Tag Archives: buildings

Islamic Palaces 1 – The Alhambra Royal Workshops Project

Over the past 6 months I have been working with universities in the south of Spain to investigate workshops and production areas within medieval Islamic palaces. This, the first of two blogs, will focus on trips taken earlier this summer to the Alhambra in Granada.

Arabesque and tiles

For those of you unfamiliar with the site, the Alhambra is a large palace and fortress complex situated on a promontory at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, overlooking Granada. It was constructed in the 13^th century AD during the Nasrid dynasty, a late Muslim dynasty in the south of Spain, and the palace is best known for its highly ornate arabesque reliefs, glazed tiles, pottery, glass and of course the beautiful gardens; and it was these gardens that had attracted the attention of academics from the Universities of Bournemouth, Newcastle and Granada. The question they were all asking – where exactly were the tiles, pottery and glass produced when the site was initially constructed?

The current gardens are a relatively modern addition and much reconstruction work of existing structures had been done to tidy its appearance; however, upon closer inspection some of these structures formed ‘keyhole’ shapes in plan, typical of kilns or furnaces.

Keyhole kiln

Prof Kate Welham and Dr Derek Pitman from Bournemouth University took the lead in May, undertaking a non-invasive survey of an area of garden using a whole suite of geophysical techniques (fluxgate gradiometer, electromagnetic survey, magnetic susceptibility and ground penetrating radar (GPR)), plus portable X-ray fluorescence (p-XRF). This approach was taken because of the likely nature of deposits beneath the surface – the site had been occupied by Napoleon’s forces during the Peninsular War, but upon his retreat significant parts of the fortress were destroyed including, most probably, the area of garden under survey. As little or no archaeological work had been carried out before, no one knew quite what to expect.

Surveying

Now, my first piece of archaeological fieldwork took place in 2000, and I’ve been in and out of the field ever since, but until this moment I’d never performed a geophysical survey. I’d always been that guy who can dig and, in more recent years, the GIS geek, often working with geophysical data but never collecting it. So just to prove to everyone that it did actually happen I got someone to capture the moment…

Using GPR at the Alhambra

I’m afraid I’m not able to reproduce the results in this blog, but I can say that several areas indicated the presence of high temperature activities. These results informed the implementation of an excavation strategy, and a couple of months later, two trenches were opened to investigate various magnetic enhancements recorded during the geophysical survey. These were directed by Dr Chloe Duckworth from Newcastle University and Dr Alberto Garcia Porras from University of Granada, and I was invited along to survey their findings and introduced them to the use of SfM to reconstruct a 3-dimensional image of each trench.

A trench being excavated

It was their first digging field season and the main priority was to take the topsoil off and map the uppermost deposits and any structural remains. Once this had been achieved it became increasingly apparent that the site was more complex than first thought. It had been occupied on and off for the past 800 years and many of the remains date to later activity, including the modern reconstructions which now mask the true nature of the kilns.

I hope to return in 2017 when these remains can be investigated fully and the full extent of production within the Alhambra is likely to reveal itself.

Heritage Research: engaging with landscape architects

At the beginning of the week the heritage team (Chris, Catriona and myself) met with the landscape architects at Influence®. We were interested in discussing the similarities and differences between their landscape and visual impact assessments and our own approaches to studying the impact on the setting and significance of heritage assets (discussed in this blog).

Landscape and visual impact assessment is often required as part of a planning application and helps to assess the effects of future development on the landscape. A report will help to inform design, in order to reduce and offset some of the adverse effects of development on the surrounding area. It will consider the existing character of the place, and potential changes to the available views. A study of the landscape can be applied to all urban and peri-urban landscapes, towns, villages and rural areas, coast and islands area; and the views can encompass a wide range of features including National Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Nature Reserves, Listed Buildings, Scheduled Monuments, etc. Of course there is large overlap in the subject matter, although the principle difference between the approaches in that landscape and visual impact assessments attempt to establish and protect the landscape and views as experienced by current individuals. Our research seeks principally to outline the impact of development on understanding the past context of heritage assets and negate factors that might detract from how we comprehend the past, in essence to assess the likelihood for encountering subsurface archaeology and how developments will affect standing heritage assets.

Getting a chance to discuss the similarities and differences between our approaches helped us to appreciate the complexities of each other’s disciplines. We ended up being able to reflect on our own practices and in the future will be incorporating features from their approach to landscape and visual impact assessment into our own study of the impact future development of the setting and significance of heritage assets. It was a great opportunity and are very grateful to the staff at Influence in Newark for hosting us.

The Virtual St. Stephen’s Project

In Spring 2016 we were subcontracted by University of York to convert a visual model of the pre-1834 House of Commons, St. Stephen’s Chapel Westminster to an acoustic model. The work was commissioned as part of the Virtual St Stephen’s Project, an AHRC-funded research project and was a collaboration between the departments of History (Dr John Cooper), and Electronics (Dr Damian Murphy).

One of the major elements of the project was the creation of a three dimensional computer model detailing St. Stephen’s chapel at various points in its lifetime. The three dimensional model was then used on a touch screen device to allow visitors to interact with the reconstruction. Creating these models not only provides a great opportunity for public engagement it also allows evidence from a range of sources to be brought together and used to create an interpretation of a lost space.

The Virtual St Stephen’s Interactive model

However, as beautiful and engaging as these models are they do not consider the soundscape of the space. In recent years archaeologists have started to explore the opportunities for applying acoustic technology. Catriona came to AAL following the completion of her PhD looking at this technique.

For the Virtual St Stephen’s project we started with the three dimensional mode produced by Dr. Anthony Masinton and simplified it to use as an acoustic model. Acoustic technology is not as sophisticated as the technology to produce visualisations; the models have to be less complex. They also use the same information in slightly different ways. Both models require the size and shape of a space to be accurate, however; where a visualisation needs information about how surfaces are coloured and textured, an acoustic model needs to understand how sound will reflect, or be absorbed by different materials.

The acoustic model of St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster

The resulting model can provide a series of numerical values which tell us about the space; how sound decays from various positions in the room, how clearly sounds can be heard. We can also create auralizations; acoustic reconstructions. Under the right conditions they allow a listener to experience sound from the modelled space. We hope to use these models to explore the experience of listening to speeches in the pre-1834 House of Commons.

The project featured on The Lost Chapel of Westminster on BBC Parliament on Sunday and is still available on iPlayer.

Heritage Research: What is the Desk-based Assessment

The initial stages of archaeological work can often be complex and differs greatly between sites depending on the individual peculiarities of the project. Often the first stage of work falls to the Heritage Research Department at AAL, consisting of Josh, Catriona and Jesse, and the writing of Desk-Based Assessments (DBAs).

Aerial photograph showing cropmakrs comprising circular enclosures

A DBA attempts to assess whether there is likely to be any archaeological remains on or near a planned development, and whether the development will affect the setting or significance of known (and usually designated) heritage assets, such as listed buildings. The DBA is in essence a short research project exploring all the aspects of the history and archaeology of a particular piece of land. These can be buildings due for renovation or demolition, planned housing schemes, solar farms, cable lines and a whole variety of other reasons.

The starting point for a report is usually the local Historic Environment Record (HER); previously known as Sites and Monuments Records (SMRs). They are databases of information relating to the historic environment and contain information about archaeological works, buildings, landscapes, finds and a whole range of other things associated with the human past. You can access a lot of the information from Heritage Gateway if you are undertaking personal research.

The results of a HER search will tell us what known archaeological and heritage assets are located within defined area. However, this record is not everything. A report can also include sifting through the local archives for historical documents; indicating land use of the site over time, or investigating cropmarks shown on aerial photographs, and analysing maps of the past for evidence of shrunken villages. Some sites require a closer understanding of the underlying geology to predict whether prehistoric activity is likely, and others need to check whether 20th century buildings are likely to have truncated the archaeological resource.

Ridge and Furrow spotted on a site visit

Yet, part of the job also involves getting out the office and into the field (as we are still archaeologists!). Our site visits might include visiting ancient monuments, exploring parks and gardens, inspecting and recording old buildings, and visually assessing seemingly innocuous land, searching for potential clues of archaeological remains that might lie beneath. Without visiting the site it can be impossible to know how it relates to the landscape surrounding it.

A DBA is often undertaken at the pre-planning stage in order to highlight the potential for archaeological remains in advance of construction taking place. This allows the developer to prevent damage to the archaeological resource and the associated costs of excavation by changing the specifics of the development. For instance, the developer might choose to leave open spaces for recreation on houses estates over areas of known archaeological interest in order to avoid disturbing underlying remains. You never know, your local park might be on the ground of a Roman villa or a medieval castle! In addition, DBAs allow the local planning authorities to make decisions about whether or not excavation is required for planning permission, in cases where it is not practical to change the nature of the development. That’s when archaeologists get their hands dirty!

Preparing DBAs can be really rewarding projects for people who want to expand their knowledge of British Archaeology. You have to know a little bit about everything, and know where to start looking for more information and when to spend more time exploring something.

Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days

Heritage Open Days is a festival in England over four days in September. During these four days thousands of events across the country allow you to explore the history and culture sitting at your feet. Heritage Lincolnshire has co-ordinated Heritage Open Days in Lincolnshire since 1994 they provide free access to lots of interesting properties, tours, events and activities across the county. This weeks blog is a pick of the ones our staff plan to take advantage of!

Chris (Clay) and Al both plan to visit the Old Tile Works at Barton upon Humber. Chris because he led a community project to survey the site in 2010 before it was restored, and Al because he loves all things industrial!

Jesse is going to see Earth as a Natural Building Material, as it would be intriguing to see how buildings made of materials that rarely survive in the archaeological record are constructed, and to give you a bit of ‘real-life’ experience within that historical setting!

Josh would like to visit the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, as it has numerous objects, artefacts, and trinkets, from people’s everyday life in Lincolnshire from 1750 to the present day. It will be interesting to see how life has changed over the last few centuries and how different things would have been for all of us not that long ago.

Rachel hoping to go on the guided walk along the Ice Age route of the River Trent, between Lincoln and Newark. We would like to experience this lost river route as she’s really interested in how the landscape has changed over time; as an archaeologist she tends to concentrate on how people have affected the landscape, but this walk will help her to understand the natural phenomenon that has shaped the area she now call home.

Cat is keen to get to Gainsborough Old Hall as she loves a medieval interior.

Fee is a glutton for punishment and is going to visit All Saints’ Church in Winterton and St Peter’s Church in Barton Upon Humber following a watching brief at Winterton. (Cat might sneak along as well as she loves a medieval church!)

Nasha also has her eyes on a church; St Peter at Gowts Church in Lincoln, as the stories surrounding the building sound fascinating.

Rob is also following up on a job and is planning on visiting Belton House. He ran a geophysics project their recently and is hoping to return to have a look inside the building!

Jedlee and Duncan are interested in visiting Lincoln’s Oldest Church of St Mary le Wigford to see the Saxon Tower.

Ryan is planning on going to Gibraltar Point as the walk is nice and there is lots to see and do.

Dominika plans to visit the RAF Binbrook Heritage Centre.

Alice is going to try and get to the talk on the Submerged Forest at Cleethorpes’ as she was part of the team tracing the track erosion.

Debbie has an interest in stained glass and has always wanted to have a go so she’s going to check out the Heritage Craft Demonstrations at Strawberry Glass.

Calke Abbey Live Archaeology 2016

Over the last weekend a few members of the Allen Archaeology Team (including the eponymous Mr. Allen himself) volunteered their services to excavate at the nearby National Trust Property of Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, as part of Calke Abbey Live Archaeology weekend 2016. The dig was organised by the National Trust and headed up by their archaeologist, Rachael Hall (check her out on Twitter she’s great!), along with a host of eager volunteers from the property and from the Calke Abbey Family Archaeologist group.

Saturday began with “the professionals” setting out and de-turfing the areas for investigation, Trench 1 which was located to the front of the house in the lawn, and Trench 2 which was located to the northeast of the house and was targeted on some fragments of masonry that had been revealed during earlier groundworks in the area. It became obvious fairly quickly that it was not going to be easy digging in Trench 1; but Trench 2 looked promising, with more fragments of brick already popping up and a small gaggle of Young Archaeologists (and Big archaeologists!) excited to see what was going to happen.

The sun was shining and there was archaeology to uncover!

A slow start in Trench 1; There was no escaping the sunshine and the ground was so concreted that even the most enthusiastic and energetic volunteers were struggling to break ground!

It became clear almost immediately that Trench 2 contained some interesting archaeological remains, and very quickly the fragments of bricks that had prompted our investigations turned into a wall with a very awkward angle.

Promising beginnings in Trench 2!

By the end of the first day the trench was beginning to take shape, with hints of a possible octagonal building beginning to emerge, although quite what it was that we were revealing was still a bit of a mystery and everyone seemed to have different ideas as to what this structure was. We had suggestions ranging from a folly to a possible gravity fed water tank for the ornamental fountains in the garden below and even suggestions of aliens! But it was safe to say that all of the volunteers left site excited to see what tomorrow would bring.

The volunteers busily exposing the building on day 2.

The second day began in a similar way to the first, the sun was shining, Trench 1 had been abandoned due to unforgiving digging conditions (apparently there was still another meter to dig through before they reached the archaeology!) and all our efforts were concentrated on the exciting remains which were appearing in Trench 2.

By the end of the day the foundations of most of a large octagonal building had emerged (the full extent of it was of course hidden underneath our spoil heap!) and the Young archaeologists had revealed not only an outer wall, which appeared to be the remains of a garden wall with fancy stone plinths, but also the remains of a slightly more substantial inner wall which looked suspiciously like the foundations for a building.

Armed with this new information and looking specifically for an octagonal structure in the area to the northeast of the house, a quick scan of early Ordnance Survey (OS) maps of the area (check out www.old-maps.co.uk) revealed an indication of this building, as well as the extent of pathways leading up to and around the structure. One of the volunteers, Colin, also managed to locate a sketch from the 1840’s showing a summer house!

The top of the wall and a possible plinth.

After two days hard work, and a lot of exciting revelations the site has been put to bed again. But never fear, and Calke Abbey Live will be returning and planning has already begun for next year’s investigations.