MPhil stage

To date, around three quarters (79 of 108) of the buildings dated by dendrochronology in Hampshire have been surveyed as part of the MPhil phase of this project.

The initial MPhil phase of the research project has now been completed and progression to the final PhD submission begun. With all the necessary data collected through survey and desk based research, analysis can begin in earnest. During the MPhil phase the data was collected and inserted into a relational database and a geodatabase, both of which were designed and built for that purpose.

Progression to PhD

The creation of robust databases has provided a means to advance from the data collection of the MPhil stage into the analysis and interpretation of the PhD stage. This is due in part to the way in which the data can be queried and displayed in a meaningful way, all of which will be set out in the forthcoming methodology chapter. With the analysis now under way, many interesting trends have been highlighted by the data. It is now crucial to understand the implications and underlying significance of that data and present the outcomes in a formative report, thus forming the main thrust of the PhD. Alongside which, will be a chapter illustrating what I have learnt from the data and what it tells me about the way in which carpentry evolved from the mid to late medieval period. This will then allow me to engage in refuting the idea that carpentry followed a teleological progression, instead proving that it was the Black Death and its sibling plagues that changed carpentry. This will be informed by drawing on the data collected during the MPhil and applying diffusionist and social theories to a digital archaeological framework. By applying various post-processual theories to the processual data set, the PhD arm of this thesis aims to forward modern techniques of understanding the past by drawing on multidisciplinary skills allowing medieval archaeology to work in tandem with history to give as full an account of the medieval carpentry as is presently possible.

The remaining 6 months of the studentship will involve;

Processing and analysing the collected data

Producing a table/map of patterns and trends in the data

Reading the relevant literature to identify if the trends found during the project have already been written about or noted in Hampshire or adjacent counties

Also from the reading I will investigate, holistically, any possible evidence that may explain what I see in the data

Writing up the data and what I believe the data are telling us about the study area/period

Finishing the write up and submitting the first draft (Feb 2009)