The Curious Case of Architectural Alignment at Whithorn

Anastasia Moskvina – PhD History of Art, University of East Anglia

The monasterium at Whithorn was probably established in the late 5th- early 6th century. The first phase of the evolution of the monasterium – from c. 550 to c. 730 – was characterised by a steady development of a settlement with a double curvilinear layout. The settlement was laid out generally following Irish practice. A stone church in the centre of the monasterium was in existence in the beginning of the 6th century (See Hill 1997 for full excavation report).

Around 700, a curious straight line of features, including posts, graves, stones and slabs, appeared on the site of the cemetery to the south of the church. It may have been designed to mark a symbolic boundary between a group of shrines and a graveyard to the north and an area of unused ground to the south. This line survived the radical transformation of the site in c. 730 and was joined by a parallel row of aligned post-holes in the subsequent period (Hill 1997, pp. 110, 12, figs. 3.30, 3.31). 

Fig.1. Schematic plan of excavated cemetery at Whithorn, c. 700. Author’s drawing after Hill 1997.

The reconstruction of the monasterium, which started in c. 730, continued until the 760s or 770s. Among other alterations, a sequence of three aligned (i.e. arranged in line on the same axis) buildings - two timber oratories and a stone-founded burial enclosure – were built over the site of the shrines and the cemetery. The axes of the oratories followed the socket line of an earlier shrine. To the south of this enclosure, there appeared a range of axially-aligned timber buildings (Hill 1997, pp. 103, 176, figs. 2.9, 3.29, 4.5). Around 800, the two oratories were united into a timber church, while the enclosure was rebuilt into a burial chapel. The two retained the same axial alignment (Hill 1997, pp. 42-43, figs. 2.10, 2.13). 

Fig.2. Schematic plan of monasterium at Whithorn, c. 700. Author’s drawing after Hill 1997. a - putative principal church; b - range of aligned oratories and a burial enclosure; c – range of aligned halls; line of aligned posts and stones shown in fig.1 runs between b and c

Notably, this period of rebuilding coincides with the beginning of Northumbrian domination in Galloway (Hill 1997, p. 18). Bede records that a Northumbrian bishopric was established at Whithorn by 731, attesting to a Northumbrian expansion into Galloway and to rising political aspirations of the Northumbrian church (HE V.23). Archaeological evidence suggests that the Northumbrians may have gained control over Whithorn even earlier - towards the end of 7th c. (Hill 1997, pp. 17, 37). Thus, alignment at Whithorn seems to follow the arrival of the Northumbrians and is not recorded before, which invites to look for the origin of this phenomenon in Northumbria.

At the royal vill of Northumbrian kings at Yeavering, where linearity was a constant and prominent feature, the most distinctive case of alignment is dated to the height of Yeavering’s development under King Edwin (616-633) and constitutes a sequence of structures, including a prehistoric barrow, halls, graves and free-standing posts (See Hope-Taylor 1977 for full excavation report). At the monasteries in Jarrow and possibly Wearmouth, pairs of churches are precisely aligned on the same axis. At Jarrow, two monastic buildings (A and B) to the south of churches also form a straight line (See Cramp 2005 for full excavation report). Similarly, at Hexham a pair of buildings are precisely aligned: the church dedicated to St. Andrew, with a crypt underneath its east end, and a small apsidal structure immediately to the east (See Cambridge & Williams 1995). Another potential, although debatable, instance of architectural alignment is found at Lindisfarne (For information, see O’Sullivan & Young 1995; for reconstruction and argument towards alignment, see Blair 1991).

All these sites, through their royal and elite patronage, seem to have been associated with power and political control. In addition, the architecture and layout of these sites could have been designed to make other symbolic statements of domination. Thus, the group at Hexham, built immediately after the pro-Roman Council of Whitby, is thought to have evoked associations with Rome, with its typically Roman crypt and Apostolic dedication (Bailey 1976; Fernie 198, p. 61; Gilbert 1974; Taylor & Taylor 1965). Wearmouth and Jarrow, in the light of earlier unsettled boundary disputes between Deira and Bernicia precisely in this area (as the disputes were ongoing even in the united Northumbria), are likely to have been making a territorial claim initiated by Kind Ecgfrith of Deiran descent (Cramp 2005, pp. 28, 350). Lindisfarne was established almost immediately after King Oswald’s victory over Cædwalla of Gwynedd and his subsequent ascension to the Northumbrian throne (HE III.1,3). Finally, the development of Yeavering should be seen in the overall context of the gradual establishment and acceptance of Anglo-Saxon lordship, observed both locally and regionally.

This means that 7th-century Northumbria was a place of ideological tensions and shifting powers. In a sense, this unsettled political and cultural climate could have made Northumbria a ground for architectural experiments, with the kings and the elite to be seen urgently searching for the means of proclaiming their authority. As a result, the visual narrative of alignment, selected to convey the message of power and domination, was widely accepted and seems to have been firmly established in Northumbria by c. 700, when it started to spread into the neighbouring regions. It is in this context that alignment at Whithorn, not observed before c. 700, should be considered. It seems that alignment at Whithorn in its essence is no different from that in other places across Northumbria: it could have been a strategy adopted to cope with anxieties over leadership and thus a predominantly political and ideological, rather than merely architectural, feature.

Works Cited:

Bailey, R.N. (1976) The Anglo-Saxon Church at Hexham. Archaeologia Aeliana. 5 (4). p. 47-68.

Bede (1969) The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, eds. Judith McClure and Roger Collins. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Blair, J. (1991) The Early Churches at Lindisfarne. Archaeologia Aeliana. 5 (19). p. 47-53.

Cambridge, E. & A. Williams. (1995) Hexham Abbey: a Review of Recent Work and its Implications. Archaeologia Aeliana. 5 (23). p. 51-138.

Cramp, R. (2005) Wearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites. 2 vols. Swindon: English Heritage.

Fernie, E. (1983) Architecture of the Anglo-Saxons. London: BT Batsford.

Gilbert, E. (1974) Saint Wilfrid’s Church at Hexham, In: Kirby, D.P. (ed.) Saint Wilfrid at Hexham. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.

Hill, P. (1997) Whithorn and St Ninian: The Excavation of a Monastic Town, 1984-1991. Stroud: Sutton Publishing Limited.

Hope-Taylor, B. (1977) Yeavering: an Anglo-British Centre of Early Northumbria. London: H.M.S.O.

O’Sullivan, D. & R. Young. (1995) Lindisfarne: Holy Island. London: BT Batsford

Taylor, H.M. & Taylor, J. (1965-1978) Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

A Framework for Exploiting God's Creation - Agricultural Estates and Settlement Landscapes in Early Medieval Dumfriesshire

Christoph Otte – PhD History  

In the 1970s scholars of medieval economy proposed a model framework in which early medieval estates and settlements could be understood in northern Britain, variously known as ‘shire’ or, more commonly, ‘multiple estate’ model (Jones 1971; Barrow 1973). The ‘multiple estate’ model envisages a group of settlements, inter-connected within the boundaries of an estate. The administrative and legal centre of the estate would be the lord’s hall. The surrounding settlements would owe labour services to the lord, such as ploughing his fields or paying rent in kind. Another element of this model is a central church, in charge of the spiritual welfare of the estate population, often situated close to the lord’s hall. As a result, there have been suggestions that in many cases parish boundaries and estate boundaries overlap to considerable extent, as they both potentially address the same population (see Fig. 1; Barrow 1973, pp. 50-63; Winchester 1985, p. 90). It should be noted that this is a generalised model, and requires testing in each individual case.

Fig. 1: The model of the ‘multiple estate’.

The focus of my PhD thesis is the kingdom of Bernicia from c. 600 AD to 800 AD, which encompasses, at least partially, the area of modern Dumfriesshire (Rollason 2003, pp. 20-36 and pp. 87f). The aim of my research is to demonstrate whether the ‘multiple estate’ can be traced in the local settlement patterns of this area, or whether an alternative model might be needed. This investigation relies on a few select case studies based on parishes due to their possible connection with estate boundaries.

Fig. 2: The county of Dumfriesshire, and the parish of Lochmaben, within the southern Scottish context.

In the case study excerpt presented here, I am investigating the landscape of the parish of Lochmaben. My starting point is the pattern of place-names in Dumfriesshire in the aforementioned parish. As an example, the distribution of the Scandinavian place-name element –thveit, referring to clearings or cleared land, can be compared with that of –bý place-names, also of Scandinavian origin and referring to farms or settlements (Fellows-Jensen 1991, pp. 83-87). Both place-name elements are generally dated to the tenth or eleventh centuries and attributed to Scandinavian settlers moving into the study area from Cumbria or other parts of northern England. It is notable that –bý place-names have a more easterly bias, whereas the –thveit elements tend to occur further west.

Fig. 3: The distribution of –thveit and –bý place-names in Dumfriesshire.

This may indicate that the incoming settlers first founded –bý settlements or renamed existing ones with that element, and at a later stage cleared the more marginal lands in order to expand pasture or arable tracts, creating –thveit name settlements. It is remarkable with regard to the parish of Lochmaben that the very part of the parish in which we find –thveit place-names is also the part where the parish boundaries leave their normal route, usually defined by natural features such as rivers and upland ridges, and instead extend into the south-west.

Fig. 4: The –thveit place-names of Lochmaben.

It looks like this section of the boundaries had been super-imposed onto a pre-existing land unit, possibly as a result of the founding of the –thveit place-names. The outline of the parish of Lochmaben excluding the upland extension to the south-west, in the following referred to as proto-Lochmaben, may therefore pre-date the tenth or eleventh centuries in which these settlements may have been founded. Comparative case studies of other parishes will, of course, provide a fuller picture.

Fig. 5: The potential extent of proto-Lochmaben.

Leaving the investigation of boundaries aside, the study of estates and early medieval economy should always take into account the population it was meant to support, and the means by which the land was cultivated. Another way of approaching the question of settlement patterns is therefore to try and gain a sense of the population dimensions for the given area. For this purpose, I used the hypothetical boundaries of proto-Lochmaben. The deduction of major woodlands and water bodies - taking into account that some lochs were drained as late as the nineteenth century - from the total area of proto-Lochmaben has left me with an area of land which may potentially have been agriculturally exploited for the support of the local population in the early middle ages. These are, of course, rough estimates, as the soil quality is not at present taken into account.

Fig. 6: Calculating the usable land (arable, pasture) of proto-Lochmaben.

According to Marcel Mazoyer and Laurence Roudart (Mazoyer and Roudart 2006, pp. 242-45), a farmer with the cultivation implements used in antiquity and the early middle ages (such as an ard, a type of simple plough) could support a family of five on 33.5 ha of land (which includes arable, pasture and a small portion of woodland) in cold temperate climate, or on 61 ha of land in harsher, colder conditions. Due to uncertainties about early medieval climate and soil conditions in Dumfriesshire, I used the middle value of these estimates and applied them to the area of wood- and water-free land calculated for proto-Lochmaben, resulting in a population potential of 408 people. Distributed amongst the five settlements which I am currently prepared to date to the early medieval period between c. 600 AD and 800 AD, this would give a result of c. 81 people per settlement. This number, although obviously presenting a very rough estimate and open to some imprecision, is still remarkably close to the average of 80 people per vill estimated for some areas covered by the eleventh-century Domesday Book economic survey initiated by William the Conqueror (Maitland 1897, pp. 17-20).

At a later stage in my studies, these estimates can give an idea of how much land would be needed per settlement, which in turn might have impacted the configuration of settlements within an estate. Another point which may help illuminate the landscape is to take into account the agrarian reality of the population. The speed of the oxen which are needed to draw ploughs or ards would necessarily limit the distance between a settlement and its pertaining arable fields. It is these practical and spatial considerations which I hope to employ in creating a better understanding of the early medieval rural economy of Dumfriesshire.

Fig. 7: Stilt and head of a prehistoric ard shown in the National Museum of Scotland. Note the illustration below it showing how it would be fitted to a beam, which in turn would be drawn by the draught animal (photograph by author).

Works Cited

Barrow, Geoffrey W. S., The Kingdom of the Scots (London, 1973).

Fellows-Jensen, Gillian, ‘Scandinavians in Dumfriesshire and Galloway: The Place-Name Evidence’, in Galloway. Land and Lordship, eds. R. Oram and G. Stell (Edinburgh, 1991), pp. 77-95.

Jones, Glanville R. J., 'The Multiple Estate as a Model Framework for Tracing Early Stages in the Evolution of Rural Settlement', in L'Habitat et les Paysages Ruraux d'Europe, ed. F. Dussart (Liège, 1971), pp. 251-267.

Maitland, Frederic W., Domesday Book and Beyond (Cambridge, 1897).

Mazoyer, Marcel and Roudart, Laurence, A History of World Agriculture from the Neolithic Age to the Current Crisis (London, 2006).

Rollason, David, Northumbria, 500-1100: Creation and Destruction of a Kingdom (Cambridge, 2003).

Winchester, Angus J. L., 'The Multiple Estate: A Framework for the Evolution of Settlement in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian Cumbria', in The Scandinavians in Cumbria, eds. John R. Baldwin and Ian D. Whyte (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 89-102.

Copyright information for mapping layers in Figs. 2-6:

© Crown Copyright and Database Right 2015. Ordnance Survey (OS Terrain 5 DTM [ASC geospatial data], Scale 1:10000).

© Crown Copyright and Database Right 2015. Ordnance Survey (GB National Outlines [SHAPE geospatial data], Scale 1:250000).

© Crown Copyright and Database Right 2015. Ordnance Survey (Boundary-Line [SHAPE geospatial data], Scale 1:10000).

© Crown Copyright and Database Right 2015. Ordnance Survey (1:25 000 Raster [TIFF geospatial data], Scale 1:25000).

Cultural Memory and Medieval Reliquaries

Samuel Gerace – PhD Candidate History of Art

Oftentimes as academics, we are specifically called to work on interdisciplinary research projects. Perhaps it is my undergraduate work in Fine Art, or the influence of friends and colleagues in the Social Sciences, or simply the interdisciplinary nature of History of Art, but I find this type of research to be some of the most fulfilling.

In my own PhD research, I study early medieval house-shaped shrines from Britain and Ireland, and trace their connections to continental reliquaries and chrismals from the seventh to the eleventh century. To define these terms, a reliquary is a container that holds the corporeal remains of saints and or objects that they may have touched in life. The term 'chrismal' is slightly more complicated, but in the early medieval period, it was used to describe containers for chrism oil as noted in the Missale Francorum, the Eucharist in the Rule of St Columba, and relics in Gregory of Tours Lives of the Fathers (Snoke 1995). As for the term 'house-shaped shrines', arguably one of the most famous house-shaped shrines is the Monymusk reliquary, held by the National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh [Figure 1]. The term house-shaped derives from the form of the shrine, which appears like that of a hip-roofed house, though churches, temples, and sarcophagi have all been listed as possible alternatives (Blindheim 1984). While this may be the topic of my thesis, more generally I am drawn to engagements with Christian saints. I leave this phrase specifically vague, as while I’m trained in medieval art, I do not feel particularly precluded from researching how this topic manifests in contemporary art, (early) modern texts, or even in folklore. While I bring a certain Art Historical and even Early Medieval angle into this type of research, my real passion rests in the boundaries between the disciplines and in the records that deal with the spiritual interactions between audiences and the saints, both canonical and popular.  

 

Figure 1

 
The connection between saints and contemporary audiences is an ongoing phenomenon, and can be witnessed in both blogs and in contemporary art displays. Scholar and blogger, Elizabeth Harper, hosts a blog ‘All the Saints you Should Know’, where she writes about the relics of saints, art, and the experience of coming face-to-face with images of death. Harper engages with the narratives and art of the saints, thus extending their sphere of influence to a wider audience. The power of the saints not only rests in their ability to perform miracles, but even more so in their ability to be remembered and the continuing bonds they engender, as seen in the work of Michael Landy’s, Saint’s Alive (Boeye 2013). Responding to both the gallery’s collection and the Golden Legend, Landy produced seven kinetic sculptures that required direct audience participation to ‘come alive’ [Figure 2]. Landy’s present engagement with both long dead saints, writers, and artists offers an interesting lens through which to witness how continuing bonds is present in contemporary art practices. 

Figure 2

 
Indeed, continuing bonds theory, (more often used in the social research disciplines,) also offers a view into medieval art and my own research topic. The Monymusk shrine did not gain its fame by its shape, but by being aligned with one of the most important saints in the Celtic world, St. Columba. It is precisely in trying to tackle this issue that drew me to research on social death and continuing bonds. (Daniels 2009, Jamieson 1995, Klass, Silverman, and Nickman 2014, Unruh 1983). Using theories and discourses more commonly found in social research contexts, new insights can given to medieval art and even present engagements with it. Early medieval scholars have long talked about the saints and how their living audiences developed and interacted with them, but continuing bonds theory provides a language through which to discuss how this takes place and how it can reflect in present practices. In particular, these types of engagements help to push the boundaries of the disciplines, affording new research opportunities. 

Selected Bibliography: 

Blindheim, Martin. "A House-Shaped Irish-Scots Reliquary in Bologna, and Its Place among the Other Reliquaries." Acta Achaeologica 55 (1984): 1-53.  

Boeye, Kerry. "Michael Landy: Saints Alive: National Gallery, London May 23-November 24, 2013." West 86th 20 (2013): 250-255.  

 

Daniels, Inge. "The Social Death' of Unused Gifts Surplus and Value in Contemporary Japan." Journal of Material Culture 14 (2009): 385-408.  

Jamieson, Ross W. "Material culture and social death: African-American burial practices." Historical Archaeology 29 (1995): 39-58.  

Klass, Dennis, Phyllis R. Silverman, and Steven Nickman, eds. Continuing bonds: New Understandings of Grief. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2014.  

Snoek, Godefridus J.C. Medieval Piety from Relics to the Eucharist: A Process of Mutual Interaction.  Leiden: Brill, 1995. 

Unruh, David R. "Death and personal history: Strategies of identity preservation." Social Problems 30 (1983): 340-351.