Buildings, Spaces and Societies: Manorial Sites in Normandy, ca 1050-1200
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-01-09

This paper focuses on the interpretation of space at manorial sites in Normandy from the central middle ages, and what spatial analysis can provide to a social meaning of a building. Focusing on research undertaken at manorial sites in Calvados, this paper suggests that considering spatial aspects of medieval buildings provides a heightened awareness to the society using these places, particularly in examining the ways in which social authority would be embodied or enacted through the material trappings as well as the spatial indications of the buildings.
The main sites under examination include the Motte d’Olivet (Decaëns 1981, 1987, 1988), Chateau de Creully (Impey 1993, 1995, 2012) and Beaumont-le-Richard (Impey 1993, 1999). As a result of the spatial examination, this paper will also seek to interpret the Motte d’Olivet within a broader context of landscape considerations and a contextualized view of the place and its owners. Parallels to English sites such as Goltho (Beresford 1987, Stocker 1989) and Boothby Pagnell (Neck et al. 1992, Blair 1993) will be drawn to demonstrate potential consistencies or contradictions to a cross-Channel society. This paper will ultimately demonstrate the varying applicability of spatial analysis in considering social interpretations of buildings particularly for interdisciplinary studies of buildings and societies. This is seen through the Norman and English case studies of the paper, in seeking to discern aspects of the relationships between these intertwined societies of the central middle ages. Overall the paper will demonstrate that the utilization of spatial analysis can be used not only to deepen an understanding of society and their buildings, such as those in Calvados in a period of cultural exchange, domination, and altering views of authority, but also that the use of this method can further illuminate aspects of space and society by using a different lens to view the Norman worlds of the central middle ages.

Dr. Weikert, Katherine, University of Winchester