Town Walls Research Articles

Contested townscapes: the walled city as world heritage

Walled towns and cities feature prominently on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. But, while a fundamental guiding principle of the WHS list is that properties are designated for the benefit of all, these historic walled communities can be conceptualized as a particularly ‘dissonant’ form of heritage where the past is contested or disputed in the present. Many such places have violent histories and have changed political or national allegiance in the past. Moreover, city walls, while outwardly embracing populations, also inevitably serve to exclude or marginalize other social groups. The identities of walled heritage cities are multi-layered and far from static, being susceptible to re-invention. Tensions and contradictions are also apparent in the fact that heritage agencies work in national contexts on the management of sites that are designated as an international resource, and the agendas of these organizations can mean that certain periods or interpretations of the past are prioritized above others. All these factors present considerable challenges to those responsible for conserving and researching heritage sites that are simultaneously living communities. Against this background, the practicalities and politics of designating and delineating historic walled communities as World Heritage Sites are reviewed, as are strategies for managing the archaeological resource. The paper draws on examples of walled communities inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, with a particular emphasis on Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Key sites include Acre (Israel), Ávila (Spain), Carcassonne (France), Conwy (United Kingdom), Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Jerusalem.

Insight into the conservation problems of the stone building “Bab Agnaou”, a XII cent. monumental gate in Marrakech (Morocco)

Abstract Bab Agnaou is one of the most beautiful gates of the 12th century town walls of Marrakech (Morocco). It is faced with poorly preserved stone, which has recently been subjected to preliminary laboratory studies for the purpose of collecting data useful for its restoration. The results of such studies indicate the presence of two macroscopically similar grey stones, classified as slates, which were probably sourced from quarries situated not far from the city of Marrakech. The schistosity of such stones, namely their laminated fabric, has much influenced the morphology of deterioration. The causes and mechanisms of decay have been investigated and connected to the presence of soluble salts, mainly chlorides and sulphates deriving from the mortar used to fix the stone blocks to the wall, and to local air pollution. Their concentration in the bottom 3 m of the gate due to rising damp has produced strong exfoliation and flaking phenomena through rapidly repeating crystallization/dissolution cycles. A minor contribution to the overall deterioration is due to hydrolytic phenomena partly responsible for the formation of natural brown patinas on the stone surface. Another brown patina formed of Ca-oxalates and with residual proteinaceous matter was also detected and is probably due to partly mineralized protection-treatments made with natural products such as animal glue. General indications for the restoration of the gate, based on these results, are proposed.

Making History Count: The Guadalajara Census Project (1791–1930)

Making History Count: The Guadalajara Census Project (1791–1930)

Space and Structure at Caernarfon Castle

THE STUDY of High-medieval castles has benefited from the incorporation of elements of landscape archaeology in the last few years. While this paper is far from a complete study of the late 13th-century castle of Caernarfon and its relationship with its surrounding landscape, it aims to stimulate interest in this avenue of archaeological research. By focusing on the subtle relationships between the castle, the adjoining walled town and their ecclesiastical foci, and considering them in relation to the other Edwardian castles in Wales, the benefits of these approaches will be evident.

Contested Identities: The Dissonant Heritage of European Town Walls and Walled Towns

Town walls have always played a critical role in shaping the identities and images of the communities they embrace. Today, the surviving fabric of urban defences is a feature of heritage holding great potential as a cultural resource but in management terms one that poses substantial challenges, both practical and philosophical. Town walls can be conceptualised as a ‘dissonant’ form of heritage whose value is contested between different interest groups and whose meanings are not static but can be rewritten. Evidence is gathered from walled towns across Europe, including member towns of the WTFC (Walled Towns Friendship Circle) and inscribed UNESCO World Heritage Sites, to explore the cyclical biographies of town walls in their transformation from civic monuments, through phases of neglect, decay and destruction to their current status as cherished cultural resources. To explore this area of interface between archaeology and tourism studies, the varying attitudes of populations and heritage agencies to walled heritage are reviewed through examination of policies of conservation, preservation, presentation and restoration. Areas of commonality and contrast are thus identified.

Ribats and the Development of Plantations in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Case Study of Fanisau

Ribat, in context of Sokoto Caliphate, was a walled military settlement established for defending and protecting frontiers and settled agricultural hinterland of any major population center. This type of institution was well known in history of other Islamic societies.1 Indeed, ninth century has been identified as golden age of classic ribat construction in early Muslim world, and at this period several of these structures were established in North Africa and central Asia. After this early golden age, ribats continued to be built in Muslim lands, but it was only during nineteenth century that they became widespread in hasar Hausa or what became known as Sokoto Caliphate. Evidently, leaders of this Muslim state, largest state in nineteenth century West Africa, drew for inspiration on this history to foster expansion of new state.1Most writers who have studied Sokoto Caliphate have recognized significance of ribats to state. However, much of scholarship devotes no more than a paragraph or two to this crucially important aspect of caliphate's defensive strategy, with passing remarks on how system worked in emirates.3 In his major work on Sokoto Caliphate, Murray Last has traced development of ribats in metropolitan Sokoto, arguing that some at least were populated with slaves:The establishment of ribats was part of policy of establishing frontiers and providing strongholds round which settlement could flourish.... Likewise Bello encouraged building within frontiers of walled towns where mosques and schools could be opened and trade and workshop started: with scholars appointed to these towns as Imams, judges, muhtasibs (legal inspectors) and teachers, Bello hoped to maintain both practice of Islam and military control of area. Since much of Bello's support had come from cattle owing Fulani, Fulani clans were persuaded to join community of Shaikh-They were taught agriculture and encouraged to breed horses, camels and flocks of sheep and goats and to reduce their herds of cattle. By this means BeUo balanced economy of Sokoto...he thus also reduced military risk....4Similarly, although Joseph P. Smaldone has acknowledged that many of these new frontier outposts were populated by slaves, he was more concerned with military dimensions of ribats than with role of institution in establishment of plantations.5By contrast, Paul E. Lovejoy, whose writings have been largely on entire Sokoto Caliphate, has perceived ribat as a major factor in growth of plantation sector.6 Indeed, he seems to be most influential exponent of this view. Lovejoy asserts that ribats influenced location of plantations and that throughout caliphate plantations were associated with economic and political consolidation and with maintenance of an active front line for defence and annual campaigns.7 According to Lovejoy, the steady stream of slaves which flowed into Sokoto and Gwandu in form of tribute was directed to officials, Fulani leaders, and scholars for use in agriculture. The military elite of ribats remained on permanent alert and were not engaged directly in farming. Instead, plantations rapidly dominated agricultural production.Although he avoided using term plantation, in his study of governmental system in Zaria emirate,' M. G. Smith first established this relationship thus:Settlement patterns emphasized defensive values and were based on compact distribution of population within walled towns, strung out along principal caravan routes. Each of these towns had a few smaller settlements near it which owed allegiance to village chief of area in which they were sited. Many but not all of these hamlets were slave slave-villages (rumada); other rumada large enough to form towns of their own, would have walls and other fortifications typical of a town (gari). …

FORUM GERMANORUM IN NORTH‐WEST ITALY: THE HOME COMMUNITY AND LIFE OF ARGUABLY THE EARLIEST KNOWN LEGIONARY VETERAN IN BRITAIN

Summary. Excavations at Alchester in Oxfordshire in 2003 yielded the remains of a Roman inscription, smashed into fragments and reused in the foundations of the town wall. It proved to be a tombstone of a veteran of the Second Augustan Legion and it is argued that Alchester was probably the main base of this legion and its famous first commander in Britain, Vespasian. However, the emphasis in this paper is on the home community of the veteran, Forum Germanorum in north‐west Italy, for which the inscription provides the earliest testimony, as well as on the ex‐soldier's career. The precise dating of the monument is of particular significance; it suggests that the deceased was the earliest known legionary veteran to settle in Britain. He is, incidentally, also the only inhabitant of pre‐medieval Oxfordshire (other than, temporarily, Vespasian and some officers of the Second Augustan Legion, if the above theory is accepted) whose life story we know.

Royal Walling Projects in the Second Millennium bc: Beyond an Interpretation of Defence

The majority of large-scale enclosure walls constructed in Egypt in the second millennium bc were built around temples rather than towns. These walls were high and massive, sometimes with multiple enceintes, while details such as buttresses and crenellations appear to have related the design to contemporary defensive architecture. A libation basin from Memphis demonstrates clearly that a temple could be viewed as equivalent to a fortress by local inhabitants while the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu was closely modelled on contemporary fortress construction. These enclosure walls often represent a very significant investment of resources but are difficult to explain as defensive. Unlike town walls, temple enclosures were not optional extras but were an essential part of the architecture of the shrine.

A Study on the Vernacular landscape Pattern of Nagan Walled Town(낙안읍성) in Suncheon

Nagan walled town is located on an axis connecting symbolic places, which is a lucky place from the Fengshui point of view because a mountain sits to the rear and a body of water sits to the front. It represents the environmental development of cultural space by blending folk belief, religion, social systems, adminstration facilities and living culture buildings. Therefore, it has a sustainable cultural view connected with a formed or formless religious view and an artificial view (walls, government buildings, living houses, cultivated lands, etc.) in a natural landscape. Environmental design techniques, enlarging the meaning and value of living on a mental level, can be found in the arrangement of space composition and settlement of Nagan walled town. The organised spaces of government and residential areas were constructed within the wall with the view of searching for lucky places (from best, better and good places) in order to construct ecological networks according to the outlooks of space and settlement.

Migrants, millenialists and mayhem: Kari-Kari, Ningi, Gwari, Kebbi, Kwatarkwashi and Zuru ‘enclaves’ in northern Nigeria

This study focuses on northern Nigerian ‘enclaves’ of northern resistance to the 19th century Sokoto Caliphate, including Kari-Kari, Ningi, Gwari, Kebbi and Zuru. Firstly, the Kari-Kari (Keri-Keri) people of north-eastern Nigeria are considered in some detail. They live in and around a heartland area between Jalam, Dambam and Potiskum, characterised by a cluster of unusual circular and ovoid earthwork enclosures in a zone otherwise featuring rectilinear town walls, many oriented towards Mecca. These ovoid ‘ganuwa’ underpin the integrity of much of the account presented here of Kari-Kari history. The people speak a distinct Chadic language, implying northern origins. A few centuries ago, they migrated north into the present heartland area, a migration which may have brought with it the two cultural characteristics anomalous to this area: shoulder load carrying and the ovoid/circular enclosures. This paper enumerates several of the characteristics of Kari-Kari material culture including the village plans, house construction methods, the clan system of social organisation, use of decorated calabashes, and the use of iron and iron smelting. The 19th-century history of other ‘enclaves’ is described, and relevant archaeological sites described, in particular the fortified settlements such as Birnin Gwari, Amina Banga and Katsina. The historical basis of the diversity evident amongst these ‘enclaves’ is examined, with particular reference to ironworking in the region.

The walled town of Dyrrachium (Durres): new light on the early defences

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Vpliv antike na urbanizem

V antiki sta se izoblikovala dva osnovna modela mestne zasnove: "raščeni" in "načrtovani". Urejenost, ki je v načrtovanih mestih dosežena z geometrizacijo ortogonalne ali osne zasnove, predstavlja višjo kvaliteto. Načrtna zasnova je prikazana na treh nivojih. Prvi kaže ortogonalno zasnovo mestnih ulic, pri čemer obzidje sledi konfiguraciji terena. Drugi nivo je najpopolneje zastopan v rimskem mestu (urbs quadrata) kjer je ob pravokotni mreži ulic, ki določajo stavbne bloke (inzule) tudi mestni rob (obzidje) pravokotno zasnovan. Na tretjem nivoju obravnavamo posamezne predele mesta. Praviloma je to agora ali forum, ki svojo načrtnost kažejo z ortogonalno ali krožno zasnovo in poudarjenimi osmi. V kratkem časovnem pregledu do danes vidimo, da so izhodišča mnogim prostorskim zasnovam mest ali njihovih delov skozi zgodovino do danes v grški in rimski antiki, včasih celo v deželah Bližnjega vzhoda.

Re-used Bedrock Ballast in King's Lynn's 'Town Wall' and the Norfolk Port's Medieval Trading Links

The geology of ballast is considered in the accounts of numerous shipwreck excavations, yet there are few studies of ballast that has subsequently been employed as a construction material and is now preserved on land. Re-used bedrock ballast has the potential to provide information on a port's trading connections: the geological evidence may supplement historical sources, or it may supply fresh detail when written records are not available. This paper reports on the results of the first comprehensive survey of the impressive number of ballast cobbles in King's Lynn's medieval 'Town Wall'.

Planning and seaside tourism: San Sebastián, 1863-1936

This paper offers a case study in the planning of a distinctive kind of town, the seaside resort, whose significance on the map of urban Europe increased dramatically during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the development of the first large Spanish town to develop this function and looks critically at the role of planning on the distinctive Spanish ensanche model in San Sebastián's sustained growth and success between the demolition of the old town walls in the mid-1860s and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. It draws particular attention to the strong drive to zoning and control in the original Cortázar plan and the greater diversity and looseness of the developments that followed.

Roman and late-antique Butrint: excavations and survey 2000-2001

The Roman and Byzantine port of Butrint, situated on the SW coast of Albania directly opposite the island of Corfu, has been the focus of a major research project since 1994. The investigation of the site and its hinterland commenced with excavations within the walled town and a survey of sites and monuments in the region (Hodges et al 1997). Despite a brief hiatus caused by civil unrest in Albania in 1997, work continued with excavation and study seasons in 1998 and 1999. The results of the first five years of the project are due to be published shortly (Hodges, Bowden and Lako, forthcoming).The second phase of the Butrint project, starting in 2000, has encompassed a wide variety of research aims. They have included extensive research on the archives of the Italian mission that conducted large-scale excavations between 1928 and 1942. Among other finds, this resulted in the discovery of the manuscript of L. Ugolini's Albania antica vol. 4, the hitherto unpublished results of the Italian excavation of the Hellenistic and Roman theatre (Gilkes, forthcoming). Other archival research has focussed on the records of the communist-period archaeological investigations, and has resulted in a much better understanding of the aims and results of these projects, which in some cases are almost wholly unpublished. Our project is also concerned with the controlled development of the site for tourism. This has resulted in the expansion of the UNESCO World Heritage site to 2900 ha and the creation of a National Park with the intent of protecting the archaeological and natural landscape around Butrint (Hodges and Martin 2000; Martin 2001). The present report is a synthesis of the first results of the major excavations of 2000 and 2001. While it is possible (and indeed likely) that interpretations may change as excavations continue, it was felt that the material was of sufficient interest to justify an interim statement.

The Introduction of Artillery in the Roman World: Hypothesis for a Chronological Definition Based on the Cosa Town Wall

The Introduction of Artillery in the Roman World: Hypothesis for a Chronological Definition Based on the Cosa Town Wall

En torno al análisis táctico de las fortificaciones ibéricas. Algunos puntos de vista alternativos

The Iberians, in their wars before the arrival of Amilcar Barca in 237 BC, did not use artillery or siege machines, or even practised formal siege warfare. Only in certain areas (such as Catalonia or Alicante) there are fortifications that show a limited knowledge of the advanced techniques of Mediterranean siege tactics. In the majority of cases, however, town walls were not designed to withstand a formal siege.

City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective

1. Contained communities in tropical Africa Graham Connah 2. Palisaded settlements in prehistoric Eastern North America George R. Milner 3. To wall or not to wall: evidence from Medieval Germany James D. Tracy 4. Medieval walled space: urban development vs. defence Kathryn L. Reyerson 5. A world without walls: city and town in colonial Spanish America Richard L. Kagan 6. The fortifications of Epaminondas and the rise of the monumental Greek city Frederick A. Cooper 7. Imperial walled cities in the West and their early medieval Nachleben Bernard S. Bachrach 8. Delhi walled: changing boundaries Catherine B. Asher 9. Walled cities in Islamic North Africa and Egypt (with particular reference to the Fatamids, 909-1171) Jonathan Bloom 10. Ottoman military architecture in the early gunpowder era: a reassessment Simon Pepper 11. Walled towns during the French wars of religion, 1560-1630 Michael Wolfe 12. Portuguese urban fortifications in Morocco: borrowing, adaptation, and innovation along a military frontier Martin M. Elbl 13. The artillery fortress as an engine of European overseas expansion, 1480-1750 Geoffrey Parker 14. Representations of Chinese walled cities in the pictorial and graphic arts Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt 15. The hierarchy of Ming city walls Edward L. Farmer 16. Decoration of city walls in Medieval Islam: the epigraphic message Sheila S. Blair 17. Medieval French representations of city and other walls Wolfgang G. van Emden 18. Siege law, siege ritual, and the symbolism of city walls in Renaissance Europe Simon Pepper 19. Representations of the city in siege views of the seventeenth century: the war of military images and their production Martha Pollak.

PREPARe: A Model to Aid the Development of Policies for Less Unsustainable Tourism in Historic Towns

The PREPARe wheel is a dynamic model showing how a systematic environmental audit system could be applied to the development and management of tourism. The model was derived during research on four European historic walled towns characterised as destinations for heritage and urban tourism. Embracing the approach implied by Local Agenda 21 and ‘best value’ reviews, the paper illustrates how such towns can be assessed for levels of compliance with defined actions and policies set out as the necessary elements of an overall programme to move towards less unsustainable tourism in these destinations. This involves six successive stages: Policy, Responsibility, Eco-awareness, Programme, Audit and Review. Local stakeholders were involved at each stage, from defining objectives for tourism development locally to assessing the levels of compliance with expected policies and actions, although this brought a degree of subjectivity to the results. Turning the PREPARe wheel illustrates the continuous repetition of this process, which is necessary to stimulate ongoing improvements in levels of compliance with policies to move towards less unsustainable tourism. Developments in tourism policy in Alcúdia (one of the original study towns) since 1993 have been analysed to illustrate the process in practice.

The walled town of Dyrrachium (Durres): settlement and dynamics

Durres (at various times in the past known as Epidamnos, Dyrrachium and Dyrrachion) lies on the Adriatic coast of Albania, c.35 km west of Tirana. The town has been continuously occupied, in some form or other, at least since the Archaic Greek period. Today it presents itself to the modern traveller arriving across the Adriatic as a busy and rapidly changing port. The relationship of the town with the sea has shaped its urban dynamic in ways which, as yet, are imperfectly understood. Modern Durres lies at the S tip of a peninsula c.10 km in length. The land to the northwest of the town is hilly, and this terrain extends as far as the ancient remains known as Porto Romano, c.7 km north of the town. The land northeast of the town is flat and low-lying, currently arable farmland criss-crossed by small irrigation canals (fig. 1). It was drained and reclaimed from marshland under the Communist régime. The overall impression of the topography around Durres (fig. 2) is that the area of high ground had once been an island, detached from the mainland or joined only by a sandbar, and that this relationship has fluctuated over time as a result of small seismic shifts, rising sea levels, and other factors. Any understanding of the town over time has to be placed against as accurate as possible an understanding of these and other features of what is a rapidly changing environment.