Medieval Archaeology, Art and Architecture at Chester


Book Description

This volume is a compilation of papers presented in British Archaeological Association's annual conference in 1992. It focuses on the long tradition of archaeological and historical enquiry which has provided a framework for understanding Chester's development from the Roman period.




Medieval Art, Architecture & Archaeology at Canterbury


Book Description

"From the time of the foundation of its cathedral in 597, Canterbury has been the epicentre of Britain's ecclesiastical history, and an exceptionally important centre for architectural and visual innovation. Focusing especially but not exclusively on Christ Church cathedral, this legacy is explored in seventeen essays concerned with Canterbury's art, architecture and archaeology between the early Anglo-Saxon period and the close of the middle ages. Papers consider the relationship between between architectural setting and liturgical practice, and between stationary and movable fittings, while fresh insights are offered into the aesthetic, spiritual, and pragmatic considerations that shaped the fabric of Christ Church and St Augustine's abbey, alongside critical reflections on Canterbury's historiography and relationship to the wider world. Taken together, these studies demonstrate the richness of the surviving material, and its enduring ability to raise new questions.




Limerick and South-West Ireland


Book Description

This book contains essays devoted to the medieval art and architecture of Limerick in the Munster province of South-West Ireland. It underpins the degree to which Irish craftsmen and builders engaged with the rest of Europe, and the nature of their relationship with English practice.




Peterborough and the Soke


Book Description

The British Archaeological Association Conference held at Peterborough in 2015 provided a welcome opportunity for a new analysis of the cathedral’s architecture, sculpture and artistic production, and a reassessment of the relationship between the former abbey, the city and its institutions, and the Soke over which it held sway. This ambitious volume casts new light on the Roman occupation of the Nene valley, and the rich Anglo-Saxon sculptural and manuscript context that preceded the construction of the present cathedral, as well as exploring the vital Romanesque tradition of the Soke and the essential contribution of the Barnack quarries. But inevitably the most exciting new disclosures concern the church: its high-quality building campaigns during the 12th to 16th centuries, its abbots’ tombs and the reconstruction of the lost 14th-century High Altar screen from descriptions and loose fragments. Peterborough has attracted the attention of antiquarian scholars since its sacking by Cromwell’s men during the Civil War, and as its secrets are gradually revealed it continues to stimulate the historical imagination.




York


Book Description

York explores the archaeology, art, architecture and cultural heritage of the city in the late Middle Ages. In the years since the resurrection of the British Archaeological Association conference in 1976, the association has met in the city only once (in 1988), for a conference that celebrated Yorkshire Monasticism. As a consequence, the secular and vernacular architecture as well as the architecture, art and imagery of York Minster were excluded from its scope, something redressed in the meeting that took place in 2017. As many recent publications have focused on York in the earlier medieval period, this book shines a much-needed light on the city in the later medieval ages. Starting with a range of essays on York Minster by authors directly involved in major conservation projects undertaken in the last ten years, the book also includes information on the vernacular architecture and transport infrastructure of York, as well as the parochial and material culture of the period. Illuminating the extensive resources for the study of the late Middle Ages in England’s second capital, this book provides new research on this important city and will be suitable for researchers in medieval archaeology, art history, literature and material culture.




Mapping the Medieval City


Book Description

This ground-breaking volume brings together contributions from scholars across a range of disciplines (including literary studies, history, geography and archaeology) to investigate questions of space, place and identity in the medieval city. Using Chester as a case study – with attention to its location on the border between England and Wales, its rich multi-lingual culture and surviving material fabric – the essays seek to recover the experience and understanding of the urban space by individuals and groups within the medieval city, and to offer new readings from the vantage-point of twenty-first century disciplinary and theoretical perspectives. The volume includes new interpretations of well-known sources and features such as the Chester Whistun Plays and the city’s Rows and walls, but also includes discussions of less-studied material such as Lucian’s In Praise of Chester – one of the earliest examples of urban encomium from England and an important text for understanding the medieval city – and the wealth of medieval Welsh poetry relating to Chester. Certain key themes emerge across the essays within this volume, including relations between the Welsh and English, formulations of centre and periphery, nation and region, different kinds of ‘mapping’ and the visual and textual representation of place, borders and boundaries, uses of the past in the production of identity, and the connections between discourses of gender and space. The volume seeks to generate conversation and debate amongst scholars of different disciplines, working across different locations and periods, and to open up directions for future work on space, place and identity in the medieval city.




Excavations at Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire 1987-1994


Book Description

"Hulton Abbey was a minor Cistercian monastery in north Staffordshire (England), founded in 1219 and finally dissolved in 1538. This is the final report on the archaeological excavations undertaken there between 1987 and 1994. In particular, the chapter house was uncovered and re-assessed and the eastern part of the church and north aisle were completely excavated, together with the eastern half of the nave. The excavations are described by area and chronological phase with detailed specialist reports including architectural stonework and decorated floor tiles. An extensive programme of sampling and analysis of pollen remains from burials was also completed. The remains of 91 individuals, mainly men but also women and children, are reported on in detail, with sections on abnormalities and pathology as well as medieval burial goods such as a wax chalice and wooden wands. Comparisons with other published monastic sites in the region help to place Hulton into a wider context. An important element of the project was education and community involvement and today the site lies in a small urban park in Stoke-on-Trent."




Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology at Rochester: v. 28


Book Description

This collection of papers, first delivered at the BAA's annual conference in 2002, celebrates medieval Rochester, including both cathedral and castle, an outstanding pair of surviving monuments to the power of contemporary church and state. The contributions demonstrate the great interest of these understudied buildings, their furnishings, and historical and archaeological contexts: from the rich documentary evidence for the Anglo-Saxon town to the substantial surviving fabric of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Shrines, monuments, woodwork and seals are all fully covered, as well as the medieval monks themselves. There is also a piece on Archbishop Courtenay's foundation of the nearby collegiate church at Maidstone, Kent.




Crossing Boundaries


Book Description

Interdisciplinary studies are increasingly widely recognised as being among the most fruitful approaches to generating original perspectives on the medieval past. In this major collection of 27 papers, contributors transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries to offer new approaches to a number of themes ranging in time from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages. The main focus is on material culture, but also includes insights into the compositional techniques of Bede and the Beowulf-poet, and the strategies adopted by anonymous scribes to record information in unfamiliar languages. Contributors offer fresh insights into some of the most iconic survivals from the period, from the wooden doors of Sta Sabina in Rome to the Ruthwell Cross, and from St Cuthbert’s coffin to the design of its final resting place, the Romanesque cathedral at Durham. Important thematic surveys reveal early medieval Welsh and Pictish carvers interacting with the political and intellectual concerns of the wider Insular and continental world. Other contributors consider what it is to be Viking, revealing how radically present perceptions shape our understanding of the past, how recent archaeological work reveals the inadequacy of the traditional categorisation of the Vikings as ‘incomers’, and how recontextualising Viking material culture can lead to unexpected insights into famous historical episodes such as King Edgar’s boat trip on the Dee. Recent landmark finds, notably the runic-inscribed Saltfleetby spindle whorl and the sword pommel from Beckley, are also published here for the first time in comprehensive analyses which will remain the fundamental discussions of these spectacular objects for many years to come.This book will be indispensable reading for everyone interested in medieval culture.




The Architecture of Norman England


Book Description

This important addition to the literature is the first overall study of the architecture of Norman England since Sir Alfred Clapham's English Romanesque Architecture after the Conquest (1934). Eric Fernie, a recognized authority on the subject, begins with an overview of the architecture ofthe period, paying special attention to the importance of the architectural evidence for an understanding of the Norman Conquest. The second part, the core of the book, is an examination of the buildings defined by their function, as castles, halls, and chamber blocks, cathedrals, abbeys, andcollegiate churches, monastic buildings, parish churches, and palace chapels. The third part is a reference guide to the elements which make up the buildings, such as apses, passages, vaults, galleries, and decorative features, and the fourth offers an account of the processes by which they wereplanned and constructed. This book contains powerful new ideas that will affect the way in which we look at and analyze these buildings.




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