Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society

March 2016 talk: Medieval Jug from Africa

Medieval jug from Africa in Leeds Museums collection

Talk Title: A Yorkshire link to an English Medieval ewer recovered from the Asante capital, Ghana, in 1896.

Since 1984 Leeds Museums and Galleries have had on loan a wonderful survival from Medieval England: a bronze ewer, recovered by the Prince of Wales’s own Regiment of Yorkshire from what is now Ghana in 1896. Antonia tells me that the regimental museum in York recently had a major revamp and may well take back the loan later this year, so this may be a timely opportunity to make acquaintance with this fantastic medieval vessel before it returns to the lenders.

Antonia’s talk will situate the ewer in the context of its 1896 retrieval by the British army during an Asante campaign, and explore the routes that this jug, and three others from the same period, may have taken to reach Africa during the 500 or so years following their original manufacture. Clearly the Asante court treasury had a key role in the survival of these jugs and it is interesting to consider what meanings the jugs had for the Asante themselves, as well as their original manufacture and use.

This is not the first time that West Africa has been the focus of interest for us as medievalists. Some time ago we posted on this blog information about a temporary exhibition of ceramic figurines from Komaland in Ghana.

Antonia Lovelace is curator of World Culture at Leeds Museums and Galleries, and author of a paper on the Prince of Wales’s regimental loan to Leeds in the Journal of Museum Ethnography (no. 12, 2000). She curated the ‘Out of Africa’ displays in the World View Galley at Leeds City Museum (2008-2013) and now looks after the ‘Voices of Asia’ gallery in the same space (launched in 2014).

Antonia will refer to a key article by Martin Bailey, 1993 ‘Two kings, their armies and some jugs. The Ashanti ewer’, Apollo (December: 387-390), and to the British Museum Occasional paper 115, by John Cherry and Neil Stratford (1995) ‘Westminster Kings and the medieval Palace of Westminster’, and look at more recent mentions of these English medieval jugs found in Africa.

Medieval Yorkshire 2 (2015)

I recently received word that the second volume of the Medieval Section journal Medieval Yorkshire has been printed and is available for distribution to paid up members. The new publication features a paper on Yorkshire’s medieval boroughs by Brian Barber; on Plough pebbles from Holderness, and on the Kirkstall Abbey Gatekeeper’s Lodge and Vesper Gate by your humble servant the Hon.Secretary; on A Stamford Ware pottery kiln in Pontefract by Ian Roberts; and on Malton Museum by Ann Clark. There are a number of lecture summaries from the 2014-15 programme, and, sad as it is to report, short obituaries for section members, the late Lawrence Butler and Brian Donaghey, who did so much to promote Medieval architecture and literature respectively.

The contents were kindly seen to press by our Hon. Editor David Asquith, ably assisted by Sue Alexander and all thanks to them and the contributors for their hard work.

We will be distributing copies by post shortly but in order to save money on postage we will take copies to this Saturday’s lecture about the Gilbertines at the Swarthmore Education Centre. Please come along to enjoy the lecture and pick up your copy of Medieval Yorkshire at the same time. Remember your subscription needs to be current.

Medieval Section February 2016 Lecture: the Gilbertines in Yorkshire

The February 2016 lecture will cover the archaeology of the Order of the Gilbertines, focusing on the layout and function of both double and much overlooked single houses. The lecture will primarily focus on the Yorkshire houses of Watton, Ellerton, Malton and St. Andrews, York. Comparisons of layout will also be drawn with other monastic orders to place the Gilbertines within a wider national context and to help shed light on how they were regarded by their contemporaries. Previous excavation, survey and interpretation will be drawn together and re-evaluated. This will include, for the first time, evaluation of St. John Hope’s nineteenth century excavations at Watton Priory with new a resistivity survey carried out on the site by the speaker in 2014.

Our speaker Peter Townend will draw upon research carried out over the last three years for his PhD thesis on the Monastic Order of the Gilbertines. He intends to submit his thesis for examination by Easter of this year, so we are very grateful to him for speaking when he has weightier matters to think about. Peter has a background in landscape archaeology and completed his Masters in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Sheffield in 2009, following a undergraduate degree in History and Archaeology at the University of Hull. He worked for a number of years at Northamptonshire Archaeology. He is currently collaborating with his supervisor Dr Hugh Willmott on the Thornton Abbey Research Project having previously worked together at Monk Bretton Priory and Humberston Abbey. Publications for all three of these sites are planned for this coming year. Attendees at the monthly lectures and followers of this blog will be familiar with Monk Bretton because Dr Willmott kindly spoke to the Medieval Section in April 2014.

IMS OPEN LECTURE

Tuesday, 12th January at 17:30 in the Council Chamber (Parkinson Building)

The first IMS Open Lecture of the new year is given by Gábor Klaniczay, entitled ‘Visible Pain and Invisible Wounds. The Debates around the Stigmata of Saint Catherine of Siena’

New Year 2016 lecture: David Cockman on the Luttrell Psalter

On Saturday 9th January David Cockman will speak at our New Year meeting on the subject of the Luttrell Psalter, one of the great surviving treasures of the Middle Ages. It was commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell of Irnham in Lincolnshire during the mid-14th century. What distinguishes the Psalter from many others of the same period is the vast number and richness of the images which decorate the Latin text. These provide a graphic insight into medieval peasant life, which can be found virtually nowhere else.

Our speaker will explore the Luttrell psalter as a non-medieval specialist. He is fascinated by unique light it sheds on everyday life on the 14th century. This exploration is much easier now because of the availability of a digital copy of the psalter. He has also spent some time at Irnham to see just how much of Sir Geoffrey Luttrell’s world as described in the psalter can still be identified and this will also form part of the talk.

David is a member of Holmfirth Local History Group and serves on the committee of Huddersfield Archaeology Society. His moment of fame came when he appeared on one of Michael Portillo’s railway programmes talking about the great Holmfirth flood of 1852. For this contribution he was rewarded with a free cup of BBC tea, which he says makes the Medieval Section’s offer of a book token in lieu of fee seem like a win on the Euro Lottery!

The lecture will be at 2-3pm in our new venue at Swarthmore Education Centre at the bottom of Clarendon Road in Leeds. It promises to be a visual treat and just the thing to revive the jaded senses after the over-indulgence of the festive season.

Visit to Wressle Castle

The Castle Studies Trust recently funded a project to survey the gardens of Wressle Castle. The findings of the report (available on the Trust’s website) has been turned into a 3 minute video on their You Tube channel. Some Medieval Section members visited the site last year and this is the link if you’d like to watch it:

The Trust, like Medieval Section, has a good presence on all social media platforms e.g. Facebook and Twitter, and the Chair of Trustees, Jeremy Cunnington, has kindly offered to publicise any castle related publications or events.

Lecture Summary: The Pickering Medieval Wall Paintings

Edited shortened version of lecture given to the Medieval Section of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society about the Medieval wall paintings in the parish church at Pickering, North Yorkshire, by Dr Kate Giles, Senior Lecturer at the University of York. Filmed at the Swarthmore Education Centre on 10th October 2015, and edited by Bryan Sitch, Honorary Secretary of the Medieval Section. Posted New Year’s Eve 2015.

Medieval Section goes Digital Media

It is now possible to keep track of all the latest news and events from the Medieval Section via Facebook and Twitter. If you are a Facebook user, just search for Medieval Section – Yorkshire Archaeology Society and please like our page. You can find us on Twitter under @MedievalSec. Please follow us and spread the word to your friends!

December Lecture: Chris Robson – The St Bees Man and Woman

St Bees Man Autopsy Team courtesy of Chris Robson

Our Christmas lecture at 2-3pm on Saturday December 12th will be given by Chris Robson of the St Bees Village History Group. Chris will be talking about the St Bees man and woman.

For anyone not familiar with this amazing archaeological discovery from the Middle Ages: in 1981 an archaeological investigation was carried out in a car park (where have we heard that one before? (!) – and even the students involved were from Leicester…), which was once the South Chancel of St Bees Priory Church in Cumbria.

The archaeologists discovered by chance a stone vault that would have at one time been in front of an altar. Inside the vault was a body-shaped lead coffin and the bones of a woman. The lead coffin was opened and to everybody’s surprise inside there was a body wrapped in protective layers of sticky linen.

The wrapped body after opening the lead coffin. Photo: Chris Robson

At a hastily arranged autopsy, the linen cloth was removed to expose a man so well-preserved that it was possible to discover how he died, to look at the state of his heart and liver, to see liquid blood in his lung and to guess what he had eaten for breakfast. The preservation of the body seemed to suggest that the man had been dead for only a few months, yet the building in which he had been buried fell down in 1500.

This lecture, which will be illustrated by some extraordinary pictures (sensitivity alert!), tells the story of the best-preserved medieval body found in modern times, and suggests who the man was and where he met his violent death. The identity of the lady is a key part of this historical puzzle.

This lecture will be held in our new venue at the Swarthmore. This being our December meeting, members will recall that we usually mark the occasion by bringing in mince pieces and savouries and mulled wine. This year I’ve been advised we can still bring in our own food and drink and we may even be able to use one of the hot water boilers to make cups of tea and coffee. If you are willing to bring some food or drink in for the meeting please would you let me know in advance so that we can co-ordinate and not end up with ten boxes of mince pies (!).

Writing a week or so after the event, I am pleased to report it passed off successfully and was enjoyed by all those who came, including the President. Members please be aware that Toby Jones can no longer give the advertised lecture about the Newport ship on 9th January. Instead David Cockman of the Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society has very kindly agreed to step in and speak to us about the Luttrell Psalter. This promises to be a visual treat. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Bryan Sitch
Hon.Secretary
Medieval Section
Yorskhire Archaeological Society

IMS Open Lecture

‘Men, Again, in Early Medieval Studies: Gender, Masculinity, Literature and Culture’

Tuesday 24th November 2015 at 17.30

Speaker: Clare Lees, Professor of Medieval Literature and History of the Language, Department of English Language & Literature, King’s College, London)
Location: Council Chamber, Parkinson Building, University of Leeds.