Royal Archaeological Institute Newsletter No August
EDITORIAL • Katherine Barclay IN THIS ISSUE ‘A clamour of conflicting interests hovers over the mildest meadow.’ Editorial One of the priorities of the Welsh legislative programme for the next five years is a Heritage Protection Bill for Wales that Grants and would strengthen the protection afforded to the historic Awards environment, yet simplify procedures. In England, a controversial draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has just been published for consultation. More than Dates for your , pages of current planning policy would be condensed to Diary some fifty pages, and the UK Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) says that it preserves all the existing heritage protection principles. But opinions are polarised. Spring Meeting Shaun Spiers, of the Campaign to Protect Rural England in Norfolk responded ‘If it is not amended, there will be battles against development across the country that will make the public Summer Meeting revolt against the sale of the forests look like a tea party.’ at Lisbon Supporting the draft, Joey Gardiner wrote online in the journal Building, that local councils would have to prove the adverse impacts of a development “significantly and demonstrably” RAI Lecture outweigh the benefits in order to turn down planning Programme and applications. Opposing it, the National Trust’s Director-General, Dame Fiona Reynolds, said ‘The Abstracts ‒ government’s proposals allow financial considerations to dominate, and with this comes huge risk to our countryside, BAA Programme historic environment and the precious local places that people of Meetings value.’ In its reply, DCLG asserted that the crystal-clear protections in the draft NPPF fulfil the coalition’s commitment ‒ to protect designated places such as Green Belt, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the historic environment. Miscellany Giving the Boydell Lecture, Sir Simon Jenkins noted that the Government’s clear expectation is that we move to a system where the default answer to development is yes and that consideration should be given only to heritage assets of ‘real importance’. In the case, for example, of Sir Simon Jenkins said that ‘[NPPF] even a designated heritage asset, development constitutes a clear presumption for any may still be permitted that results in development, even if the green belts are sub stantial harm to or total loss of protected. It is the sort of planning you get significance if the harm or loss is outweighed in a banana republic, where local corruption by the benefit of bringing the site back into and pressure is all.’ On the other hand, Liz use. Peace, chief executive at the British Property Federation, has said ‘We will have no The setting of the Richard Jefferies Museum, problem in giving the [NPP] framework our Coate Water Country Park, which ringing endorsement.’ unfortunately is not designated, is the setting too for many parts of his books. It is facing Meanwhile, north of the border, the Scottish development to include a business park and Government has issued its updated advice on homes, and although following a Planning and Archaeology, which sets out significant opposition campaign the proposals clearly the measures that should be taken to have been rejected, the developers have provide an adequate level of protection for appealed, and there is to be a public inquiry. archaeological remains without unnecessarily Highlighting this case as the kind of conflict impeding development, with a simple but that would be even more likely if the draft foolproof decision tree summarising the NPPF becomes official policy, Jack Watkins process. wrote in the Independent, that ‘officialdom, if it had its way, would like to parcel up the The consultation will close on October best parts of the countryside into ‘‘approved’’ . The full text of the draft National areas, facilitating a developers’ profitable Planning Policy Framework and details of free-for-all over the remainder, having consultation workshops are available at thought it sold us the dummy that anything http://www.communities.gov.uk/ undesignated must therefore be without planningandbuilding/planningsystem/ value.’ planningpolicy/planningpolicyframework
GRANTS AND AWARDS AWARDS FOR THE the speakers who demonstrate the most PRESENTATION OF HERITAGE interesting and high-quality research, and RESEARCH also give the most lively and entertaining The RAI is one of the co-sponsors (and presentation. The next awards will be made co-founders) of the Awards for the in February . For full details and an Presentation of Heritage Research, along entry form, see: http://www.english- with English Heritage, Historic Scotland, heritage.org.uk/professional/training-and- Cadw, the Irish Department of the skills/improving-practice/awards-for- Environment, Heritage and Local presentation-of-heritage-research Government and the Northern Ireland BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL Environment and Heritage Service. We AWARDS 2012 contribute £ towards the prizes, and specifically that of the £ Under-30 Prize; Aimed at identifying the most impressive, the main award is worth £, and there is innovative and imaginative archaeological a runners-up award of £. These go to endeavours of the past two years, the biennial British Archaeological Awards are a for the best dissertation submitted by an showcase for the best in British archaeology. under graduate in full-time education. In Entries will be judged in the following six odd-numbered years, the competition is for categories: Best Project, Best Community the best dissertation submitted by a Master’s Project, Best Book, Best Representation of student. Archaeology in the Media, Best Discovery and Best Innovation. Details of the In the RAI award will be for the best Awards have not been announced yet, but Master’s dissertation on a subject concerned will be forthcoming within the next few with the archaeology or architectural history months – nominations should open in of Britain, Ireland or adjacent areas of November. Further details will appear on the Europe. Nominations are made by BAA website www.britarch.ac.uk/awards University and College Departments. The when available. winner will receive a prize of £ and the opportunity for a paper based on the BIENNIAL MASTER’S dissertation to be published in the DISSERTATION PRIZE Archaeological Journal. The chief criteria The RAI holds two competitions for considered are (a) quality of work and (b) disserta tions on a subject concerned with the appropriateness to the interests of the RAI as archaeology or architectural history of reflected in the Journal. The award will be Britain, Ireland and adjacent areas of Europe. presented at the London meeting of the In even-numbered years, the competition is Institute on March .
ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE RESEARCH GRANTS The Institute awards the following grants annually: Tony Clark Fund Up to £ for archaeological work and dating Bunnell Lewis Fund Up to £ towards archaeology of the Roman period in the UK RAI Award Up to £ towards archaeological work in the UK For an application form, please see www.royalarchinst.org or write to the Administrator @ RAI c/o Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, London, Closing date for applications: January . Awards announced in April .
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY S M at the Cinque Ports, based in Deal, – May, led by Jon Coad A D M at Birmingham, Aston Hall and Back to Backs, Saturday S M at Liverpool and October, led by Hedley Swain. For details, environs – July, led by Hedley Swain. please see the flyer included in this mailing. F in (details to be A D M at London Docks, confirmed, but please check our website) October, led by Hedley Swain. .
REPORT OF THE 157th SUMMER MEETING AT LISBON AND ENVIRONS, ‒ June, • Vivienne Coad
The anniversary of the battle of Waterloo of the Counts of Guimarães, a building marked the arrival of forty-four members of exhibiting an array of styles from neo-Gothic the Institute at Lisbon, an appropriate date to Moorish. Here we were introduced to for a visit which was to include Torres Portugese prehistory and our guide explained Vedras. that it was in caves near Cascais, that the earliest evidence of prehistoric occupation in The trip began on a grey, damp morning in Portugal had been found in the late Heathrow’s crowded Terminal with the nineteenth century. Among the beaker finds, challenges of self-service check-in but, as the limestone votive sandals and small bone plane headed south over the mountains of rabbits drew particular comment. Our tour northern Spain with the promise of ° C in of Cascais ended with the fort, with its late Lisbon, the members of the party were in medieval core and subsequent two periods of excellent cheer. Our descent began along the build to give it the distinctive angle bastions Tagus estuary then, as we wheeled over the of the seventeenth century. sea, there were expansive views over the bay to the city, under a clear blue sky. A brief A picnic lunch on the coach was followed coach ride took us to the Citadela Cascais by some free time in Belém. Some made a hotel and, whilst some members immediately bee line for the flea market whilst others ventured out into town to shop or explore a walked purposefully to the promenade to small party headed straight for the hotel view the striking monument to Henry the swimming pool. Navigator and the sixteenth-century tower of Belém. We re-assembled for a visit to the A warm, sunny Sunday marked our arrival in monastery of Jerónimos, our introduction to the town centre of Cascais. We were even a style of architecture new to almost all of trumpeted by an exuberant fire service band. us. The Manueline style (named after King Our guide, the town archaeologist Severino Manuel I, –) is characterised by a Rodrigues, who had nobly given up his rich and fantastical use of decoration and the Sunday morning to be with us, had some job cloister with its conjugation of symbols being heard. He persevered with good spirit clearly exemplified this. The archaeological and walked us through narrow, cobbled museum incorporated in one wing of the streets, past houses with their distinctive monastery included a treasure room ceramic tile decoration to view the containing remarkable interlocking gold excavated foundations of a sixteenth-century spirals from the Bronze Age, Iron Age torcs merchant’s house and the site of the ‘new and Roman gold jewellery. well’ (post earthquake) now marked by a circle of cobbles. In what had been a The final visit of the day was to our first fishing town it was fascinating to peer, Chalcolithic or copper age site, the behind an unlikely door in the wall, at the settlement at Leceia. We were met here by remains of a Roman fish tank, used the excavator João Luis Cardoso, Professor presumably for the preparation of garum, a of Archaeology at the Open University of sort of Roman fish paste. We were led Lisbon, who had kindly given up his Sunday around the perimeter of what had been the afternoon to give us a comprehensive tour. small medieval castle area to the museum This complicated defended settlement housed in the extraordinary former mansion includes bastioned walls, successively
ceilings, doors and window surrounds of English interior with its soaring nave cork for insulation. Some members were columns. By contrast, the cloister arcade was bent almost double negotiating the low a feast of flamboyant Manueline detail. passages and doorways. As we boarded the Alcobaça, our final destination of the day, coach some were heard to remark what a lies amid fruit orchards and some of the variety of sites we had enjoyed at Sintra, all party took the opportunity to sample different but sharing a wonderful setting. delicious plums and cherries. The Cistercian Irene Grossman joined us on Wednesday for abbey founded here in has the largest the two-hour journey northwards to Tomar. church in Portugal and its interior impressed The drive through a landscape of gentle hills, with its wonderful, clean spaces and vines and villages was enlivened by Irene’s unencumbered vista along the narrow side commentary, drawing our attention at one aisles. Here the famous but ill-fated lovers point to the umbrella shaped pine trees King Pedro and his mistress Inês de Castro (which produce our culinary pine nuts) at were buried, her tomb surrounded by the another to the second and third lines of carved heads of her executioners. It was rare Wellington’s defence in the Peninsular wars. to see a refectory still with its pulpitum and Arriving in Tomar we walked past the castle the vast tiled kitchen chimneys looked walls to the Convento de Christo, the almost modern in style. At the end of a long earliest surviving part of which is the original day it was rejuvenating to sit in the square templar church, the Charola Rotunda. opposite the abbey, sipping welcome drinks Externally this is still of twelfth-century date and enjoying the little pastéis de nata (custard but the interior is embellished with the rich tarts), a Portugese speciality. heady decoration of the sixteenth century. Michael Kunst, our guide met us at Torres From the fifteenth century, substantial Vedras on Thursday morning. The museum additions were made to the convent, was closed until am because of the feast of including the cloisters and palace buildings, Corpus Christi so we made an extra visit to and the complicated sequence of buildings a Copper Age Tholos, the Tholos de Barro. was difficult to take in, particularly as our For some this was an opportunity to wild visit was necessarily short. The extraordinary flower spot and to enjoy the scent of wild west window with its bewildering mix of marjoram and oregano whilst the military maritime motifs, held up as an exemplar of historians were able to enjoy a view to the Manueline art, was, Irene explained, more line of hills which were utilised by likely to be a nineteenth-century insertion, Wellington as part of his defensive barrier as there are motifs not found in any other against the French. Unfortunately it did not Manueline work and the opening cuts two prove possible to visit any of those defences floor levels. but an excellent exhibition on the Peninsular From Tomar we moved on to Batalha War at the museum in Torres Vedras was a Abbey, built onwards to fulfil a vow compensation. At the museum Michael had made by King João before the Battle of laid out a most informative display of Aljubarrota. We were reminded of more artefacts from his excavations at Zambujal, recent battles as our visit coincided with the together with panels showing the building changing of the guard at the tomb of the sequence of this defended Copper Age unknown warrior. The rich detail of the settlement which we were to view later in exterior did not prepare us for the austerity the morning. His comprehensive and of what one member described as the almost detailed explanation of the development of
despite the discomfort of the trek the reward unfailingly helpful and all our guides had was certainly worth it. The imposing gone out of their way to make our visits dolmen, stripped of its mound in the informative and interesting. They almost s–s excavations, comprises a burial invariably began with an apology about their chamber and entrance passage composed of English and yet spoke with impressive huge stones. It has remained exposed since fluency. We had been introduced to a new the excavations, protected only by a style of architecture, Manueline and a new temporary roof and its long term terminology for pre-history, the preservation is of considerable concern. Chalcolithic. The huge variety of sites had We could not have wished for a more simply whet our appetites for a further imposing site to mark the end of our exploration of a country new to most of us excursions. and a week blessed with unbroken sunshine, Over the week we had all been struck by rare for an Institute’s summer meeting, had the friendliness and courtesy of the added to the feeling of well being. A sunny Portugese. Our hotel staff had been and successful foray.
ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE LECTURE PROGRAMME AND ABSTRACTS: 2011/12
Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month from October to May at . pm in the Rooms of the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London . Tea will be served before each meeting at . pm. Non-members are welcome but should make themselves known to the Secretary and sign the visitor’s book.
been as much as m tall. Whilst, last O autumn coring work through the Marlborough Mound produced four The Giants of Wessex: Silbury Hill, radiocarbon samples, which this year Marlborough Mound and Hatfield Barrow revealed for the fist time that the mound is J L prehistoric in date and broadly contemporary with Silbury Hill and Marden henge. This Over the last few years the three giant round lecture will describe the findings of each mounds of Wessex have seen some form of project, and explore a variety of ways of archaeological work. In and understanding these enigmatic monuments. Silbury Hill was the focus of a multi-million pound project which included opening and retracing the tunnel into the heart of N the Hill. Last summer saw excavations at Protecting England’s Underwater Heritage Marden, one of the largest Neolithic henge M D monuments in Britain, which provided evidence for the now demolished mound For an island nation, it is impossible to known as the Hatfield Barrow – said to have separate our maritime heritage from the . remains of our historic highs and lows on land. Much of our wealth came J directly from the fruits of the sea or was the result of trade and military endeavour across A hillfort at war? Excavations at Fin Cop, it. Derbyshire With a wealth of sites and monuments C W recorded offshore, English Heritage is devising new approaches to managing the In recent years Iron Age hillforts have country’s maritime cultural heritage in frequently been seen as monumental symbols response to more holistic and integrated of status conveying the power, prestige and practices, supported by new legislation, social standing of their occupants rather than policy and guidance. Changes to the ways in as true defensive constructions with a serious which England’s maritime heritage is martial purpose. This view has been based enjoyed, understood, valued, and conserved largely on the results of landscape and metric are in progress. survey of a variety of sites, some of which may not warrant the apellation ‘hillfort’. This lecture will explain some of the Allied to this perception have been accounts innovative ways in which English Heritage of the Iron Age that have effectively is protecting the maritime past for the ‘pacified’ the period and which have even future. portrayed society as being ‘egalitarian’. Although such views seem at odds with D much of the physical evidence and classical accounts of the time, clear evidence for the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey violent sacking of a hillfort during the Iron M C Age had not been forthcoming until the recent excavations at Fin Cop. The Fin Cop Despite the recent popularity of studies that excavations and subsequent anlaysis of the highlight the relationship between material will be described during this talk individuals within medieval society and the and the implications for hillfort studies and church as both building and institution, one accounts of the Iron Age will be discussed. major corpus of evidence remains relatively little examined. Despite archaeological F interest in the subject dating from the late nineteeenth century, pre-reformation graffiti, ‘The Death, burial and tomb of Henry VIII’ in the form of both textual inscriptions and T T-B images, has remained, until very recent years, largely overlooked. In January the In the Archaeological Journal (Vol. ) for Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey was , Alfred Higgins published a very long established with the aim of undertaking the and important article, entitled: ‘On the work first systematic large scale survey of of Florentine sculptors in England in the surviving pre-reformation graffiti inscriptions Early Part of the Sixteenth Century with in the UK. The work undertaken by the Special Reference to the Tombs of Cardinal NMGS and the discoveries it has made Wolsey and King Henry VIII’. This article, have already begun to change our which was used by Sir William St. John perceptions of the interior of the medieval Hope in his great architectural history of parish church. Windsor Castle, published all the documentary evidence for Henry VIII’s A tomb but assumed that it was always being Stranger in a Strange Land: the made at Windsor. Work by recent scholars Anglo-Saxon settlement at West Halton has shown that the tomb was not taken to (Lincolnshire) in its Bronze-Age setting Windsor from Westminster (a renaissance workshop in Dean’s Yard) until the s, D H and that Wolsey never intended to have his Between and excavations in the tomb at Windsor. village of West Halton (north Lincolnshire) This lecture will briefly reassess the evidence sought to elucidate the nature of Anglo- and will also look at the documented Saxon occupation on the village green, evidence for the site of Henry VIII’s (and where the remains of buildings, a curvilinear Jane Seymour’s and Charles I’s) burial ditch and a square-ditched enclosure have vault in St George’s Chapel, which is been excavated. These Anglo-Saxon remains apparently wrongly marked on the chapel were adjacent to a mound that had long floor. been thought to have been a post-medieval feature, but the recent excavations revealed M it to be of Bronze-Age date, and to have been reused for burial in the seventh The Comeback Species: recent developments century. The remains of a second barrow in Neanderthal studies were identified during excavation. This W R paper reports on the results of the excavations as it seeks to set the site in its Over the past decades our knowledge of our broader context. closest relatives, the Neanderthals, has increased at an amazing pace. In two M decades, archaeological studies have upgraded them from obligate scavengers to The President’s lecture competent hunters, adapted to a wide range A step too far: why was Hadrian’s Wall of environments where they used fire as a built so far north? tool to prepare food and produced artificial D J. B glues to haft their stone tools. Genetic data suggest that many modern humans are the Various factors governed the location of proud owners of a Neanderthal genetic Roman frontiers. The northern frontier in heritage. At the same time, we have also Britain is particularly interesting for it ebbed learned some interesting lessons about the to and fro. It settled on the line of Hadrian’s variability within the archaeological record Wall, but why? Geography, history, politics, of modern humans. It is time to take stock social structure, economics? Perhaps all of these developments and the resulting new played a part. The location of Hadrian’s Wall Neanderthals. will be placed in its wider setting.
. BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION PROGRAMME OF MEETINGS 2011/12
RAI members are invited to attend the meetings of the British Archaeological Association.
O Birkbeck training excavations in Syon Park: the Bridgettine Abbey and the formal gardens of Syon House by Harvey Sheldon The lecture will be preceded by the Association’s Annual General Meeting N Creating and recreating the tombs to the Dukes of York in Fotheringhay Church by Jenny Alexander and Sofija Matich D Piety, politics and prestige: the friars and their patrons in late medieval Ireland by Colmán Ó Clabaigh J Gifts and the Richard II Inventory by Jenny Stratford The lecture will be followed by the Association’s Twelfth-Night Party (booking required) F Monumental and multi-lingual inscriptions in the city of Ani by Tony Eastmond M Medieval building stone by Tim Tatton-Brown A The George Zarnecki Memorial lecture and reception: Inventing Romanesque sculpture: patrons, artists, masons and art historians by Sandy Heslop M Imagining passion in Paris: A new study of the wall paintings of martyrdom in the Sainte-Chapelle by Emily Guerry The lecture will be followed by the President’s Reception Meetings are held at . pm in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. Tea will be served before each meeting at . pm. Non-members are welcome to attend occasional lectures but are asked to make themselves known to the Hon. Director on arrival and to sign the visitors’ book.
MISCELLANY
Publication News by Audrey M. Baker Ph.D, FSA, ed. Ann The next volume of the Archaeological Journal, Ballantyne and Pauline Plummer vol. , will be ready for despatch in the The art of East Anglia was pre-eminent second half of September. during the late thirteenth and the first half of English Panel Paintings – A Survey of the fourteenth centuries. Its illuminated Figure Paintings on East Anglian Rood-screens manuscripts rivalled in quality those produced in London and Paris and as the ‘Free’ Back Issues of the Archaeological diocese of Norwich became, for a while, one Journal. The Institute is giving away back of the greatest centres of book production issues of the Archaeological Journal, Indexes, that has existed in any country, at the same Summer Meeting Reports, and selected time some particularly beautiful wall off-prints and monographs. Recipients will paintings and sculptures were being created be expected to pay packaging and postage in the churches of this increasingly costs. The items are available in limited prosperous region. Published mid September numbers and will be distributed on a , further details + contents can be found first-come, first-served basis. To see the list at www.archetype.co.uk. Price £., of volumes and/or to place your order, select pre-publication price £. + postage the Back Issue Order Form from the website (UK £., Europe £), if ordered pre-paid at http://www.royalarchinst.org/documents/ with a visa/mastercard /cheque by backissue.doc or contact the Administrator direct for a faxed or posted copy. November from: Archetype Publications, Fitzroy Square, London Timber Castles Conference October , Tel , Fax : Call for Papers. In October , to , [email protected] mark twenty years since the publication of Higham and Barker’s Timber Castles, the The Frontiers of Imperial Rome Castle Studies Group is planning to organise by David J. Breeze a day conference examining the latest work At its height, the Roman Empire was the on timber castles primarily in the UK, but greatest empire yet seen with borders also internationally. If anyone is currently stretching from the rain-swept highlands of undertaking or has recently done work on Scotland in the north to the sun-scorched sites which had major phases of timber Nubian desert in the south. But how were construction and would like to be considered the vast and varied stretches of frontier to give a paper at the conference, please defined and defended? Many of Rome’s contact Jeremy Cunnington at frontier defences have been the subject of [email protected] detailed and ongoing study and scholarship. or Flat , Ferme Park Road, This wide-ranging survey will describe the London , Tel. . varying frontier systems, describing the Subscriptions extant remains, methods and materials of construction and highlighting the differences The current rates are: Ordinary member, between various frontiers. Professor Breeze £ and Associate or Student, £, with considers how the frontiers worked, discounts when paid by direct debit; Life discussing this in relation to the organisation member, £ or £ if aged over . and structure of the Roman army, and also Subscriptions to the Institute made using their impact on civilian life along the direct debit are collected via the Charities empire’s borders. Details at www.pen-and- Aid Foundation (CAF). When sword.co.uk. RRP £., offer price communicating with a member to £. + postage (UK £., Europe £), acknowledge receipt, CAF use the term online voucher code: , from: Pen & ‘donation’. Sword Books Ltd, Church Street, Gift Aid: Members who pay the standard Barnsley, South Yorkshire, , rate of tax and have arranged for the Tel. . Institute to receive gift aid on their . subscriptions have gained for the Institute a Burlington House, London, . The substantial sum. Under this scheme, if you RAI no longer has an office in London, but are a taxpayer, the government will refund the Administrator will usually be at this to the Institute, p in the pound of the address on the second Wednesday of each value of your subscription. If you would like month from October to May, between to help, please ask the Administrator for a am and pm. form or download it from our website, Sponsor a Student/Young Person’s where it is the second page of the Membership of the RAI membership form. Despite previous notices of encouragement, it is still the case that In a limited pilot scheme, second- or third- less than a third of members have yet signed year degree students under , nominated by up. their archaeology department, are being offered membership of the Institute, The RAI office sponsored by volunteer existing members. In The telephone number for the Administrator , there are five such members. If you is , the email is can help us to expand the scheme, please [email protected] and the postal contact the Administrator at the address address is RAI, c/o Society of Antiquaries, above.
ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER Katherine Barclay, Williamsgate, Governor’s Green, Pembroke Road, Portsmouth, Hants. . Email: [email protected]
Copy for the next issue must reach the editor by the end of January for publication in April .
www.royalarchinst.org