Fighting yesterday's battle: Beyond war and status in castle studies

Oliver Creighton, Robert Liddiard

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

28 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of medieval castles have transformed the subject over the last quarter of a century and taken it away from its militaristic roots. In Medieval Archaeology 51 (2007) Colin Platt published an article that reasserted defence as the primary motivation in castle building. This paper suggests that continuing 'defence vs symbolism' debates are detrimental to the subject, which needs to develop a distinctive research agenda of its own but also foster greater links with complementary fields of scholarship.

Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of medieval castles have transformed the subject over the last quarter of a century and taken it away from its militaristic roots. In Medieval Archaeology 51 (2007) Colin Platt published an article that reasserted defence as the primary motivation in castle building. This paper suggests that continuing 'defence vs symbolism' debates are detrimental to the subject, which needs to develop a distinctive research agenda of its own but also foster greater links with complementary fields of scholarship.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)85-93
Number of pages9
JournalMedieval Archaeology
Volume52
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008

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