Monitoring and Management Options in the Preservation of Urban Waterlogged Deposits,Nantwich, UK

A baseline survey in 2007 characterized the physical and chemical conditions for preservation within waterlogged remains at Nantwich. Installation of eighteen dipwells has allowed a five-year monitoring programme to be conducted from 2011. Two add-on projects supplemented this monitoring programme by examining the different methods for redox measurement, and for soil moisture measurement using Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR).

Initial results show two main zones of preservation, with reducing conditions attributed to location of the deposits in the floodplain, and a second zone uphill with more variable conditions for preservation. This study shows that sediment-coring programmes combined with dipwell installations can provide useful data to assess and monitor in situ preservation conditions, which can help to formulate management strategies for conservation of waterlogged archaeological deposits. This paper focuses on the efficacy of the methodology, referencing in particular comparative monitoring techniques and lists a series of recommendations for future studies.     

A Worth of their Own. On Gotland in the Baltic Sea,and its 12th-century Coinage

Abstract

In about AD 1140, the island of Gotland initiated what was to become one of the most influential coinages of the medieval Baltic Sea area. This was part of a strategy to meet the impact and pressure from the world outside in a period characterised by large-scale political and ideological changes. In this situation, old and new networks were important to maintain autonomy from those aiming for dominance over the island. The coins, with an independent weight standard and an iconography inspired by NW German and Frisian coins, were one way of attracting partners to the island's main harbour, where its inhabitants could maintain control and trading peace. Coins incorporate in them the dimensions of object, text and picture. A historical archaeology of coins needs not only focus on large-scale perspectives and formal power, but must also give weight to the archaeological context, the life biography of the coins and the social negotiations behind their production and use. Thus intention and reality, symbolism and social practice may be studied to find openings to the stories behind the objects. The different dimensions of the coins together with historical sources give away plenty of information on several levels: about the networks, ideological framework, artisanship and changing loyalties of this time and area.     

A Medieval Pottery Kiln at Audlem,Cheshire

BUILDING ACCOUNTS for 1398–99 give detailed costs of the construction of a circular, brick, free-standing artillery tower. The artillery towers at Southampton and Canterbury were linked to existing wall circuits, and detached forts in France may be more comparable to the tower at Norwich.     

Some Evidence for 12th- and 13th-century Linen and Woollen Textile Processing

FLAX-RETTING POOLS, hitherto unrecognized, still survive in the landscape of NW. England, in close association with fulling-mill sites, tenter banks and simple potash pits. The retting-pool sites have common characteristics—usually on flat land; close to a river, but utilizing small streams which have been channelled to provide a controlled water supply; and raised banks for the drying of the retted flax. The field evidence occurs in documented contexts which show that a widespread linen industry was contemporary with, and often linked to, the 12th- and 13th-century demesne woollen industry.     

Town Houses in Taunton, 1500-1700

Abstract

In this article the author traces the evolution of the small to medium-sized town houses in Taunton in the period 1500–1700. He describes surviving examples of three, two and single cell houses, L-shaped, detached and semi-detached houses of the period, and after discussing building materials, compares them with developments elsewhere in the South West.     

Clarke Hall,Wakefield; architectural innovations in 17th-century West Yorkshire

Abstract

Clarke Hall stands one mile north-east of Wakefield (SE 342222) at the side of the A642 Aberford Road. Believed to be of early Elizabethan date, the house was purchased by the West Riding County Council in 1971 for conversion into a schools museum. Over the following three years the writer undertook a programme of documentary research and excavation which established that the building was entirely renewed in the late 1670s, its materials and plan clearly illustrating the transformation from medieval to post-medieval building practices in West Yorkshire.     

古村·老屋·手艺人

江南的三月,杂树生花,莺飞草长,春意盎然.我乘双休日与学校美术系的几个学生结伴,一同去了永嘉县最北边的一个偏僻的小山村--林坑村采风.早就听说那里山美,水美,是典型的浙南山区村落,只要用三、四个小时就能到那里.可没想到一路上不停的转车、行路,再加上山路崎岖窄小,车又颠簸,搞得人十分疲惫.临近村庄时,车子一拐入山口,远处就出现了一群镶嵌在青山绿水中、错落有致的浙南山区民居.它们一下子就把我吸引住了,一路的疲惫也好象被赶到九霄云外去了.     

Re-used Boat Planking from a 13th-century Revetment in Doncaster,South Yorkshire

Abstract

AN EXCAVATION was undertaken during 1993–4 on a site at Low Fisher Gate, Doncaster. Urban archaeological deposits of 11th- to 18th-century date, together with evidence of an earlier course of the River Cheswold (the southern arm of the River Don), were uncovered. The excavations were among the largest ever to take place within Doncaster. Among the most significant finds was a riverside revetment, made from re-used portions of two medieval clinker-built boats. These have characteristics not recorded elsewhere which may represent features of a now lost, South Yorkshire boatbuilding tradition. This type of find is still rather rare and the Doncaster timbers add to knowledge of the variety of local vessels and construction features present in the medieval period. The rolls of fibrous material used to waterproof the vessels were also of interest for comparison with similar finds from England and Norway. The boat timbers have been fully conserved and are now on display in Doncaster Museum.     

Children accused of witchcraft in 17th-century Finnmark

This article deals with six children accused of witchcraft in the district of Finnmark, Northern Norway, during a witchcraft panic in 1663. Through a narratological approach, the article presents close-readings of court records, trying to detect the various voices heard in the documents: the voice of the accused person, the voice of the law and the voice of the scribe. The article draws attention to four points discussed within ongoing witchcraft research: the role of the scribe, the individualized character of the children's confessions, oral transference of witchcraft ideas and the speed of transmission of ideas about witchcraft. The analyses show that children confessed to similar demonological elements as adults, similarly seen in other European countries. The contents must be known before the children were brought before the court, as their answers to leading questions were detailed. The voices of the children are individualized, there is no indication that the confessions are constructions made by the scribe. The influence of specific persons had great influence on transference of demonological ideas.     

Limestone Houses in Central Kansas

Immediately after the Civil War, the Plains Border in central Kansas offered the westering peasant a set of new challenges. In an almost treeless environment, a suitable building material was a prominent prerequisite for permanent settlement. Its almost universal availability together with its conveniently uniform thickness and initial softness made the Fencepost limestone a suitable substitute for wood. Its dimensions, color and texture impart to the entire cultural landscape an element of uniformity anda unique folk character. Houses and barns, churches and stores, even curbstones and fences display the character of this important building stone. Quarrying and building were accomplished by laymen and their methods, employing uncomplicated tools, resulted in a straightforward vernacular architecture. While several design types appeared, ethnic affinity was expressed in the treatment of appurtenances rather than by any overt distinction of design. The use of stone represents the influence of material availability rather than ethnic experience. Rail service brought lumber into competition with stone and after the 1920s the use of stone was discontinued. The veneration of old things, current in the country, has placed the stone forms remaining on the threshold of a new popularity and appears to assure their survival     

Power Development at the northern end of Quarry Bank Mill,Styal Cheshire

Abstract

This paper presents, in condensed form, the results of an archaeological survey of the northern end of Quarry Bank Mill, Styal, Wilmslow, Cheshire (SJ 834832). Development of the galleries at this popular museum, run by the Quarry Bank Mill Trust Ltd for the National Trust, to include the history of power generation and use, is informed by the survey which has confirmed the dramatic nature of the changes in energy source and transmission in this part of the complex during the period 1784-1906. The survey reviews the physical evidence for the series of water wheels, steam engines, boilers, stacks, coal chutes etc and is able to refine the received history, challenging occasional misunderstandings such as in the dating of the bell tower.     

Three 19th-century house sites in rural Ireland

Abstract

This report describes archaeological research at three house sites in rural Ireland. The anthropologically-based research began in 1994 with the goal of attempting to understand the material conditions of daily life in the 19th-century Irish countryside. The excavation results presented here were obtained from individual households in counties Roscommon, Sligo and Donegal, at sites dating from the early to mid-19th century. Two of the sites are known to have been abandoned as a result of forced eviction. Particular attention is paid to the ceramics found.