The Fields of Britannia: continuity and change within the early medieval landscape
Rippon, S
Date: 15 November 2018
Book chapter
Publisher
Windgather Press / Oxbow
Abstract
This paper will explore what we can learn about the Roman to medieval transition through a major
synthesis of two datasets: pollen sequences that reflect broad patterns in land-use, and the relationship
between excavated Romano-British and medieval field systems. Marked regional and temporal
variations are found across the whole of ...
This paper will explore what we can learn about the Roman to medieval transition through a major
synthesis of two datasets: pollen sequences that reflect broad patterns in land-use, and the relationship
between excavated Romano-British and medieval field systems. Marked regional and temporal
variations are found across the whole of Roman Britain, with some regions showing greater continuity
than others. In lowland areas most of this variation will reflect the different ways in which
communities responded to the changing socio-economic circumstances that followed Britain ceasing
to be part of the Roman Empire, although climate change may have been significant in upland areas.
Where there are identifiable discontinuities between Romano-British and medieval landscapes the
crucial change may not have come at the end of the Roman period but several centuries later when an
intensification of agriculture was seen across much of southern Britain around the 8th century.
Archaeology and History
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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