Propylaeum

This volume contains the proceedings from a conference on castle studies held in Basel in 1977 to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Schweizerischer Burgenverein. Looking back over half a century of the association’s existence, which has a good reputation in academic circles both here and abroad, the conference programme was intentionally wide-ranging. The contributions from various researchers in Switzerland and abroad point to the diversity of medieval defensive structures in terms of form, function and materials. The six presentations share an important leitmotif in current medieval research: interlinking archaeological features with historical contexts. The volume contains two Swiss papers; Hugo Schneider’s paper on Letzi walls (defensive barriers or boundary markers) in the Alpine region puts the spotlight on the founding period of the Old Swiss Confederacy, while Werner Mayer attempts to make an archaeological contribution to the medieval history of settlement by examining the links between castle construction, the rise of political power and forest clearance rights. Using lowland castles in the Rhineland as an example, Walter Janssen sheds light on the transition between timber construction and stone architecture in the High Middle Ages and examines the social status of individual noble lineages based on the differences in the construction of their castles. Similarly, Jacques Renaud uses 13^th/14^th century brick-built castles in the Netherlands to present the history of Dutch feudalism. Based on the geographic locations and types of construction of timber-built Slavic castles in north-western Germany, Karl Struve examines the social structure of the Slavic tribes. Olaf Olsen’s paper on concentric castles in Denmark provides an insight into the military and political organisation of Danish kingship at the time of the Vikings.