Late 17th-century stoneware waste from the Tower Harratz Pottery,Bristol

Abstract

Large-scale redevelopment has taken place over the last seven years in the area now known as Temple Quay which lies between Temple Way and the Floating Harbour in Bristol (Fig. 1). Bristol and Region Archaeological Services have carried out excavations, evaluations and watching briefs on the various phases of this redevelopment. These have mainly been concerned with the Portwall, a defensive structure built during the mid 13th century, which ran from north to south through the development area. In 1994 the archaeological work included the total excavation of the medieval Tower Harratz (sometimes known as Tower Harris) and a Civil War gun battery or redoubt built infront of the tower. This note deals with the discovery of a group of late 17th-century stoneware waste during the archaeological work at Tower Harratz and its association with a pottery known from documents to have been established there in about 1695.     

Excavations at Houndhill,near Barnsley,Yorkshire

Abstract

A ‘cottage’ weaving industry was established at Houndhill, family seat of the Elmhirsts in Worsbrough, near Barnsley, during the mid-16th century. It ceased early in the 17th century but excavation has shown it was revived under new ownership in the late 18th century. During the 19th century the mill became a general farm store and was totally demolished in the 1930s to permit a garden extension. The excavation was planned to retain any remaining features for conservation as part of the historical interest of the residence.¹     

A sugar-boiling house at Galways: An Irish sugar plantation in Montserrat,West Indies

Abstract

The former village of Cowlam lies on the Chalk Wolds of the old East Riding of Yorkshire at SE/965657. When the village earthworks were threatened with destruction in the early 1970s, the late T.C.M. Brewster carried out a series of rescue excavations for the East Riding Archaeological Research Committee. He examined the remains of four structures within the ‘courtyard farm’ complex of one croft. His excavations demonstrated that this courtyard farm represented the amalgamation of two earlier croft units, probably at some time towards the end of the medieval period.

Three of these four structures had ground plans of typical ‘longhouse’ form, with dwarf chalk footing walls and opposed central doorways. Their similarity of form raised problems of their respective functions and the changing role of buildings within the complex. The wide range of artefact material recovered from the vicinity of these buildings provided additional evidence for their use.

The pottery demonstrated that this courtyard farm had remained in occupation until the later 17th century, a date which correlated with the documentary evidence for the desertion of the village. Cowlam is only one of a number of Wold villages which were abandoned in the post-medieval period.     

Bumpit: The Painted House at Lynsted,Kent

Abstract

The extensive wall-paintings at Bumpit are an important example of decoration in a late-Elizabethan-period house. They date to the last part of the 16th century and formed part of a very extensive scheme of building and embellishment. The house and its paintings are described in detail to provide a record of this important ensemble, and the characteristics of the paintings discussed to enable them to be seen in a wider context.     

An assemblage of 17th-century pottery from Bombay Wharf,Rotherhithe, London SE16

Abstract

A detailed examination of an assemblage of pottery deposited during the last quarter of the 17th century at Bombay Wharf, in Rotherhithe, London, provides the opportunity to look at the wider context of painted earthenwares made at selected centres on the Continent and found in London. The Rotherhithe material includes a high proportion of imported pottery, with fine examples of Portuguese faience, Ligurian maiolica and Dutch tin-glazed ware. The wider distribution of these wares in London is considered, as well as questions of the original context in which they appeared and the circumstances of their disposal.     

Diary

Abstract

The Temple of the Tooth Relic of the Buddha is the most sacred Buddhist site in Sri Lanka. The Temple complex is on the World Heritage List. It was bombed on 25th January 1998 by Tamil terrorists who are fighting for a separate state within the country. As an actively used monument belonging to a living religious tradition, comprehensive restoration was considered necessary. Yet the restoration process became much more than a technical job, guided by professional conservation ethics. Because of its symbolic value within the Buddhist community, the conservators were faced with negotiating a host of political, social and religious issues. The author, who was the Conservator in charge of the project, describes how underlying cultural values affected the restoration process.     

‘NOBLESSE DE ROBE’ IN A CLASSLESS SOCIETY

This article deals with the effect of ownership and control of land on women's remarriages in early modern Western Norway. Marrying a tenant widow gave her new husband the right to tenure. On freeholder farms the eldest son, according to Norwegian odelsrett and åseterett, had the right to inherit the farm. When land-seeking youngsters obtained tenure by marrying tenant widows, these widows became highly attractive marriage partners, in contrast to widows of freeholder peasants where no secure position could be obtained for the new husband. Legal succession rights thus highly restricted the decisions of freeholder peasants' widows. Tenant widows had a wider range of choices closely linked to their control over land and land transfer. They were not mere passive marriage objects. In an open tenant land market widows could choose between running their farm by hired labour or with assistance from their children, they could remarry and thus acquire male labour in their household or they might benefit from giving up their tenure. Their decisions to a considerable degree influenced succession patterns on Norwegian tenant farms in the early modern period.     

POTTERY VESSELS FROM A NEWLY DISCOVERED AMMONITE DOVECOTE AT AIN AL-BAIDA,AMMAN

Abstract

This paper deals with pottery vessels from a newly discovered Ammonite dovecote located at Ain al-Baida in north-east Amman. This dovecote may have operated independently or as an adjunct to a large estate or farm holding. Based on parallel ceramic studies, the writers date the establishment to the period from the late eighth to the sixth centuries BC. This discovery is unique, since no other comparable example from the late Iron Age is attested in Jordan.     

The hoset Project. An interdisciplinary study of a marginal settlement

On the western border of the Stj?rdal region in the province of Nord‐Tr?ndelag, Norway, at the Hoset farm in Lånke, the Department of History at the University of Trondheim, Norway, has been carrying out a detailed study of a single farm area, in cooperation with the Nordic Deserted Farms Project This study is particularly interesting since it was planned as an interdisciplinary approach, involving archaeological, pollen‐analytical, pedological and geological specialists, in addition to historians, all of which have contributed their own evidence on the cultural and natural environment and agricultural settlement history of the area from the Iron Age onward. In this way it was hoped that answers would be found to questions which have been neglected in the past by Norwegian historians, such as settlement continuity or discontinuity, farm structure, farming methods and settlement patterns in more remote areas. It was also hoped to gain more experience in the different scientific techniques, their potentialities and limitations (e.g. radiocarbon dating, pollen analysis, phospate analysis) and to foster a spirit of mutual co‐operations between the various departments within the university.     

Fishing Booths and Fishing Strategies in Medieval Iceland: an Archaeofauna from the of Akurvík,North-West Iceland

Abstract

Excavations in 1990 in North-West Iceland documented a stratified series of small turf structures and associated midden deposits at the eroding beach at Akurvík which date from the 11th–13th to the 15th–16th centuries AD. The site reflects a long series of small discontinuous occupations, probably associated with seasonal fishing. The shell sand matrix had allowed excellent organic preservation and an archaeofauna of over 100,000 identifiable fragments was recovered. The collections are dominated by fish, mainly Atlantic cod, but substantial amounts of whale bone suggest extensive exploitation of strandings or active whaling. This paper briefly summarizes the excavation results, presents a zooarchaeological analysis of the two largest radiocarbon dated contexts, and places the Akurvík collections in the wider context of intra-Icelandic and inter-regional trade in preserved fish. Analysis of the Akurvík collection and comparison with other Icelandic collections from both inland and coastal sites dating from 9th to 19th centuries AD both reinforces evidence for an early, pre-Hanseatic internal Icelandic fish trade and supports historical documentation of Icelandic participation in the growing international fish trade of the late Middle Ages.     

A local response to a wider situation: the archaeology of the clan stronghold of Dùn Èistean,Isle of Lewis

Abstract

Dùn Èistean stands at the end of a long tradition of clan strongholds seen in the MacLeod lordship of the western seaboard of north-west Scotland in the medieval and early post-medieval periods. Excavations on the site have shown that it was in repeated use for refuge in times of trouble in the 16th and early 17th centuries, acting as a power centre caught up in the wider political scene. The inhabitants of Dùn Èistean were a people with a strong local identity, using their traditional building techniques, adapting to available raw materials and drawing on the resources of the surrounding environment to support and defend the inhabitants in the face of incoming attack.     

Lords and Towns in Medieval Europe: The European Historic Towns Atlas Project

Abstract

THE FIRST significant archaeological excavation within the village of Thorney, Cambridgeshire, has revealed a sequence of occupation deposits associated with the former Benedictine abbey and reflecting some 600 years of use. Thorney Abbey was surrendered at the Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries in 1539 and over successive years many of the buildings were demolished and the stone removed for re-use elsewhere. As a consequence very little is known of the abbey's layout and organisation. In the Middle Ages Thorney was surrounded by fen wetland and the excavations reported on here were located near the northern edge of the former island, slightly to the north of the abbey church and suspected location of the main abbey precinct. The long sequence of deposits offered an important insight into the changing character of fen-edge life on Thorney from the 11th century onwards. Occupation remains and a sequence of contemporary structures indicated that despite the apparently peripheral location of the site in relation to the main abbey complex, life was rarely static on the island's northern edge. It is suggested that the structures and related remains were once part of the abbey's outer court. Dissolution deposits reflected the dismantling of windows and the salvage and recycling of lead came. A re-used architectural fragment, possibly a pillar base, had been converted into a lead recycling hearth and the immediately surrounding area was covered with the remains of the leadworking as well as a large assemblage of broken, high-quality painted window glass, the end result of the lead removal. Late 16th-century structural evidence on the site has also shed light on some of the earliest secular occupation on the island following the Dissolution. A combination of the finds assemblages recovered during the work and documentary research has enabled a picture of life at medieval Thorney to be drawn for the first time. Documentary and cartographic work has also helped to understand the wider fenland context.     

Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Population Trends in Northeastern North America

Abstract

The Seneca are an original member of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and one of several Northern Iroquoian societies that inhabited northeastern North America. This research explores their population history during the 16th and 17th centuries. Previous studies of Northern Iroquoian populations identified population increase until contact with Europeans, no evidence of pre-contact diseases, and drastic depopulation resulting from interaction with European societies. Similar patterns were expected in this research. Combining archaeological settlement data collected with non- and minimally invasive survey techniques and ethnohistorical information, this article estimates the population trends of the Seneca. The results show a highly complex population history that includes pre-contact population losses, in- and out-migration episodes, significant losses from Old World diseases, and rapid population recovery. The field methods employed here may have wider applicability for the demographic archaeology of other similarly adapted cultures.     

The Archaeology of the Siege of Leith, 1560

Abstract

This paper summarises the findings of two evaluations carried out in public spaces in the Leith area, both of which were specifically designed to establish the survival or otherwise of remains relating to the siege of Leith in 1560. Between 6 and 10 November 2006 a trial trenching evaluation was carried out within Pilrig Park to the south of the French citadel to 'ground truth' geophysical anomalies identified during a previous phase of work (Banks et al. 2006) and also to establish the character of topographic features on the ground. The main aim of the project was to establish the presence or absence of remains related to the siege fort known as Somerset's Mount which from a map drawn in 1560 is known to have been located in the vicinity. The evaluation identified the remains of a WWII air raid shelter, the remains of a building associated with Pilrig House demolished sometime in the early to mid 19th century, and a possible ditch associated with the fort, into which several archaeological features including the foundation slot of a small building or other structure and a probable blacksmith's forge had been cut.

The second part of this report concerns the evaluation at Leith Links, around 1 km to the north east of Pilrig Park and to east of the French citadel. A week long evaluation similar to that carried out at Pilrig took place in April 2007, the aim being to locate further evidence for siege works. Once again, attention focussed on geophysical anomalies resulting from the previous survey. The Links are traditionally associated with the siege through the presence of two mounds, which at least since the 19th century have been identified as the platforms for siege guns directed against the eastern face of the French citadel. An area between the two mounds, which are scheduled ancient monuments, was trial trenched along with an area further to the north. Only the latter produced physical remains which seem to relate to the 1560 map. These took the form of an earthen bank and possibly related ditches which run along the same alignment as a feature shown on the early map, though there is some question as to its function.     

On Carvings in Morse Ivory

Abstract

Recent excavations at Beverley Minster contribute significant new information relating to the development of the minster from the later pre-conquest period until the 12th century, as well as some technical detail relating to the 14th-century nave. This paper provides a brief overview of later 19th- to 20th-century considerations of the minster’s origins and development. Thereafter, the results of recent excavations are presented and the impact of these in re-shaping the history of the minster’s development is then considered within the wider context of the minster as a whole. More specifically, evidence is presented for the existence of an early pre-conquest cemetery, perhaps focused on a church of an alignment slightly different from that of the present. The implication of further burials pre-dating a 12th-century nave is also examined. Evidence relating to a large 12th-century aisled nave is also presented and discussion given to the impact this nave had on the rebuilding of the eastern parts of the church after 1188 as well as to the origin of the eastern elements that preceded these.     

A Georgian gentleman: child care and the case of Harry Tremayne, 1814–23

Abstract

This case study considers the manner in which a well-to-do Georgian family managed a child's ill health during the 1820s. The study sheds light on three matters: the operation of a geographically widely spread medical market place, family relationships under the stress of illness and the function of the male within the domestic 'private' sphere of caring for the sick. While the study is located in a well-defined historiography, this is the first time that the unique correspondence from this family has been used for wider historical analysis, and it provides a unique insight into issues of health, family and family relationships in Georgian England.     

A post-contact Aboriginal mortuary tree from southwestern Victoria,Australia

Abstract

Here we document the investigation of the first Australian Aboriginal mortuary tree found since the early 20th century and the first studied by archaeologists and Aboriginal traditional owners. In 2001, a landowner discovered Aboriginal skeletal remains inside a fallen, dead tree while evaluating the tree’s potential as firewood, leading to the investigation of the site. The tree was located near Moyston, in southwestern Victoria, in traditional Djab Wurrung country and held the partial skeletons of three Aboriginal individuals—two adults and a child. Clay pipe-stem wear on several teeth belonging to the two adults indicates that these remains were broadly contemporaneous secondary placements from the early post-contact period (ca. a.d. 1835–1845). Along with five additional mortuary trees within 30 km of the Moyston tree, this practice constitutes a previously unknown traditional mortuary pattern and contributes to our understanding of the complex mortuary behavior of the Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria.     

Excavations on the Town Wall,Roushill, Shrewsbury

Abstract

The pentice, a medieval, colonnaded walkway centrally placed on the south side of the High Street in Winchester, Hampshire, occupies part of the site of the former Norman palace. Other medieval colonnaded walkways exist, notably at Chester and Totnes, but it is not entirely clear when these latter walkways were created, nor whether they resulted from piecemeal development over time, or from a single, concerted campaign of building. These questions are explored with regard to The Pentice in Winchester between c. 1250 and c. 1550 in this interdisciplinary study, which includes evidence from archaeology, dendrochronology, documents and standing remains. Key new evidence has come recently from dendrochronology, allowing a re-evaluation of documentary evidence and of dates at present ascribed to standing remains on typological grounds. This study presents fresh evidence for the structure of The Pentice in the 14th century and examines the case for development of the present form of the buildings in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Finally, it is noted that this new evidence encourages a re-examination of the argument that structural alignments and split-level retailing were indicators of pre-Plague pressure on street frontage which eased after the Black Death.     

Charred remains of grains and seeds from the medieval high-status farm site of Reykholt in western Iceland

Abstract

Iceland was settled, primarily by peoples from Norway and the northern British Isles, in the 9th and 10th centuries. The first settlers brought with them from their homelands an agricultural system based on animal husbandry, of which cereal cultivation was an element and also with inputs from fishing, hunting and gathering of wild plants. There are strong indications that barley was cultivated during the first centuries in some parts of the country and that cultivation was at least attempted in other areas. However, Iceland is near the climatic limits of the barley-growing zone, and it is open to discussion how reliable a food source locally grown barley would have been. This paper discusses a seed assemblage of cultivated barley and archetypical weeds of cereal crops dated to between the 10th and 12th centuries AD obtained during archaeological excavations at the high status farm of Reykholt in western Iceland.