Is There Anybody Out There? The Historical Archaeology of Castles and Forts

DOCUMENT Citation Only Lila Rakoczy.

In Archaeology journals across the UK, the medieval castle is still being fought over. This war of interpretations, still largely centered on the military vs. non-military nature of castles, has been one cause among many for the current stagnation of castle studies. This paper will argue that retreading old research ground (and rehashing old arguments) is ultimately unproductive, and that far more interesting questions deserve to be asked of these ‘medieval’ buildings. A case will be made for a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Neal Hitch.

In November 2010, the Turks and Caicos National Museum led the first archaeological investigation of Fort George Cay, a small uninhabited island in the Turks and Caicos. The collection of multiple regimental buttons offered clues to who actually garrisoned the fort. Very little of the history of Fort St George (now named Fort George) has been documented. This presentation provides detailed descriptions of the buttons found and the regiments that served at the fort. Originally built in 1795 by...

DOCUMENT Citation Only J. Eric Deetz.

The colonists at Jamestown arrived in Virginia with a variety of experiences and skill sets.  The architectural remains of the early period at James Fort have been interpreted as the remnants of Mud and Stud, a traditional building technique used in the clay lands of England and one that persisted in the eastern fenlands of Lincolnshire well Into the nineteenth century. This type of building was considered by Eric Mercer to be somewhere between the earth and timber frame traditions.  The author...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Julie Rogers Saccente. Nancy Marie White.

Spanish inroads into North America targeted the land that is now Florida, with sixteenth-century explorations and seventeenth-century missions. Between the major settlements of St. Marks/San Luis (today, Tallahassee) and Pensacola, the little-known Fort San José was an outpost and rest-stop along the northeastern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, briefly occupied in 1701 and from 1719-21. Newly available data and materials collections from this fort document its position as a way-station between the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only J Brian Kerr.

In advance of conservation work and more recently of the reconstruction of the Elizabethan Garden, a considerable amount of research has been carried out in recent years on Kenilworth Castle. This programme of work, including documentary research, extensive excavation, building analysis, dendrochronology and geophysical survey has also shed considerable light on the Civil War defences and on the nature and sequence of the destruction of the buildings. This paper seeks to set out the different...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Shaun Timothy Richardson.

In 1534, the visiting John Leland saw at Sheriff Hutton castle, North Yorkshire, "no house in the North so like a princely lodgings".  Yet scarcely ninety years later, the surveyor John Norden viewed only a "naked carcase", and today, four shattered towers remain from the original structure.  Instead of considering the creation of an elite landscape and the heyday of a great late medieval residence, this paper will outline the transformation of one and the destruction of the other...

DOCUMENT Citation Only J Brian Kerr.

Participant Discussion: 20 minutes