The orientation of early medieval churches in England

Hoare, Peter; Sweet, Caroline S.

doi:10.1006/jhge.2000.0210

Cited by 38 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…In the case of differing uncertainties, a weighted mean should be taken instead. From this perspective, Hoare and Sweet (2000) did use the mean for their inference of the orientation of early medieval churches in England, although whether they were aware of its inferential power or thought of it as merely descriptive is unclear. Furthermore, a clear advantage of this approach is that the inferential error can be derived from a simple equation: the inferential error is known as the standard deviation of the mean (Taylor 1997: 102) and, to calculate it, one needs only the total deviation in the data and the sample size (see Supporting Information for more on this and how it relates to precision).…”

Section: The Maximum Likelihood Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring Alignments I: Exploring the Accuracy and Precision of Two Statistical Approaches

Silva

2017

JSA

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Using computer simulations, this paper explores and quantifies the accuracy and precision of two approaches to the statistical inference of the most-likely targets of a set of structural orientations. It discusses the curvigram method of wide currency in archaeoastronomy (also known as Kernel Density Estimation or Summed Probability Densities), and introduces the largely unused maximum likelihood method, that is quite popular in other fields. The analysis of their accuracy and precision is done for a scenario with a single target, from which resulted equations that can be used to estimate the minimum number of surveyed structures to ensure a high-precision statistical inference. Two fundamental observations are also made: that, although both approaches are quite accurate, the maximum likelihood approach is considerably more precise than the curvigram approach; and that underestimating measurement uncertainty severely undermines the precision of the curvigram method. Finally, the implications of these observations for past, present and future archaeoastronomical research, is discussed.

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Section: The Maximum Likelihood Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferring Alignments I: Exploring the Accuracy and Precision of Two Statistical Approaches

Silva

2017

JSA

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“…The brief made clear that a traditional east-west orientation was not required, and Basil Spence (knighted in 1960) won the competition with a design that placed the new cathedral at right angles to the ruins. The central axis of the cathedral thus lies in a north-south orientation, which is unusual for Christian architecture in Britain (Hoare and Sweet, 2000). By connecting the new and old cathedrals he was creating a symbol of reconciliation and forgiveness in the post-war period, which the cathedral has since enhanced by the foundation of the "Community of the Cross of Nails", a reference to the cross made the day after the bombing from roof nails that were found in the burnt-out ruins.…”

Section: Historical Contextmentioning

confidence: 98%

Prestressing in Coventry Cathedral

Burgoyne

Mitchell

2017

Structures

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Coventry Cathedral was completed in the early 1960s and has some prestressed concrete elements to resist lateral thrust from the roof. Other prestressed structures of a similar age have had corrosion problems and this has drawn attention to the fact that there is little publicly available information about the structural system at Coventry. This paper addresses that issue and is in three sections. The first summarises the four different prestressing systems in the cathedral and estimates the amount of prestress and its purpose in each location. By placing the information in the public domain it will be useful for both historians of church architecture and engineers in future generations who may have to work on the building. Although there is no evidence of corrosion in the building at the moment, it is impossible to inspect the existing tendons, so the second section considers what might happen to the structure if corrosion of the tendons were to occur. It is concluded that very little warning of failure would be given, which would be especially important for the tendons over the Baptistry window and those in the Nave ties. The final section considers what could be monitored to give as much warning as possible about future problems. The effects of loss of an individual tendon, which would not by itself be sufficient to cause failure of the structure, would cause only very small strains that would be difficult to distinguish from the background strains caused by temperature change. Many of the principles discussed in the second and third sections would be applicable to many other prestressed concrete structures.

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“…A finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX empezaron a hacerse estudios con muestras amplias de orientaciones de iglesias en regiones concretas, en los que se analizaban algunas de estas hipótesis, y en concreto la del día del santo patrón de la iglesia (Lockyer 1894;Nissen 1906;Johnson 1912;Cave 1950). Con el tiempo, los trabajos en este tema se volvieron más detallados, teniendo en cuenta la altura del horizonte (Benson 1956) y sopesando más de una explicación posible a los patrones de orientación (Hoare y Sweet 2000;Ali y Cunich 2001;Hinton 2006). A lo largo de las últimas décadas, una serie de autores han trabajado esta cuestión en España, en iglesias de diferentes épocas y localizaciones.…”

Section: Ad Orientemunclassified

Ad orientem: Las iglesias románicas del Camino Francés en los reinos de Castilla y León bajo la perspectiva de la Astronomía Cultural

2021

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En este trabajo se examina, desde la perspectiva de la Astronomía Cultural, si las iglesias románicas del Camino de Santiago siguen un patrón de orientación común a todas ellas. Para ello, se ha obtenido la orientación de 191 templos en los antiguos reinos de León y Castilla, y se ha realizado un estudio comparativo. Ambos reinos comparten orientaciones hacia la salida del sol el domingo de Pascua, probablemente obtenidas en su mayoría mediante observación directa del sol sobre el horizonte, aunque León presenta una fuerte preferencia por el equinoccio eclesiástico del 21 de marzo, que no aparece en Castilla. También se han analizado las iglesias pertenecientes al Camino y una muestra de contraste en cada reino, lo que ha permitido extraer información relevante sobre las iglesias construidas en lugares concretos como Santiago de Compostela, la Ribeira Sacra, Sahagún o la Montaña Palentina

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The orientation of early medieval churches in England

Cited by 38 publications

References 11 publications

Inferring Alignments I: Exploring the Accuracy and Precision of Two Statistical Approaches

Inferring Alignments I: Exploring the Accuracy and Precision of Two Statistical Approaches

Prestressing in Coventry Cathedral

Ad orientem: Las iglesias románicas del Camino Francés en los reinos de Castilla y León bajo la perspectiva de la Astronomía Cultural

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