The English Medieval First-Floor Hall: Part 2 – The Evidence from the Eleventh to Early Thirteenth Century

The concept of the first-floor hall was introduced in 1935, but Blair’s paper of 1993 cast doubt on many of those buildings which had been identified as such. Following the recognition of Scolland’s Hall, Richmond Castle as an example of a hall at first-floor level, the evidence for buildings of this type is reviewed (excluding town houses and halls in the great towers of castles, where other issues apply). While undoubtedly a number of buildings have been mistakenly identified as halls, there is a significant group of structures which there are very strong grounds to classify as first-floor halls. The growth of masonry architecture in elite secular buildings, particularly after the Norman Conquest, allowed halls to be constructed on the first floor. The key features of these are identified and the reasons for constructing the hall at this level – prestige and security – are recognized. The study of these buildings allows two further modifications to the Blair thesis: in some houses, halls and chambers were integrated in a single block at an early date, and the basic idea of the medieval domestic plan was already present by the late eleventh century.     

西安市汉长安城长乐宫六号建筑遗址

2005～2006年,中国社会科学院考古研究所汉长安城工作队对长乐宫六号宫殿遗址的主体建筑及其附属建筑进行了发掘。附属建筑分两部分,均由殿堂、廊道、散水和院落组成。从出土遗物看,该建筑始建于西汉初期并一直沿用到王莽时期。根据发掘资料并结合文献记载,六号宫殿遗址应是长乐宫的前殿旧址。     

Excavations at High Street and Winetavern Street,Dublin

A DETAILED RE-EXAMINATION of the Great Hall of Leicester Castle has confirmed its mid 12th-century date. It originally had a clerestoried form, decorated with semicircular transverse and longitudinal braces, and was closely comparable to the hall of the Bishop's Palace at Hereford. Both stand in the forefront, socially and architecturally, of 12th-century construction.     

Tree-rings and Medieval Archaeology

CAREFUL examination of the horizontal beams above the arches framing the arcades of the 12th-century great hall of the bishop's palace at Hereford has brought to light additional structural evidence shewing that the hall, as originally built, had a clerestory and separate pent-roofs over the aisles. The proposed reconstruction is discussed with reference to surviving but incomplete examples of the same date at Leicester and Farnham, where the evidence for the architectural form is inconclusive. It is compared with earlier illustrations, including those in the Bayeux Tapestry. The evidence of the churches of late 10th and 11th-century date with transverse (diaphragm) arches is also adduced.     

Medieval Britain in 1962 and 1963

Abstract

The Hammerbeam roof over the great hall of Edinburgh Castle is one of only two high-status roofs surviving on medieval secular buildings in Scotland. In 1999, Historic Scotland recorded the roof structure in advance of cleaning work. Detailed examination of the existing structure and surviving documentation confirms that much of the original timberwork survives, despite later use as a barrack, then as a military hospital, which resulted in many alterations to the structure, including subdivision of its interior. In 1887–92, the building underwent an extensive restoration by the Edinburgh architect Hippolyte Blanc. Its dating has been a matter of dispute among architectural historians, particularly with reference to its stone corbels. Our dendrochronological analysis indicates a construction date of 1509/10: the roof of the great hall of Edinburgh Castle is, therefore, a rare example in Scotland of major timberwork from the reign of James IV (1488–1513). Much of the original carved stone corbel work survives, despite restoration and partial replacement by Blanc, and the iconography of these is contemporary with the roof construction. The decoration of the corbels is therefore among the earliest use of Renaissance ornament in Britain. With the splendour of the roof, they are a small part of the repertoire used to present James IV in the magnificence of a contemporary European monarch.     

On Egyptian Sepulchral Statuettes,With Special Reference To An Example In The Possession Of Capt. E. Hoare

Baguley Hall near Manchester has long been recognized as one of the finest surviving medieval halls in the north-west of England. As a part of an extensive English Heritage programme of repair to the standing structure, opportunity was taken to make a more detailed study of its timber-framing and also to excavate within and immediately outside the building. As a result, this paper seeks to modify the existing published accounts of the hall's timberwork, outline its likely structural sequence, and provide details of the aisled hall that preceded it.     

秦代两度修建阿房宫未成原因新探

近年来阿房宫考古发掘表明,秦始皇与秦二世在位时兴建的阿房宫是没有建成的“半拉子”工程,而且阿房宫遗址中未发现火烧的遗迹,这与《史记》中“阿房宫未成”的记载是相一致的,即阿房宫没有建成。秦代两度修建阿房宫之所以未成,其原因主要是由于工程规模庞大,所需的土、木、石建筑材料需要大批人力去采集、运输和加工,加之施工人力不足、修建工期短,导致秦代两度修建阿房宫均以“未成”而告终。     

湖北武当山遇真宫西宫建筑基址发掘简报

武当山遇真宫是南水北调中线工程文物保护工作中唯一涉及的世界文化遗产。为全面掌握遇真宫整体布局及历史信息,提供遇真宫文物保护方案的科学依据,2005年12月至2006年3月,湖北省文物考古研究所对遇真宫西宫建筑基址进行了考古发掘,整体揭露面积约9600平方米,比较完整地揭示出遇真宫西宫的建筑布局与结构特点。     

快速城市化背景下佛山传统祠堂文化景观变化以及地方认同的建构

祠堂曾经是佛山标志性的文化景观,但随着城市化的快速发展,祠堂文化景观也发生了改变。在对佛山市区现存祠堂景观全面普查的基础上,选择位于城乡边缘带和城中村的典型社区进行深度访谈。研究表明,佛山传统祠堂文化景观在空间和功能上都发生明显变化。尽管其呈现出现代化、多元化的倾向,但通过集体记忆和怀旧空间的地方形塑,仍然强化了以祠堂为中心的地方认同感。而且,在快速城市化、全球化过程中,地方与认同的关系既受到外生文化渗透的影响,又有内生文化认同作用的增强。祠堂文化景观的改变,一定程度上反映了当前地方社会关系的急剧变化,与之相应,地方认同也正在重新构建。     

On Colouring Statues

Auldhill, on the Ayrshire coast of the Firth of Clyde, is a site with a very long history. Excavations were conducted there for a total of ten weeks in 1987, 1988 and 1989, and seven main phases were recognized, as follows: I the timber-framed fort occupied in the first millennium B.c.;

II the iron age or early historic dun;

III the timber castle of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries;

IV the stone castle of the late thirteenth century;

V the hall of the end of the thirteenth or early fourteenth century;

VI the remodelled hall; and

VII dismantlement and stone robbing of the site from the mid-fourteenth century. Significant finds from the prehistoric deposits include an antler cheek piece and cannel coal jewellery. The main objective of the excavations was to understand the use of the site as a lordly residence in the medieval period. An architectural analysis is offered of Portencross Castle, the fourteenth-century successor of Auldhill in an appendix.

     

Account of a Roman Sepulchre at Geldestone,Norfolk

Rescue excavation between 1988 and 1990 in advance of river erosion examined a substantial part of the small medieval rural hospital of St Giles by Brompton Bridge and later post-medieval farm. Established in the latter half of the twelfth century for the infirm, including lepers, the hospital layout consisted of a detached stone chapel adjacent to the river crossing, with a timber hall to the west. This hall was destroyed by fire, and a sequence of timber buildings were then constructed in adjacent areas. By the fifteenth century these structures also included a stone building, possibly a refectory. The first small chapel was replaced in the thirteenth century by a larger structure, which went through a period of expansion and then subsequent contraction by the fifteenth century. Only in the fourteenth century were a hall, probably a guesthouse or the master's lodgings, and dovecote built adjacent to the chapel. The cemetery to the south of the chapel was partially examined. The site appears to have been a largely economically self-sufficient unit with an attached farm. The hospital was abandoned during the latter half of the fifteenth century, but the site and some of the buildings were subsequently reoccupied as a farm from the mid-seventeenth century. The farmhouse underwent conversion from a longhouse to a house of hearth-passage plan in the early eighteenth century. The former chapel was reused as a byre and additional stables constructed. The farm was moved to its present location to the south in the mid-eighteenth century and the former hospital site finally abandoned.     

唐长安官、私庙制及庙堂的地理分布

高品官员立庙奉祖历朝历代均有成规 ,唐代仍然如此。这种立庙制度大致可分官立与私立两种。官立庙堂为皇室宗庙 ,如赠皇帝、太子、皇后庙 ;私立者为品官自立。由于长安乃国之首都 ,是皇族及高品官员集中之地 ,故也是官私庙堂集中之地。其制度主要来源于宗庙制度。地理分布上 ,官立庙堂分布规律反映出统治阶级等级、亲疏关系的差别。百官家庙的地理分布上则表现出 :唐前期多分布在近城里坊 ,唐后期多集中街西及城南四坊较荒僻之地。由于长安人口的膨胀 ,唐代官员多于城北近城地段营宅 ,城南偏僻之处立庙 ,导致官员宅、庙分离制度上的变迁 ,有异于汉晋。     

The Shell-Implements and Other Antiquities of Barbados

Reconsideration of the evidence set out by Jackson and Fletcher in 1962 shows that it does not lead uniquely and inevitably to the complicated building history postulated by them for the apsidal chancel at Wing, whereby the present walls were supposed to have arisen in part by cutting back earlier alignments and in part by building them forward and inserting the pilaster strips. Instead it is shown that all the known evidence can be interpreted in terms of a simpler and more plausible building sequence in which the present walls of the apse arose in a single building operation which included the pilaster-strips and arcading as well as the internal plaster which separates the original walls of the crypt and apsidal chancel from the later stone vaulting of the crypt. This revised interpretation does not affect the important conclusion that the walls of the polygonal apse were built later than the main walls of the nave; but this conclusion is based upon simpler direct observation. Unfortunately the evidence at present available does not allow precise details of the building phases to be stated with certainty; a new thorough archaeological investigation would be needed to settle these questions and to provide an indication of the dates of the several phases.     

Reconstruction of the Rib Vaults of the Hypostyle Hall in the Maniace Castle of Siracusa After the 1693 Earthquake

Built in the first half of the 13th century on behalf of the Emperor Frederick II, the Maniace Castle of Siracusa focuses its enigma in the hypostyle hall (which was composed of 25 quadripartite rib vaults) and the design criteria adopted for its implementation. Recent research and a careful rereading of the documentary “restoration project” after the earthquake of 1693 have offered new tools to understand the construction techniques and building procedures for the entire organism. It has been possible to demonstrate that the different material (white limestone and volcanic stone) used for the vaults is, in fact, a product of reconstruction. The constructive node, which historiography has taken for granted, is now crucial—the documentary evidence of the restoration after the earthquake compared with the materials found in situ provide interpretive keys to decode genesis and procedures of the huge structure built five centuries before.     

Lathom House: The Northern Court

Abstract

Thomas Stanley is credited with the creation of a fine new house at Lathom when he was made earl of Derby in 1485. This house, according to the poets and writers if the 16th and 17th centuries, was a sumptuous and well-defended place surrounded by moats and with as marry as eighteen towers. Indeed, it was claimed that Henry VII, stepson if the first earl if Derby, based his design for Richmond Palace on Lathom. After the house had fallen to the Parliamentarians it is usually accepted that the place was razed to the ground and, since the latter years of the 18th century, there has been considerable debate regarding its location. Recent archaeological work at the site if a later house, designed by Giacomo Leoni, is now providing evidence to show that Leoni's building probably lay on the site of the earlier structure and that some if the medieval masonry was incorporated into the rubble fill if the 18th-century walls. This study now examines the evidence for the first earl of Derby's house and argues that Lathom should be considered amongst the most important late 15th-century houses in England and Wales.     

Recent Researches Among The Pyramids

Recent consideration of the date of construction of the hall at Tamworth Castle puts the building into a medieval context. It is suggested that the structure was raised in the second quarter of the fifteenth century or earlier. With a span of over eight metres (27 feet) its impressive tie-beam and double collar roof trusses represent the full structural development of the post and truss tradition and its place in that tradition is discussed. This significant late medieval timber frame has not stirred much interest since J. C. Buckler drew part of a roof truss (B.M., M.S. 36436, p.38620) and little documentary evidence has come to light which might establish close dating of the structure. A short account of the associated domestic buildings inside the shell keep reflects the general trend from first floor to ground floor hall and the eventual abandonment of the latter as the centre of the household.     

On the Primeval Antiquities of the Channel Islands

Bishop's Waltham Palace, one of the most important residences of the bishopric of Winchester, was transformed by two of the most powerful of its later medieval bishops, Wykeham and Beaufort (1367–1447). The exceptional quality of the bishopric records enables us to trace the chronology of the progress of work with considerable accuracy and requires revision of the conventional dating of the buildings. The records also provide a great deal of information about the craftsmen and architects involved and about the building materials and their sources. Beaufort's new lodgings range still possesses much of the original timber framing of its eastern chambers, and this together with its accurate dating has warranted separate treatment.

Note on dating The accounting year ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas (29 September), and I have dated work by the year in which this closed. Most of the building season would therefore be recorded in the account for the same calendar year, but any late autumn work would be found in the following year's account.     

A Bronze Age Quarry in Eastern Crete

Abstract

The sandstone quarry at Mochlos is one of four major quarries in eastern Crete that were worked during the New Palace Period of Minoan civilization (ca. 1700–1450 B.C.) to produce large ashlar blocks for nearby Minoan sites. At that time sandstone, or ammoudha, as it is known locally, was especially valued as a building material, partly because of its distinctive color and texture, but mainly because of the ease with which it could be cut, and the stone was used extensively for exterior façades, for walls around interior courts, and for other architectural features of the more important buildings on these sites. This article describes the quarry at Mochlos in some detail, including the quarrying techniques employed, and argues that the destination of the stone from the Mochlos quarry was the Minoan palace at Gournia. The article ends with a comparison of the four ammoudha quarries in eastern Crete.     

The Roman Age Hall and the Warrior-Aristocracy: Reflections upon the Hall at Missingen,South-East Norway

This paper discusses possible functions for an Early Roman Age hall (c. ad 1–200) at Missingen, Østfold, south-east Norway. The hall represents one of the earliest known halls in Scandinavia. Its existence corresponds with the introduction of the Roman Age warrior-aristocracy. No status goods were recorded from the hall or the site. The assemblage of artefacts, plant macrofossils, together with the site's layout, points to Missingen as a farm with traditional farm functions. However, the farm's great size and well-considered location in combination with the presence of the hall has led to the conclusion that Missingen represents a chieftain's farm. It is argued that the farm could have served as a resort or camp for a group of warriors, led by a chieftain or a military leader belonging to a warrior-aristocracy. The existence of a Roman Age aristocracy in Østfold, hitherto represented by graves with weapons and rich imported goods, is for the first time evidenced by a hall and a chieftain's farm.