The growth of an urban landscape: recent research in early medieval Norwich

In 1977, Alan Carter published an appraisal of the early development of Norwich in which he not only reviewed previous assessments of the city's growth but also set out models for testing by a range of archaeological and historical methodologies. Thirty years later, considerable research in Norwich has deepened understanding of pre‐Conquest occupation, identifying more closely the probable development pattern and enabling a re‐assessment and expansion of Carter's ideas. This paper reviews that research, seeking to determine both the character of the urban landscape by 1066 and its likely economic and social diversity, while proposing future research areas.     

Multiple assessments of local properties,production, and performance in metal objects: an experimental case study from Petra,Jordan

This object-specific case study focuses on cupreous artifacts excavated from the Great Temple complex of Petra, Jordan to demonstrate how the use of compositional X-ray analyses alongside two experimental applications (ImageJ software and nanoindentation) have the potential to generate different and otherwise unobtainable information about archaeological metals. The study highlights the value of using multiple techniques as a means of resolving the ambiguities that tend to arise from interpretations of single-sited measurements on objects and from single-instrumental analyses during studies of production processes and consequent material performance. Employing different techniques on multiple localities within a sample permits the gathering of precise information about the behavior of and interrelationships between variables that affect the objects’ fabrication and use, particularly composition, structure, and hardness properties. The resulting data are interpreted in association with contextual archaeological information from Petra to consider the use-life and potential significance of these objects.     

Riot and Respectability: The Shifting Terrain of Class Language and Status in Baltimore during the Great Strike of 1877

This essay focuses on people negotiating class boundaries and identities in Baltimore through the revealing prism of the riot that occurred there during the Great Strike of 1877, in order to understand the multiple meanings of class for urban Americans after the Civil War. While working-class consciousness motivated some to support the railroad strikers, the riot illuminates how other participants were situated astride and moved across porous class boundaries, and how vague languages of class lacked the accuracy to describe the social landscape of the Gilded Age. The shifting terrain of class language and status allowed Baltimoreans to contest and shape the meaning of terms like ‘respectability’ by, for instance, wearing ready-made clothing. Yet these unstable categories placed others in uncomfortable positions between working and elite classes in society and between crowd and militia on the streets, threatening their well-being and the ideological fabric of a nation enamored of the virtuous producer-citizen.     

The Origins of the Castle in England the Institute's Research Project 1

This paper, based mainly on hitherto unpublished material, describes the building-activities of the Duke of Lauderdale in the years following his second marriage to the Countess of Dysart. During this period the Duke's three northern houses, comprising Thirlestane Castle, Lethington, and Brunstane, were extensively remodelled under the direction of the Scottish Surveyor-General, Sir William Bruce. Bruce also played a part in the alterations and additions carried out at the Lauderdales' principal English seat, Ham House, the main responsibility in this case, however, being undertaken by the gentleman-architect William Samwell. The Scottish houses were fitted out and decorated by a team of Anglo-Dutch craftsmen recruited chiefly in London, while another Dutchman, John Slezer, was employed as surveyor and draughtsman both in Scotland and at Ham.     

Colonial Cottage to State House: One Century of Housing Styles in Gisborne,New Zealand

The small New Zealand city of Gisborne, with its roots in the lute Wth century, contains house styles characteristic of New Zealand's urban residential history. Small cottages, Colonial bungalows, simple Colonial Georgian and Regency styles, Victorian Gothic style houses, “villas,” “Bay Villas,” “California Bungalows” and “State Houses” are all found in Gisborne. Questions of the origin of each style and whether these styles display any distinctive New Zealand characteristics are addressed in this study.