Norsey Wood

Abstract

A Tudor portrait in Hull was for many years wrongly identified as John Smith, mayor of Hull, but is in fact of John Smythson, Master Cook to Elizabeth I. Smythson was a man of some substance, reasonable wealth and social standing. He lived in Eltham in Kent and several details of his career can be uncovered. The portrait, which is the first surviving picture of a Royal Master Cook, was painted by an accomplished artist who was probably associated with the Court.     

Editorial

IN a recent article entitled ‘Cruck construction: a survey of the problems’, J. T. Smith used distribution maps to show that the theory of a Germanic origin for the cruck cannot be maintained, and that the evidence of cruck distribution argues strongly for a Celtic origin.¹ He concluded that the ‘progress from ridge-posts to crucks occurred during the first four centuries of the Christian era and perhaps earlier’ but had to admit that ‘no cruck construction has yet been recognized by excavation in Britain’.² This paper presents details of a cruck building of late or sub-Roman date found at Latimer in Buckinghamshire, during excavations in the vicinity of the Romano-British villa.     

Considering the effects of the Byzantine–Islamic transition: Umayyad glass tesserae and vessels from the <Emphasis Type="Italic">qasr</Emphasis> of Khirbet al-Mafjar (Jericho,Palestine)

The paper reports and discusses data obtained by archaeological and archaeometric studies of glass vessels and tesserae from the qasr of Khirbet al-Mafjar (near Jericho, Palestine). Archaeological contextualisation of the site and chrono-typological study of glass vessels were associated to EPMA and LA–ICP–MS analyses, performed to characterise the composition of the glassy matrix (major and minor components as well as trace elements). Analyses allowed achieving meaningful and intriguing results, which gain insights into the production and consumption of glass vessels and tesserae in the near East during the Umayyad period (seventh–eighth centuries). Within the analysed samples, both an Egyptian and a Levantine manufacture have been identified: such data provide evidence of a double supply of glass from Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian coast in the Umayyad period occurring not only in the glassware manufacture but also in the production of base glass intended to be used in the manufacture of mosaic tesserae. Thus, the achieved results represent the first material evidence of a non-exclusive gathering of glass tesserae from Byzantium and the Byzantines in the manufacture of early Islamic mosaics.     

Reliability-based Strength Amplification Factors for Structures with Asymmetric Yielding

A reliability-based methodology to estimate strength amplification factors for structures with asymmetric yielding is proposed. The approach is based on structural demand hazard analyses. Nonlinear time-history analyses of tridimensional simplified systems are carried out. The effects of two orthogonal components of the seismic ground motions and soil-structure interaction, are considered. Results show that the expected ductility demand of systems with asymmetric yielding may be much higher than those of symmetric systems. A simplified mathematical expression (which is function of the ratio between the fundamental vibration period of the system and that of the soil, ductility demand, and level of asymmetric yielding) is proposed to estimate the amplification factors. The expression is applied successfully to a 9-story reinforced concrete building exhibiting asymmetric yielding produced by tilting.     

A cripple from the medieval hospital of Sts James and Mary Magdalen,Chichester

The skeletal remains of a medieval leper from the hospital of Sts James and Mary Magdalene, Chichester, demonstrate osseous alterations in possible response to altered posture and crutch-aided locomotion. This individual provides further insight into the possible identification of osseous changes commensurate with maintained abnormal posture and strenuous use of one limb to aid locomotion. In this regard, it allows an appreciation and assessment of skeletal plasticity as a possible response to trauma and disease processes.