THE WILTSHIRE DENDROCHRONOLOGY PROJECT 2009–2011: SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Abstract

The Wiltshire Dendrochronology Project is the first systematic programme of dendrochronology in the county. The results have exceeded expectations and provided a basic chronology for Wiltshire’s cruck buildings which includes a range of early fourteenth-century crucks and base crucks. As a result of the project, our understanding of the development of the county’s cruck buildings and their eventual demise is considerably clearer. In addition to the chronology for Wiltshire’s crucks, the dendrochronology has presented the opportunity to create a regional cruck chronology by including data from similar projects in Somerset and Hampshire. The potential of dendrochronology as a precise dating tool has also been utilised to explore the evidence for a number of topical issues, including the effect of the Black Death of 1348–9 on building and architecture in the region, and the use of Arabic numerals as markers of exceptionality.     

Radiocarbon Dating of a Reused Cruck Blade from Warwickshire and its Implications for the Typology of Cruck Construction

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating using Bayesian wiggle-matching of multiple dates has been applied to a cruck blade reused in a seventeenth-century farmhouse, Church End Farm, Nether Whitacre, Warwickshire, which was believed on typological grounds to date from the thirteenth century. However, the date range obtained for the felling of the timber was 1423–46 cal AD (95% probability). This unexpectedly late date has led to a re-evaluation of the original dating, which was based on an apparent close similarity with the tree-ring dated thirteenth-century cruck blades at Upton Magna, Shropshire. Whereas the great majority of arch-braced crucks use mortice-and-tenon joints between these members, it appears from the present project that the cruck trusses at Nether Whitacre and in three other buildings (and possibly also at Upton Magna) belong to a long-lasting though relatively uncommon carpentry tradition using halved joints for arch or straight bracing between blade and collar. The potential and the hazards of modelling buildings from reused timbers are also discussed.     

A Preliminary Roof Typology for the North East of England c. 1200–1700

Abstract

The study of vernacular buildings in the North East of England has progressed sufficiently in recent decades to reach the point at which a preliminary roof typology for the region can be set out. This goal has been much aided by tree-ring dating. Early roofs include the most northerly crown posts found in England, while in the later-medieval period the truncated-principal truss develops as a regionally distinctive roof form. The medieval evidence for crucks is largely documentary, but post-medieval examples are plentiful, usually in upper or raised cruck form. The late-medieval tiebeam-and-principal roof gradually established itself as the most common regional roof form by the end of the seventeenth century.     

The Somerset Dendrochronology Project: Summary of Results

Abstract

The completion of Phases 5 and 6 of the Somerset Dendrochronology Project provides an opportunity to summarise the findings, update previously published distribution maps and offer some further reflections on the dating of crucks.     

Posts or Crucks? Building on the North-Eastern Cruck Boundary in 1373

Abstract

A lease of 1373 for Pleasley (Derbs.) orders the building of eight houses, each with 'three pairs of crudes or posts'. The option may be significant in view of Pleasley's location, on the north-east frontier of extant cruck distributions.     

Medieval Vernacular Roof Trusses in Surrey

Abstract

Under a patchwork of materials there stands in the township of Woodplumpton one of the finest cruck barns in the North West, together with a later house. Set out below is an account of the barn, the earlier house and the two families, the Kitchins and the Clarkesons, who inhabited it during the time of its main development at the end of the seventeenth century.     

Vernacular Roof-Types in North Avon and South Gloucestershire

Abstract

The article gives a detailed account of examples, mostly dating from the early seventeenth century, of domestic wall painting on plaster, at sites along the seaboard plain of north Lancashire, which are set within the context of earlier work on such painting. Included are an heraldic representation, at Woodplumpton; and three instances of painted representations of structural features, at Fleetwood, Southport and Pilling. The last-named, where there is the representation of parts of a timber cruck framing is in association with a related, painted date panel.     

The Roof of Dartington Hall

Abstract

The original fourteenth-century roof of Dartington Hall has been generally accepted as a hammer-beam root based on 'shadows' left on the wall and drawings by G. Saunders produced in 1805 before it was removed in the early nineteenth century. The purpose of this note is to suggest that the original roof was not a hammer-beam but a base cruck. This is suggested because a hammer-beam based on the 'shadow' would have been unworkable, and both the new hammer-beam roof proposed by Saunders and the present hammer-beam roof erected in the 1930s used different proportions.     

THE EARLIEST TREE-RING DATED BASE-CRUCK HOUSE: 21 HIGH STREET,ALCESTER, WARWICKSHIRE

Abstract

A commission from the owner to attempt to date a fragmentary truss has led to the recognition of the truss at 21 High Street, Alcester as the earliest domestic base cruck yet identified, with construction probably in the summer of 1264. It belonged in the fifteenth century to the Burdet family of local gentry, and the quality of the house suggests that it was of similar status when built. It is particularly notable as having a single tiebeam. A survey of the other base-cruck houses dated to before 1300 shows that their construction was eclectic, using both single and double tiebeams, and with a variety of carpentry details.     

A Base Cruck Aisled Hall at Frobury Farmhouse,Kingsclere, Hampshire

The core of Frobury Farmhouse, Kingsclere, Hampshire, is an aisled base cruck open hall built in c.1334/5d (Bridge and Miles, “Tree-Ring Dates from Oxford” (2015), 107) with a crown-post roof and passing braces in the closed trusses. Above all this is a full set of rafters from a mid-thirteenth-century aisled hall that had passing braces on all the trusses, tree-ring dated to 1263–8d, probably the predecessor to the base cruck hall. The 1334/5d arcade plates have edged halved and bridled scarf joints, the earliest tree-ring-dated example of these so far. These joints also show that all the arcade posts and the base cruck were erected first, before the arcade plates were laid from west to east on the north front arcade posts and from east to west on the rear posts.     

THE WAGON ROOFS AT ST JAMES’S PRIORY,BRISTOL

Abstract

In most regions of England in the medieval period there was a strong overlap between the carpentry traditions employed in churches and domestic buildings. While some forms of assembly may be the exclusive preserve of either the ecclesiastical or secular spheres, certain technologies are common to both. In the south-west of England, extending into the southern Marches and South Wales, however, the two are entirely different — wagon or cradle roofs are found only in churches, never in vernacular domestic structures, which normally adopt a variant of cruck construction. Little systematic analysis has been done on church roofs, mainly because they are difficult to access. The chronological range of wagon roofs in the South-West has normally been placed in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The firm dating of the two wagon roofs of St James’s Priory, Bristol, has pushed the conventional range back to the mid-fourteenth century, and other examples in the region may be considerably earlier. This paper uses the Bristol roofs to speculate about the origins of the wagon roof type and the reasons why it remained an exclusively ecclesiastical form.     

Phenetic variability of bluegrasses (Poa L., Poaceae) section Stenopoa Dum. in Asian Russia

Abstract

Research into the basic qualitative characteristics (phens), their distribution and combinations (morphotypes) was undertaken in order to reveal the genetic diversity with respect to section Stenopoa in Asian Russia. About one and half thousands occurrences have been revealed, using herbarium samples and literature data, 1144 were involved in analysis. Four key characters have been used as phonetic markers: the presence or absence of the tuft of hairs on the lemma callus, rachilla surface, ligule length, and lemma surface between veins. Based on these characters and taking into account their xeromorphic level (4 character states), 46 different morphotypes among 96 possible ones were found; 24 morphotypes among 46 (56.5%) are suggested to be of hybrid origin, and 239 (20.89%) among 1144 investigated individuals seem to be of hybrid origin as well. High phenetic diversity of Stenopoa bluegrass indicated indirectly their high genetic diversity in Asian Russia. The highest morphological diversity and phenotypic richness were found in Altai-Sayan mountain systems and in the Baikal region.     

Objects that speak creole: juxtapositions of shrine devotions at botánicas in washington,dc

ABSTRACT

Devotional objects from diverse sources are arranged in beautiful and efficacious ways at local botánicas, retail stores that sell spiritual goods to a Latino-based, but increasingly diverse clientele. A two-year study of eighteen botánicas in Washington, DC, reveals a complex layering of spiritual traditions from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. While the foundational hybrids of the botánica are of Caribbean origin, new immigrants to Washington from Central America, Africa and Asia are creating stunning juxtapositions of religious meaning and practice. This paper looks at the notion of creolization as a way to understand the power of the spiritual array spatialized in the botánica.     

luther's thesenportal: a case study of a “ritual-architectural event”

ABSTRACT

This article is part of a larger field-based study of contemporary festivity and religious tourism in Lutherland, a geographic and symbolic place associated with the life and work of Martin Luther. My aim, with reference to the work of Lindsay Jones and Victor Turner, is to develop an approach for studying the intersection of material culture and ritual. Material culture does not simply signify into empty space, shining meanings into its surrounding environment as a street lamp does light. Rather, material culture is produced, handled, used in a variety of ways. An exemplary case for studying how built space and ritual performance intersect is the Thesenportal of Wittenberg's Schlosskirche, an object and performative space commemorating the origin of the German Reformation.     

Meeting the gods: apotheoses and exchanges of the early encounter

ABSTRACT

In November 1519, Motēuczōma Xōcoyōtl, Marina/Malīntzin and Hernán Cortés met, conversed, and exchanged gifts. According to Cortés's letters to Charles V, Motēuczōma identified him as a returned ancestral chieftain (often considered to be the deity Quetzalcōātl). By reading the accounts of their gift exchange as mythohistorical texts presenting a uniquely contact perspective, we may gain insight into how both parties negotiated linguistic, cultural, and religious differences in order to shape the situation each in his best interest. The visual record of their exchange suggests that Motēuczōma gave Cortés the vestments of the gods in order to transform him into a tēīxīptla, a localized deity embodiment, as a precursor to possible sacrifice. Alphabetic accounts of their meeting describe Mesoamericans identifying Cortés and his companions as tēteoh (deities), a concept Cortés accepts insofar as it advances his military, political, and economic agendas. I argue that understanding these texts as mythohistories with contact perspectives complicates—or perhaps clarifies—their reading by acknowledging that they both betray Mesoamericans and belie Europeans.     

Genetic diversity of honeybees in different geographical regions of Siberia

Abstract

An assessment of the genetic diversity of nine microsatellite loci in honeybees of different origin (evolutionary lineages M, C, and hybrids) from different geographical regions of Siberia was conducted in order to find the genetic markers of the Siberian ecotype of dark-coloured forest bee (Apis mellifera mellifera). The greatest genetic diversity (both in the number of alleles and the calculated expected heterozygosity) was shown for loci A008, A113, Ap049, and A043 in honeybees from the Tomsk region, as bees from the southern districts had higher genetic diversity than bees from the northern districts. Honeybees from the Eastern region of Siberia (Yenisei population) had the lowest level of genetic diversity on these loci compared to Tomsk bee populations. Allele 162 pb of the locus A008, allele 126 bp of the locus A043, and allele 218 bp of the locus A113 can be considered as genetic markers of the A. m. mellifera Siberian ecotype.     

The Palmach History Museum,Tel Aviv

In 1928 the Austrian architect and engineer Franz Löwitsch (1894–1946) published the article ‘Sensation of Space and Modern Architecture’ in Imago , the psychoanalytical journal edited by Sigmund Freud. Based on Richard Semon's theories of Mneme, which Löwitsch connected to psychoanalytical theories, the prevalence of dissimilar sensations of space throughout the stages of the development of western architectural history is presupposed, and Löwitsch offered an explanation of how their symbolic meanings reflected psychological conditions of a particular time and culture.

By connecting Semon's theory with psychoanalytical deliberations that equip the inherited memory of spatial sensations with pleasurable or unpleasurable emotions, Löwitsch furthermore argued that spatial sensations produce spatial concepts, and that the dominating shapes and forms of the architecture of a time therefore reflect the dominance of a particular inherited sensation of space. The unifying psychological make-up of a populace thus leads to spatial concepts that form an architecture which reflects these concepts and contain symbols that possess ‘satisfying powers’ valued by the majority of people of that particular time and place.

But Löwitsch's theory speaks of more than a mere justification for the usefulness of psychoanalytic theory as a methodology for the humanities. Löwitsch contrasted his findings meticulously with Oswald Spengler's controversially critiqued book The Decline of the West , Karl Scheffler's The Spirit of the Gothic and Eckhart von Sydow's Primitive Art and Psychoanalysis . The discussion of these contemporaneous writings that essentially sought to find the driving forces for the development of styles helps in formulating Löwitsch's final hypothesis. Here, he proposes the emergence of an ‘energetic space’ in architecture, which is the prevalent sensation of space that he predicts to emerge in the near future. His ultimate aim was not to enter academic discourse but rather to provide a scientifically based explanation, with which the impact of space on the inhabitant can be measured, explained and utilised in architectural practice.     

On the idea of ex ante and ex post normalization of biproportional methods

Biproportional methods project a matrix A to give it the column and row sums of another matrix; the result is R A S, where R and S are diagonal matrices. As R and S are not identified, one must normalize them, even after computing, that is, ex post. This article starts from the idea developed in de Mesnard (2002) – any normalization amounts to put constraints on Lagrange multipliers, even when it is based on an economic reasoning, – to show that it is impossible to analytically derive the normalized solution at optimum. Convergence must be proved when normalization is applied at each step on the path to equilibrium. To summarize, normalization is impossible ex ante, what removes the possibility of having a certain control on it. It is also indicated that negativity is not a problem.Received: October 2002/Accepted: June 2003     

Naturalization and the transition to homeownership: an analysis of signalling in the Dutch housing market

Abstract

This article pioneers in investigating a citizenship premium for homeownership of first-generation immigrants, using Dutch register data from Statistics Netherlands (N?=?106,187). I hypothesize that naturalization favourably influences the risk-calculation of lenders through positive signalling among employed migrants, who are likely to meet the basic financial criteria for credit. Results confirm that, all else constant, employed immigrants who have naturalized are 26% more likely to be homeowner. Additional analyses specifically designed to isolate endogeneity bias show that the effect is smaller, but still reveal an increase in the probability of homeownership after naturalization. Citizenship acquisition matters less for migrants with a native-born partner, suggesting that legal status discrimination may be an underlying mechanism. I find no evidence that the relevance of citizenship is conditioned by cultural distance of the origin country or the post-2008 economic crisis. I conclude that naturalization matters in the housing market, but that its relevance cannot be generalized to all migrant groups.     

Five new Palaearctic species of Platygastrinae (Hymenoptera,Platygastridae) and two new synonymies

ABSTRACT

The following five species are described as new to science: Inostemma muelleri sp. n., Metaclisis iranica sp. n., Platygaster curvistriata sp. n., Platygaster nepalica sp. n. and Prosynopeas antoni sp. n. The type material of Metaclisis ocalea (Walker) is described, and M. ocalea (Walker) and M. montagnei Maneval are synonymised with M. areolata (Haliday).