Home > Project Proposal

Faculty Mentor: Michael Shanks, Professor of Classics

Project Summary:

Recent studies in humanistic archaeology and material culture theory have involved the observation of the way sites move through time and how, subsequently, they change meaning. Robert Ginsberg argues in The Aesthetics of Ruins (2004): “The archaeologist saves the world from passing away into ruin by excavating and restoring these ruins”. Thus, even through time ruins hold meaning, though a different form than they held in the past. While research has been done on this topic, no pattern has been determined for how this approach applies to castles. It is my goal to determine whether a pattern exists and see how it is manifested in five Welsh castles. I hypothesize that castles have a “lifespan”: design, use, ruin, revival, and current place. I have selected Welsh castles in particular because of the abundance and variety of sites found in such a small geographic area. Many of these castles have been revived and are current destinations for tourists and historical enthusiasts. As many more resources are available on location and within The United Kingdom, it is my intention to gather these resources, which would otherwise be unavailable, by traveling to the sites. Traveling will also allow me to understand the perspective of the visitor, a view that is vital in understanding the castles’ meanings today.

Significance:

This project will follow the course of new material culture theory . I’ll approach the sites by looking at the humanistic geography and humanistic archaeology related to them. I plan to observe the “lifespan” of each castle: its design, use, ruin, revival, and finally, place in the modern world. Through this research and my experiences as a visitor, I hope to discover the psychogeography of each site.

Robert Liddiard’s book, Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism, and Landscape, 1066 to 1500 (2005), offers ideas on how the symbolism of the castle has changed through landscape, design, use, and history. Thus, I will be able to form some ideas about the design and use of the castles. This gives insight into the meaning they held in Medieval society, something that can now only by put together through archaeological evidence and historical speculation. Hence, not everything Liddiard states, though likely, can be assumed to be absolute fact. However his approach is fact-based and shows the common interpretations of those visitors who have come to the site with some knowledge about how it was in Medieval times. Also, given that this text is focused primarily on past events, it does not explore the full pattern I wish to explore, but only a segment. Through my research I can discover links between this text and others that explore later events in the “life cycle” of the castle: ruin, revival, and the current state.

Although I am currently enrolled in an archaeology course, I still believe that I have much to learn about the field. There are also many new topics that I should explore within archaeology. Literature that offers this sort of material will help me learn some of the terms that I can apply to some of my ideas. Not all of them will be relevant to this project, but hopefully some of it can be used in my thinking process. For this purpose I have selected Archaeological Theory: An Introducton (1999) by Matthew Johnson. This text is also important because Matthew Johnson is one of the experts Professor Shanks has recommended I consult for my project. By understanding his theories behind archaeology, I will be able to fairly interpret and evaluate whatever information he is able to provide. In addition to Archaeological Theory, I will also use his other book, Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance (2002). This book looks at the castles and their ruins from a variety of perspectives: military, social, technological, aesthetic, etc. It is likely that Johnson’s methodology in his research is more similar to my own than any other source. But, while he addresses some of the meaning of the castle he does not provide a model for change as I plan to do. His research will be valuable in viewing multiple perspectives within each “stage” of the castle’s story and add depth to my analysis of each.

Miles Richardson, a professor in the Department of Geology and Anthropology at Louisiana State University, argues that psychogeography has much to do with how we “project on the spaces about us and on the people who inhabit those spaces segments of the self we have repressed” in The Annals of the Association of American Geographers (1990). He then argues that our relationship with space is a cycle because what we project on the world influences our view of the world even further and we bring those thoughts back to the self. Psychogeography can be looked at in very different ways. Richardson’s interpretation is primarily psychological and creates a narrow understanding of how meaning is created. This idea focuses more on what the visitor is bringing to the site rather than what he or she is taking out of it through structured movement (architecture, ropes, placards, guides, etc). My research, like Richardson’s, will address the thought process of the visitor, but my methodology will focus more heavily on how the site influences the visitor, not vice-versa. While studying the thought process is valuable to an extent, there are many contextual elements at play in creating the overall meaning of the castles.

While I agree that visitors of a particular site come from different backgrounds and may have undergone different emotional traumas that have caused them to experience a site in a different way, I think that in many cases visitors focus more on the facts or historical information they know about a particular site rather than relate it to their own personal struggles. This is not to say that perhaps when going on a tour of a castle a visitor may not use the information the guide is saying to envision what their own life would have been like in the past. Much of a visitor’s experience is contrived from the evocation of imagination and while that may involve personal experiences, there are many other elements that are brought into creating this “world”: their conception of the materials read at the site, the influence the tour guides have on their gaze, and the way they prepare for their experience. A limited angle my research will entail is exploring the visitor’s thought process while visiting a space – How does it “come alive”? What are the connections they make when learning one fact or looking at one architectural element? How similar is our experience to what it would have been like in the past? Can re-creations hold the same importance as ruins? All of these are valuable questions for determining the current meaning of the site. I’d also like to look at the thought processes and how they affect culture. Do they really cause us to “continue to fight the battles of the past”? This is a particularly interesting topic when looking at Wales because many of the castles were built by the English and used to conquer and suppress in the past. Now, there are Welsh independence movements. Taken in this context, I can explore how the symbolism has changed. Miles Richardson’s theories and Howard F. Stein’s book, Developmental Time, Cultural Space: Studies in Psychogeography (1987), will help me form these questions as well as many others pertaining to the psychological facets of psychogeography. A different perspective on psychogeography is found in The University of Durham’s Humanistic Approaches in Geography (1988). The humanistic view is more based on a person’s surroundings and how they affect him or her and will serve as more of a complement to Johnson’s research. The research of Michael Shanks as well as Robert Ginsberg’s book, The Aesthetics of Ruins (2004), will serve an analogous purpose.

Another kind of literature that I plan to use provides fact with very limited, if any, interpretation. These will include several books on Welsh history such as W.B. Bartlett’s The Taming of the Dragon: Edward I and the Conquest of Wales (2003) and Collin Platt’s The Castle in Medieval England and Wales (1982). I will look at these texts in a similar manner as I will primary sources, and combine their information with that found in castle plans, photographs, and art. Similar information can be gathered from CADW and The National Trust. This will serve as a foundation for my interpretation of the different contexts and archaeological theories I will find in my other sources.

This project highlights my interest in interdisciplinary studies. As students learn more in every department and come to new realizations, it is clear that in the future learning will be more interdisciplinary. Life is full of patterns and connections and with every bit of new knowledge, these links become clearer than ever before. Looking at these sites from a broad perspective will allow me to explore a large variety of fields. I will not just be learning about these sites from a historical perspective or from a technological perspective. I will be learning more about human experience and how it shapes the way our society defines a site. I will explore the castles from several angles and then find the connections that create the big picture of experience.

My proposal for a final project is to create a wiki site much like the ones I have created for my other classes with Professor Shanks. This format allows for more interaction than a traditional research paper. I could direct those who assist me on the project to the website and they could leave comments for further study. The website would also be searchable on Google and thus I could potentially find even more experts in the field posting their input. Also, given that I will be writing most of my report in The United States, the wiki would be a great way to communicate and collaborate with David Austin, Matthew Johnston, and any other experts in The United Kingdom with whom I may want to consult. The wiki will also allow for me to easily add pictures and diagrams to my report. A printed version of my report and a poster board for presentation could also be included in the final project. The deadline for the wiki report will be the end of the second week of fall quarter, on October 8, 2007. While most of the writing will be completed for the summer, this timeframe will allow for me to meet with my advisor to see if there are any critical edits as well as use university resources for my conclusions.

Methodology:

• Method A: historical work, archives, publications at castle sites

Mythology, history, economic effects of building, landscape, artists/literature, resources/materials to build, engineering/technology, what was on original sites

• Method B: current events, contemporary contexts, impacts

Economic effects of preserving, Welsh independence, tourism, landscape to cityscape, resources/materials to restore, renovations

• Method C: observation of site and visitor interactions, tourist experience

I would like to explore the meanings of these castles from the time they were built to the present day, strongly taking into account their places in English and Welsh culture. I plan to use a combination of all the above methods in order to cover each stage of the “lifespan”. Some of these methods may involve the acquisition of a limited knowledge of Welsh terms to aid in research of manuscripts and paintings and in translation of place names.

Preparation:

I believe that much of my research process will be similar to the kind of work I did this summer with my internship at The Cantor Arts Center. This summer I worked as an assistant to the Phyllis Wattis Curator at Cantor and helped him prepare for this spring’s reinstallation of the Native American gallery. Much of the work I did involved doing background research on particular tribes or pieces of art. Much of this information was found on the internet or in the Native American Community Center’s library. However, I often needed to contact via phone or e-mail members of Stanford’s Anthropology Department and Archives as well as local art collectors and museums in order to learn more or to track down a related piece of art. I plan to use similar research methods in this project and feel that through my internship experience I have improved my organization and communication skills.

I have taken two courses with Michael Shanks that involved doing similar types of research. These courses are offered by a combination of the Classics, Archaeology, and Science, Technology, and Society Departments. One was called “Ten Things in Science, Technology, and Design”. In this course, we observed ten different artifacts and analyzed their significance in our society’s development. One of the artifacts that we studied was Dunstanburgh Castle in England. My final project involved analyzing Roman Baths in this same way. I looked at their origin and then at their evolution through the ages to see what their modern equivalents are today. This project can be found at: http://traumwerk.stanford.edu:3455/MichaelShanks/1375 . In the other course, “Eight Great Archaeological Sites In Europe”, we have observed sites from a slightly more archaeological standpoint than a technological one; though technology is still a factor in uncovering information about the sites. This course has given me exposure to looking at sites specifically in the region I wish to study, and one of the sites was the medieval castle (Lindisfarne, ..) . My final project is a group archaeological site report on The South Pole. I think that my background in Classics will be useful in understanding the technological advancements made by these castles.

If I need to interview local historians and/or professors, I have some previous experience from a practicum I did for one of my classes last year, “The Sociology of Gender”. This practicum consisted of writing interview questions, recording an interview, transcribing the interview, and then analyzing the information given in the interview. Also, I was a reporter for my high school’s newspaper and am quite familiar with interviewing someone and integrating their thoughts with my own in a report. I also have experience in distributing studies through my research assistantship at the Graduate School of Business. One study I performed this summer involved interviewing people at the CalTrain station and then asking them to fill out a brief survey. These previous experiences taught me much about the interview process and I believe I am well prepared to organize an interview if it is needed.

I am very familiar with the culture of the area in which I will be traveling, as I have attended summer school in The United Kingdom, have family living there, and have visited a few of the castle sites before. Thus, many cultural and safety concerns that are often involved in off-campus research should not be an issue in this project.

Since my research methods will be quite similar to those performed in Professor Shanks’s classes, I could do directed reading with my mentor for preparation. This was his suggestion and I think it may be the best option for this particular project. The directed reading would be completed in either the winter or spring quarter of the current academic year, based on the combined schedules of Professor Shanks and myself. I plan to take History 299X: Design and Methodology for International Field Research during the upcoming spring term. If there are any other courses that would be recommended for me to take for further preparation, I am willing to take them in winter or spring quarter. Some such classes may be the Pre-Field courses offered by the Anthropology and CASA Departments.

Resources:

• Michael Shanks (Stanford University)
• CADW tour guides and books for Conwy, Cardiff, Carew, Castell Coch, and Caerphilly Castles
• The National Trust
• Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust Ltd.
• David Austin (University of Wales)
• Matthew Johnson (University of Southampton)

Funding:

I would use grant money to visit several castles across Wales. I could also travel to local universities or libraries to contact local experts and find research material. I would need money for airfare, hotel stay, and a car rental. While I am too young to legally rent a car abroad, I would either have a family member travel with me at his or her own expense for air travel or have family members that live in the UK serve as my drivers.

Were I not given that much money, then I would use the money for phone bills to these institutions, videos, books, and possibly art materials (to show my own renditions of the sites and compare them with those of others). In that case, my research would be more limited but I will still have plenty of material with which to work; however, my mentor and I have agreed that research involving field work would be optimal.

Spring Funding (at Stanford)

Books 50-100 Library books 0 Videos 100 150-200

Summer Funding (in Wales, UK)  1.5 to 2 weeks

Travel (Airfare, Car Rental, Gas) 1,600-1,750 Room & Board 1,200-1,500 *Brochures/Books 200 Admission Fees 50 3,050-3,500

• Materials only available on site.

Total Money Requested: $3,200 - $3,700

Bibliography (Note: not a complete list of resources)

Bartlett, W.B. The Taming of the Dragon: Edward I and the Conquest of Wales. Thrupp, Stroud, Glouscestershire: Sutton Publishing, 2003.

Ginsberg, Robert. The Aesthetics of Ruins. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi B.V., 2004.

Johnson, Matthew. Archaeological Theory: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

Johnson, Matthew. Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance. London: Routledge, 2002.

Johnson, Paul. The National Trust Book of British Castles. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1978.

Liddiard, Robert. Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism, and Landscape, 1066 to 1500. Bollington, Macclesfield, Cheshire: Windgather Press, 2005.

Pettifer, Adrian. Welsh Castles: A Guide by Counties. Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2000.

Platt, Colin. The Castle in Medieval England and Wales. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Pocock, D.C.D., ed. Humanistic Approaches in Geography. Durham: University of Durham, 1988.

Taylor, Arnold. Conwy Castle and Town Walls. Cardiff: CADW, 1998.

Online articles by Howard Stein and Miles Richardson to be found in hard copy.