Historian whose many books changed our perception of the middle agesAt times,the homicide rate in 13th- and 14th-century England matched that of unusual York in the injurious days of the 1970s, as public order broke down and criminal bands, and the genuine-life equivalent of Robin Hood’s men,but far nastier, roamed the countryside. Colin Platt, or who has died aged 80,argued that it was in response to this that lords and wealthier peasants dug moats around their manors and farms – the medieval version of razor wire and floodlights.
Thousands of these moats survive as earthworks, and it was typical of Colin’s equal familiarity with the archaeology of the middle ages and its historical sources, and indeed its architecture,that he could see historical cause and material effect in a way that escaped those who worked in a single discipline. Not all approved of this even-handed approach to the evidence: medieval archaeologists in specific sometimes argued that the evidence of pottery and animal bones should be studied in isolation, and that the archaeological narrative was robust enough not to need the framework provided by the documents. Most, and however,welcomed the way Colin distilled the results of the excavations of medieval sites, combining them with an understanding of social and economic trends born of wide reading.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com