Date :
29 September – 3 October 2006
Location:
Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds
Organisers :
- Paul Stamper (English Heritage)
- Glenn Foard (Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds and Battlefields Trust)
In association with :
- The Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
- English Heritage
- The Royal Armouries
- The Battlefields Trust
- Leicestershire County Council
Sponsers :
The British Academy
Website :
Proceedings :
Publisher :
UNKNOWN
Date :
UNKNOWN
Edition :
UNKNOWN
ISBN :
UNKNOWN
Speakers & Abstracts :
| Christopher D. Adams – (Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, USA) | Metal Detecting Reconnaissance Survey of a Mescalero Apache Stronghold Located in Dog Canyon, Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, USA |
| The Lincoln National Forest Heritage Program conducted archaeaological investigations at a Mescalero Apache stronghold known as “Cañon del Perro.” The Mescalero Apaches had skirmishes and battles with the First Dragoons, California Volunteers, U.S. Military, emigrants, and Mexicans. These battles, dating from 1849 through 1880, took place in Dog Canyon. This presentation will focus on archaeological investigations that utilized historical accounts and metal sensing technology within Dog Canyon, one of the most physically challenging landforms within Lincoln National Forest. Investigations during the 2002 field season revealed a strategic Apache encampment, a unique set of battle site tactics, and an inventory of diagnostic Apache artifacts. | |
| Lawrence E. Babits – (Maritime Studies, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA) | Fort Dobbs on the Carolina Frontier |
| Fort Dobbs was built during 1756, attacked by the Cherokee in 1760, then abandoned by 1763. The short occupation and very brief skirmish resulted in few deaths and very little in the archaeological record. Efforts to identify the fort site and reconstruct the fort began in 1966. Archaeological efforts have largely been directed at retrieving information for a heritage tourism reconstruction. Reanalysis of earlier archaeological reports allowed clarification of fort descriptions to the point reconstruction is possible. In the process, evidence for the Cherokee attack may have been discovered. The paper includes cautionary tales about ruling theories and fortification excavation as well. | |
| Richard Burt, Robert R. Warden, Bruce Dickson, Mark E. Everett and James Bradford – (Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA: Richard Burt (Dept of Construction Science), Robert R. Warden (Dept of Architecture), Bruce Dickson (Dept of Anthropology), Mark E. Everett (Dept of Geology) and James Bradford, (Dept of History)) | The Survey and Documentation of the D-Day battlefield at Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France: using documentation to understand historic events |
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Documentation of historic buildings and battlefield sites is often understood as mapping and seen as an end in itself, the products of which are 2D drawings. While this is certainly one goal for the involvement of the Historical Resources Imaging Lab at Pointe du Hoc it would be misleading to let it rest there. Documentation of existing physical conditions encapsulates a data set by terminating the decay of that physical information at a particular time. This allows researchers to compare that data against a data set created from historical sources. Corroborations and inconsistencies between the two data sets serve to raise certain questions which we hope will help create a more complete understanding of the events occurring at Pointe du Hoc. Our presentation on the survey work from 2004 & 2005 will demonstrate our integration of documentation techniques from GPR and magnetometers to hand measuring and photogrammetry for the purpose of creating forms of information that allow careful comparison with historical data. We will discuss the questions that exist concerning the events at Pointe du Hoc and relate those questions to the tools and techniques used in acquiring and interpreting the physical information the site provides. |
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| John & Patricia Carman – (Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity, University of Birmingham, England) | The European Military Revolution: A Landscape Approach |
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The idea of a European ‘military revolution’ that took place during the period 1500 to 1800 has been offered as one factor in European world dominance and colonial imperialism. The idea itself is not clear-cut: its periodisation is disputed and there is some doubt as to whether the changes in war-making practice it represents can be called a revolution at all. More recently, the idea has been refined into two distinct processes: the military revolution proper and the consequent ‘revolution in military affairs’, of which there may have been several since medieval times. These concepts are usually discussed in political, economic, organisational and technological terms. The distinctive ‘landscape’ approach of the Bloody Meadows Project has, however, opened up another way of looking at this. Changes in military ideology and practice will be visible in a number of ways: one of them is in the choices made as to the kind of place where military action – and especially battles – take place. This paper will relate these changes to ideas about the Military Revolution. |
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| Wade P. Catts, Joseph Balicki, and Peter Siegel – (John Milner Associates, Inc., West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA) | “A System of Easy Manuvers…”: Archeological Evidence of a Musketry Range at Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania, USA. |
| In the winter of 1777-78, the main body of the Continental Army established winter quarters at Valley Forge , Pennsylvania , approximately 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia . The arrival of Friedrich Wilhelm Baron von Steuben marked a significant shift in American troop training. Under Baron von Steuben’s tutelage, troops acquired tactical skills, discipline, and organization that resulted in an army whose companies, battalions, and brigades were increasingly on par with the professionalism of their opponents. In the summer and fall of 2005 investigations in advance of access and entry road reconfiguration identified the archeological signature of a musketry or target range. The archeological signature for this feature is a linear cluster of fired impacted balls and buckshot. The methodologies employed to identify this indistinct feature – including metal detecting, shovel testing, unit excavation, and GPR survey – and the historical research that places this feature within its broader military context will be discussed. | |
| Malcolm Cooper – (Historic Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland) | Managing and Conserving battlefields: Scotland |
| Different countries are approaching battlefield designation and management in different ways. It is rarely a high priority for the government heritage bodies, at least in the British Isles, and to date there has not been a great deal of inter-agency discussion about approaches, and lessons learned. This session will bring together some of those from the different bodies charged with taking forward battlefield designation and management in the British Isles and will explore where there is common ground, and where a divergent approach has been taken. Discussion will draw in experience from other countries. | |
| Jonathan Damp – (Zuni Cultural Resources Enterprise, Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, USA) | For the Want of a Nail: The Battlefield Archaeology of Hawikku and the European Invasion of the American Southwest |
| The first encounters between Spanish invaders and Puebloan societies in the American Southwest proved bellicose. The results of this encounter near the present-day Pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico were investigated at the sites of Hawikku and Kyaki:ma. We pursued three lines of investigation: an examination of the historic documents; a three stage metal detection survey on the perimeter of the two sites; and an analysis of the Battle of Hawikku in 1540 using a geographical information system. The battlefield archaeology of Hawikku revealed the point of attack and other patterns in the stages of Coronado ‘s assault of Hawikku. A similar study at Kyaki:ma yielded additional European artifacts from the early AD 1500s that may relate to Esteban’s journey in 1539. | |
| Kelly DeVries – (Dept of History, Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, USA) | The Battlefield of Crécy: Chroniclers, Archaeologists, and Historians |
| Within the past year two books have been published solely devoted to the battle of Crécy: Andrew Ayton and Philip Preston’s The Battle of Crécy, 1346 (Boydell, 2005) and Marilyn Livingstone and Morgen Witzel’s The Road to Crécy: The English Invasion of France, 1346 (Pearson Longman, 2005), while another devotes a lengthy discussion to the battle: Matthew Strickland and Robert Hardy’s The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose (Sutton Publishing, 2005). All claim to consider the battlefield in their analysis of what the narrative sources say happened there, but only one, Ayton and Preston , offers anything new. This paper will review the history of the history of the battle of Crécy: how have contemporary and modern historians approached the battlefield itself? It will also offer suggestions as to how battlefield archaeologists might assist historians when no archaeological excavation of a battlefield has or can be undertaken. | |
| Tomas Englund (paper will be presented by Bo Knarrstrom) | Sodra Staket 1719: Archaeological investigation of a Swedish battlefield |
| At the 13th of August 1719, during the end of the Great Nordic War, six Russian battalions made an landing operation near Stockholm, Sweden, In their attempt to capture two earthworks infantry and gunfire from galleys where used on both sides. The written sources are full of contradictions which makes it difficult to interpret the actual course of event. By tradition the battle has been known as a Swedish victory, but a new interpretation of the literature sources questions if this was really the right outcome of the battle. The aim with The Sodra Staket Battlefield Archaeological Project is to investigate the battlefield and a Russian mass grave that was discovered by chance thirty years ago. Also the aim is to establish whether Russian galleys got sunk during the battle as information from the Swedish archives asserts. This paper will report the result from the battlefield investigation season 2005. | |
| Natasha Ferguson – (Dept of Archaeology, NUI, Galway, Ireland) | Conservation and Management of battlefields in Ireland : Fighting a losing battle? |
| In Ireland the concept of battlefields as important archaeological landscapes has not yet been recognised with little research taking place resulting in a gap in our knowledge about their condition. The economy of Ireland is growing rapidly and with it the expansion of settlement and industry. The impact of this growth on these unique and sensitive archaeological landscapes is unknown but there is no doubt they are under threat of destruction. In Ireland battlefields appear not to register high in priority for protection with only a handful of sites recognised. This paper therefore aims to assess the condition of battlefields in Ireland and with this develop a guideline for their conservation and management as archaeological landscapes. These guidelines are designed to be specific for use in Ireland taking into account the distinctive nature of the archaeological structure in terms of research and government policy as well as cultural and environmental settings. | |
| Linda Fibiger – (Queens University, Belfast, Northern Ireland) | From Brawl to Battle: Recognising and recording violence and warfare in Ireland |
| Battlefield archaeology’s principal aim is the investigation of sites related to medium or large-scale military encounters. Although many of these have been recorded throughout Irish history, only one battle-related mass grave has been excavated and scientifically analysed in Ireland so far. More frequently, the bodily evidence for violence or warfare within society is to be found in the community cemeteries, which regularly include individuals showing signs of non-accidental traumatic injuries. This paper will focus on the contribution of osteoarchaeology to the investigation of conflict and warfare in Ireland , focusing primarily on the medieval and early post-medieval period. It will discuss the nature and context of the skeletal evidence for non-accidental injuries within the Irish burial record and raise questions about the nature of disposal of the casualties of conflict and battle. | |
| Veronica Fiorato – (English Heritage, London, England) | Battlefield Chapels and Battlefield commemoration |
| This paper will present the results of on-going research looking at the contemporary or near contemporary commemoration of battlefields in the United Kingdom . Battlefields are curious archaeological sites representing a snapshot of time where part of a population is brought together as a result of political, religious or social unrest. They are places where ideals and loyalties are put to the test. The aftermath of conflict can result in communities or individuals feeling the need to mark or memorialise the event in some way; to commemorate the dead and to remember the folly or righteousness of the cause and its consequences. Chapels to pray for the dead were erected at some sites such as at Battlefield in Shropshire , constructed shortly after the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. Others are marked by monuments or crosses. This paper will examine how a number of sites are commemorated and will consider what memorials can tell us about events and the affected communities. | |
| Glenn Foard – (The Battlefields Trust & University of Leeds, England) | From Battlefields to Wrecks, from Armouries to Artillery Ranges: Interpreting 17th century bullets |
| Edgehill (23rd October 1642) was the first major action of the Civil War in England. Since August 2004, with the help of a dedicated team of volunteers, the Battlefields Trust has been carrying out a detailed study of the site. The investigation combines a review of the primary sources, reconstruction of the historic terrain, and a systematic metal detecting survey of the battle archaeology across more than 5 square kilometres, comprising almost the whole battlefield. The focus of analysis of the battle archaeology has been on bullet distributions. In order to interpret the humble lead bullet, a wider programme of investigation is being undertaken on other 17th century assemblages, including the magazines on wrecks and garrisons; the examination of 17th century firearms; the analysis of contemporary military manuals and surgical treatises; and, in collaboration with the Defence Academy, conducting experimental firing of both artillery and small arms and then retrieving and analysing the bullets and their distribution. This paper will review the survey and consider the implications of this and the wider research for the interpretation of the archaeology of 17th century battles. | |
| Peter Harrington – (Brown University, Rhode Island, USA) | Civil War Siege evidence from early castle clearances |
| For every pitched battle fought during the 17 th century civil wars in Britain , there were many more sieges of towns, cities, mansions and castles. While the study of the battlefields has advanced considerably over the past decades, our understanding of the physical dynamics of sieges is lacking. Although evidence has been recovered from several castles, little archaeological work has been done at the majority of such sites, and under the present climate of excavation on threatened sites only, this situation is unlikely to change. However, one important body of evidence has been neglected. When many castles became state property, they were ‘cleared’. While these ‘clearances’ were conducted with little regard to the underlying archaeology, records were kept of the finds made and some of this information can provide useful clues as to the evidence of siege events. | |
| Richard Holmes – (Military and Security Studies, Cranfield University, Shrivenham, England) | Men and microterrain: making sense of battlefields |
| The perspective of a military historian, placing battlefield archaeology in its wider context and examining the valuable contribution it can make in supplementing written sources. | |
| Rob Janaway & A.S.Wilson – (Dept of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, England) | Rust never sleeps: The taphonomic effects of burial environments on battlefield assemblages |
| The use of metal detectors and the precise location of metallic debris is a well established technique in battlefield archaeology. However these distribution patterns will not simply reflect activity related to the original battle, nor immediate post battle scavenging, but also differential survival especially with the most ephemeral metallic artefacts such as arrow heads. This paper will consider the metallurgy and corrosion of typical battlefield artefacts. The effect of different depositional environments on the corrosion and potential recoverability will be considered. In particular the effect of post conflict land management of the battle site, including both post-medieval and 20 th century agricultural practices will be discussed. Preliminary results from both laboratory experiments and current research from Bosworth battlefield site will be presented. | |
| Bo Knarrstrom – (Sweden) | Recent Developments within Swedish Battlefield Archaeology |
| In 2003, the first field work was carried out on an open battlefield in Sweden . Since then we have continued to develop methods, technical applications and analysis tools in order to improve our understanding of historical conflicts. Fieldwork has hitherto been conducted on three major battle sites, all connected to the endless wars between Denmark and Sweden in the period 1500-1700 AD. This paper will address the field work, finds and results from two of these sites, Landskrona 1677 and Axtorna 1565. These efforts have generated many new insights as to way the battles ended the way they did. By concentrating on key positions – identified from historical documents and digital mappings of the ground – we have managed to pinpoint areas where the fights might have been decided. The interesting thing is that almost none of these events, thoroughly documented from an archaeological viewpoint, exist in the written source material. A third issue that will be addressed concerns the physical and mental ordeal of participating in an open battle during the black powder era. Modern psychological research and experiments regarding the true effect of black powder weapons suggest that that the reality of combat demanded an extreme self-control from each of the participants. | |
| Brian Mallaws – (Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales) | Managing and Conserving battlefields: Wales |
| Different countries are approaching battlefield designation and management in different ways. It is rarely a high priority for the government heritage bodies, at least in the British Isles, and to date there has not been a great deal of inter-agency discussion about approaches, and lessons learned. This session will bring together some of those from the different bodies charged with taking forward battlefield designation and management in the British Isles and will explore where there is common ground, and where a divergent approach has been taken. Discussion will draw in experience from other countries. | |
| David Mason – (Heronbridge Archaeological Research Project, Chester, England) | Heronbridge, England: AD616 Mass Grave |
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Since 2002, a programme of annual summer excavation has been carried out at the multi-period site and Scheduled Ancient Monument known as Heronbridge, just south of Chester . It lies midway between the suburb of Handbridge and the village of Eccleston on the west bank of the River Dee, and beside the line of Watling Street , the main Roman road running south from Chester now overlain by Eaton Road . Between the latter and the river are the remains of a large, curvilinear earthwork enclosing an area of 6 hectares. West of this, continuing on the other side of the road, are features associated with medieval open-field systems. Underlying these are the remains of a Roman roadside settlement, the principal focus of intermittent excavation between 1929 and 1967. The earliest investigations here, in the 1930s, found inhumation burials inserted into the ruins of the Roman buildings. Examination determined they were all male and as many had suffered a violent death – as evidenced by weapon cuts to the head – it was suggested they were battle casualties. Like the neighbouring earthwork, there was no material to date the burials. As the excavated human remains were subsequently re-interred without record, lost or destroyed, dating of the assumed battle cemetery could only be achieved by further excavation. The 2004 season produced spectacular results. The precise spot where the burials had been found earlier was re-opened and the limits of the original excavation expanded. The existence of a mass grave (estimated as containing a minimum of 120 bodies) was confirmed as was the suggested interpretation of the occupants as battle casualties. Two skeletons were removed for analysis which revealed plentiful evidence of battle injuries as well as yielding valuable information about their stature, general health and earlier medical history. Carbon-14 dating gave a date in the opening decades of the 7th century for the burials which coincides with the date of the Battle of Chester fought c. 616 AD. Described in a variety of sources of which the best known is Bede, this was the engagement where Aethelfrith, King of English Northumbria, defeated the combined forces of the British kingdoms of Gwynedd and Powys, in the process slaying more than 200 monks from the neighbouring monastery at Bangor-on-Dee who had come to pray for the British forces. The condition of the bodies at the time of burial suggests they were buried soon after the battle and, consequently, that the battle was fought nearby. The identification of the battlefield site would make it the earliest positively identified example in the whole of England . Work on the adjacent earthwork has shown it to be a major fortification defended by a substantial ditch and rampart, the latter reinforced at the front by a stone revetment. Radiocarbon dating of organic material in the ditch fill proves it was in existence – and had already been obsolete for some time – by the early 8th century. It seems very possible therefore that the fort is contemporary with the Battle of Chester, constructed by Aethelfrith in the wake of his victory, and thus a rare example of an early Anglo-Saxon fortification. |
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| Tony Pollard – (Dept of Archaeology, University of Glasgow, Scotland) | Culloden: A laboratory for battlefield archaeology |
| The battle of Culloden, fought on 16 April 1746, marked the bloody end of the last Jacobite rebellion and also proved to be the last pitched battle fought on British soil. Several seasons of archaeological investigation on the site have provided a wealth of new information on the battle, and the history of the site since 1746. This paper will discuss the current status of this work and illustrate the ways in which Culloden has provided a useful proving ground for refining and testing field methodologies. The techniques to be discussed will include topographic, metal detector and geophysical survey, along with excavation. Among other things, fieldwork was used to test a series of assumptions passed down from contemporary written sources, eyewitness accounts and maps, and succeeded in validating some while also discrediting others. This work will make a major contribution to the re-interpretation of the site related to the opening of a new visitor centre in 2007. | |
| G. Michael Pratt – (Center for Historic and Military Archaeology, Heidelberg College, Tiffin, Ohio, USA) | Detecting the Crooked Trail: An Archaeological Perspective on the British Victory at Mackinac Island , August 4, 1814 |
| On August 4, 1814 British Regulars, militia, and their Indian allies successfully defeated a U.S. attempt to retake strategic Mackinac Island following British conquest of the Island a year earlier. The Battle of Mackinac Island resulted in the death of more than 20 US regulars at the cost of one Indian warrior and left the island under British control until war’s end. A 2002 metal detection archaeological survey was carried out over portions of the battlefield in an effort to determine the extent and intensity of the skirmish and to verify or refute historic interpretations of the course of battle. The historic Wawashkamo (Walk a Crooked Trail) Golf Course property formed the survey area and its fairways constituted the sample. The results of the survey provided new information on the tactics, location, and relative levels of engagement across the battlefield and resulted in a reinterpretation of the site itself. The survey also indicated the strength of the British battlefield position was recognized and utilized by later 19th Century US forces on Mackinac Island. | |
| Lila Rakoczy – (Dept of Archaeology, University of York, York, England) | Exploring an Overlooked Casualty of War: Finding Meaning and Methodology in Castle Destruction |
| The slighting of castles in the English Civil War is a subject that continues to fall outside the confines of traditional battlefields archaeology. Our understanding of castle destruction largely derives from a national historical narrative that says castles were ‘blown up’ in order to ‘deny use to the enemy’. Rarely does this information come from any systematic analysis of castle remains. It also does not consider the impact of destruction on communities, and what kinds of forces were instrumental in instigating, guiding, and halting this destruction. This paper will address all of these issues. It will argue that 17 th century destructive methods can be archaeologically recognised and recorded, and that understanding these processes provides insight into why castles were destroyed. The conclusion is very few castles were actually ‘blown up’, and our adherence to strict military explanations ignores the complex social issues behind destruction. | |
| Catherine Rigeade, Emma Rabino Massa, Michel Signoli – (Université de la Méditerranée Faculté de Médecine de Marseille, Marseille, France; Dipartimento di BiologiaAnimale e dell’Uomo, Università di Torino, Torino, Italia; Unité d’Anthropologie, Université de la Méditerranée, Faculté de Médecine de Marseille, Marseille, France) | Martin Du Nord’street (Douai,France) and Vilnius (Lithuania) : two examples of military mass graves from eighteenth and the nineteenth century |
| Two anthropological samples, are focused in our work, related to the succession War of Spain (1710-1712) and the Retreat from Russia of the Great army (December 1812). Both sites were discovered during urgent rescue excavation in 1981 (Douai , France) and 2002 (Vilnius, Lithuania). Our study highlights the original funerary managements in times of war. Indeed, those sites attest an abnormal management of corpses by several aspects. Funerary organization can be evidenced by field data (simultaneous body deposit, position, breakdown, taphonomy, artefacts) and by anthropological study (paleodemography: young male adults; paleopathology: absence or presence of traumatisms) of the skeletons. Those results seem to dismiss the hypothesis that the soldiers died during a battle. The study of these mass graves brings additional information for these historical events but also about management of soldiers’ corpses during the eighteenth and the nineteenth century. | |
| Graeme Rimer – (Royal Armouries, Leeds, England) | Cuts, Stabs and Blunt Trauma: Identifying the weapons which injured the Towton bodies |
| No abstract provided. | |
| Achim Rost & Susanne Wilbers-Rost – (Belm; Varusschlacht im Osnabrücker Land – Museum und Park Kalkriese, Bramsche/Kalkriese, Germany) | The Battle of Varus 9 A.D. – Actions in a defile: results of metal detecting and excavations & attempts of an interpretation |
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Since 1987 archaeological investigations have taken place in and around Kalkriese north of Osnabrück, Germany. Roman coins and military equipment were discovered at different sites in a large area, and excavations helped to understand what had happened at the place of the “ Battle in the Teutoburg Forest ”, one of the most famous battles in Roman history between Germans and Romans. The paper explains which finds and features could be found by metal detecting and/or by excavations; it compares the field “Oberesch”, which is obviously one of the main places of the actions, with other sites in the surrounding and tries to show chances and limits of field survey and excavation in an area which is widely covered by thick layers of turf. The reconstruction of actions by archaeological methods is usually based on the interpretation of military equipment which we find on battlefields. Before we are able to draw conclusions from the distribution of such relics we have to analyse, however, the processes which had an effect on archaeological material during the centuries after the battle. Especially plundering and clearing up a battlefield after the fight have to be mentioned here as important factors; the information we get by archaeological surveys on a battlefield today is very rudimentary and sometimes seams almost manipulated. The paper wants to demonstrate that it is difficult, but possible to get hints for the interpretation of actions even on ancient battlefields when such methodological reflections are included. The archaeological analysis of finds and features from Kalkriese probably allows to show the development of a battle among Romans and Germans in the special case of a defile. |
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| Douglas D. Scott – (Connor Consulting, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA) | Shot and Shell Tell the Tale: The Rise of Battlefield and Conflict Archaeology – A Short Retrospective |
| Warfare is as old as humankind. Studies of conflict are almost as old as warfare itself, but systematic archaeological investigations of the field of conflict is a relatively new field, only a bit over twenty years old. The archaeology of conflict has captured the imagination of the public and media, often times to the practitioners’ discomfort, yet we who use physical evidence to study past conflicts are changing the face of how conflict and war are seen and studied. Site specific studies, and detailed artifact analyses are the epitome of battlefield archaeology, but we are now beginning to see broader patterns in data that can elucidate topics such as the disorganized nature of command and control organization and loss of tactical cohesion or show that commanders exaggerated the intensity of the fighting in after action reports or record evidence of intense and prolonged engagements that demonstrate well organized hard fought actions with strong command and control. Examples will be presented to support how the physical evidence of battles can refine battlefield interpretation, build a more complete understanding of past events, and demonstrate the evolution of military tactics and strategy. | |
| Damian Shiels – (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland) | Fort & Field: The Archaeology of the Siege & Battle of Kinsale, 1601 |
| In late 1601 a Spanish force landed in Kinsale, Co. Cork on the south coast of Ireland . Their aim was to link up with Confederate Irish troops and expel English Crown forces from the island. The Crown army besieged the town for three months, constructing major siege works around the town. The siege was followed by a brief, one-sided battle in which the English defeated the Irish relief force in what was to become one of the great watersheds of Irish history. No attempts have been made to locate any of the sites associated with the siege and battle archaeologically. Following a reappraisal of the documentary evidence and topography of the area, the probable location of a number of the English siege positions has been identified. This paper will discuss work carried out to date, and will include the results of the first archaeological investigations, to be carried out in 2006. | |
| James E. Snead – (Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA) | Destruction in Context: Landscapes of Conflict at Burnt Corn Pueblo |
| The archaeology of warfare and conflict in prehistory faces numerous conceptual and methodological issues. In the post-“pacified past” era, we must move beyond questions of the presence or absence of war and the construction of sweeping models of causality, working instead towards a deeper understanding of how conflict “played out” in distinct cultural and historical circumstances. Our work at Burnt Corn Pueblo, in the American Southwest, is intended to understand the context within which a thriving community of the early 14 th century AD was destroyed by fire and permanently abandoned. This project, involving both excavation and intensive survey and benefiting from the deep southwestern ethnographic record, provides not only a better grasp on what “war” looked like in the Ancestral Pueblo past, but also on the ways that competition shaped the organization of the landscape and infused it with historical meaning. | |
| Paul Stamper | Managing and Conserving battlefields: England |
| Different countries are approaching battlefield designation and management in different ways. It is rarely a high priority for the government heritage bodies, at least in the British Isles, and to date there has not been a great deal of inter-agency discussion about approaches, and lessons learned. This session will bring together some of those from the different bodies charged with taking forward battlefield designation and management in the British Isles and will explore where there is common ground, and where a divergent approach has been taken. Discussion will draw in experience from other countries. | |
| Simon Stanley | The Medieval Longbow: Construction and Performance |
| Intended to complement the paper by Matthew Strickland, this will be a question and answer session on the longbow, its testing, range and other practical elements, including the display of sample bows and arrows with various heads. Intended to complement the paper by Matthew Strickland, this will be a question and answer session on the longbow, its testing, range and other practical elements, including the display of sample bows and arrows with various heads. | |
| David Starley and Rachel Cubitt – (Science Officer, Royal Armouries, Leeds, England, and University of Bradford, England) | Arrowheads: Taking a Closer Look |
| Typological studies provide a useful framework for classifying arrowheads and can give some indication of dates and function. However, our understanding of these artefacts, produced in hundreds of thousands, relies of a surprisingly limited number of stratified and provenanced finds. Moreover, the role of certain types such as bodkin points, is far from universally accepted. Recent archaeometallurgical research suggests that arrowhead technology developed beyond these, at a time when increasing amounts of armour was being worn. Large battlefield assemblages, such as Towton (1461), provide a rare opportunity to study undoubtedly military arrowheads. The potential relevance of these studies is tested by examining arrowheads from Holm Hill, Tewkesbury with the aim of determining whether the site was involved in the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471). | |
| Matthew Strickland – (Dept of History, University of Glasgow, Scotland) | UNKNOWN |
| Abstract to be provided. | |
| Michael Strutt – (Texas State Parks, USA) | The Battle of San Jacinto, a First Look |
| The 1836 battle of San Jacinto ended the Texas Revolution, and some historians contend also paved the way for American expansion across the Southwest. Texas State Parks began research into the natural setting of the battlefield several years ago. Research shows that the scene today is very different from 1836. However, no systematic archeology was conducted until recently. Many historians thought that little physical evidence of the battle remained as the site had become a destination for souvenir hunters. Recent archeology has demonstrated there is still much in the ground to learn from. With professionals and volunteer archeologists Texas State Parks is conducting on-going surveys using metal detectors, soil boring, experimental electromagnetic remote sensing, magnetometer, side scan sonar, historic map studies, and traditional archeology. To improve interpretation of the battle we will incorporate natural and cultural resource survey information to re-landscape the battlefield in order to reflect the 1836 setting. | |
| Paul Walsh | Managing and Conserving battlefields: Ireland |
| Different countries are approaching battlefield designation and management in different ways. It is rarely a high priority for the government heritage bodies, at least in the British Isles, and to date there has not been a great deal of inter-agency discussion about approaches, and lessons learned. This session will bring together some of those from the different bodies charged with taking forward battlefield designation and management in the British Isles and will explore where there is common ground, and where a divergent approach has been taken. Discussion will draw in experience from other countries. | |
Visits :
- Marston Moor
- Towton
- Bosworth Battlefield Survey
Delegates :
Count = Unknown
Names
Abstracts :
Schedule :
Parallel Sessions :
NONE
Poster Presentations :
| Angélica Medrano Enríquez, Charles M. Haecker, Elizabeth A. Oster, and Michael L. Elliott (Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Facultad de Antropología, Mexico / Jemez Mountain Research Center, New Mexico, USA, National Park Service-Heritage Partnerships Program, USA / New Mexico State Historic Preservation Office & Dept of Anthropology, Tulane University, USA ) | In Search of the Guerra Mixtón: Indigenous Resistance and the Battlegrounds of Nueva Galicia |
| When the Spanish penetrated “ Los Altos ” of Jalisco and Zacatecas in the 1530s they encountered a bellicose people, the Nahuatl-speaking Caxcans. The Caxcans enjoyed a sophisticated culture featuring complex socio-political organization, monumental architecture, advanced manufacturing techniques for ceramics and other elements of material culture, and the Mesoamerican calendar. In the years that followed indigenous peoples and their lands in Nueva Galicia were distributed as prizes among the conquerors. With little appreciation for the division of their settlements Caxcan leaders instigated a vigorous counter-offensive in 1541, the Mixtón War. Key developments in the conquest of Nueva Galicia and the Mixtón War are chronicled in various letters and relaciones and pictorial documents, including the Codex Telleriano-Remensis, the Lienzo de Tlaxcala, and others. The rich detail found in these texts combined with data from recent archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the Caxcan centers of Juchipila and Nochistlán provide a fresh perspective from which to view the events of this pivotal era. | |
| Peter Doyle and Richard Burt (Dept of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, England / Dept of Construction Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA) | Pointe Du Hoc , Normandy , 1944: Construction, Engineering and Destruction |
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Pointe du Hoc is a medium coastal battery that was built as part of Hitler’s Atlantic Wall during the Second World War. Strategically placed between the Utah and Omaha invasion beaches, it was the scene of intense bombing in June 1944, and was eventually captured by the U.S. 2 nd Ranger Battalion. The battery was constructed to support six open gun emplacements protected by two anti-aircraft bunkers; in June 1944 the open emplacements were in the process of being replaced by four roofed casemates. New studies provide new information on the effectiveness of the battery. Survey of the existing structures confirms multi-stage construction, and variability in concrete quality, consistent with hurried improvement works. Studies of the Pointe itself demonstrate that the vertical cliff profile, described in a secret intelligence report as ‘precipitous’ and ‘unscalable’, was a function of two sets of 90-degree joints. In fact, although appearing strong, the Pointe has a unique weakness; its thick marl capping is inherently weak and easily mobilised. The continuous Allied bombardment, promoted the development of scree cones which negated the ‘unscalability’ of the cliffs, providing ample opportunity for exploitation by the Rangers, a factor not previously envisaged in the pre-campaign intelligence. |
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| Marix Evans (The Battlefields Trust, Northampton, England) | The Interpretation of the Battlefield of Naseby to the General Public – a Challenge in Communication |
| The traditional view of the location of the battlefield of 14 June 1645 is reflected in the entry in The Register of Historic Battlefields published by English Heritage in 1995. It was made without the benefit of Glenn Foard’s Naseby: The Decisive Campaign which was published in the same year and which altered the understanding of the location and nature of the battle radically. What little interpretation is offered pre-dates Foard, and more data have been gathered since. The Battlefields Trust is developing the interpretation and facilities both for educational and for recreational visitors. The task poses interesting challenges which will be discussed here. They include explaining the 17 th century landscape, inculcating an appreciation of dead ground, describing English Civil War weaponry and formations, introducing concepts of command and control, inviting evaluation of finds, reconstructing the pattern of events as a working hypothesis open to discussion and alternative explanations and, crucially, engaging the support of residents. | |
| Victoria Eyres and Derek Alsop (Cranfield University, England) | |
| Investigations were undertaken into the ballistics of muskets and cannon, 3.25” bore, thought to have been used during the battle of Edge Hill. A 48” long 10 bore barrel was manufactured and test were carried out to investigate the effect of firing a muzzle loading match lock musket with and without a wad between the ball and the powder. The effect on muzzle velocity, propellant pressure and weapon dispersion were measured over a sequence of ten shots and the effect of fouling of the bore was noted. A simple point mass ballistics model was developed to determine the effects of variations in muzzle velocity and launch angle on distance to projectile ground impact. Firing from the 3.25” bore cannon was undertaken using cased shot to investigate the spread of shot on the ground. All of these firings strongly indicate that distortion of the spherical ball, in both musket and cannon, takes place in the barrels of the weapons during firing thus changing their aerodynamic drag and therefore the predicted impact range. | |
| Helen Fenwick, Andrew Ayton, and James Steele (all Dept of History, University of Hull, England) | Reviewing the landscape of Crécy |
| Although the site of the battle at Crécy is well established, how the landscape was used by the protagonists, including the deployment and movement of troops, has undergone numerous interpretations. Recent research has attempted to gain a better understanding of Crécy by testing the validity of the different models of the battle and by investigating whether the landscape had any controlling effect on the proceedings. With the absence of any major remains from the battle, the landscape is the one key aspect which can be studied in further detail. A combination of a review of the written sources alongside a GPS survey and GIS modelling of the landscape has allowed a fuller understanding of the landscape of the battle. | |
| Daniel M. Sivilich (Battlefield Restoration and Archaeological Volunteer Organization, Freehold, New Jersey, USA) | Accuracy Testing of Hand-Held GPS Units and Other Methods of Measuring Spatial Data |
| Battlefield sites are usually large and sometimes remote which can make collecting spatial data a challenge. The most accurate method of spatially locating artifacts is using a total station laser transit. However, having known control points in or near a large battlefield is sometimes a problem. The next option might be survey grade GPS – but this equipment is cumbersome and very expensive. Several alternative methods are being used. The most primitive is simply estimating the artifact location on a map or aerial photo of the site. Next is using a simple compass and a tape measure from a known point. This method does require at least one accurate datum. Measuring spatial data with handheld GPS units has been gaining popularity. But how accurate are these measurements? This paper is an analysis of these methods to determine their relative accuracy and the effect on the data analysis. | |
| Shirley Ann Watson | Those who forget the past…: the continuing importance of tradition and belief in understanding Culloden. |
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The Battle of Culloden, as most people may know, was the last pitched battle to be fought in mainland Britain. The interpretation of the site, now largely owned by the National Trust for Scotland, has been based on historical accounts and more recently on archaeological research. The intention is to present the facts and dispel the myths. But tradition and belief have always played an important role in people’s perceptions and experiences of the battlefield. They have even influenced the evolution of the battlefield itself. Do they continue to have a role in the presentation and interpretation of Culloden? Should they? I intend to look at Culloden Battlefield from the ethnological approach, looking at the importance of tradition and belief in locals’ and visitors’ perceptions of the battle and battlefield. |
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