


Author(s):  
Ben McFarland

The process of scientific discovery is something like a walk near Freswick Castle. I assume you’ve never been there. (Neither have I, but a friend has.) Freswick Castle stands at the end of Scotland’s northeast end, at the mouth of the Burn of Freswick in the district of Caithness. As of this writing, it is unlisted in Google Maps, and I had to manually scan the coast to find it. Outside the castle is a simple, unlabeled structure that doubles as a biochemical parable. The castle itself is narrow and three stories tall, with orange shingles and gray stone, set on an arc of narrow beach between hills to the north and cliffs to the south. The building is approximately the cruciform shape of a shrunken cathedral, with the rightward wing moved to the top of the structure so it resembles a lowercase f. If you wander the grounds near Freswick Castle, you will discover a stone wall in the wind-blown waves of yellow- green grass, worn but still standing firm like Hadrian’s Wall. From above, it is a period preceding the castle’s f. Let’s approach this as a scientist, with measurement. From the castle side, this structure resembles the circular stump of a roofless tower, eight feet tall and twice that wide. The stones are ancient sand, compacted and weathered, stained different shades of red from iron deposited millions of years ago, but the mortar is new. But inspection is not enough—we should go in. Walk around to the other side, and an opening appears, as shown in Figure 2.1. The structure is not a closed circle, but it is a spiral wall open to the sea, and to you. Inside, a small stone bench invites you to sit. A window slit next to the bench is an eye to the outside. Surrounded by a jigsaw of rocks, you can hear the echo of waves all around and watch the blue-gray sky above. If the spiral’s opening is a mouth, then you are Jonah in the whale. You are both inside and outside at once.


1963 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
W. G. Forrest

The plains of Pyrgi, Kalamoti, and Dotia, in the south-east corner of Chios, form a single geographic unit, bounded in the east by the hills which run inland from the promontory of Agridia, in the west by the low range of Kampia, Aradhopetra, and Kakopetria, and in the north by the more formidable barrier of the central mountains of the island. In them there are traces of several ancient sites, at Pindakas, Dotia, and elsewhere, but these appear to have been little more than isolated farmhouses or small sanctuaries and it is almost certain that most of the inscriptions from the area came originally from the major sites at Emporio and Phanai. From these they have been transported, some as far as Chios town, most to other local sites, to country churches or to the medieval towns of Pyrgi and Kalamoti. In many cases it is now impossible to trace their origin (even those which have reached the comparative safety of the Museum are often without record of their provenance), and it would therefore be pointless to try to isolate the inscriptions of any one ancient centre. For this reason I have collected here, in addition to the few inscriptions discovered in the British School excavations at Emporio, all the other material known to have been found in the area. For convenience I reproduce all but the most accessible texts in full. Generally it has been possible to check earlier readings on the stone (in which case the text is my own without any note of alterations unless they are significant); those which I have not seen are marked with an asterisk.


Significance His comments are optimistic. The other two rival administrations that are based in Libya have resisted efforts to form a unified government, while armed groups (some associated with the administrations, others independent) compete for local dominance. As a result, intermittent escalations in fighting and sporadic attacks by fringe militias continue to occur in parts of the country. Concern has grown about the impact on civilians. Impacts Bombings and outbreaks of intense fighting will remain a risk in key contested locations in the north. Clashes between militias will recur sporadically in the south. The number of migrants working in Libya and seeking to travel to Europe may increase again.


1950 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 261-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Cook ◽  
R. V. Nicholls

The village of Kalývia Sokhás lies against the base of one of the massive foothills in which Taygetus falls to the plain three or four miles to the south of Sparta (Plate 26, 1). It is bounded by two rivers which flow down in deep clefts from the mountain shelf. The hillside above rises steeply to a summit which is girt with cliffs on all but the west side and cannot be much less than four thousand feet above sea level; this von Prott believed to be the peak of Taleton. Its summit is crowned by the ruins of a mediaeval castle which was undoubtedly built as a stronghold to overlook the Spartan plain; the only dateable object found there, a sherd of elaborate incised ware, indicates occupation at the time when the Byzantines were in possession of Mystra. The location of the other sites mentioned by Pausanias in this region remains obscure, but fortunately that of the Spartan Eleusinion has not been in doubt since von Prott discovered a cache of inscriptions at the ruined church of H. Sophia in the village of Kalývia Sokhás. In 1910 Dawkins dug trenches at the foot of the slope immediately above the village and recovered a fragment of a stele relating to the cult of the goddesses and pieces of inscribed tiles from the sanctuary. The abundance of water in the southern ravine led von Prott to conclude that the old town of Bryseai with its cult of Dionysus also lay at Kalývia Sokhás; but no traces of urban settlement have come to light at the village, and the name rather suggests copious springs such as issue from the mountain foot at Kefalári a mile to the north where ancient blocks are to be seen in the fields.


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