Posted on 06/07/2005 9:46:23 AM PDT by blam
PREHISTORIC FIND SHEDS LIGHT ON HISTORY OF CASTLE
11:00 - 07 June 2005
Archaeologists from Bristol University have added 1,000 years of history to Berkeley Castle by uncovering remains of an Iron Age settlement there. The unexpected discovery was made in the kitchen gardens of the castle during a training excavation for students from the university.
Parts of a ring ditch that might have circled a barrow - a mound over an ancient burial site - prehistoric flint tools and a few fragments of human bone have been found immediately below the Victorian kitchen garden's flower beds and greenhouses.
Berkeley Castle is one of the most historic places in Gloucestershire, still inhabited and owned by the same family who were granted the castle in 1156.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the castle played a important and colourful role in both local and national politics.
However the early history of the site remain mysterious, and uncovering this was the target of Bristol University's research.
Dr Mark Horton, head of the department of archaeology and anthropology, who is leading the investigations, said: "We know that there was an Anglo-Saxon abbey close to the site of the castle, but to find prehistoric remains is an exciting and unexpected discovery.
"Very few prehistoric burials are known in the Severn Vale. It is possible that this settlement was located on a small ridge of high ground, to be visible from the river Severn, and might even had been located to help prehistoric navigation up the Berkeley Pill."
The investigations have been undertaken by first-year students studying archaeology at the university, and will be continued in July by aspiring archaeologists who are still at school and want to find out what it is like to work on a dig.
The excavations will be filled in shortly, but it is hoped that there will be a display on the discoveries at the castle for visitors.
Absolutely amazing.
GGG Ping.
I actually find the claim questionable...given the tremendous political turmoil at many points along english history, it seems improbable, if not downright impossible, that it wouldn't have been removed from local control at some point or other, probably many times.
"...still inhabited and owned by the same family who were granted the castle in 1156."
Absolutely amazing.
If it were here in the USA, the castle would have been lost to estate taxes or emminent domain.
'Severn Vale'
Is that close to Hogwarts?
I'd say that family exemplifies property rights practioners. Nearly a thousand years at the old family home has got to be some sort of record.
Boy, they must be really old now...
"it seems improbable, if not downright impossible, that it wouldn't have been removed from local control at some point or other, probably many times."
This would not prevent a determined family from regaining control of the ancestral seat. Some have put great store in such notions, in the past.
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I think we must be cousins...I'm packing my bags to go to "the old family homestead."
LOL!
good point (the article didnt preclude this), though I would be skeptical of any claims of pre-plague geneological connections.
"though I would be skeptical of any claims of pre-plague geneological connections."
Why would you be skeptical? That you're even here to be skeptical proves that some survived. Mediaeval society fell apart largely due to the plague, and so geneological connections are subsequently difficult to prove. But, there are those families who can prove them. The geneological difficulty in proving pre-plague connections most often hinges on the lack of a surname, going back in time. The practice is a sort of "Frenchification" adopted from the Normans, first appearing in royals and thence down the line to minor nobility and then to merchants and so forth. Freemen began having surnames around 1250, as best I can recollect from my reading.
Is that close to Hogwarts?
In a manner of speaking, yes. Many of the Hogwarts corridor and other interior scenes from the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed at Gloucester Cathedral.
Well put, Reg'Country, wholeheartedly agree. Centuries after this, Henry VIII had quite a large number of his old carousing buddies executed for treason on various flimsy excuses. He then (very often) confiscated their property and lands.
Nicholas Carew was one of his victims. Nicholas' son Francis Carew apparently pursued the matter in court, suing for return of the lands, titles, etc. After some years he prevailed to an extent, under Mary I ("Bloody Mary"), who needed all the friends she could get.
Meanwhile, Francis' sister Ann married Nicholas Throckmorton and proceeded to spit out kids like a vending machine. ;')
One of the children, Elizabeth Throckmorton, married Sir Walter Raleigh, who is much better known than the rest of this crowd.
Anyway, apparently Francis had never married (probably due to a lack of fortune and title, but who knows) and in any case, had no children. He adopted Ann Carew Throckmorton's son, Nicholas Throckmorton, under the condition that Nicholas take on the Carew family name.
So, the Carew family name and title was revived, and the new Nicholas Carew was indeed a descendant of the Nicholas Carew beheaded by the nutty tyrant Henry VIII.
The remains found under the garden may well have been ancestors of the same family.
960 in my lineage, and not a whiff of royalty anywhere.
"The remains found under the garden may well have been ancestors of the same family."
Now that would be an interesting application of DNA testing.
I think they have found some 10,000 years old with descendants living nearby.
"960 in my lineage, and not a whiff of royalty anywhere."
Which country? Some are better, some are worse. We were specifically speaking of England. My own surname is thought to have roots in Ireland, but it first appears in English records during the Templar inquisition of 1185. I haven't been able to prove anything prior to 1410, though... the plague thing coming into play, I guess.
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