Building Mounds. Longhouses,Coastal Mounds and Cultural Connections: Norway and the Northern Isles,c ad 800–1200

Abstract

WHY WERE important Viking longhouses built on large mounds of sand and then repeatedly rebuilt in precisely the same apparently challenging location? Generations of Viking–late Norse people did so, on sandy bays along the coasts of the Northern Isles of the United Kingdom. These prominent, ‘layered-up’ longhouse complexes were landscape statements. They reflected, in their location and the detail of their construction and use, the social attitudes and arrangements of those who lived in and visited them. The settlements played a pivotal role in power relationships and in the organisation of the local economy. This article explores the meaning of these focal settlement mounds through landscape archaeology; investigates building practices, stratigraphic detail and place-name associations; looks at their cultural roots in Scandinavia; and considers the role they played in the development of local social and political structures in Orkney.     

Valuing different road options for Stonehenge

Abstract

Stonehenge in the UK is one of the best-known and most important archaeological sites in the world. Unfortunately the site suffers considerable intrusion in the form of two busy roads which pass close by on either side of the stone circle, which provide an ‘excellent’ view of the site in its landscape. It is not a priori certain that closing one road and burying the other, as was proposed by those charged with managing the site, would actually improve social welfare.

A contingent valuation survey was undertaken, in which willingness to pay for the construction of a two kilometre tunnel for the A303 road where it passes Stonehenge, along with the closure and dismantling of the A344 road, was contrasted with willingness to pay to retain the current road layout. The survey was reinforced by means of computer-enhanced photographs and maps. The results of the survey indicate that while most respondents would prefer to retain the current scenario, most are not willing to pay to do this. Those who prefer the. construction of the tunnel seem far more financially committed. The net heritage benefit arising from the construction of the tunnel turns out to be £114 million.     

Excavations at Lismahon,Co. Down

Abstract

There is a Growing recognition that introduced species are direct records of cultural activity and that studies of their biogeography have the potential to tell us about patterns of human migration, trade and even ideology. In England the fallow deer (Dama dama dama) is one of the earliest and most successful animal introductions, whose establishment has traditionally been attributed to the Normans. However, recent investigations of Old English place names have raised the possibility that the term *pohha/pocca relates to fallow deer, suggesting that the species was widely established in the Anglo-Saxon landscape. This suggestion deserves serious consideration as it has implications for our understanding both of AngloSaxon society and the impact of the Norman Conquest. This paper therefore presents a critical review of the literary, iconographic, place-name and zooarchaeological evidence for fallow deer in early medieval England and beyond.     

Names and Tales: On Folklore and Place Names

Abstract

Names, like stories, are linguistic performances; so the twin disciplines of folkloristics and place-name studies can learn from each other’s methods. Some names offer straightforward evidence for traditional culture, but others are rhetorical, not literal. Allusions to goblins, giants, and the Devil derive from playful storytelling rather than supernatural belief, while names of landmarks are used as pegs on which to hang local legends. The rules for coining names have varied through time and often use special linguistic markers to highlight moral or imaginative content. As we move into a more semiotically aware onomastics, we find ourselves interpreting names from a realm of popular idiom and allusion which is already familiar from folklore.     

Geophysics of Lager Wick forced labour camp,Grouville, Jersey,Channel Islands

Abstract

Three seasons of fieldwork at the forced labour camp of Lager Wick, Grouville, Jersey (2014–2016) employed resistivity, ground penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetic susceptibility to investigate areas of the camp. Resistivity and magnetic susceptibility produced the most useful results, whilst the GPR survey only revealed a modern pipe. The resistivity survey was undertaken in the south-west corner of the former camp close to the entrance gate posts, whilst the magnetic susceptibility survey was undertaken over the remains of one of the barrack huts along the Gorey Road frontage which had been burnt to the ground in 1943. The resistivity survey produced some high resistance anomalies that appear to resemble a demolition layer or a surface on which the huts were constructed. Magnetic susceptibility results showed zones of burning which appear to relate to the remains of one of the burnt huts; excavation revealed a stone/brick surface.     

Excavations at Rockley Smithies,a water-powered bloomery of the 16th and 17th Centuries

Abstract

Between about 1500 and 1640 iron was smelted by the direct, bloomery, process on the lands of the Rockley family at (N.G.R.) SE/340023, to the south-west of Barnsley, Yorkshire, using charcoal and ore from the well-wooded outcrops of the Tankersley ironstone, adjacent to the site. Evidence for operation early in the 16th century was limited to accumulations of hearth-cinder and of debris from ore-roasting, minor structures and traces of a dam. About 1600 a major rebuilding involved the construction of a bloom-hearth and probably two stringhearths, with bellows powered by waterwheels, and an unpowered hammer. Minor rebuilding took place early in the 17th century, and archaeological and documentary evidence combine to place abandonment at about 1640. Demolition and stone-robbing could well have provided material for the blast-furnace built a short distance away in 1652. The bloomery site was abandoned to pasture and perhaps a cottage, and at some time early in the 19th century was occupied by two houses and a workshop for an adjacent colliery tramway. It was covered by a road embankment in 1966.

Evidence was found of techniques at a comparatively advanced bloomery, in operation at a time when English ironmasters were, however, increasingly favouring the use of the blast furnace.     

The Historic Landscape of the Saga of the People of Vatnsdalur: Exploring the Saga Writer's Use of the Landscape and Archaeological Remains to Serve Political Interests

Abstract

The saga of the People of Vatnsdalur (Vatnsdaelasaga) provides a case study for a new approach to the Sagas of Icelanders (Íslendingasögur). This treats the saga as a cultural product of the 13th century that can give insights into its creator's ideas and worldviews. Fieldwork at five sites in the Vatnsdalur valley in NW Iceland seeks to establish what these places were like in the 13th century. This knowledge, alongside the saga and place-name evidence, illustrates how the saga writer, presumed to come from a powerful 13th-century family, systematically used the landscape and archaeological remains in the valley to serve his political interests when describing 10th-century events.     

The Land of Midian and its Mines

Abstract

“As the C.M.S. had decided to enlarge Bishop Gobat's School which was built at the south-west corner of ancient Jerusalem when extensive remains of a rock cut stack with traces of a tower were found years ago; the Principal, the Rev. A. Campbell MacInnes, communicated with the P.E.F. in order that provision should be made to make an Archaeological report on the results of digging the foundation for the new buildings. Through the kind offices of the Government Department of Antiquities, the Rev. R. W. Hamilton was asked to watch the work on behalf of the Department, and the report below is the result. Nothing of very great importance was found, but it is an area which was at one time just outside the ancient City walls, and the fortified south-west tower, and the P.E.F. feel that any work done in the proximity of so important a site should be thoroughly investigated. We are much obliged to Mr. Hamilton for his report.”—(Hon. Sec. P.E.F.)     

Marling & Evans,King's Stanley and Ebley Mills,Gloucestershire

Abstract

The economic causes of European emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century enjoy an established historiography, which considers many aspects of the pre-industrial economy from agriculture to the collapse of traditional industries. This paper examines the link between pre-industrial home textile manufacture and emigration from the German south-west. It draws on data from communities and households in the state of Württemberg, and finds that pre-industrial textile production was not a major determinant of migration patterns in the nineteenth century; instead, the localised rise and fall of textile work was influenced by the availability of emigration pathways, an inversion of results seen elsewhere.     

The Toponymy of Ukraine

A Canadian geographer analyzes the character of current place names in Ukraine, highlighting their evolution and spatial distribution. Included as background material is a succinct historical account of settlements, tracing the origin of significant place names. Spatial analysis is limited to cities and towns of over 10,000 population. Place names are classified as Soviet (using three different indicators), partially Russified (two indicators), or completely Russified or Russian. The spatial distribution and intensity of Sovietization and Russification are described, and patterns suggesting relationships between place-name distribution and socio-demographic characteristics of Ukrainian regions are identified and explained. Prospects for future place-name changes are discussed in some detail. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: H00, O50. 3 maps, 17 references.     

From Langford to South Cerney: The Rood in Anglo-Norman England

Abstract

Two fragments of a figure of Christ crucified from South Cerney parish church comprise the sole survivor of a Romanesque wooden Rood with an English provenance. This paper argues that it is an example of a Triumphkreuz originally located at the chancel arch of South Cerney church and seeks to establish its relationship to both pre-Conquest monumental stone Rood sculpture and wooden Triumphkreuze in northern Europe and Scandinavia. The Triumphkreuz appears to have been a standard feature of the greater churches of Norman England, but how common it was in post-Conquest parish churches is less clear. While church dedications suggest that devotion to the Holy Cross was particularly strong in south-west England, late-11th- and 12th-century mural painting and sculpture of chancel arches in parish churches over a wide area exhibit a close connection with the Rood.     

Forty-Fourth Annual Congress,Liverpool, 1887

Abstract

The limestone quarried on Ham Hill near Yeovil in Somerset is very distinctive and readily identifiable. It was used extensively throughout the medieval period for a great variety of purposes. Whole buildings were constructed using it from floor to roof and it was also employed for decorative work and sculpture. A large group of church monuments was carved in Ham Hill stone, especially effigies and cross slabs. Monument production can be appreciated in the context of a much larger industry and analysis of the figures has revealed that the clients were predominantly the local gentry. Consequently, there are significantly more male civilian and female effigies than are typically found elsewhere, such as in Devon and Yorkshire. There is evidence of an awareness of the products from other stone centres in the south-west, which the carvers of Ham Hill stone were willing to imitate in order to satisfy customer requirements.     

The Present State of Toponymy in the USSR

A review of recent place-name research, methods, and publications in the Soviet Union by a deputy chairman of the Toponymy Commission of the Moscow Branch of the Geographical Society USSR. For a previous article on Soviet toponymy, see E. M. Murzayev, “Origin of geographic names,” Soviet Geography, Accomplishments and Tasks, American Geographical Society, 1962, pp. 254–58.     

The Terracotta Industry: its Distribution,Manufacturing Processes and Products

Abstract

This article considers the industrial aspects of the revival of terracotta and faience as architectural materials during the last two hundred years. It demonstrates how the distribution and development of the industry, and the nature of the terracotta produced, relates closely to clay geology. The transition from using younger clays found in the south-west of England through to exploiting clays from the Coal Measures explains the emergence of new firms able to mass-produce large, brightly coloured blocks on an extensive scale. In examining the technology of manufacture it is apparent that the basic processes changed little during the course of the revival, but that skills in making models and moulds in plaster and in applying glazes were fundamental to the decorative qualities of terracotta and faience architecture.     

‘The Official Feast’: cultural tensions in U.K. carnival

Abstract

This paper reveals how U.K. street carnival is located within policy discourses that facilitate notions of creative economy, inter-place competition and the representation of institutionally-preferred versions of local, regional and national place-identity. The paper draws on ethnographic research within two community town carnivals and the professional Battle for the Winds carnival performances that launched the 2012 Olympic sailing at Weymouth. It considers the evolution of policy-driven carnival vocabularies that were designed to articulate preferred ‘Jurassic Coast’ and Olympic place identities for the south-west U.K. during 2012, and their effect on two vernacular, community street carnivals in East Devon and Dorset. The paper exposes the cultural tension between these vernacular events and the ‘official feast’ of Jurassic Coast and Olympic carnival, in terms of their performance of contradictory place-identities and contested notions of artistic community. It describes the popular challenge to aesthetic hegemony that these community carnivals presented during 2012. Finally, the author argues for a reassessment of the artistic value of vernacular carnivals, and affirms their status as a culture of resistance that creates alternative, sometimes inconvenient, symbolic constructions of community and place to those preferred by institutional actors operating within a neo-liberal discourse of inter-place competition.     

A Powerful Place of Pictland: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on a Power Centre of the 4th to 6th Centuries ad

OUR UNDERSTANDING of the nature of late and post-Roman central places of northern Britain has been hindered by the lack of historical sources and the limited scale of archaeological investigation. New work at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (NJ 49749 26345), has begun to redress this through extensive excavation and landscape survey. This has revealed a Pictish central place of the 4th to 6th centuries ad that has European connections through material culture, iconography and site character. In addition to reviewing the place-name and historical context, this article outlines preliminary reflections on five seasons of excavation and survey in the Rhynie landscape. The article also provides a detailed consideration of chronology, including radiocarbon dating and Bayesian statistical analysis. The results reveal the multi-faceted nature of a major, non-hillfort elite complex of Pictland that comprised a high-status residence with cult dimensions, a major centre for production and exchange, and a contemporary cemetery. A series of sculptured stones stood in association with the settlement and cemetery and the iconography of the stones, along with the wider archaeological evidence, provides a rich dataset for a renewed consideration of the central places of early medieval northern Britain with broader implications for the nature of power and rulership in late and post-Roman Europe.     

Brick Kilns: An Illustrated Survey

Abstract

Norton Mill, largely demolished during this century, was thought to have occupied its site continuously since the twelfth century and road construction offered the opportunity to test this view through excavation. A complex building chronology was revealed.     

Medieval land remediation of a quarry site at Wallingford,Oxfordshire, revealed by microfossil analysis

Abstract

Backfill material from a 12th- to13th-century quarry, north of Wallingford, south Oxfordshire, comprises sandy loam overlain by Cretaceous (early Cenomanian; Mantelliceras mantelli Macrofaunal Biozone) Glauconitic Marl Member, of the West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation as identified by its abundant, biostratigraphically useful, foraminifera and ostracods. A local outcrop source of the Glauconitic Marl Member, less than 1 km north of the quarry pit, is the likely provenance of this material, and a contemporaneous road, which was discovered adjacent to the medieval quarry by magnetometer surveys and archaeological excavation, would have aided its transportation, into the town via the North Gate. We hypothesise that the use of a calcareous marl to overlay sandy loam deposits probably encouraged land restoration when the quarried area was returned to pastoral agriculture.     

Ghazis,roads and trade in north-west Anatolia 1179–1291

Abstract

This article shows that parts of the late antique road system in north-west Anatolia were sometimes closed between 1179 and 1291, due to unsettled conditions, and that alternatives were in use. The alternative road from Herakleia Pontica to Kastamonu went via Çaycuma and Daday and that to Ankara via Eski?ehir. Both Christian and Muslim border raiders existed in the area and may have caused these closures. They sometimes acted together but their importance is unclear since conditions were also both politically and militarily unstable. The article concludes that the Muslim raiders were not ghazis, as has been thought.