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Society for Medieval Archaeology
Newsletter
Issue 40 - September
2008
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EDITORIAL
The present year has been a busy year for the
Society, and the Newsletter serves to capture the essence of those
events that are of interest to the membership. A shortlist of
forthcoming conferences is indicated, as well as a report on the
World Archaeology Congress held in Dublin in May. Ireland features
elsewhere in the Newsletter, and perhaps most notably in relation
to a new ministerial research funding initiative that has important
implications for Irish archaeology in general. Readers may also
be interested to note that the cover design for the Society's
journal is being reviewed, while those of us who were unable to
attend the Society's spring fieldtrip to Estonia are provided
with a robust account of what was a most successful event.
In taking over the reins of editing the Newsletter
from Gabor Thomas, I would like to thank Gabor most sincerely
for 'showing me the ropes'. Please continue to send in your comments,
suggestions and extracts for inclusion in future issues.
Many thanks,
Dr. Niall Brady
Project Director
The Discovery Programme
63 Merrion Square
Dublin 2
Ireland.
E-mail: niall@discoveryprogramme.ie
CONFERENCE
REPORTS
'Medieval Materialisations', World
Archaeology Congress 2008, Dublin.
This year's World Archaeology Congress
(WAC), as expected, offered a stimulating choice of subjects from
across time and space. I'm writing to report on a session organised
by Niall Brady and John Soderberg - 'medieval materialisations'
- and to observe more broadly on medieval archaeology at WAC.
Firstly, though, I'd like to comment that WAC was socially and
culturally rewarding, with delegates from all over the globe,
varied events at the 'WAC Fringe', the justified promotion of
Irish heritage, evening receptions in various locations throughout
the city and also, on my part, appreciation of the Viking display
at the National Museum of Ireland and of the Guinness [Store House].
Thanks to support from the Rosemary Cramp Fund, then, I escaped
from the world of my PhD and spent the week flicking through an
eclectic range of archaeological channels. The congress is thematically
arranged but a retrospective review of the sessions I attended
reveals papers dealing with diverse medieval subjects from across
Europe. In 'natural sacred sites and holy places', Sarah Semple
(Durham University), Tonno Jonuks (Estonian Literary Museum) and
Neil Price (Oxford University) discussed exploration of landscape
manifestations of early medieval religious practice. As part of
a set of papers on legislation and regulation, Richard O'Brien
(Tipperary History Society) talked about the contested impact
and legislation of new developments within sight of St Patrick's
Rock of Cashel. Finally, scientific sessions on the formation
of 'dark earths' included presentations of the insights into site
formation processes and corresponding urban activities that interdisciplinary,
intensive studies of soils have revealed at Brussels (Yannick
Devos, Université libre de Bruxelles) and Tours/Saint Julien
(Mélanie Fondrillon). No doubt there were other papers
in other sessions, but I could not go to them all and I haven't
even mentioned the posters…
Friday was the day of 'medieval materialisations'
and my thanks go to Niall and John for organising the session.
Under the umbrella of the parent theme 'materialising identities',
the session sought to explore ways of understanding medieval worlds.
The selection of papers both considered ways of looking at and
engaging with the medieval material world by thinking about how
it was seen and engaged with, and presented detailed information
to facilitate such reconstructions. The line up included: viking
age Lincoln (Letty ten Harkel), Commercial topographies in high-medieval
Bury St Edmunds (myself), daily life at Killickaweeny (Fintan
Walsh), the spectacularly preserved watermill at Kilbegly (Neil
Jackman), multi-elemental analysis of skeletal assemblages (Tasneem
Bashir), meaningful dress accessories (Eleanor Standley), access
analysis of Irish tower houses (Rory Sherlock) and landscape settings
of mottes and watchtowers of the Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman
Irish landscapes respectively (Sara Nylund and David McIlreavy).
Methodologically and theoretically, a paper on Pinakes 3.0. software
demonstrated methods to classify different types of archaeological
data, including the less tangible (Andrea Scotti), and John Soderberg's
paper on materiality/mentality sought to capture the very essence
of human engagement with the material world.
The diverse range of papers from wider and the
special sessions shows the representation of Medieval archaeology
at WAC and its integration and engagement with major themes of
the congress, both theoretical and practical. The central of these
are perhaps the promotion of an archaeology that is 'engaged and
useful' and reflections on the directions of funding, agenda setting
and management. The visible engagement of medieval archaeology
with these major themes at the 6th WAC bodes well for the 7th.
Abby Antrobus
a.l.antrobus@durham.ac.uk
SPOTLIGHT
ON RESEARCH
INSTAR Funding in Ireland - the Irish
National Strategic Archaeological Research programme 2008
The Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government
in Ireland has made available a sum of money for archaeological
research that is specifically aimed at collaborative approaches
between universities, state institutions, and private sector consultancies.
The background to the initiative lies in an awareness of the need
to maximise the return on archaeological information that is being
made available at a rapid rate due largely, but not exclusively,
to infrastructural development. In 2008, a total of €1,006,685.95
has been assigned to fourteen projects. The Society will be pleased
to know that four of the projects are exclusively concerned with
medieval matters, while many of the remaining projects will include
medieval elements. The four projects are: Mapping Death: People,
Boundaries & Territories in Ireland 1st to 8th Centuries AD,
where the lead investigator is the UCD Mícheal Ó
Cléirigh Institute; Making Christian Landscapes, led by
the Department of Archaeology, UCC; Early Medieval Archaeology
Project, led by the School of Archaeology, UCD; and Medieval Dublin
City Archaeological Research Agenda , led by Dublin Council. Each
project must submit a detailed report by December 2008, and the
possibility of further and future funding exists for forthcoming
years. Society members outside Ireland may wish to contact their
hibernic colleagues in terms of future collaborative projects.
www.heritagecouncil.ie
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NEWS AND VIEWS
Conor Newman appointed Chairman of
the Heritage Council
The Heritage Council was established in Ireland in 1988 to look
after both the natural and built aspects of the national heritage.
The Council is a statutorily independent body under the Heritage
Act, 1995, and is funded by the Department of Environment, Heritage
and Local Government. Its role is to propose policies and priorities
for the identification, protection, preservation and enhancement
of the national heritage, including monuments, archaeological
objects, heritage objects such as art and industrial works, documents
and genealogical records, architectural heritage, flora, fauna,
wildlife habitats, landscapes, seascapes, wrecks, geology, heritage
gardens, parks and inland waterways. In May of this year, the
Minister appointed Conor Newman as the Council's new chairman,
a post that he will occupy for five years. Conor is a lecturer
in Archaeology at the National University of Ireland, Galway,
and he has contributed to previous volumes of the Society's journal.
He directed the Discovery Programme's geophysical survey of the
Hill of Tara, and has been a tireless campaigner for a balanced
approach to the resolution of development works in this archaeologically
sensitive landscape. Conor's appointment represents the first
archaeologist appointed to the highest office of the Heritage
Council, and the Society wishes him well in this challenging and
exciting role.
www.heritagecouncil.ie
The Queen's Birthday honours included a smattering of medievalists,
and one past president of the Society:
Created CBE:
Christopher Charles Dyer, FBA,
Professor of Local and Regional History and Director of the Centre
for English Local History, University of Leicester, for services
to scholarship.
Created OBE:
Wendy Davies, FBA, Professor of
History and Pro-Provost for European Affairs at University College,
London, for services to research in the humanities and to higher
education
Professor Richard Fawcett, Principal
Inspector, Historic Scotland, for public and voluntary services.
SOCIETY NEWS
Policy for conflict of interest
The Editorial Committee has adopted a formal policy for managing
potential conflicts of interest in relation to the journal contents.
For details, see www.maney.co.uk/journals/ma
Student Representative
on Society's Council
As the new student representative on the SMA Council, my role
is to represent the student members of the SMA. If student members
have any comments, feedback or questions they wish to put to the
Council, please email me and I will raise the points at the next
meeting. To improve communications the SMA plans to set up an
email discussion list, details of which will appear on the SMA
website shortly. I would also like to encourage student members
to contribute to the Society's journal, Medieval Archaeology.
Articles and short notes are published in the journal and more
details are available on the website. Potential authors should
contact the Honorary Editor at an early stage in their preparation.
Eleanor Standley,
e.r.standley@durham.ac.uk
Journal Cover
The Editorial Committee is considering a new cover for the journal
and work is under way within Council to bring this to fruition
for 2009. Contact Sally Foster, Honorary Editor.
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GRANTS AND AWARDS
Erin McGuire and Elizabeth Pierce
received awards of £250 each from the Fletcher Fund
to attend the annual meeting and conference of the Society for
the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Fairbanks, Alaska,
13-15 March 2008. Erin and Elizabeth presented papers based on
their PhD research in a session on recent developments in the
Norse North Atlantic in conjunction with their supervisor, Dr
Colleen Batey. Erin's presentation was on 'Life on the Viking
Frontier: Examining the social consequences of migration in the
Norse North Atlantic'. Elizabeth's presentation, was entitled
'Norse and No One Else? Cultural manifestations of new identities
in the Norse of the North Atlantic'.
e.mcguire.1@research.gla.ac.uk
e.pierce.1@research.gla.ac.uk
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REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Archaeology at Cardiff University
Since its establishment in the 1950s, the Archaeology department
in Cardiff (now within a School of History and Archaeology) has
been strongly involved with the study of medieval sites and artefacts,
offering students practical training in their excavation, recording,
analysis, interpretation and conservation. In the early years,
Leslie Alcock led pioneering work on the post-Roman citadel at
Dinas Powys, not far from Cardiff. The Early Christian 'Celtic'
West in Britain and Ireland retain a substantial presence in taught
undergraduate and postgraduate courses and research, alongside
the study of Anglo-Saxon England and the Viking Period in Scandinavia,
Britain and Ireland, and, more recently, the Late Antique/Early
Medieval transition on the Continent. Post-Conquest medieval archaeology
is studied with particular reference to Britain and Crusader Palestine
respectively. Interdisciplinary period studies are supported by
a strong complement of specialists in High and Late Medieval History
(Professors Peter Coss and Peter Edbury, and Drs William Aird
and Helen Nicholson).
At masters level, medieval archaeology can be
studied within a general MA in Archaeology, as well as through
more closely focused MAs in Early Medieval Society and Culture,
Early Celtic Britain, Medieval British Studies, and the Crusades.
An important dimension of work in Archaeology
at Cardiff University is provision for laboratory analysis and
conservation, with BSc and MSc courses alongside the single and
joint honours BA and the MAs. In keeping with the development
of medieval archaeology in general, recent years have seen growing
interest amongst staff and students in the value of applying the
skills and insights of, inter alia, osteology and material science
to finds from medieval sites - and no less in comparing medieval
evidence with that of other periods. Professor Ian Freestone is
leading research projects on glass production in the Byzantine
and Early Islamic lands around the eastern Mediterranean as well
as on the stained glass of York Minster. Dr Jacqui Mulville is
conducting new work on the animal bone assemblages from Dinas
Powys, Llangorse crannog, Bornais, Norwich Castle and Butrint,
and will shortly start analysis of the cremated human bone from
the Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Cleatham, N. Lincs. Niall Sharples
directed the excavation of a settlement at Bornais, South Uist,
occupied c. AD 400-1400 and is currently working with students
on the post-excavation analysis of the rich artefactual, faunal
and environmental material recorded in situ on this site.
Through a University 'Innovation & Engagement'
scheme directed at initiatives to engage with a wider public,
the school has launched a Community Archaeology project based
upon the partly excavated and reconstructed, but unpublished,
12th- to 14th-century settlement remains at Cosmeston (Vale of
Glamorgan). This is led by Jane Stewart, formerly Finds Liaison
Officer for the West Midlands. Besides retrieving and making accessible
the evidence from the digs here of the 1970s and 1980s, and undertaking
further surveys and excavations to improve understanding of the
site in its multi-period landscape setting, student fieldwork
at Cosmeston alongside volunteers and visitors provides valuable
experience in the critical fields of practical heritage management
and lifelong learning.
Staff specializing in medieval archaeology,
and their research interests:
Dr Peter Guest: Numismatics; social and cultural change
in Late Antiquity.
Professor John Hines: societies and cultures of Britain
and northern Europe; artefacts; chronology; language, literature
and archaeology as aspects of cultural history.
Dr Alan Lane: Early-medieval settlements and artefacts
of the Celtic West; the Vikings in Britain and Ireland.
Professor Denys Pringle: High-medieval castles, churches
and settlements, especially in the Crusader kingdoms of the eastern
Mediterranean and the Holy Land; inscriptions; pilgrimage.
Current and recent postgraduate research projects
in medieval archaeology:
Pierre Brun: The fortifications of Sultan Kala in Merv, Turkmenistan.
Peter Inker: The Saxon Relief Style (4th-6th centuries AD).
Balazs Major: 10th- to 13th-century settlement in the coastal
areas of Syria.
Kishli Laister Scott: The fauna of medieval Gloucestershire.
James Petre: Castles in Lusignan Cyprus.
Karolina Ploska: European heritage protection policies and legislation,
with special reference to medieval sites.
Andrew Seaman: Early-medieval settlement in South Wales.
Jennifer Thompson: The cemetery of the Templar castle at 'Atlit,
Israel.
Professor John Hines
hines@cardiff.ac.uk
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St Dogmaels, in North Pembrokeshire
St Dogmaels (Llandudoch) in North Pembrokeshire
boasts a remarkable collection of medieval sculpture, with pieces
from the seventh to the sixteenth century. The village was the
site of an early christian monastery, associated with St Dethog,
which was destroyed in a Viking raid in 988, and later of an Tironian
house, founded by the Norman lord of Cemaes in 1113. This new
house came to be named after Dogmael, another early saint, who
seems to have been largely associated with south Pembrokeshire.
As a result of this monastic history there is sculpture from the
early and high medieval periods. Until recently many of these
pieces have been lying around the Cadw site, though the best,
the Sagranus stone, has long been (and still is) in St Thomas'
parish church. With its bilingual inscription, this stone played
a crucial role in the decipherment of the ogham alphabet: fortunately
St Thomas' church, which is immediately adjacent to St Dogmaels
abbey, is frequently open. Two other early christian stones, from
neighbouring Bryngwyn, are in the National Museum in Cardiff,
which also has a collection of high medieval tiles from the floor
of the abbey church. The stones in the care of Cadw have now been
given a splendid new setting in the Georgian Coach House (Choetsiws)
at the entrance to the abbey.
Four sizeable early christian stones, with incised
crosses and other patterns, are on display, as are the best pieces
from the high medieval abbey. Part of the thirteenth-century cloister
arcade has been elegantly reconstructed. Perhaps the most striking
pieces, however, come from the very end of the abbey's history,
when the north transept was reconstructed. A very fine corbel
and roof boss from this period are exhibited. Above all there
is a fine cadaver tomb, also from the final phase of the monastery's
history. Although the display is not large, it is attractively
set out, with some good descriptive panels, and some informative
audio-visual material, including a short introductory film and
a virtual tour of a computerised reconstruction of the abbey in
its heyday. Visitors to the exhibition are encouraged to contribute
50p as an entrance fee. The coach house, which is open most days
from 10 to 5 in summer and 10 to 4 in winter has a shop selling
guidebooks, and also offers an audio guide to the abbey for hire.
In addition it houses a cafe which sells tea, coffee, cakes and
light lunches!
Ian Wood
School of History
University of Leeds
I.N.Wood@leeds.ac.uk
An Hexagonal Cropmark
in Kent
In 2003 the Kent Archaeological Field School
(KAFS) was invited by the Bridge Historical Society to investigate
a crop-mark on top of Star Hill in the shape of a hexagon. Over
90 Anglo-Saxon inhumation graves cut into the chalk were revealed
overlaying 5th century Anglo-Saxon cremation deposits which in
turn overlaid Iron-Age cremations, post-holes, rubbish pits, stake
holes, ditches, and hut platforms which in turn overlaid Bronze
Age and earlier features. The date of the hexagonal ditched enclosure
has been firmly established as pre-Anglo-Saxon as no fewer than
seven Anglo-Saxon inhumations cut into the fill of the ditch.
However no conclusive dating evidence was forthcoming from the
fill of the ditch and it can only be assumed that the hexagonal
feature was short-lived, and is of a Roman date.
Reference
Wilkinson, P., 'The archaeological investigation of a hexagonal
feature at Star Hill, Bridge, near Canterbury, Kent.
2003-6'. PDF format, http://www.kafs.co.uk
TALLINN TALES FROM ESTONIA: a report
on the Society's Spring Fieldtrip
The very long weekend of 25-29 April 2008 saw
some dozen members of the Society enjoy with (and at the invitation
of) some 20 colleagues from the Finnish Antiquarian Society a
trip exploring some of the medieval delights of northern and western
Estonia. Our base of operations was Tallinn, on Estonia's northern
Baltic Sea coast.
Tallinn boasts a huge array of medieval secular
and religious buildings (hence its designation as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site since 1997), and perhaps most striking are its town
walls. Virtually intact they both define the whole of the old
town and split it into two: the upper, noble citadel of Toompea
and the lower town of churches, monasteries and thriving merchant
houses fostered by the Hansa (and including the magnificent 15th-century
Town Hall [or Raekoda] in the main square: the only surviving
medieval wool-stapler's hall surviving north of the Alps, as Geoff
Egan observed in conversation).
Much of the town's treasures were not on our
agenda but there was sufficient free time in the programme to
visit many of them. The UK contingent arrived intermittently through
Thursday and Friday and enjoyed a meal together on the Friday
night. Saturday saw the arrival of the Finns and we then set off
in earnest, sharing a two-day coach trip out into western Estonia
and the country's largest Baltic Sea Island, Saaremaa, under the
relaxed and knowledgeable guidance of Dr Kaire Tooming (Senior
Inspector with the Heritage Board of Estonia) Saturday was spent
largely on the mainland, visiting Haapsalu, Ridala and Karuse.
The tone was very much ecclesiastical. In Haapsalu we explored
the 13th-century and later bishop's palace-castle, the striking
simplicity of its church and attached circular baptistery made
austere by Lutheran continuity. The scale of the fortifications,
modified over several centuries, made manifest the ecclesiastical
land-holding politics of later medieval Livonia.
Ridala proved an exciting introduction to the
development of the parish church in Estonia (rooted in conversion-crusade
politics). It retains fascinating 13th century features (from
when it was first built in stone), especially its bold West front.
Both Ridala and Karuse introduced us to a range
of grave-slabs and burial markers from the 13th-15th centuries
(including some chunky granite crosses reminiscent of some Dartmoor
examples). Early evening we took the ferry over to the small island
of Muhu and thence by causeway to Saaremaa (an almost serenely
peaceful place) where both Finns and Brits got to know each other
better over a meal in a restaurant in Kuressaare (the island's
'capital'). On Sunday Kaire resumed her enlightening of us, taking
us first to the bishop's palace and castle complex in Kuressaare.
The fortifications were modified in the post-medieval period but
the main residential block retains much 13th- and 14th- century
work and its modelling on monastic architecture of the military
orders was clearly evident. The castle today also serves as the
regional museum and displays some fine pieces of Viking age material
culture (although it desperately needs a post-Soviet re-interpretation).
The Kuressaare Castle custodians although forewarned
of our arrival time decided they did not need to open for another
hour and so we re-jigged the programme so as not to miss our late
afternoon ferry back to the mainland. We dropped a couple of more
distant sites and added one new one. Back on the coach we headed
to Kaarma, the site of both an earthwork 'stronghold/hillfort'
(for which we adopted the more acceptable term fort/ringfort)
and a stone church founded in the 1220s (possibly with a first
phase wooden church.
The exterior fabric of the church included a
complete stone cross with tenon indicating it was once a free-standing
monument (perhaps it was associated with a wooden church, perhaps
it preceded it?).
Kaarma proved a wonderfully stimulating place
provoking lots of questions and discussion about the early-/late-medieval
divide in Estonia, about the use of the term hillfort and the
chronology of forts, about the association of churches with forts
and about the Revisionist potential in re-evaluating the Conversion
process before the 13th-century crusading episode (for a useful
summary of the latter see Fletcher 1998, 483-507), clues for which
include both material culture and inhumation burials that could
indicate conversion underway in the 12th-century if not earlier.
Our final site on Saaremaa was Kaali - a crater-lake created by
a meteorite crashing to earth c. 5,500 BC. It did not take much
for Anna Wickholm (Researcher, Helsinki University) to persuade
us that this was a site worth visiting; it has splendid cultural
associations and resonances. It has been defined as a sacred site
from at least the Bronze Age, with the crater-lake attracting
ritual deposition (the full extent of which awaits exploration).
It was still clearly perceived as sacred by the time of the conversion
to Christianity because its parish name means 'sacred'. We left
Saaremaa around 17.00hrs, our short ferry trip enshrouded in a
sea-fog that the heat lifted off the Baltic. A long drive back
to Tallinn led to welcome liquid refreshment and further discussion
in the city's plentiful and friendly hostelries. Monday brought
our final full day in Estonia and our final coach trip. We were
driven out to the NE perimeter of the city to visit the Brigittine
convent of Perita, under the fluent English and unfaltering knowledge
of Jaan Tamm, the main excavator of the monastery.
Seeing and hearing Jaan's explanation of the
hypocaust heating system was particularly instructive, not least
in how monastic rules devised in warmer climes had to be adapted
to fit colder ones.
Back into Tallinn for lunch we had something
of a medieval feast at the Old Hansa, a medieval-themed bar/restaurant
in a genuine medieval merchant's house, that was of dubious merit
in its commercial exploitation and disingenuousness but was also
strangely compelling, not to say fun. We staggered out of the
candle-lit gloom into the shock of another bright, sunny afternoon
and headed on foot to our final collective destination of the
day, the church of St Nicholas, converted in the 1950s to a Museum
of Estonian Art (after the plan to make it a museum of atheism
was abandoned). Inside Dr Anu Mänd guided us brilliantly
around the iconic masterpiece, 'Dance Macabre', by Bernt Notke.
I will confine myself to a few words about one of the three late
15th-century altar triptychs that she showed us. My mind was already
thinking about re-use thanks to Anna Wickholm's comments on Viking
age burial archaeology and reused grave goods. The altar-piece
in question, introduced us to a later reflex of reuse and appropriation,
for the triptych underwent at least three episodes of alteration
and addition in subsequent centuries, all fascinatingly unravelled
for us by Anu. Re-use is in reality the norm rather than the exception.
The church of St Nicholas becoming a museum is a further example,
as is the 14th-century merchant's house converted more recently
to a church and which I happened upon during my early morning
ramble around the walls of Tallinn on Tuesday.
The departure of the Finns for the ferry back
to Helsinki was accompanied by heart-felt farewells for well-met
companions. Several of them expressed a keen desire to make such
a visit to the UK (including Scotland). The sincerity of our shared
encounter was well expressed in the exchange of gifts (always
books of course) throughout the trip. As a result the Society
gained three books (one from the Finns, Edgren et al 2007, and
two from Dr Tamm, Tamm 2002 and Raam & Tamm 2006; which are
being passed to the library of the Society of Antiquaries of London;
the Society gave an example of a monograph to each of our guides
and to the FAS).
Most of the British left at various time on
the Tuesday, and my mid-afternoon flight afforded myself and two
friends a final walk around Tallinn, a visit to the Estonian History
Museum (in the medieval guild of the Blackheads building) and,
a real bonus for four of us, a visit to the Museum of the Tallinn
Archaeological Institute, under the guidance of curator Preiit
Lätti. The Museum was founded as a University collection
and has always been used to teach students about material culture.
Today it is also open to school groups. Its focus is on prehistory
(in Estonian terms everything before AD 1200), though a fascinating
and more recent thematic exhibition about hoarding extends the
chronology down to post-medieval times.
Prior to visiting Estonia I had only the sketchiest
idea of its identity, built on the shaky, twin and ostensibly
unconnected foundations. One is Tartu being the home of one of
the world's great beers, Le Coq's Imperial Russian Stout (available
in the UK from Harvey's Brewery in Lewes). The other is Alexander
Nevsky's defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the 1242 battle on
the ice of Lake Peipsi, immortalised in the Sergei Eisenstein's
1939 film Alexander Nevsky (made in the same year as Hollywood's
The Adventures of Robin Hood - two contrasting approaches to filming
medieval legends and both premier examples of both film art and
the deployment of the medieval past for anti-German propaganda
on the eve of World War II). My knowledge and understanding of
Estonia is still sketchy but it has a firmer foundation now, encompassing
a distinctive architectural style (with some Germanic influence),
a full part in the Viking Age (including Estonian Vikings) and
a Crusader-conversion episode that is ripe for Revisionism (readily
achievable with the excavation of two or three interiors of early
churches). For me the trip was an undoubted success (and a big
thanks to Katinka Stentoft who helped organise it but could not
attend), and I look forward to the Society contributing to and
hosting more such excursions.
Mark Hall
Perth Museum & Art Gallery
References
Edgren, H, Talvio, T and Abl, E (eds) 2007 Pyhä Henrik ja
Suomen Kristi IIistyminen, Helsinki (Finnish papers exploring
the cult of St Henry and the Christianisation of Finland, including
one in English: J H Lind 'Denmark and early Christianity in Finland',
39-54.
Fletcher, R 1998 The Conversion of Europe From Paganism to Christianity
371-1386 AD, London.
Raam, V and Tamm, J 2006 Pirita Convent The History of the Construction
and Research, Tallinn.
Tamm, J 2002 Eestikeskaegsed kloostid / Medieval Monasteries of
Estonia, Tallinn (with English summary).
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CINEMA
In Bruges, in Amazonia
and in Mongolia: globalising the medieval as a cinematic experience.
It has been a rewarding suimmer of varied film
depictions of the medieval, varied in content, in chronology and
in accomplishment. In Bruges (US/UK/GY 2007) is
an engaging, hard-hitting, contemporary-set story about two hit-men
holed-up in Bruges. For our purposes it is also about the presence
of the medieval in the here-and-now. It posits a dialogue about
Bruges as an important exemplar of a surviving medieval town:
for one of the hit-men this is hugely important and he is keen
to spend their enforced exile exploring the city (including the
Chapel of the Holy Blood, St Janshospitaal and the Bell Tower),
in a sort of world-turned-upside-down travelogue. For his partner
being in Bruges is an undeniable bore [for him history is 'just
a load of stuff that has already happened'] and has no value.
The film makes use of its Bruges setting in two key ways: as a
contemporary tourist destination and what that means and as a
symbolic, metaphysical setting for the film's moral discourse.
In terms of that Catholic-grounded morality it suggests that Bruges
is just as much symbolically medieval as it is as a tourist destination.
As viewers of the film we are asked to reflect on what it means
to describe something as medieval today - the reality of Bruges
now is that it cannot be defined as a medieval city and that medieval
is not a mixed label. The St Janshospitaal may have been founded
in the 12th century but as a surviving structure it is a mix of
15th and 16th century and later. Even within its medieval chronology,
different things are being defined by the term medieval, as the
city grew, changed and was used by different people. For many
tourists, medieval, as applied to Bruges, is a frozen, fairy-tale
place; a place where people escape from the real world. For me
the phrase 'in Bruges' conjures up several images and always the
1997 Medieval Europe conference, held in Bruges. Indeed it is
an intimate part of my understanding of that place but for the
majority of people who live in and visit Bruges the conference
means nothing at all. Is there such a thing as a fixed, defining,
objective reality? Such escapes are necessary but elusive and
the film's violent, narrative arc reminds us that reality always
re-intrudes.
Fantasy is given full reign in the fourth Indiana
Jones film: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull (US 2008), hitting the cinema screens some 27 years
after the first film, Raiders of the Lost Arc (US 1981). It is,
like its predecessors, an accomplished fusion of B-movie aesthetics
with A-movie budgeting. Its "medievalness" resides less
in its depiction of a generic privileged collecting and Cold War
archaeology (which substitutes a Communist opposition for a Nazi
one, whilst retaining the notion that certain pieces of material
culture are imbued with real mystical power and retains am Imperialist,
colonial tone) but in the setting of this adventure - Amazonia
and Peru. On to this geographical location it maps a stew of medieval
(using the term simply as a chronological marker) Aztec, Mayan,
Nascan and Amazonian cultures, which bears little resemblance
to scholarly understanding, especially when fused with an Egyptian-by-proxy
other world explanation for these cultures. It does this chiefly
through the deployment of the archaeologically notorious crystal
skulls (e.g. see Jones 1990, 296-7), posited in the film as belonging
to aliens. This will no doubt exercise many archaeologists into
a splenetic fury but we should note that the film is not in any
sense peddling a believable alternative reality. Its tone is so
outlandish as to be only credible to those few who already believe
such tosh or similar. It should also be noted that the film has
provoked genuine and worthwhile debate in newspapers, journals,
magazines and websites exploring crystal skulls and their probable
fabrication and discussing the merits of the film to archaeology
(including Walsh 2008, Holtorf 2008 and the British Museum website,
which I reached through a link from my local, Caledonian cinema's
website: www.caledoniancinemas.co.uk/php-bin/frameme.php?page=/films/indy4.fhtml?pdi)
For me perhaps the most breath-taking of the
summer's films was Mongol The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan
(RUS/GY/SWIT/KAZAK/MONG 2007). This is the first of a
projected trilogy by Russian director Sergei Bodrov and deals
with the life of Genghis from the age of 9, in the early 1170s,
to his uniting the Mongols, becoming khan of khans and wiping
out the kingdom of Tangut in 1206. The film was shot on location
in China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan and filmed in Mongolian dialogue
- for a subtitled film it was released very widely through out
the UK, a testament to its popularity around the globe. It does
mark a radical departure in that prior to this version the story
of Genghis has been told using largely Western actors (perhaps
most unwisely with John Wayne as Genghis in the 1955 Hollywood
version, The Conqueror), here the entire cast is Mongol and Chinese.
I have only a dim recollection of Mongolian history and archaeology
from my time at University, which amounts to received wisdom on
the extent of Genghis' conquests and their subsequent fragmentation,
the threat to Europe and his blood-thirsty methods. I have then
little in the way of solid foundation to question the film's veracity.
My best guess would be that it used two principal sources, The
Secret History of the Mongols and archaeology. The latter is suggested
by the use of three consultants from the Academy of Sciences of
Russia, which presumably informed the film's exacting reconstructions
of costume, yurts, weaponry, architecture, furnishings and - combined
with folklore and text - masks and ritual and ceremonial behaviour
with respect to thunder, burials, cremations, shrines in yurts
and shrines in remote places. There are few historical sources
left by the Mongol Empire and the only Mongol one (regarded as
the oldest surviving Mongolian literary wok) is thought to be
The Secret History… written for the royal family sometime
after Genghis' death in 1227. The surviving texts derive from
a 14th century Chinese transliteration and translation of the
original Uyghur script. It was never intended as a factual history
and incorporates both legendary and poetic material (it has recently
been made fully available in English and with comprehensive commentary
by de Rachewiltz 2006), something the film skilfully brings out
even if, like me, you do not know the text, because the tone and
structure of the film clearly signal legendary material. Early
myth-making by Genghis' descendants is indicated by his superhuman
feats, by his eliciting of the support of Tangris, the sky-god
(appearing in the form of a wolf), by his sense of destiny and
by the foretelling of his destiny by various mystics. To this
possibly new elements have been added, notably Genghis' very strong
reliance on his wife Börte. It may be that Genghis was exceptional
in his treatment of women and children (and the film implies that
his first two children were not necessarily his), though the film
certainly has no illusions about the more typical Mongol attitude,
expressed as women being less valuable than horses and never worth
going to war over, but still it feels like a new twist on his
legendary status. Is this a Revisionism too far or a necessary
counter-balance to Western propaganda since medieval times? The
film is visually stunning to look at with a vast sweep of changing
landscapes that emphasise its epic nature, helping to hold the
film together and strongly add to its appeal.
Mark A Hall
Perth Museum & Art Gallery
References
Holtorf, C 2008 'Real archaeology and 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull', in The European Archaeologist 29 (summer
2008), 25-27 (available on-line to members of the European Association
of Archaeologists).
Jones, M (ed.) 1990 Fake? The Art of Deception, London.
de Rachewiltz, I (trsl & comm.) 2006 The Secret History of
the Mongols, 2 vols, Leiden (Brill, = Inner Asian Library 7).
Walsh, J M 2008 'Legend of the Crystal Skulls', in Archaeology
61.3 (May/June 2008), 1-5 (Archaeological Institute of America,
on-line at www.archaeology.org/0805/etc/indy.html
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Please send your contributions to:
Dr. Niall Brady
Project Director
The Discovery Programme
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e-mail: niall@discoveryprogramme.ie
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