Survey and excavation of the main well in Cape Town Castle, South Africa: fieldwork and structural aspects

During the last few decades, Cape Town Castle has been extensively renovated. Parallel to this, a series of archaeological excavations were undertaken under the auspices of different institutions. During the course of these, it became clear that one specific site needed to be approached in a rather unorthodox way. This site, the main well situated in the centre of the previous headquarters of the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope, was filled with water. Owing to its inaccessibility and other constraints, which made the application of adapted excavation techniques necessary, the need arose to call in the assistance of a diver-archaeologist. This article describes the approach to fieldwork undertaken in the Kat well during 1989 and 1999 and some of this feature's structural details.     

Past human exploitation of birds on the Isle of Man

This paper makes comparisons between various sources—historical, ethnographic and archaeological—that relate to birds on the Isle of Man, in order to give a picture of the former uses of birds by the Manx people. Written references suggest that seabirds in particular were an important source of the essentials of life, and this is reinforced by recent archaeological evidence. The bird bones discussed are from excavations at St Patrick's Island off the west coast and Castle Rushen, Castletown. Manx Shearwaters Puffinus puffinus were present in greater numbers than they are now, and two fragments of the now extinct great auk Pinguinis impennis were identified, confirming the presence of this species on the Isle of Man. The evidence points to over-harvesting of the shearwaters and members of the auk family. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

琉球王国的首里城

随着全面接受明文化的影响,琉球王国成为东亚文明圈的一员。国都首里城与王府正殿朝向西面,这与东亚文明圈"天子南面"的传统明显不同。笔者围绕着"南面与西面"问题解析琉球王国相关的历史,提出了新见解。     

Heritage,identity and community engagement at Dunluce Castle,Northern Ireland

As Northern Ireland transitions out of conflict, increased attention is being paid to the role heritage can play in building peace across society and developing a more sustainable future. Recent archaeological investigations at Dunluce Castle have uncovered elements of the site’s Gaelic past and the remains of an early seventeenth-century town built immediately prior to the Crown-sponsored Plantation of Ulster. The project included a dynamic programme of community engagement and outreach that created opportunities to work as a group in the embodied act of recovering the physical past. This formed a space in which to challenge aspects of the region’s contested past and facilitated the renegotiation of accepted local histories and existing identity constructs.     

Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting,St. Alban’s, 1869

A round-headed window in the cathedral close at Winchester, drawn by John Aubrey on or before March 1669 for his Chronologia architectonica, may belong to a hitherto unidentified structure shown by John Speed on his Map of Winchester of 1611. The location suggests that this structure and hence the window may have been part of the royal palace built in the centre of Winchester by William the Conqueror by about 1069–70, said by Gerald the Welshman, writing about 1198, to have been second to the palace in London ‘in neither quality nor scale’     

Weapon injuries in the 12th century Crusader garrison of Vadum Iacob Castle,Galilee

This project analyses the wounds sustained by those defending the Crusader castle of Vadum Iacob, which is to the north of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. To our knowledge this is the first Crusader castle garrison to be excavated and studied, and consequently gives unique information concerning medieval battle wounds. The Muslim forces of Saladin stormed the castle in August 1179. The skeletal remains of five of the garrison who were killed during the siege and the execution which followed have been studied, providing a vivid portrait of what it must have been like in the last hours as the castle surrendered. Multiple sword and arrow wounds were noted, and arrowheads were still in situ at the time of their deaths. All the soldiers appear to have been stripped of their armour and then dumped together with corpses of horses that died in the battle. We explore the nature and anatomical location of the wounds in the context of medieval Islamic weapons, battlefield tactics and the defensive armour of the Crusaders. Despite the limited number of soldiers discovered, the unique nature of this site makes the findings of great significance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Medieval phases of settlement at Benabbio castle,Apennine mountains,Italy: evidence from Ground Penetrating Radar survey

The lack of written sources for many of the medieval castles in the northern Apennines (Italy) makes it difficult to completely establish the most ancient historical phases of these settlements. The church of San Michele belongs to an abandoned fortified settlement of the Castle of Benabbio, in the mountains surrounding Lucca. Thanks to an epigraph still visible on the façade, the church foundation is dated back to AD 1218. However, several archaeological findings at the settlement seem to suggest stages of encastlement that are older than the church foundation.     

A Cross-Staff from the Wreck of HMS Stirling Castle (1703), Goodwin Sands, UK, and the Link with the Last Voyage of Sir Cloudesley Shovell in 1707

Several pieces of cross-staffs have been found on the wreck of the Stirling Castle on the Goodwin Sands. One has been assembled from parts of staffs found when the wreck was first investigated, and is currently in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Another part of a staff was found in 2001. It is from a cross-staff rather than a back-staff and, except for broken ends, is in good condition. The problems encountered in using such instruments are linked with the loss of Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet in 1707.
© 2009 The Author     

Changing Notions of Authenticity: Presenting a Castle Over Four Centuries

Bolsover Castle is a 17th‐century mock‐medieval castle built for the Cavendish family. First impressions suggest that its Pillar Parlour has survived with little alteration for nearly four centuries. In reality, there have been minor but telling changes to its fabric. The 18‐century Cavendishes venerated the castle as a shrine to their ancestors. Bolsover’s 19th‐century tenants recreated a romantic Olden Time appearance. The public bodies responsible for the castle in the 20th century used archaeology to reconstruct its 17th‐century form. In each case, these custodians aimed to present the site ‘authentically’, but their work reveals their own contemporary readings of the castle’s history. This evidence, gathered for a Conservation Plan, allowed English Heritage’s re‐display of the castle (1996–2001) to take a more reflective and positive approach to creating new meanings. This use of history to create local important meanings should give good cheer to those managing similar small but significant sites across the world.     

‘A Just and Liberal Landlord’: Manliness,Work, and the Landed Gentleman in the Brontës’ Novels

The Brontës’ many striking depictions of landowners are rife with ambiguities, particularly as these characters are seldom presented at work in their traditional roles as landlord and magistrate. While the Victorian landed gentleman’s status was partially predicated on not having to work for money, both the new Victorian professional ideal and traditional conceptions of paternalist care affected the ways this class was viewed by middle-class commentators at mid-century. In the Brontës’ novels, traditional paternalist responsibilities are fused with aspects of the professional ideal in depictions of reformed landed gentlemen, but even this new, ideal figure is represented as unsatisfactory. In this article, I consider how landowners were written about in contemporary periodicals and how the Brontës engage with these expectations. The Irish tenant and landlord problem, which was covered extensively in the periodical press, shaped Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in a profound way, as the novel serves as an important, but until now overlooked, reworking of Maria Edgeworth’s representations of landowning masculinity in Castle Rackrent (1800). The Brontës repeatedly depict landowners retreating into the domestic sphere, which I argue forms an implicit narrative challenge to this figure’s social authority. This article opens up new ground for the examination of Victorian discourse on professionalization in relation to the Brontës’ works and a consideration of the ways in which this discourse was applied to landowners both in the periodical press and the Victorian novel.