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

497 Pages·2021·12.575 MB·English

by  Chris Gosden, Chris Green, Anwen Cooper, Miranda Creswell, Victoria Donnelly, Tyler Franconi, Roger Glyde, Zena Kamash, Sarah Mallet

OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
English Landscapes and Identities
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
English Landscapes
and Identities
Investigating Landscape Change
from 1500 bc to ad 1086
EngLaId Team
ANWEN COOPER, MIRANDA CRESWELL,
VICTORIA DONNELLY, TYLER FRANCONI,
ROGER GLYDE, CHRIS GOSDEN, CHRIS GREEN,
ZENA KAMASH, SARAH MALLET, LAURA MORLEY,
DANIEL STANSBIE, AND LETTY TEN HARKEL
1
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Anwen Cooper, Miranda Creswell, Victoria Donnelly, Tyler Franconi,
Roger Glyde, Chris Gosden, Chris Green, Zena Kamash, Sarah Mallet,
Laura Morley, Daniel Stansbie, and Letty ten Harkel 2021
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2021
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020947354
ISBN 978–0–19–887062–3
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198870623.001.0001
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
Preface and Acknowledgements
The English Landscapes and Identities project (known hereafter by its acronym EngLaId)
was a five-year project which ran between 1st August 2011 and 31st July 2016. It was funded
by an ERC Advanced Grant (269797) awarded to Chris Gosden and we are very happy to
acknowledge the support of the European Research Council. The researchers on the project
were Chris Gosden (principal applicant), Anwen Cooper (prehistory), Miranda Creswell
(artist), Tyler Franconi (Roman period), Chris Green (GIS), Letty ten Harkel (early medi-
eval), Zena Kamash (Roman period), and Laura Morley (research coordination). The pro-
ject looked at the long-term history of the English landscape from 1500 bc to ad 1086,
combining evidence on landscape features, such as track-ways, fields, and settlements, with
the distribution of metalwork. The project examined a crucial period of English landscape
history from the start of the settled agricultural landscape to the medieval world, which
was directly ancestral to that of modernity. Working from the Bronze Age to the early
medieval period revealed great evidence of change, but also surprising continuity in terms
of land divisions and forms of settlement. We were also interested in how this patterning
relates to the types of artefacts deposited and the places in which they were deposited over
this period. The project was not purely empirical and attempted to develop theory con-
cerning the relations between people and the material world.
The project attempted to synthesise all the major available data sets from English archae-
ology within a digital environment, making this a ‘Big Data’ project, eventually creating a
database of over 900,000 items. Three doctoral students joined the project in October 2012.
Victoria Donnelly examined the ‘grey literature’ from England since 1990 and through this
the practices of archaeology after PPG 16. Sarah Mallet gathered together and analysed the
major sets of isotopic data from humans, animals, and plants across England for the
EngLaId periods. Daniel Stansbie tackled the topic of food and attempted to pull together
evidence from pottery, animal bones, and plant remains for the Thames Valley and Kent for
the EngLaId periods. Each submitted and defended their theses. Roger Glyde was an
important member of the team throughout, carrying out a range of empirical work, as well
as commenting on, and contributing to, the written results. We feel that the project has
been productive, but it has also been really enjoyable, with the team forming a close group
within which people worked and socialized.
More information is given on the background to the project, our sources of data, and
modes of analysis in Chapters 1–3, together with an outline of this volume. Here we simply
provide a broad timetable of the project. As mentioned, the team started work in August
2011, although not everyone was able to join until January 2012 due to prior commitments.
Zena Kamash was offered a lectureship in 2014, left the project, and was replaced by Tyler
Franconi as the Roman specialist. The data-gathering phase of the project lasted until May
2013 and we were able to properly start analysis after that. The last year of the project was
spent writing up.
We are grateful to an enormous number of people and we hope we have not missed too
many out. The earliest phase of the project gathered data. We are very grateful to numerous
people in what was then English Heritage (and now Historic England (EH)) for the provi-
sion of data, including Simon Crutchley, Peter Horne, Lindsay Jones, Martin Newman, and
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
vi Preface and Acknowledgements
Barney Sloane, as well as Nick Davies, Gill Grayson, Sarah Maclean, David McOmish,
Sarah Poppy, and Poppy Starkie. The Portable Antiquity Scheme (PAS) was the main source
of data on artefacts and we would like to thank Roger Bland, Michael Lewis, Sam Moorhead,
Stephen Moon, Mary Chester-Cadwell, and Dan Pett. Catherine Hardman and Stuart
Jeffrey of the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) gave us important advice on the relevant
archives held by the ADS. Tim Evans (ADS) steered us towards the Excavation Index and
provided considerable advice. We also benefitted from advice and information from a
number of Finds Liaison Officers, including Frank Basford (Isle of Wight) and Tom Brindle.
Ehren Milner at the Archaeological Investigations Project (AIP) was an important source
of data and advice.
Our main source of data came from local archaeological officers. We would like to thank
all Historic Environment Record (HER) officers who provided us with data. These include
Christine Addison, Northamptonshire HER; Sarah Botfield, Peterborough HER; Stewart
Bryant, Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers (ALGAO); Giles Carey,
Shropshire HER; Jo Caruth, Suffolk HER; Rebecca Casa-Hatton, Peterborough HER; Sally
Croft, Cambridgeshire HER; Ben Croxford, Kent HER; Phillip de Jersey, States of Guernsey;
Lucie Dingwall, Herefordshire HER; Keith Elliott, Northumberland HER; Heather
Hamilton, Norfolk HER; Mike Hemblade, North Lincolnshire HER; Richard Hoggett,
Suffolk HER; Rebecca Loader, Isle of Wight HER; Fiona Maconald, ALGAO; Colin
Pendleton, Suffolk HER; Guy Salkeld, National Trust; Melissa Seddon, Herefordshire HER;
Graham Tait, ALGAO; Bryn Tapper, Emma Trevarthen, Jacky Nowakowski, and Andrew
Young, Cornwall and Scilly HER; Ben Wallace, ALGAO; Penny Ward, Shropshire HER;
Chris Webster, Somerset HER; Liz Williams, Northumberland HER; and Alison Yardy,
Norfolk HER. Keith Westcott at exeGesIS SDM Ltd helped develop a query which could
extract data from the HBSMR database system used by more than half of HERs.
In the middle stages of the project a great number of people gave us advice and shared
their knowledge of local archaeology or the situation across the country more broadly.
These include Martin Allen, Fitzwilliam Museum; John Baker, Stuart Brookes for medieval
data and discussions; Chris Evans for advice and critique; Graham Fairclough gave us
information on Historic Landscape Characterisation and other matters; Duncan Garrow
linked to the Celtic art database and gave advice on other matters; Ian Leins gave advice on
coinage; Katie Robbins shared her thoughts on modelling PAS data; Iona Robinson for
sharing unpublished material; Sarah Semple for general advice on the medieval period; Sue
Stallibrass for suggestions on how to incorporate environmental data; Fraser Sturt,
Southampton University, provided his modelling of sea levels; Pete Topping for general
thoughts and advice; Clive Waddington for sharing his knowledge of the northeast;
Philippa Walton for advice on Roman finds; and Ole Wiedenmann, History Data Service,
provided information on historic parishes and place names.
In Oxford, Jane Kershaw helped during the initial setting-up phase, John Pouncett and
Gary Lock provided advice on digital and other matters. Janice Kinory provided her data-
base of salt-making sites and Lisa Lodwick advised on plant remains and agricultural
regimes. Steve Hick and Jeremy Worth gave us financial and IT support, respectively. Chris
Gosden would like to thank Elizabeth Allen for organizing so much. We ran two successful
workshops and a conference. We are very grateful to all speakers, chairs, discussants, and
audience participants. We were assisted by volunteers who processed various forms of data
and provided informed discussion. We are grateful to Pat Day, Pam England, Paula Levick,
and Steve Northcott. Roger Glyde started as a volunteer and ended up a core member of
the team.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
Preface and Acknowledgements vii
We are particularly grateful to our academic advisory committee—John Blair, Richard
Bradley, Barry Cunliffe, Mike Fulford, Helena Hamerow, Mark Pollard, Jeremy Taylor, and
Roger Thomas—for regular advice and guidance. Roger Thomas made detailed and helpful
criticisms of the text. We are also grateful to members of the Roman Rural Settlement pro-
ject for regular contact, discussions, and a sight of their first volume prior to publication,
and they include Mike Fulford, Neil Holbrook, Martyn Allen, Tom Brindle, Lisa Lodwick,
and Alex Smith.
Miranda Creswell ran a series of successful art projects in a variety of venues and com-
munities. These resulted in an exhibition, ‘Didcot Dog Mile’, of Miranda’s own work, as well
as that of local artists and archaeologists, at the Cornerstone Arts Centre, Didcot. Important
participants were Wendy Botto and Karen Leahy (from the local community), Kate
Woodley (from Oxford Archaeology), and Miranda Creswell, Letty ten Harkell, Chris
Green, Zena Kamash, and Anwen Cooper (from EngLaId). Miranda Creswell, together
with members of the team, undertook a project focused around ‘Horatio’s Garden’ at the
Salisbury Spinal Unit, allowing people who find it hard to access the landscape to gain
knowledge of it. Miranda has produced her own art in Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire,
Devon, Hampshire, Northumbria, Norfolk, Buckinghamshire, Nottinghamshire, and
Oxfordshire, often in more than one location and is grateful to a range of people in those
places. Miranda and Laura Morley developed a project on the River Mersey engaging two
schools on either side of the river, St. Saviour’s Primary School, Birkenhead and St.
Christopher’s Primary School, Speke. We would like to thank staff and students of both
schools and Kathy Heywood of the Williamson Art Gallery where the artwork from this
project was displayed. More generally Miranda would like to thank Sarah Mossop and
Tamarin Norwood of Modern Art Oxford, Alice Oswald for discussions on Dartmoor and
other landscapes, as well as Helen Wickstead for thoughts on drawing and archaeology.
We are very grateful to three anonymous readers who made extensive and positively
critical comments which have helped us improve this manuscript. First Charlotte Loveridge
and then Karen Raith have been our commissioning editors at Oxford University Press and
we are very grateful to both of them for shepherding a tricky manuscript through the pro-
cess of publication. Jenny King, our editor at OUP oversaw the production process with
efficiency and grace. Ethiraju Saraswathi ensured the production process went smoothly.
We are very grateful to Charles Lauder for superb copy editing.
This volume is one of two outputs of the project, the other being a GIS website contain-
ing a simplified version of the main project database available at the time of publication:
http://englaid.arch.ox.ac.uk
The chapters in this volume feature different sets of authors from the project team,
reflecting those who participated extensively in the writing of those particular chapters.
However, the content of all chapters was discussed widely across the team and minor con-
tributions were made to various pieces of work by members of the team not necessarily
named as chapter authors.
The maps in this volume contain Ordnance Survey (OS) Open Data © Crown Copyright
and Database Right 2012.
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
OUP CORRECTED AUTOPAGEPROOF – FINAL, 06/02/21, SPi
Contents
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xxiii
List of Abbreviations xxv
1. Introduction 1
Chris Gosden, Tyler Franconi, and Letty ten Harkel
I. THE CREATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA,
THE MAKING OF OUR DATABASE, AND THE
FORM OF OUR ANALYSES
2. Characterful Data: Its Character and Capacities 29
Anwen Cooper, Victoria Donnelly, Chris Green, and Letty ten Harkel
3. Patterns in the Data across England 55
Letty ten Harkel, Anwen Cooper, Victoria Donnelly, Chris Gosden,
Chris Green, Tyler Franconi, and Laura Morley
II. THE EXPLORATION OF BROADER PATTERNS
4. Long-Term Interactions between Society and Ecology 107
Tyler Franconi and Chris Gosden
5. Movement 149
Tyler Franconi and Chris Green
6. Substances and Cycles 183
Sarah Mallet and Dan Stansbie
7. Field Systems, Orientation, and Cosmology 218
Chris Green and Chris Gosden
8. Identity, Naming, and Division 257
Letty ten Harkel and Chris Gosden
III. UNDERSTANDING REGIONAL AND
LOCAL VARIABILITY
9. Scale 301
Anwen Cooper, Chris Green, and Chris Gosden
10. Time 348
Anwen Cooper, Chris Green, and Laura Morley