Town and Country in England: Frameworks for Archaeological Research

Description

With contributions by Mark Whyman, Frances Condron, Jonathan Finch, and Rebecca Roseff. The relationship between towns, or urban centers, and the countryside around them is a complex one. Beneath the striking cover of this book lies the results of a research project that promotes new ways of thinking about, and investigating, this relationship. The Urban Hinterlands Project of the Universities of Leicester and York (1997-8) sought to investigate the social and economic dependencies between town and country and sees the latter as the major source of power for the elite who imposed urban centers on the landscape to serve their needs and aspirations. This report combines theoretical and methodological approaches, which are largely based on archaeological finds, it highlights the quality and quantity of archaeological evidence available and presents a series of case studies from areas such as East Anglia, London, Hampshire and Yorkshire. List of figures vii List of tables viii Acknowledgements ix Summaries xi 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Town and country in England 1.2. Some general models of relationships between town and country 1.3. The contribution of archaeology to the study of urban hinterlands 1.4. Frameworks for archaeological research 1.5. The Urban Hinterlands project 1.6. Organisation of the report 2. The research environment / Frances Condron, Dominic Perring, and Mark Whyman 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Definitions 2.2.1. Towns 2.2.2. Hinterlands 2.2.3. The study of settlement hierarchies 2.3.1. Economic models 2.3.2. The social context 2.3.3. Environmental impacts 2.4. A review of recent research 2.4.1. Models for primary urbanisation 2.4.2. Late Iron Age and Roman 2.4.3. Late Roman and sub-Roman 2.4.4. Early medieval 2.4.5. Later medieval 2.5. Some research questions 2.5.1. General themes 2.5.2. Iron Age and Roman 2.5.3. Early medieval 2.5.4. Later medieval 2.6. Summary 3. Classes of evidence and their potential / Mark Whyman and Dominic Perring 3.1. Animal bone 3.1.1. The 'life cycle' of animal bone 3.1.2. Describing assemblages 3.2. Archaeobotanical assemblages 3.3. Ceramics 3.3.1. Pottery production, use, and discard 3.3.2. Describing assemblages 3.4. Coin 3.5. Human bone 3.6. Other categories of find 59 3.7. Integrated approaches to finds assemblages 3.8. Summary 4. Research frameworks 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Iron Age to Roman / Frances Condron with Dominic Perring 4.2.1. Background 4.2.2. Sample areas and databases 4.2.3. Review of previous work 4.2.4. Research proposals and conclusions 4.3. Coin and late Romano-British exchange / Mark Whyman 4.3.1. Background 4.3.2. Sample areas and databases 4.3.3. Review of previous work 4.3.4. Research proposals and conclusions 4.4. Emporia and early medieval settlement / Mark Whyman 4.4.1. Background 4.4.2. Sample areas and databases 4.3. Review of previous work 4.4. Research proposals and conclusions 4.5. Regionality and medieval landscapes / ]onathan Finch 4.5.1. Background 4.5.2. Sample areas and review of previous work 4.5.3. Research proposals 4.6. Towns and the environment / Rebecca Rose and Dominic Perring 4.6.1. Background 4.6.2. Sample areas and databases 4.6.3. Review of previous work 4.6.4. Research proposals 5. Conclusions and recommendations 5.1. Curatorial practice and the use of the archaeological resource 5.2. Methodological recommendations 5.3. Informing research strategies Bibliography Index by Peter Ellis