Download THE BARBARIAN WORlD - Avant

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Department of Construction
UW Stout
Jason Charalambides
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The importance of migrations in cultural change.
The migration period of the 1st millennium. The
role of the barbarians in the collapse of the
Roman Empire: the example of Britain. The Dark
Ages. Major barbarian groups: Germanic groups,
Celts, Slavs, and Scandinavians.
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The mixture of Barbarian groups in Britain: The
Britons: The Roman rule, 43 – 410; the attacks by
the Germanic groups, principally the Saxons. The
Saxon shore forts. Hill forts. King Arthur
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After 43 AD Romans took over
Britain. They had reasonably
dense urban civilization.
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This contact brought many
changes to the people of
England.
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Under the Romans, England had
a flourishing urban life, and
Christianity appeared…..
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In 367 there was a conspiracy
and the Romans were thrown out
by the Barbarians, and after they
came back they only lasted until
410. So Britain fell out of the
architectural and urban orbit of
the Mediterranean.
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Commercial network and urban
civilization that tied the Roman
Empire together changed forms
in England. The inhabitants of
England were building a lot, had
a very distinctive landscape, and
had a great deal of cultural and
economic energy, but not built
monumental masonry buildings.
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There was a variety of tribes and
groups who can be broken down
to several large ethnic entities.
One is the Celts from Western
Europe which were pushed
further west toward Britain and
Ireland, and Brittany in France.
Another is the Germanic groups,
like the Saxons, the Angles, the
Franks,
and the third major group is the
Scandinavian, from the
Scandinavian peninsula,
and finally the fourth one was the
Slavic group.
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In Iron age Britain, in the
late BC, the islands were
inhabited by the Britons
and the Celts. The
Britons were building hill
fronts, which were fortified
constructions on the top of
the hills with ditches
around, covering
enormous areas.
When the Romans
invaded in 43 AD the hill
fronts disappeared but
were revived after the
Romans withdrew. The
Romans built a whole
series of forts primarily on
the southern shore called
Saxon Shorefronts.
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After the Romans were thrown
out, the Britons hired Saxons to
fight the Celts. The Saxons
rebelled against the Britons and
the Britons ended up fighting both
fronts for the control of the island,
like King Arthur who was a
Briton. So there was a
fragmentation including things
thrown in by many groups of
people.
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So England was divided into
small kingdoms all fighting one
another with different ethnic
compositions and heritage. Yet
due to contacts there were
similarities shared amongst all of
these groups.
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Pit houses vs. above-ground housing made of
timber. Anglo-Saxon farmsteads and agricultural
hamlets (exs.: reconstruction at West Stow,
England, and archaeological excavation at
Chalton, England). Scandinavian longhouses and
walled villages with greens. Boat-shaped
longhouses (ex.: excavated house at Vorbasse.
Denmark). Slavic log buildings and Icelandic turf
houses. Life in a longhouse.
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The first thing to look at is houses
and how they built. Northern
Europe’s climate is appropriate
for wooden buildings.
Monumental masonry came in
very late! Most people building
these buildings in wood were
farmers and were building houses
with the vertical elements stuck
directly into the ground in
different ways.
That was a remarkably long
lasting building technique in N.
European vernacular tradition.
So the structural system is what
unites all those buildings together
although there were variations in
size and shape.
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In the Germanic and British areas
there were relatively small
houses, usually double square,
with pairs of posts supporting the
roof having plans similar to a
basilica, with a major area in the
center where the columns were,
and the major room with another
smaller room on the end.
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The Scandinavians were
using the same basic
structural system, and
functions, but had a slightly
different layout. They were
long narrow houses that
accommodated not only
family but also their animals,
and they incorporated
storage areas. They were
using the isle structure which
was a series of posts inside
the wall, run either side,
supporting the roof truss.
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The traditional building material was
wood but when it was unavailable,
an alternative was the use of earth.
So there was some variation in the
building technology with the
presumption that builds mainly in
wood. There were the same kinds of
domestic and farming functions, with
houses with few spatial divisions.
There usually was a living space, a
major gathering space, a place for
eating, and a space for sleeping. In
the gathering space there was a
position between the two pillars
which was called the rightful seat for
the owner, and opposite the owner in
a similar seat was the place for the
guest of honor. So those pillars
became the symbol of the house.
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The houses in the middle ages
were quite large but almost
unfurnished because people were
mobile. They would mostly have
things that they could carry or
wear.
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Stratification in northern societies. Nobles' halls
iex.: 5-6C hall at Cadbury [Camelot?], England).
Fondness for fine jewelry, weapons. Pottery.
Northern decoration. Writing. Boat burials (exs,:
Sutton Hoo, Suffolk. Eng., mid 7C Anglo-Saxon
burial; Viking burial at Oseburg, Norway). The
importance of seafaring.
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Although there was a
hierarchy among the
people in these tribes,
there were distinctly
close ties among the
elite and the peasants,
in comparison to other
stratified societies.
There was a fairly
complex culture that
built those relatively
plain buildings.
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At a site called Cadbury, a building was found and it is
suggested that it is Camelot. It is very similar to the farm
houses with the only difference being in size. The partition of
the public and the private spaces is done by the position of
the door.
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This house is also isled, like the
other farmhouses, and it has
separate kitchen, Great halls like
it seemed to be the preferred
form of living of barbarian rulers
of all ethnicities. This kind of
architecture is set off by site
instead of material and
decoration. Apparently the
barbarian kind of imagery of
refinement and luxury was
embodied in other kinds of
material like jewelry and
weapons.
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The barbarians developed
systems of writing which primarily
copied the Roman Alphabet.
Much of what we know about the
rulers of those barbarian
kingdoms comes from their
graves.
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There were many ways the
barbarians would treat their dead
amongst which cremating them,
burying them in the sea or in the
earth but a very common kind of
burial practice was the skip burial
like that which was found in
Sutton Hoo in Suffolk dating 7th
cent AD.
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It was excavated in 1939 and it
turned out to be one of fifteen
similar that were found. It was
built on a hill top visible from a
distance, overlooking a river
flowing into the sea. It is thought
to be the tomb of a king called
Redwal who died in 625.
He was given an 85 ft used ship
with his insignia and personal
things that he would need in the
afterlife. (The boats were not
symbolic but real used boats they
were using for burials even
though they might have been
very expensive to build.)
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There was a great
importance on the sea.
Boats were important
elements in cultural context;
by developing them they got
a great amount of power.
But there was more to that.
Depicted in the art, the
architecture, the literature,
are other things. Even
though the sea is the
medium that allows you to
get everywhere, it is also a
very fearful and unknown
option. The ship is not only
the means of transportation
but also the survival.
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Military construction. Ring forts (cashels and
raths), Ireland; circular fortified houses and
villages of the Slavs; Viking military camps. (ex.:
Trelleborg, Denmark, 10-11C). Walls: Offa's Dike,
8C, England; Danevirke, begun 737, Denmark.
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Another thing that ties the
barbarians together is the
ethic of the warriors of
ferociousness. Hence
some of the most
conspicuous architectural
works that were left from
the barbarian culture are
defensive works; and
again, although there was
a great variety there was
architectural unity. Most
of those defensive moves
were made out of earth,
were round, and had
different scales,
command, or individual
home scale.
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In Ireland there were dozens of
thousands of depressive
enclosures from that period. An
ideal example of a certain kind is
the Cashel that was made out of
stone. But on the east of Ireland,
a similar thing was walled with
earth, a ditch, with a wooden
palace on top. Most of those
were about 60 ft in diameter but
there were a few that reached
400 ft with triple walls for larger
communal gatherings. There
was also a third kind that was
built on artificial islands in the
middle of lakes. There are
variances of the same kind of
idea that were built by Slavs,
Scandinavians, etc.
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By taking a step ahead, we find
another type of circular enclosure
as it was seen found in Denmark.
An example is the Trelleborg (1011 cent). Those were circular
having four entries laid in right
angles, enclosing boat shaped
houses.
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Danevirke was a great wall that
started as a ditch and was
enlarged and extended between
the time it was built in 390 AD
until 737 AD. It was 4 miles long
with a palace inside and it ended
up such an effective defense that
the Danes used it in 1864 in a
battle.
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Pagan religions in the north; the Norse gods:
Odin. Thor, Frey, Freya. The Christianization of
northern Europe. Irish monasticism: small
monasteries in remote places: Skellig Michael. Co.
Kerry, 8-9C (corbelled stone cells/clachains),
Gallarus oratory Dingle (BC). Other elements of
the Irish monastery: scriptoria. defensive towers
(ex.: St. Kevin's tower, Co. Wicklow). Christian
buildings for England: nave-and»chancel
churches (ex.: St. Laurence, Bradfond~nn-Avon.
c. 80?-~note porticus). Christian/pagan synthesis:
post-in-the-ground construction (ex.: St. Andrew,
Greensted-juxta~Ongar, Essex, Eng.. 845) and
Norwegian stave churches. Principal exs. shown:
Lund cathedral. 120; Berglund church. Sogn, 12C.
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There were contrasts in
Viking culture. Sometimes
the Vikings blended their
legitimate trade with military
exports, moved around
establishing colonies,
capturing people etc.
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They used the sea primarily
but also the land for trade,
making it all the way down
to Constantinople and
establishing trade with
Byzantium. They used to
call Byzantium
Griechenland, and their
trade reached Asia and
Africa.
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This kind of moving
around, although not
reaching the Roman
standards of trade
and commerce, was
very effective.
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Most of the
Barbarians were
polytheistic pagans.
When Christians
came in they built on
top of the pagan
religious sites
attempting to
eradicate evidence
of pagan religion.
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Christianity went to Northern
Europe from Mid East by the
monasticism that was practiced
by Eastern Christians. It was this
movement of Christianity that
converted the first barbarians.
When they begun to gather they
would gather in tiny communities
sharing just a few facilities.
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St. Patrick ….
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Example of monasticism in the
island of Ireland. The model is
the Cashels, monks living in
those stone buildings.
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obifdflk
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Example of monasticism in the
island of Ireland. The model is
the Cashels, monks living in
those little stone buildings.
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Defense was one of the most
essential necessities for places
like this where monasticism
would be practiced. There were
many things that had to be
shared but defense was the most
important, because of the Vikings
and other Raiders. So great
round towers like St. Kevin’s
tower were built so that they
would function as watch towers.
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Even though there was the
introduction of a new
religion from away, the
architectural forms were
based on barbarian
tradition. So was also the
pattern of the material
culture.
Pagan elite life was built
with elaborate jewelry and
plain buildings, and in the
same way the buildings
remained.
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The Irish expansionism of
Eastern Christianity that took
place in the 6th century reaching
Britain alarmed the Popes and
Pope Gregory sent Saint
Augustine to England.. Even
though Roman Christianity was
adapted, it was questionable if it
was in a pure form.
The Architecture of nave and
chancel churches like St.
Laurence and Bradford on Avon
8th cent. Was based upon the
northern architectural model.
The extent and commitment is
even further questionable since
there were superstitious
religious practices.
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There was a continuation
of building with posts in the
ground as in St. Andrews
church. That was a
technique deeply
embedded in the
vernacular architecture
that even though
monuments of the past
religions were built in that
manner, the new religion
had to follow the same
style.
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