The Fields of Britannia: continuity and change within the early medieval landscape

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 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.