ASSESSING NATURAL CLAY COMPOSITION IN THE VALLEY OF OAXACA AS A BASIS FOR CERAMIC PROVENANCE STUDIES

The Oaxaca Clay Survey was initiated to provide baseline data on clay composition within the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico, to assist in provenance determination of prehistoric ceramics. Natural clays were sampled from 135 locations throughout the valley, and analysed using INAA in combination with ceramic petrography. Observed geographical trends in trace‐element and mineralogical composition confirm that while parent material (surficial geology) strongly affects clay composition, a continuum of variation exists within the valley. The study develops and tests a continuous spatial model of clay composition that provides greater resolution in ceramic sourcing than bedrock alone. By establishing a regional framework for Oaxaca Valley clays, the survey will support significant advances in our understanding of pottery production and exchange within the valley, and provide a more robust means for monitoring exchange between the valley and neighbouring regions.     

Imagining the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Politics and Economics of the Rebuilding of Trakai Castle and the ‘Palace of Sovereigns’ in Vilnius

Abstract

In 1884 the prominent nation-builder Jonas Basanavi?ius declared that castle mounds and literature were the only appropriate elements from which to build the Lithuanian nation. Basanavi?ius’s view, this article suggests, had a lasting influence on the public uses of history in twentieth-century Lithuania. The study explores the construction of two iconic images of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Trakai Castle and the ‘Palace of Sovereigns’ in Vilnius. Built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Trakai Castle was once the seat of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but fell into neglect before its reconstruction in the 1960s. Dating back to the thirteenth century, the Palace in Vilnius deteriorated during the eighteenth century, was dismantled at the beginning of the nineteenth, and has been completely rebuilt since 2000. It is striking that the reconstructions of castles were the largest state investments in culture in both the Soviet and post-Soviet regimes. The reconstruction of Trakai Castle was criticized on economic and ideological grounds by Nikita Khrushchev. The rebuilding of the Palace polarized Lithuanian intellectuals. The presentation compares the intellectual, social, and political rationales which underpinned the two projects and explores the changes and continuities in the uses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the Soviet and post-Soviet regimes.     

UNIQUE PRE‐ROMANESQUE MURALS IN KOSTOĽANY POD TRÍBEČOM,SLOVAKIA: THE PAINTING TECHNIQUE AND CAUSES OF DAMAGE

Pre‐Romanesque murals at Kosto?any pod Tríbe?om, Slovakia, have been investigated by portable X‐ray fluorescence and by microanalytical methods to identify painting materials (pigments and binders), and to explain the degradation of colours. Today, missing green and blue shades have been reconstructed according to residual concentrations of Cu, which correspond to copper chlorides—products of salt corrosion of the copper carbonates azurite and/or malachite, accelerated by micro‐organisms. As confirmed by powder X‐ray microdiffraction, original minium (Pb₃O₄) has been transformed to brown–black plattnerite (PbO₂). In increased humidity, even insoluble pigments are washing down from the walls and the intensity of colours further diminishes.     

THE APPLICATION OF CLIFF DEGRADATION MODELS FOR ESTIMATION OF THE INITIAL HEIGHT OF RAMMED‐EARTH WALLS (POR‐BAJIN FORTRESS,SOUTHERN SIBERIA,RUSSIA)

The main objective of this study is to recover the initial geometry of earthen walls from the shape of wall remains. The original parameters of the walls have been estimated by fitting the field‐measured profiles with the theoretical shape predicted by the model. We estimate: (i) the initial wall height (between 2 and 3 m); (ii) their shape (vertical or nearly vertical); and (iii) the time for complete degradation (between 250 and 400 years, depending on wall orientation). We show that this approach yields the best results when the main degradation factor is the temperature gradient, as it is for south‐oriented wall faces.     

Apprentices,Goldsmiths, and the North in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century England

Abstract

The story of King Edgar being rowed on the River Dee at Chester in 973 by eight subordinate kings was once well known. This article examines how it was used in popular history writing from the eighteenth century onwards, with greatest development in the mid nineteenth century, and subsequent decline into its present obscurity. It served English political and cultural ends, being used to demonstrate the natural superiority of that race over the others in the Union, particularly the Scots. Decline of imperial sentiment and ignorance of pre-Conquest history have relegated it to incidental mention in county histories.     

Employment on the Priory of Durham Estates, 1494–1519: The Priory as an Employer

Abstract

This article argues that during the years in which he was Archbishop of York, 1514 to 1530, Thomas Wolsey monopolised the patronage of the city of York's governing institution. Unlike previous patrons, Wolsey's status as both the prelate of the archdiocese and the most prominent Crown minister and favourite of Henry VIII, gave him an unprecedented position in the city's quest for securing royal favour. The mayor and commonalty of York were not only aware of Wolsey's pre-eminent standing, but sought to exploit their perceived special connection with him for the city's economic benefit. It was York's governors who initiated and strived to maintain a continual patron-client relationship with Wolsey. In doing so, they deviated from the typical pattern of clientage among sixteenth-century urban governments by forsaking multiple ties with other local and regional notables. Brokers formed the channel through which patronage and clientage were transmitted. These were both men associated with Wolsey through archidiocesan administration and resident locally, and men situated in Wolsey's London household at York Place. By examining patronage and clientage in the context of the city's most pressing issues, this article sheds light on urban-Crown relations in the early Henrician period under Wolsey's supremacy.     

The Life and Career of Sir William Plumpton from 1404 to 1480

Abstract

Plumpton, an ardent Lancastrian, received protection and patronage from the Percies and was loyal to them throughout his life. He enjoyed exceptional local power from 1438 to 1460 as steward of the Honour of Knaresborough. He served as a JP, an MP, sheriff, and steward of Northumberland's Spofforth and other estates in Yorkshire, as well as overseeing his own lands in four counties. Detailed study of the Knaresborough court rolls and Duchy of Lancaster records led to a re-examination of the dating and interpretation of his officeholding and career, particularly in the 1460s and 1470s. He did not regain the stewardship in 1460s, as was believed, but was re-instated in 1471; he was replaced within a few years, probably because of corruption. Principal officeholders at Knaresborough, 1438–1500, are listed, and further unpublished material includes cases which the litigious Plumpton initiated in King's Bench from 1461. His attitudes, often cheating and ruthless, to friends and family, are examined, and his career compared with those of other members of the gentry; Plumpton's status is examined, this being aided by the findings from a rare unpublished fifteenth-century subsidy roll.     

Henry VIII's Progress Through Yorkshire in 1541 and its Implications for Northern Identities

Abstract

Henry's visit to the North in 1541 has been seen as, alternatively, a powerful response to the ongoing threat to order in the years after the Pilgrimage of Grace or a move in diplomatic relationships with Scotland and France. This paper suggests the level of immediate threat of disorder in the North was low and that the role of the journey in relations with Scotland was more its consequence than its cause. Rather it finds the significance of the visit in a potential renegotiation of the position of the North within the wider realm, a question opened by political and constitutional changes since 1530, a negotiation which the King himself overthrew. Instead of accommodation, Henry sought to emphasise the extent of his defeat of the Pilgrims and the Percy interest, and to humiliate utterly all but the most clearly loyal elements, especially in York itself. Yet the memory of his triumph, if triumph it was, was poisoned for Henry by his failure to meet James of Scotland and by the collapse of his marriage to Catherine Howard; and it passed remarkably quickly from the collective memory of the North, overlain by a developing sense of relations with the Tudors, as with their predecessors, as supportive of a distinctive northern identity.     

Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Pigments

The application of FT‐Raman spectroscopy and visible Raman microscopy to the non‐destructive analysis of pigment specimens excavated from Tell el Amarna by Flinders Petrie in the 1890s has provided information about the chemical composition of the materials used by XVIIIth Dynasty artists in the New Kingdom at the time of King Akhenaten, c. 1340 bc. Comparison of the Raman spectra of the samples labelled ‘red and yellow ochre’ with documented, archival material from geological collections provided a clear indication of the materials used in the iron(III) oxide/hydroxide system, including α‐hematite, goethite, maghemite, magnetite and lepidocrocite. The yellow–orange specimen labelled ‘realgar’ proved to be a mixture of realgar and pararealgar; since the specimen had been sheltered from light since its excavation, this could indicate that the ancient Egyptian artists recognized the colour variation and may have used this to effect in their decorations. A specimen of yellow ochre contained goethite, α‐FeO.OH, with particles of crystalline, highly ordered graphite; in contrast, the red ochre specimens contained amorphous carbon particles.