Architecture and Authority: Castles

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver H. Creighton ◽  
Duncan W. Wright ◽  
Michael Fradley ◽  
Steven Trick
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Distribution Map ◽  
Archaeological Evidence

This core chapter analyses the archaeological and documentary evidence for the militarisation of the twelfth-century landscape through castle-building. The considerable challenges of identifying and dating castles built and strengthened during the civil war mean that the total picture of fortification in the period will always remain murky at best, irrespective of how much new archaeological evidence comes to light. The proportion of unfinished and lost castle sites is also far higher than for other periods. That Stephen’s reign saw a marked thickening in the distribution map of castles is beyond doubt, but this was probably more tightly focussed in contested regions than a genuinely nationwide phenomenon and is likely to have involved scores rather than hundreds of ‘new’ sites. Overall, archaeology highlights individuality in twelfth-century timber castle design, which went far beyond the ‘motte and bailey’ or ‘ringwork’ labels. ‘Enmotted’ towers were a hallmark of the period, as was the re-activation and remodelling of Iron-Age hillforts as castles and the construction of great masonry donjons, which percolated from being a royal to a magnate prerogative during the period.

The Twelfth-Century Civil War in Context: Assessment and Reassessment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver H. Creighton ◽  
Duncan W. Wright ◽  
Michael Fradley ◽  
Steven Trick
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Event Horizon ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Research Themes ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Distinct Event ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
Material Record

This final chapter presents a self-contained overview of what the material evidence tells us about the twelfth-century civil war and its consequences. Issues with dating archaeological evidence to the period in question mean that conclusions must be cautious, but it seems clear that the Anarchy is not obviously identifiable in the material record as a distinct ‘event horizon’. Archaeology has much more to offer us in terms of illuminating the conduct and psychology of Anglo-Norman warfare and in showing how lordly identity was being transformed through the period, and how it was expressed through castle-building and ecclesiastical patronage. Consideration of these research themes and others can help extricate studies of the twelfth-civil war from the ‘anarchy or not?’ debate. In conclusion: the mid-twelfth century is best regarded not as an age of anarchy but as an age of transition.

The Medieval Parsonage House, Coningsby, Lincolnshire

1969 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 346-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Barley ◽  
A. Rogers ◽  
P. Strange
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
The Other ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Distribution Map ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Open Service ◽  
Very High

SummaryThis house is shown, from both structural and documentary evidence, to have been built c. 1345 by William Hillary, a rector with Staffordshire connections. Of his work enough remains to show that it was of aisled design, with an open service bay at the lower end; the two-bay hall had a base-cruck truss. The surviving woodwork is of very high quality. The two-storey cross wing, later than the hall and originally timber-framed, is cased in brick, and this brickwork is ascribed, on both docu mentary and archaeological evidence, to yohn Croxby, rector 1460–92 and namesake of the first clerk of works of Tattershall Castle.The later alterations to the house are worked out from structural and documentary evidence (terriers, probate inventories); later rectors, including two minor Georgian poets, are described. The paper is illustrated by plans, sections, reconstructions and photographs. It concludes with a distribution map of base-cruck halls and comments on the social context of this type of construction. Dr. Rogers has contributed the historical evidence in this paper; the other authors are responsible for the account of the structure.

Faith and Fortification: The Church

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver H. Creighton ◽  
Duncan W. Wright ◽  
Michael Fradley ◽  
Steven Trick
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

This chapter assesses the consequences of the civil war for religious institutions, communities and structures such as churches, cathedrals, monasteries and bishops’ palaces. The war crimes against churches catalogued by horrified chroniclers and borne out to some extent in the archaeological evidence affected modest numbers of sites in specific geographical zones. Archaeological investigation has revealed very real evidence for the militarisation of ecclesiastical sites, although in many contexts documentary evidence for the apparent transformation of a church into a fortification suggests that the building was garrisoned rather than being converted into something physically resembling a castle. The civil war also had a series of much longer-lasting impacts on the ecclesiastical world in terms of creating the social and tenurial conditions and a spiritual environment where religious patronage became increasingly politicised and where lower-ranked members within the elite had the means and motivation to establish monasteries, which swelled in numbers as never before.

Anarchy on the Fen Edge: Case Study of the Isle of Ely

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver H. Creighton ◽  
Duncan W. Wright ◽  
Michael Fradley ◽  
Steven Trick
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Detailed Case

This chapter provides a detailed case study of the campaigns in and around the Isle of Ely in the twelfth century. The circumstances of a wealthy but isolated region, combined with a rebel heritage, explain the prominent place of the Isle of Ely during the Anarchy, although the region’s experience in the civil war was also unusually severe. Even in the context of a conflict where the ravaging of estates was endemic the fenlands suffered especially high levels of destruction to a fragile agricultural base. Stephen’s response to Geoffrey de Mandeville’s fenland rebellion in 1143–44 also saw the largest-scale programme of royal castle-building recorded in the civil war. The scale and sophistication of individual fortifications, all keyed into local landscapes, are revealed by archaeological evidence, as exemplified by the royal campaign castle at Burwell, Cambridgeshire.

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Detailed History ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Religious Architecture ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of

Religious Architecture in Latium and Etruria, c. 900-500 BC presents the first comprehensive treatment of cult buildings in western central Italy from the Iron Age to the Archaic Period. By analysing the archaeological evidence for the form of early religious buildings and their role in ancient communities, it reconstructs a detailed history of early Latial and Etruscan religious architecture that brings together the buildings and the people who used them. The first part of the study examines the processes by which religious buildings changed from huts and shrines to monumental temples, and explores apparent differences between these processes in Latium and Etruria. The second part analyses the broader architectural, religious, and topographical contexts of the first Etrusco-Italic temples alongside possible rationales for their introduction. The result is a new and extensive account of when, where, and why monumental cult buildings became features of early central Italic society.

The Earl, the Kings, and the Chronicler

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert B. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Full Length ◽  
English History ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Merchant Class ◽  
History Of ◽  
William The Conqueror

This book is the first full length biography of Robert (c.1088 × 90–1147), grandson of William the Conqueror and eldest son of King Henry I of England (1100–35). He could not succeed his father because he was a bastard. Instead, as the earl of Gloucester, Robert helped change the course of English history by keeping alive the prospects for an Angevin succession through his leadership of its supporters in the civil war known as the Anarchy against his father’s successor, King Stephen (1135–54). The earl is one of the great figures of Anglo-Norman History (1066–1154). He was one of only three landed super-magnates of his day, a model post-Conquest great baron, Marcher lord, borough developer, and patron of the rising merchant class. His trans-Channel barony stretched from western Lower Normandy across England to South Wales. He was both product as well as agent of the contemporary cultural revival known as the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century, bilingual, well educated, and a significant literary patron. In this last role, he is especially notable for commissioning the greatest English historian since Bede, William of Malmesbury, to produce a history of their times which justified the Empress Matilda’s claim to the English throne and Earl Robert’s support of it.

Material Culture and Making Visible: On the Portrayal of Philistine Gath in the Book of Samuel

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Daniel Pioske
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Book Of Samuel

Over the past twenty years our understanding of Philistine Gath's history (Tell es-Safl) has been transformed by what has been revealed through the site's early Iron Age remains. But what has received much less attention is the effect these ruins have on how we read references to the location within the Hebrew Bible. The intent of this study is to draw on the archaeological evidence produced from Tell es-Safl as an interpretive lens by which to consider the biblical portrayal of the site rendered in the book of Samuel, where the material traces of more amicable associations between Gath and highland populations invite us to reconsider the city's depiction in this ancient literary work.

“...LOCOMOTIVES WILL FREEZE, FAMINE IS COMING, AND THERE ARE CASES OF TYPHUS...”. RAILWAYS OF THE GREAT SIBERIAN CAMPAIGN 1919–1920

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-138
Author(s):  
Vasily Zh. Tsvetkov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Technical Condition ◽  
The State ◽  
Rolling Stock ◽  
Documentary Evidence ◽  
Eastern Front ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
State Archives ◽  
The Military

The publication of documentary materials reflects the history of the organization and conducting of the retreat of the units of Admiral A.V. Kolchak’s Eastern Front and the evacuation of civilian refugees from Omsk and other cities in Siberia in November 1919 – January 1920. The article considers the issues of the technical condition and operation of the TRANSSiberian railway and, in particular, the functioning of the rolling stock. Those aspects for the history of the Civil War in the East of Russia to this day remain poorly studied. Evidence is provided on the state of the military, refugee and civil trains, and about the situation of passengers. Consistently and with the involvement of documentary material, the stages of the preparation and implementation of evacuation measures are described, and the reasons for the failure of planned decisions are analyzed. The article presents evidence on the consequences of full-scale disaster with the railway accident that became part of the Civil War history in Siberia. The materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation that have not been widely used in scientific research and have not been published yet, as well as some previously published documentary evidence, were used. The study of that aspect of the Civil War history in Siberia allows to get an idea of not only the military, but also of the political importance that the TRANS-Siberian railway played in the absence of developed transport communications in the East of Russia.

scholarly journals Abel and Dan (2 Sam 20:18–19) in Textual Criticism, Tradition History, and Archaeology

Textus ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Izaak J. de Hulster ◽  
Tuukka Kauhanen
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Textual Criticism ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Critical Problems ◽  
Wise Woman ◽  
Archaeological Analysis

Abstract The MT form of the saying of the wise woman in 2 Sam 20:18–19 presents multiple text-critical problems. Instead of “Let them inquire at Abel,” the LXX refers to “Abel and Dan.” The notion of the wise woman being “one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel” (NRSV) is grammatically difficult; the LXX reads differently: “what the faithful of Israel had established, had been abandoned.” This article seeks to bring textual criticism into discussion with an archaeological analysis, including a tradition-historical angle on the story, by: 1. Re-examining the textual evidence, with due consideration of the Septuagint; 2. Considering the archaeological findings of Iron Age sites at Tel Abel and Tel Dan; 3. Examining the textual and iconographic implications of the motif “woman on the wall;” and 4. Evaluating the plausibility of the historical settings implied in the story in light of the textual and archaeological evidence.

David on the Desert Fringe

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Pioske
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Book Of Samuel

This chapter’s investigation centers on two incidents related in the Book of Samuel about David’s days spent on the southern desert fringe of the Levant as an outlaw on the run from Saul: the first, surrounding David’s leadership over the Philistine outpost of Ziklag (1 Sam. 27:1–28:2); the second, of David’s distribution of gifts to the elders of Judah stationed at different Judahite sites in Hebron and to Hebron’s south (1 Sam. 30:26–31). In comparing these stories to the archaeological evidence we now possess about these locations, what results, it is argued, are insights into a past alloyed with references to different eras and geographies. Such entanglements of remembering arose, it is contended further, because the sources on which the biblical scribes relied were shaped by memories reflective of a changing landscape and varied political interests during the Iron Age period.

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