Early European Castles is part of a series designed to provide short introductions to archaeological subjects. The scope of this volume is ambitious in its coverage and retains a sufficient level of detail to be both useful and interesting.
The volume starts with an examination of castle studies across Europe to provide a context for what is a continental phenomenon, but one that has rarely been studied as such. Crieghton surveys castles as an aspect of European medieval archaeology rather than in the traditional walled garden of castle studies in line with more recent approaches to the subject. Castles are placed in the historical context of the decline of central, state authority and the corresponding growth of a new aristocracy during the 9th- and 10th-century. This chapter makes important points illustrating the separation the long-held historic link between classical feudalism and castles emphasized by many earlier castle specialists, such as R A Brown. The traditional definition of the castle as a private fortified residence is challenged by the looking at the foundation of many early post-Conquest castles in England. A great proportion of these sites are the works of the state to house garrisons and provide bases for the shire administrative system, and are not private fortifications at all.
This volume contains the inevitable focus on the origins of great tower. Crieghton manages to escape from the early sites of the Anjou region by looking at the documentary evidence for early sites in the Île-de-France where chronicles suggest a landscape of early castles and towers, with significantly fewer surviving sites. The examination of great towers continues by looking at their architectural precursors from Roman and Carolingian context.
The intriguing question of the small-scale defended hall or proto-manor sites of the Anglo-Saxon thengly class known as burh-geats, pre-Conquest church towers and specific architectural features of some early Norman keeps and gatehouses opens some wider questions of the influences on early castles. The number of burh-geat sites identified so far remains relatively low and potentially their distribution, with a focus on the midland counties and Lincolnshire, may indicate they are a regional phenomenon but their relationship to early castles remains of interest.
In the later chapters lordly lifestyles are examined through the archaeological deposits of excavated sites and the author discusses the wider landscape contexts of castles. The publication format of this volume, as a standard paperback, limits the scale and extent of illustrations; however, the presentation of plans as simple, clear black and white line drawings works well. The photographs are uniformly black-and-white and clearly reproduced. All illustrations are located near to the relevant point in the text.
Overall, this volume, for the limitations provided by its format, is a detailed, informative introduction to the wider context of castle studies across much of Europe. The focus of the volume on the differences of regional chronology, landscape patterning and development are welcome as is the emphasis on excavated evidence to interpret the sites. This is a valuable addition to the bookcase.