EAA2021: Abstract

Taking a multi-disciplinary approach to research, this paper (re-)interprets the Anglo-Normans’ documentary use of the words castrum and castellum, both of which are generally—and, it is argued here, over-simply—translated today as ‘castle’. This fresh examination of the originally intended nuance(s) of both terms (re-)considers the language, architecture, archaeology, history—and particularly the multi-period landscapes and their monuments—of a number of English castles and their documentary mentions from the end of the eleventh century. Early conclusions point to a new interpretation, that the late-eleventh-century Anglo-Normans deliberately used either and/or both terms for ‘castle’ in their documents, because different meanings were in fact intended: castellum was communicated to signify the site of a new-build Anglo-Norman castle, and the Anglo-Norman use of castrum—notably a Classical Latin/Roman word originally—intentionally referred to the likely extant walls/delineation of a pre-existing Roman fort as the foundations and wider enclosed area as the basis for a new Anglo-Norman fortification.

castle, landscape, Medieval Latin, Roman, archaeology, heritage

 Abstract (PDF)

Rachel E. Swallow^1,2