The Church of Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes in the Eleventh Century

Abstract

One bay of the choir, the transepts and most of the nave survive from the eleventh-century church of Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes. Construction probably began in the first quarter of the century with the choir and transepts and proceeded, with a change of style, through a remodelling of the transepts to the nave. Completion might have been delayed until the third quarter of the century. The architecture and sculpture betray a transition from early medieval to Romanesque forms, the former in the choir and the latter in the nave. Early Romanesque Corinthian capitals and ornate archivolts exist alongside archaising block capitals, and all reveal new combinations of traditional forms, leading to Romanesque innovations.     

Iron Age Coinage on the Isle of Wight

This paper presents a discussion and catalogue of the Iron Age coins found on the Isle of Wight which have been recorded, or are extant, on the island. These coins show a wide variety of links with the mainland and Continental Europe. Many of the coins are of unusual or unique types, suggesting a political division between the Isle of Wight and recognized major tribal groups for at least some of the Late Iron Age. Links are indicated with the intermediary Hampshire group introduced by Sellwood (1984). Strong links are shown with the Durotriges group to the west, and to a lesser degree with the Atrebates/Regni group to the east of the island. There are also preliminary indications of political and social centralization on the island for the first time, from numismatic finds.     

Mapping of the Buried Yarmouth Roads Wreck, Isle of Wight, UK, using a Chirp Sub-Bottom Profiler

Remains of the 16th-century Yarmouth Roads wreck, buried in sediments, were imaged using high-resolution geophysical techniques. The remains appear as strong reflectors underlain by an acoustic blanking zone, which was used to create maps of the wreck material. Close survey line-spacing allowed the construction of contour maps and hull sections, which revealed that the bow and stern sections are tilted to port at different angles, implying that they are detached. The seismic data have enhanced our understanding of the site beyond what was known from conventional archaeological investigations and confirms that this wreck was once a large carrack.
© 2007 The Authors     

Effigy of a Knight of the Fifteenth Century,Dug up in the Churchyard at Minster,Isle of Sheppey,in 1833, and now Preserved in the Church There

Twenty years after the R.C.H.M. volume Shielings and Bastles drew attention to the survival of many bastles, thick-walled defensible upper-floor houses of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, characteristic of the Anglo-Scottish Border. Recent fieldwork in Northumberland has shown that bastles (the earliest vernacular house type to survive in any numbers within the county) also exist in considerable numbers in some areas slightly further afield, and notably in Allendale, to the south of the Tyne. Seven Allendale bastles or bastle-derivative houses are described in detail, and another twenty-seven listed in a gazetteer. The origins of bastles are discussed, and some possible medieval antecedents suggested; the fabric and morphology of the buildings are then considered, and various groupings—such as ‘extended bastles’ and groups around a common yard—examined. The continuance of the bastle tradition is seen in bastle-derivative houses of the later seventeenth century; the date at which conventional ground-floor houses were re-established varies from valley to valley.     

Divine Diplomacy in the late Eleventh Century

Abstract

The subject of the XXIV Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies was Byzantine Diplomacy and many of the papers dealt with high-level contacts between Byzantium and other medieval states. But although Byzantines often made use of churchmen and monks as ambassadors and although there was usually a religious dimension to Byzantine diplomacy, it is worth noting that powerful monastic figures and influential houses often engaged in diplomacy on their own account. The theatre of operations was often more geographically limited, but this kind of monastic diplomacy had much in common with its lay counterpart. In both cases, it was Constantinople and the imperial court which was the centre of ‘diplomatic activity’ and, in both cases, negotiations were often delicate and long-protracted. If favours were sought, if confirmations of privileges were required, if difficulties with zealous local officials were to be overcome, then representations needed to be made at the highest level. This often meant a monastic delegation visiting Constantinople and operating in very similar ways to lay missions.