English Landscapes and Identities: Investigating Landscape Change from 1500 BC to AD 1086

Description

Long before the Norman Conquest of 1066, England saw periods of profound change that transformed the landscape and the identities of those who occupied it. The Bronze and Iron Ages saw the introduction of now-familiar animals and plants, such as sheep, horses, wheat, and oats, as well as new forms of production and exchange and the first laying out of substantial fields and trackways, which continued into the earliest Romano-British landscapes. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the creation of new villages based around church and manor, with ridge and furrow cultivation strips still preserved today. The basis for this volume is The English Landscapes and Identities project, which synthesised all the major available sources of information on English archaeology to examine this crucial period of landscape history from the middle Bronze Age (c. 1500 BC) to the Domesday survey (c. 1086 AD). It looks at the nature of archaeological work undertaken across England to assess its strengths and weaknesses when writing long-term histories. Among many other topics it examines the interaction of ecology and human action in shaping the landscape; issues of movement across the landscape in various periods; changing forms of food over time; an understanding of spatial scale; and questions of enclosing and naming the landscape, culminating in a discussion of the links between landscape and identity. The result is the first comprehensive account of the English landscape over a crucial 2500-year period. It also offers a celebration of many centuries of archaeological work, especially the intensive large-scale investigations that have taken place since the 1960s and transformed our understanding of England's past. Cover English Landscapes and Identities: Investigating Landscape Change from 1500 bc to ad 1086 Copright Preface and Acknowledgements Contents List of Figures List of Tables List of Abbreviations 1: Introduction Archaeology and Modernity The History of Knowledge Concerning English Long-Term History The History of Narrative on British/English Long-Term History Stories of Prehistory Roman Stories Early Medieval Stories Summary Discussion History of the EngLaId Project Our Broad Intellectual Approach Our Broad Questions and the Structure of the Volume Section I: The Creation Of Archaeological Data, The Making Of Our Database, And The Form Of Our Analyses 2: Characterful Data: Its Character and Capacities A Bold Experiment with English Archaeological Data Data Sources and Categories Data Collection and Integration Our Approach: National and Case Studies Data Cleaning, Data Overlaps, and Temporal Uncertainty Evidence Types and Their Affordances for Dating Monuments The Factors Influencing the Nature of Archaeological Evidence Archaeological Working Practices and Affordances Summary 3: Patterns in the Data across England Regionality: Approaches and Methodologies Regional Variations in Investigation Types National and Regional Patterns Differences across England The Distinction between the South and East and the North and West: Two Broad Modes of Land Use The South and East The North and West Summary Comparison of Case Study Areas The North and West Cumbria Case Study (Lake District HER) Mid-England Transect Case Study (Derbyshire HER) Marches Case Study (Shropshire HER) Mendips and Somerset Levels Case Study (Somerset HER) Dartmoor and the Tamar Valley Case Study (Devon HER) Cornwall Case Study (Cornwall HER) The South and East Isle of Wight Case Study (Isle of Wight HER) Kent Case Study (Kent HER) Lea Valley Case Study (Greater London HER) Avon–Thames–Avon Transect Case Study (Oxfordshire HER) Hoskins’ Leicestershire Case Study (Leicestershire HER) East of England Transect Case Study (Norfolk HER) Humber Estuary Case Study (Humber HER) Section II: The Exploration Of Broader Patterns 4: Long-Term Interactions between Society and Ecology Environmental Determinism Characterizing the English Landscape The English Climate, 1500 bc to ad 1086 Summary The English Landscape and Its Clearance History Clearance and Soil Erosion Soil Erosion and the Hydrological Cycle Measuring Soil Erosion Soil Erosion Susceptibility 1500 bc to ad 1086 River Systems and Human Life Comparing River Basins The Thames Basin EngLaId Records in the Thames Basin The Eden River Basin EngLaId Records in the Eden Basin The Thames and the Eden Compared Discussion 5: Movement What is Movement? Modelling Movement Background and Methodology Modelling Terrain-Based Movement Modelling Movement Using Archaeological Remains as a Proxy for Activity Levels in the Past Movement on Land Methods EngLaId Evidence Movement by River EngLaId Evidence Place Name Evidence Discussion 6: Substances and Cycles A Theoretical Model of Food Production and Consumption Our Evidence and Analyses Modelling Food Production and Consumption: Three Case Studies Isotopic Analyses of Grains Animal Husbandry and Meat Consumption Cyclical Variation in Ceramic Repertoires Animal Isotopes Human Isotopes The Urban Abstract Machine: Roman and Medieval London Urban and Rural Isotopic Variation The Abstract Machine of Food Production and Consumption Change Regioning Discussion 7: Field Systems, Orientation, and Cosmology Earlier Work Some General Considerations Regional Patterns and Ecologies Analysing Coaxial Fields Understanding Orientation Considering the Division of Space The Sun Discussion 8: Identity, Naming, and Division Division, Naming, and Identity Enclosing Space: The Evidence from EngLaId Domesday Book: Naming and Recording the Landscape Towards a Longer Term History of Boundaries and Enclosed Space Sacred Boundaries Discussion Section III: Understanding Regional And Local Variability 9: Scale Scale and Resolution Scale-Dependent National Complexity Where Do Landscapes Start and End? Roman Villa Landscapes from the Perspective of Stone Recent Approaches to Villas, Villa Landscapes, and the Romano-British Countryside Taking a Different Approach to Landscape, Buildings, and Scale (and Identity) Villas, Villa Landscapes, and Stone on the Isle of Wight Building with Stone Brading Roman Villa Other Villa Sites on the Isle of Wight Villa Sites in Roman Britain More Broadly The Landscape in Villas on the Isle of Wight Finding Stone Extracting Stone Moving Stone Following Stone, Extending the Landscape Landscapes in Buildings; Buildings in Landscapes Discussion 10: Time Emphasizing Process, Relationships, and Nonlinear History Existing Considerations of Continuity and Change Continuity and Change in the Intertidal Zone on the Isle of Wight Intertidal Archaeology in England Intertidal Wooden Structures on the Isle of Wight Emphasizing Continuity Considering the Character of Continuity Emphasizing Change Woodland Practices Building Practices Summary Round Barrow Relationships across England Existing Interpretations of Later Activities at Round Barrows The Role of Round Barrows in Previous Discussions about Past People’s Historical Understandings Summary Investigating Round Barrow Relationships Case Study Areas Method Broad Patterns in Round Barrow Relationships Commonalities Is There Regionally Distinctive Patterning? Round Barrow Relationships and Time When History Mattered How (and If) Histories Aggregated Complicating Continuity and Coherence Discussion 11: Landscapes and Identities: Conclusions and Reflections Evidence Landscape Identity Appendix 1: RUSLE Model to Measure Soil Erosion Appendix 2: Methodology for Assessing the Morphological Structure of the Forty Field Systems Calculating The Number Of Clusters In Orientation, Their Strength, And Their Width Celestial Declination Bibliography Index