conservation.gu.se · web viewworld of wood. the many preserved ... the wooden constructions...

Seminarietext 2014 10 08 Kina Linscott, institutionen för Kulturvård, Göteborgs universitetwww.conservation.gu.seArbetsmaterial som inte ska citeras eller spridas

For the seminar 2014-10-08

This text provides a preliminary plan and starting point for the sections introduction and theoretical and methodological approaches in my thesis. It opens with a brief survey of previous research, pointing out the aspects that I take as a point of departure for the work (1). There after I outline the thesis idea, source material and structure (2). This describes the trail I have started to follow, which of course might lead to other paths. In the last part I approach some of the basic analytical concepts seeking a theoretical framework for the thesis (3).

Some important theoretical approaches that will help analyse for example the shapes and forms as well as the final inquiries into the articulated architecture, are not included in this text. These I hope to be able to present and discuss in coming seminars. In my paper for the Canberra conference in December 2014 I will theorize and reflect on some of the investigative methods. Later I will also attempt to put forward the use of images in the work. Drawings, scans and photographs are of particular importance as they are used both to investigative and as a way to communicate various results. They are thereby not only illustrations, but active parts of the exploration, only written in another “visual” language.

Contents:1. Earlier research and point of departure: Monuments made of stone and wood. s. 22. Thesis: Between matter and interior spaces. s. 53. Theoretical approaches. s. 8References

At this seminar I would in particular welcome help to cast light on: The discussion about the previous research, as my point of departure. The thesis structure, as outlined. The concept “serial collectivity” as this will be one of the main theoretical approaches, used

in all the chapters.

Interpretations of old wood

Between matter and interior space in west Swedish 12th century parish churchesKeywords: medieval roof structures, tie-beam roof trusses, early medieval church architecture

The work examines church architecture in west Sweden. Analysis of a selected cluster of parish churches with surviving 12th century roof structures are used to discuss interpretations of architectural characters as cultural and social phenomenon. In what way are the hand-crafted old buildings, something that we have reason to care about today? I approach the buildings as an architect, specialized in building archeology. How can these churches be understood from perspectives relevant to an architect? The combined interest in buildings and archaeology focuses attention on inquiries into the architecture as well as the agency in the local societies. The questions

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explore the individual churches and how the churches in the cluster could be connected and compared to each other. In what way is each church unique and how and to what degree are they part of a whole? How could the surviving monuments be connected to the people that created, used and re-created 850 years ago? What did the different stakeholders; the patrons, designers, builders and craftsmen manage to achieve? And, how do the churches fit into the bigger picture? How could the articulated architecture relate to the contemporary “church-building” phenomenon? The understandings are contextualized by comparisons with other surviving similar churches with roofs and contemporary representations of churches or related motives. Getting access to the basic structures of the buildings is central. The investigations are characterized by building-archaeological methodology and involve a combination of analytic drawing, photography, scanning and question lists. Drawings and images are of importance in the study.

1. EARLIER RESEARCH: MONUMENTS MADE OF STONE AND WOOD

The Swedish 12th century parish churches have been described and analyzed by several researchers. The interest has largely focused on the different parts of stone. However there is no medieval church that fully has kept its original shape and the many changes and extensions make it difficult to reconstruct the first building. The art historical perspective has dominated throughout the 20th

century. The church buildings have been understood as part of the so-called Romanesque style. Most regions in Europe have buildings identified as Romanesque. The European literature on this is very large and the style is regarded an international phenomenon, created when early Christian and Byzantine form elements merged with the new Christianized peoples own traditions (e.g. Pitz 1995:7). A number of individual Swedish churches are described with this perspective in earlier monographs (e.g. in west Sweden: Fischer 1913, 1914, 1920, 1922). The studies focus primarily on the plan lay-outs and the decorative stone work. There are also studies that build on larger numbers of churches or different aspects which give overview (e.g. Bonnier 2008:129-177, Dahlberg 1998, Ferm & Andersson 1991, Holmberg 1990, Zachrisson & Kempff Östlind 2007). These show, among other things, that the small 12th century parish churches in Västergötland are characterized by unusually rich stonework and stone sculpture (Dahlberg 1998:21). However despite this, the stone buildings are considered difficult to interpret and to insert into chronologies based on their style. Dahlberg concludes, “Since so few parish churches show distinguishable stylistic features, I have felt it important to emphasize the hazards of stylistic dating.” (ibid:343). Our understanding of the church building’s earliest architectural development is therefore largely based on their plan forms.

1.1. A world of woodThe many preserved 12th century parish churches reflect an intense church building activity in numerous local societies in the region. Not all, but a large number were constructed with walls of stone. The many stone churches were raised in a world of wood. These new stone buildings must have made a weighty impact in the contemporary landscape, entirely furnished with wooden structures. We are reminded of the importance of wood in the Middle Ages, in the article

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“Jordbruket och livet på landet” (Myrdal 2004:191ff). Myrdal stresses that ”Det var en träkultur, och alla andra material än trä var sällsynta” (ibid:191.). Accordingly, in Sweden, the Romanesque style has been interpreted as a combination of European church architecture and a domestic vernacular wood building culture, ”När kyrkan nådde Skandinavien samlade kyrkokonsten upp element från den inhemska och uråldriga träkulturens formspråk och bildade så en egen dialekt i den europeiska gemenskapen” (Pitz 1995:7).

Works that have explored medieval church buildings or parts of buildings of wood are, unlike the exploration of the stone churches and stone objects, conducted by researchers with a number of different backgrounds and interests. The wooden buildings and parts have therefore been highlighted from several perspectives. The remains from under the ground show that the first generation churches were small wooden buildings, and we have a good picture of the size and plan forms (Bonnier 2009, Nyqvist Thorsson & Nitenberg 2010, Vretemark 1998). Archaeology also suggests that the development from the first small wooden churches to the larger, still standing 12 th

century parish churches in west Sweden was complex and had a number of phases (Axelsson & Vretemark 2013). However the first small churches of wood have only rarely been the subject of

more thorough discussion (Dahlberg 2008:300). Contemporary representations are not preserved from this very first period. Our idea of volumes and shapes are uncertain and fragmentary. Art historical perspectives have directed interest towards the ornamentation in the wooden parts of the buildings (e.g. Karlsson 1976) and the few contemporary representations of wooden churches, for example in the Skog tapestry (Franzén & Nockert 1992). Studies of the few Swedish medieval timber churches that have survived from the 13th and 14th centuries have been published by art historians and architects (e.g. Andersson & Ullén 1983, Lagerlöf 1985, Sjömar 1988, Ullén 1995).

Yet, even in a building with stone walls, the carpentry can be seen as important as the roofing is so significant to the architecture. Roofs present a particular engineering challenge to the builders. The upper parts of the stone church buildings, the top of the walls and the roofs in the attics, are also, in some cases very well preserved compared to the bottom parts. A number of studies that focus on medieval roofs have been published, however irregularly, since the turn of the century 1900, both in Sweden and in other countries in Europe. The interest has been centered on the trusses; their shapes, typology and structural development over time, as well as how the parts are joined. The roofs are primarily discussed by architects and archaeologists (e.g. Ahrens 2001 [1981], Binding 1991, Eckhoff 1914-1916, Epaud 2003, 2007, Gullbrandsson 2013, Hewett 1982, Hoffsummer 2002, 2009, 2011, Linscott 2007, Lundberg 1940, 1971, Madsen 2007, Thelin & Linscott 2008, Sjömar 1992, 1995, 1998, Storsletten 2002, Walker 1999). The medieval or similar roof’s structure-mechanical aspects have been analyzed with an engineering approach (Sandin 2005, Thelin 2005, 2006, 2008). A new building archaeological study “The Romanesque roof of Jumièges Abbey and its wider context in northern Europe”, shows that the large number of preserved roofs with tie-beam trusses in Sweden represent a unique position in a European perspective (Alcock & Courtenay forthcoming).

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1.2. On understanding the Romanesque style. The understanding of the Romanesque style is important to this study and it needs to be further analyzed and developed. It is about understanding the construct of the style, how it has been interpreted at different times in the past, as well as about the architectures of the 11 th and 12th

century. However, the many Romanesque manifestations are quite different in their architectural articulation and the interpretations of the style have long been regarded partially misleading (e.g. Pitz 1995:7). The archaeologist Tahdg O’Keefe gives an overview in his book “The Pan European Romanesque” (2007) and concludes that the architectures are “hitherto treated as local or regional manifestations of some vaguely defined common ideal” (2007:107). To reach a better understanding of the surviving architectures O’Keefe suggests that the buildings instead were “complex discursive objects of visual culture, located in, and contributing to, networks of understanding at a series of different levels” (Ibid.:107). He calls for new ideas and several perspectives, not just art historian, to moderate the stereotype image of the Romanesque style. One proposal for a Swedish study, with a new idea and a different perspective, comes from the field of archaeology. It is presented in the paper “Domkapitel och sockenkyrkor i mellersta Östergötland” (Tagesson 2007:246-266). The aim is to explore medieval church buildings and their changes over time. The study would map variations of different parts in a number of chosen (stone) structures 1 and discuss these against the background of the development of the Cathedral chapter in Linköping. The project seeks to understand the differences in terms of agency in the societies. (OBS! Another Eriksdotter 2005).

1.3. Points of departureMost of the earlier studies focus on either the bottom parts of the surviving church buildings or the roofs in the attics. This means that today both the buildings’ parts and the different explorations are separated by vaults or ceilings. However, the investigation of one church, Hagebyhöga situated east of the lake Vättern, suggests that the interior was most likely originally open to the roof trusses (Sjömar 1995:224). Thus the two parts, roof and interior space belonged together in the 12 th

century. The trusses were not only practical structures as they were visible in the interior. The wooden constructions might therefore have played a part also aesthetically in the interior design. In addition a development in several stages is suggested in Hagebyhöga. The tie beams have traces from an early ceiling of wooden boards, which is believed put in place, used and taken down, before vaults were constructed in the late medieval period (ibid. 225f). The possibilities that lie in this, to make connections between the roofs in the attics and the interiors below are surprisingly little explored.

Furthermore, in the darkness of church attics in Västergötland there are treasures to discover. The attics with preserved roof constructions are like “time capsules” that can be explored from different perspectives. Two significant activities in the local 12th century societies overlap and inter-act in these attics; wood construction, which was dominating in vernacular building traditions

1 In focus are grave slabs with runic inscriptions (indicating the presence of an early wooden church), the early masonry structures in the churches, church towers, church towers with an emporium balcony as well as stone decorations.

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and church building, an important part of the powerful and evolving Christian movement. The attics and roofs can help cast light on the character of the original interior spaces. They also offer opportunities to interpret understandings of agency in the contemporary societies and how people approached and handled their environment.

2. THESIS: BETWEEN MATTER AND INTERIOR SPACES

What was a church? The study draws on the earlier research and is a contribution to the exploration of church building in the early Middle Ages. The exploration seeks to connect the present vaulted church interiors with the wooden structures in the attics above and thereby let the architecture that lacks “distinguishable stylistic features” appear. Point of departure is an interest in the buildings. The architectural intentions are explored primarily by examining how they were performed. The interplay between what was designed and what was possible to do, the mental and material conditions. The emphasis is on the middle of the 12th century, the earliest period of the buildings’ long lives. The investigation stretches into later centuries in some cases. It covers the period when the roof trusses were visible, i.e. from when they were made until they disappeared in the darkness over ceilings or vaults. The work involves the selected group of churches from start to finish, but does not seek to provide a complete chronological sequence for each of them.

The work seeks to map and discuss relations, in some cases tensions, between on the one side materials/constructions and on the other the whole; the bodies and spaces that were created at different times2. The questions are about what was articulated in the small church buildings during the 12th century and how they changed during the Middle Ages. The study examines how and when people achieved their goals. Precisely how did they shape and subsequently re-shape the buildings? Precisely when were the church buildings created? How and when were they changed, later in the Middle Ages? Other (and more difficult) questions concern the use of the buildings and the meanings they might have been charged with. The work also deals with issues surrounding social practices connected to the creation of the buildings. How are possible patterns materialized in the cluster of standing buildings? Who might the different stakeholders in the construction projects have been? What significance might international contacts have had? Are there patterns of social practices also in the development over time?

The questions that are raised are partly new and they are directed primarily to a rich source material of wood; uniquely well preserved roof structures in a cluster of churches in Västergötland. The trusses from the mid-12th century are of an early type. They were once part of interior spaces that were different and they were visible, made to be seen. The roofs are not easily accessible and they have not attracted the same interest as the churches' lower parts.

2 Intresset riktas mot den dåtida utformningen av interiöra rumsligheter och relationen, spänningen, mellan å ena sidan material/konstruktion och å andra sidan helhet/kropp, volym, interior space, rörelse i rummet.

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2.1. AimThe aim is to understand both the church buildings and history better. The thesis contribution is to highlight the currently marginalized church attic spaces with 12th century roofs, and to connect these with the interiors below vaults or ceilings. The understandings open for interpretations of the intentions that might have been behind what was performed, by people in the past. Another contribution is to compare the individual contemporary parish churches in a small cluster, with each other. This is to understand the local architecture as a cultural and social phenomenon, in a regional context, connected to the European backgrounds. A hope is to thereby enrich the experiences of the heritage monuments. The understandings aim to point out that the roofs form an important body which provides valuable understandings for contemporary church- as well as vernacular architecture elsewhere. A purpose is also to promote a significant change in the current heritage management, towards a new and inclusive approach and thereby improve the maintenance of the monuments in the future. This is to avoid the risk of removing important traces that give evidence of the original masonry and carpentry.

2.2. Source materialsThe work is based on three earlier investigations and projects that I have been involved in: 1) Medeltida tak (Linscott 2007) which gives an overview of medieval roofs in Swedish churches against the context of others in Europe. 2) Romanska taklag i Skara stift (Linscott 2012 [report available at the diocese]) which presents the first studies of roofs in five churches (Forshem, Forsby, Gökhem, Jällby and Marka). 3) Dendrochronology tools for surveying roof structures in parish churches in west Sweden (Linderholm & Seim 2014 [reports will soon be published at GULD3]) which includes dendrochronology analyzing of 8 roofs in the five parish churches. This was collaboration between the departments Conservation and Earth Sciences, GU.

The study will also in part build on a newly completed inventory of medieval roofs in Skara Diocese carried out by archaeologist Robin Gullbrandsson. This reveals a total of about 40 churches that have roofs with tie beam trusses (whole or in parts) preserved in the region ([report soon to be available at the diocese in Skara] Gullbrandsson 20144).

Point of departure in the thesis is taken in the examining of a cluster of 6 parish churches (Gamla Eriksberg, Forshem, Forsby, Gökhem, Jällby and Marka) located within 40-50 km of the contemporary center of the diocese, Skara. Five churches have walls of stone and one is entirely made of wood. The chosen churches have well-preserved roofs that probably were raised before or around 11505 and thus belong to the oldest surviving complete tie beam truss structures in Europe (Alcock & Courtney forthcoming, Linscott 2007:32). The group represents a rare opportunity to interpret and compare almost simultaneous building activities that include constructions in wood, in such a distant past. The six buildings will be used as a hub throughout the study.

3 http://www.gvc.gu.se/forskning/klimat/paleoklimat/GULD/Another result is so far also a manuscript for an article: Seim, A., Linscott K., Bonde N., Braitinger C., Heussner U., Stornes J.M., Linderholm H.4 The report will be presented in November 20145 One wooden church C14: 1030-1210+ 100. Five of stone churches, dendro six roofs: 1134-1155, dendro two roofs 1250-70.

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The purpose of selecting a small number of buildings is to allow detailed in-depth studies. In the selected churches, the entire building is examined, with point of departure and the most focus on, the upper parts. Earlier excavation- and restoration reports will be used. The limited number decorated door lintels, baptismal fonts, headstones or "liljestenar" in or outside the selected churches will be connected to the investigations. According to the new inventory by Gullbrandsson, there are perhaps as many as 30 surviving roof constructions which have tie beam trusses with crossing canted struts. That is the same as in five of the selected churches. This type can be linked to only a few other roofs in other countries. The group in Sweden seems to occupy a unique position in Europe (Alcock & Courteney forthcoming). To cast more light on this unusual type of truss, a number of such roofs will be chosen and included in the study. In these only the wooden structures will be examined. In order to give the local area in Västergötland relief, a few roofs that have related truss types but are located in entirely different geographies will be included. Högs church in Hälsingland (Blomberg & Linscott 2001) and (perhaps) Haltdalens stavkyrka (e.g. Storsletten 2001:246-249) in Trondheim will be analysed based on the earlier studies.

The very few contemporary representations of church buildings, or connected motifs, that are preserved are particularly important to study. The medieval textile from Skog (c.f. Franzén & Nockert 1992, Nockert & Possnert 2002) will therefore be brought in and explored. This part will be together with my supervisor ethnologist Anneli Palmsköld.

2.3. StructureThe churches will be analysed thematically and chronologically, both individually and in comparison with each other, as a cluster. The thesis is structured in a monograph with four main chapters. In these the reader is taken on a tour through the selected church buildings. This begins in the churches attics with the focus of interest on 1) The wooden structures6. Thereafter, the interest is directed towards the setting in the attic spaces, 2) Gables and top of the walls7 as well as the connection between the walls and roof structures. The walk continues and connects the attics to the lower parts of the buildings, under the ceilings of boards or vaults of stone, where 3) Walls and volumes8 in the nave and chancel are explored. Finally, it is analyzed and interpreted, connected and compared how the buildings different 4) Architectures appear9 at different times. This also includes the study of contemporary representations.

2.4. Limitations

6 Roofs, trusses, forms, parts, joints etc. crafted in tradition interpreted as play: Rules, Leeway and Serialities in the cluster. 7 Gables, walls over the vaults, openings, (sound, light). Serialities in the cluster. 8 Solid walls in wood and masonry, plan forms (proportions), floors, ceilings, vaults, openings (sound, light, entrance, movement, procession), interior (font, altar, bells). Serialities in the cluster.9 The creating of a vision (stakeholders, team: patron, church,”architect”, builder, craftsmen artisans). Shapes and volumes (forms, rules, leeway), Analysing architecture: (Unwin, Rasmussen, Cornell: huvudgrupper och underkategorier). Arcitecture as play. Serialities in the cluster. Connecting to archaeology (Nitenberg & Nyvkist). The rules of the Cictercienser architecture will therefore be reflected on as a background.

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The old roofs offer a number of opportunities. Other research questions from neighboring fields could well be explored in this source material, however with other perspectives. This study does not further explore the typology of the different trusses or the development that could be followed from trusses with tie-beams to later trusses without a tie beam i.e. of a “gothic” type. The focus of attention is neither on the manufacturing processes of the timber or masonry parts, nor on the building processes that might have been used erecting the structures.

3. THEORETICAL APPROACHES

The basic theoretical point of departure is that investigations of material evidence can be used to approach understandings about social and cultural aspects of the past. The buildings of stone and wood, their bodies and interior spaces which are the physical remains of peoples’ actions are in the focus of attention. The work is guided by archaeological and architectural theories that take an interest in the relations between material environment and people’s actions. I am also inspired by phenomenology and the field of post-humanist studies. The separate paragraphs below represent a first preliminary start to construct a frame work for theories, perspectives and methods in the thesis.

3.1. Architecture is performedAlmost no local written evidence can guide our understandings. Even with a name and a hint of agency the interpretations are quite vague. In the small parish church Skälvum, there is both a name and a maker as “Othelric me fecit” is inscribed on a stone over the entrance door. Othelric is believed to have been a stone master (judging from the high quality of the stone work) from abroad (the not Swedish-sounding name) that was active in the mid-12th century (interpreted from the style)10 and it is guessed that he might have worked at the nearby cathedral in Skara, which was finished in 1140 (Fischer 1920:83-88).

Thus- on the one hand- we know almost nothing about who created the local church buildings in Västergötland. The small 12th century churches are mute archaeological objects. The people that made them and used them have long ago passed on. Almost all other objects that surrounded them are also gone, as well as the contemporary landscapes and trails, (long?) houses, “villages”. How could what we see today, the assembled pieces of wood and stones and mortar, the matter that is alien to us, become a “building” or a “room” that we can relate to?

On the other hand- buildings have a close connection with the people who use them. People create buildings, use them and change them. Forms and spaces are tools for different activities in changing contexts. People charge the buildings with motives and intentions. These relations create “objects” that we can investigate. The small churches have held a range of different activities. There were ceremonies performed; baptizing, weddings, funerals and the Catholic mass. Processions strode from the entrance in the nave to the chancel and perhaps back, prayers were said, candles were lit and bells ringed. In the interior space, the church members took part in the ceremonies, met

10 The roof has later been dated with dendrochronology to 1134d (Bråthen 1995 [1982]).

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others or visited in private. Precious belongings, liturgical vessels, books and textiles had to be stored in in treasure chests or cabinets. There were decorated alters, sometimes with relics. But there were also other aspects. The valuable things and pretty interiors should be displayed, presented and seen. The church roof trusses, that were part of the interior, still fulfill one task, they steadfastly carry the roofs. But no one can see them the way they were once intended. They have lost some of their cultural layers, some of their meanings. However the roofs still have significance to us because they bear witness of activity and historically determined articulations.

A point of departure is the architectural historian Elias Cornell's interpretation of the particularity and significance of architecture (E. Cornell 1959, 1966). By highlighting the relations between the concepts of aesthetics/practice Cornell clarifies how architecture emerges as a whole, created by both its aesthetic and practical sides. Architecture loses some of its meaning if it is considered as merely practical or purely aesthetic. Cornell phrases this concisely, which is often quoted, that ”Arkitektur är estetisk organisation av praktisk verklighet.” (ibid. 1966:9). This "organization" can be created and take form in many different, historically determined ways.

This means that the assembled pieces of wood and stone offer possibilities for interpretations. The buildings can be investigated with questions that analyze the making, the usage and the re-making in the past. Mapping the making, perhaps whole series of such actions is a way to analyze.

At the same time, buildings shape people too. Buildings form how people move and use the spaces, at least to some extent. Buildings can affect people and therefore also history, the cause of events. The formed materials are thereby not only a reflection of peoples’ building activities. The archaeologists Per Cornell and Fredrik Fahlander point at the relevance to study social actions in archaeological materials, the concept materiality is understood as including the social dimension (Cornell & Fahlander 2002, 2007). This means that the shape of a building can be regarded as the result of both practical and aesthetic intentions and be a place, body or space, where dichotomies such as nature/culture, private/public, order/disorder or conservation/change might find concrete expression. A consequence of this view is that my research takes an interest in how the contemporary architecture was physically performed in the building, how it was articulated, how it appaered. It is how people have created and accomplished architecture that I seek to investigate. With what awareness was the church architecture created? With what means? My exploration is based on this, that the intentions and perceptions in the past can be found and met in the mediating form a building constitute.

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3.2. Micro-archaeology of social practiceThere is no short-cut to understandings of the context. The bigger picture comes through in depth studies in the micro-scale. Microarchaeology (Cornell & Fahlander 2002, 2007)11 approaches the relationship between materialities and social practices. The micro-perspective draws on Jean-Paul Sartres’ theoretical discussions about “serial collectivity” that deepens the understandings of social groups (ibid. 2002:15 [Sartre 1960]). The concept includes both materiality and agency and the actions may be deliberate or routine. Sartre distinguishes between two types of social relationships; "serials" and "groups". Individuals who are part of a series are united by a common way of acting, without having fellowship or otherwise being integrated as a group (ibid:41). A series of individuals thus performs various similar actions. They are united by their common way to act. Sartre gives a well-known example; a cluster of individuals waiting for the bus. Each one seeks their own, individual goal. The others in the cluster are not needed to achieve the individual goal . In contrast to a series a "group" is characterized by the existence of relationships between the group members. The individuals identify with each other, for example in the implementation of a joint project. The understandings of serial collectivity show that individuals can be united by their acts and that people form collectives through their patterns of behavior.

The idea of serial collectivity is used in Micro-archaeology to analyse the local patterns of materialities which form social practices. The churches are examined with a grammatical idea. The different parts; the roofs, walls, gables, ceilings, vaults, volumes, windows and entrances can be analyzed both separately and together. The parts can be related to each other. Even if people have had diverse motives and intentions for their building activities, similarities and differences in how they have shaped their churches can be explored to understand meanings. The Micro-archaeological approach helps analysing the building activities as social practices.

Societies are never isolated they are involved in regional and ecological contexts. There is no easy way to understand the cultural tradition in which the interpretations of the church architecture are made. We grasp bits and pieces, local activities which are analyzed in the micro-scale. For example, by putting the dendrochronological and building archaeological investigations in the church Gökhem together, we know that; in the winter in the year 1140 or in the early 1141, loggers went to a forest to take down timber for 16 trusses. The trees were to carry the roof over the nave in the new church. The timber should be of a proper quality and size. Each truss needed a particularly coarse, straight and long timber to span the room and keep it together. For this they needed 16 trees that were probably xx m high and x cm thick in the bottom. They felled the trees in a local forest. They selected straight, tall pine-trees (Pinus sylvestris) that were about 120 years old. The chosen trees had grown rather slowly, which indicates that the forest was dense at the time.

Traces of situations where people have acted the same and thus constituted a collective are the starting point for socio-cultural analysis of spatial and time-based dimensions (Cornell & Fahlander 2002:39). Repetitive social practices are called “structurating practices” (ibid. 2007:7), which could for example be how the individual church buildings in a cluster were organized in a

11 The authors build notably on Sartre’s (1960) theory of serial collectivity, Foucault’s (1969) “archaeology”, and Gidden’s (1984) structuration theory.

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repetitive way. These regularities could be used to understand larger scale patterns and processes, and “The analysis of single and repetitive events can thus be analysed in terms of relations between the particular and the general” (ibid.).

This is used to compare the group of church buildings. The people in Gökhem were not alone in their church building activities at this time. Many neighboring local societies in Västergötland were also making churches. Four of the roofs in the study have been dated with dendrochronology to the middle of the 12th century (Linderholm & Seim 2014). The timber for these roofs was felled between 1134 and 1155. Similar activities could perhaps also (or not) be found in the other churches in the cluster and the local patterns could thus be found in larger scales. The cluster possibly fit into patterns in other populated regions. Micro-archaeology means that we do not have to limit the analysis to geographical areas or ethnic communities. We can “discuss the frequency and extent of certain practices over time and space independently of their assumed cultural origins” (Ibid. 2007:8). These issues will be discussed in the study going back and forth between the detailed traces and the whole, possibly revealing insight into the local societies and perhaps also into a larger picture.

This micro-archaeological approach will be used in search for social and structurating practices, in all four parts of the thesis12. Focusing on the same parts of still standing similar buildings, the material from the cluster could be interpreted as serial collectivity; patterns of the same kind of building activities in different places during two centuries.

3.3. IterationTime is an important factor when analyzing old churches. The churches, from idea to construction and re-shaping or destruction, have a very long life compared to humans. Thereby they are re-used and re-experienced by subsequent generations. Like today, having a church was, before long, about managing and developing what already existed. Thus the buildings are not charged with a single meaning, but multiple and changing. Sometimes the very fact that a building was old might have been regarded essential.

The vision or role-model that turned a building into “a church”, must have been difficult to copy precisely in the local context. There must have been some variations. When trying to repeat the model form; what a proper small rural Christian church “should” look like, certainly minor changes must have been made in the new context. The builders were perhaps confronted with other building materials, or local craftsmen that were experienced and skilled in vernacular techniques had to handle new and foreign architectural demands. The new churches would never be identical and their cultural meaning must have altered or changed to some extent. Thus the buildings which we interpret today would be the results of “iteration” rather than repetition (Cornell & Hjertman 2013:xx-xx). This is used to discuss that the idea of making a church “as it should be” or, “as in the

12 Sartre’s understandings of “groups” and “series” have been used in other studies of architecture, which also explore people’s relation to the material environment, but with different focuses (e.g. Werne 1987:12f). In this work my understanding is based on Cornell & Fahlander.

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past” perhaps were important motives when people created and transformed, or did not change, their churches.

3.4. Connecting to other spheres and geographies, finding the stakeholders in the building projectsA church building project involves participants, different stakeholders, which interact in selecting and forming the available building materials. They have to act as a “team”. Patrons, users, designers or builders13 as well as craftsmen and artisans have varying degrees of freedom and opportunities to influence the result. The making of the buildings can also be seen as an attempt to display social identities. How were the stakeholders different? Who might have had possibilities or power to act, to perform? What intentions were performed? Which actors are visible? Which are not?

To picture a background for the building team in the local society, I attempt to relate to the bigger picture. The precision in the dendrochronological results gives possibilities to connect to other and more powerful spheres in the world outside, visible in written documents. The building project in Gökhem in 1140 can be related to larger scaled church building activities in the region. The very same year, in 1140, the new cathedral in Skara, only 30 km away, was consecrated by the bishop (?) (Rosborn & Schimanski 1995:25). The bishop (from about 1130- about 1150) was Ödgrim14. He is supposed to have been involved in the cathedral’s building process,”bragte Skara domkyrkas byggnad till fullbordan. Han flyttade domen från Husaby, der den varit alltifrån Olof Skötkonungs dagar.” (Nordisk familjebok). Possibly at the same time, plans were made by the king Sverker and queen Ulvhild for a number of new monasteries in the region. Two years later, in 1143, the couple founded three monasteries, in Alvastra and Nydala east of lake Vättern and on the island Lurö in lake Vänern (Rosborn & Schimanski 1995:25). That same year, 1143, we have the first evidence of Cistercian monks arriving from Clairvaux in France to Alvastra (ibid.). The monastery in Lurö was soon deserted and a new was founded in 1150, by Cistercian brothers from Alvastra, in Varnhem (ibid:26). Varnhem is situated near Skara and also within 30 km of Gökhem.

A few things become clearer: there were close range opportunities for good contacts between people in the local societies in Västergötland, intending to build a church, and the “world outside” in the 1140s. King, queen and bishop (or their representatives) were also active in church building processes in the region. However the timber for the roof in Gökhem was cut down and shaped before the cathedral in Skara was finished and the Cistercian monasteries were founded and before any evidence of active brethrens in the region. There were not yet any obvious role-models, in the shape of a Cathedral or monastery in the 1140s.

The Catholic Church developed institutional arrangements for the exercise of power in this period. But a proper Church organization or state did not exist in the mid-12th century. The possible interplay between social and political conditions is described from a Danish horizon, in the paper “Power, the individual, and the collective” (Hermanson 2004:61-99). Hermanson emphasizes the mutual dependence between royal descendants and other members of the elite and pictures a number of leading groups competing for power. These groups build on kinship but also on friendship and loyalty. The articulations of local church architecture in Västergötland should

13 REF smålands lagen “den som har bygget om hand”14 Did he go to school in Paris?

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probably be interpreted against a similar, complex background. Those that were patrons and clients were members of the same “groups”, not either representatives of the church or the aristocracy.

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http://www.bloxwich.demon.co.uk/vag/walker/aisled1.htm

http://www.conservation.gu.se/digitalAssets/1091/1091837_Thelin___Linscott_Structural_definition_and_comparison_of_early_medieval_roof_structures.pdf

http://www.conservation.gu.se/digitalAssets/1091/1091837_Thelin___Linscott_Structural_definition_and_comparison_of_early_medieval_roof_structures.pdf

http://samla.raa.se/xmlui/handle/raa/378

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