The Landscape Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England

246 Pages·2010·95.735 MB·English

by  Nicholas J. Higham, Martin J. Ryan

Landscape
Archaeology
of anglo-saxon england
EditEd by
Nicholas J. Higham
and Martin J. Ryan
PUBLICATIONS OF
THE MANCHESTER CENTRE FOR ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
Volume 9
The Landscape Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England
Traditional opinion has perceived the Anglo-Saxons as creating an entirely
new landscape from scratch in the fifth and sixth centuries AD, cutting down
woodland, bringing with them the practice of open field agriculture, and estab-
lishing villages. Whilst recent scholarship has proved this simplistic picture
wanting, it has also raised many questions about the nature of landscape
development at the time, the changing character of systems of land manage-
ment, and strategies for settlement. The papers here seek to shed new light
on these complex issues. Taking a variety of different approaches, and with
topics ranging from the impact of coppicing to medieval field systems, from
the representation of the landscape in manuscripts to cereal production and
the type of bread the population preferred, they offer striking new approaches
to the central issues of landscape change across the seven centuries of Anglo-
Saxon England, a period surely foundational for today’s rural landscape.
PUBLICATIONS OF
THE MANCHESTER CENTRE FOR ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES
ISSN 1478–6710
Editorial Board
Donald Scragg
Richard Bailey
Timothy Graham
Nicholas J. Higham
Gale R. Owen-Crocker
Alexander Rumble
Leslie Webster
Published Titles
1. Textual and Material Culture in Anglo-Saxon England: Thomas Northcote
Toller and the Toller Memorial Lectures, ed. Donald Scragg
2. Apocryphal Texts and Traditions in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Kathryn Powell
and Donald Scragg
3. King Harold II and the Bayeux Tapestry, ed. Gale R. Owen-Crocker
4. The Place of the Cross in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Catherine E. Karkov,
Sarah Larratt Keefer and Karen Louise Jolly
5. Writing and Texts in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Alexander R. Rumble
6. Anglo-Saxon Royal Diplomas: A Palaeography, Susan D. Thompson
7. Britons in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Nicholas J. Higham
8. Edgar, King of the English 959–975: New Interpretations, ed. Donald Scragg
The Landscape Archaeology
of Anglo-Saxon England
edited by
NICHOLAS J. HIGHAM AND MARTIN J. RyAN

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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Contributors ix
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xii
1 The Landscape Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England: 1
An Introduction
Nick HigHam
2 Barriers to Knowledge: Coppicing and Landscape Usage in the 23
Anglo-Saxon Economy
cHristopHer grocock
3 Landscape Change during the ‘Long Eighth Century’ in Southern 39
England
stepHeN rippoN
4 Population Ecology and Multiple Estate Formation: the Evidence 65
from Eastern Kent
stuart Brookes
5 Exploring Black Holes: Recent Investigations in Currently Occupied 83
Rural Settlements in Eastern England
careNza Lewis
6 Medieval Field Systems and Settlement Nucleation: Common or 107
Separate Origins?
susaN oostHuizeN

7 The Environmental Contexts of Anglo-Saxon Settlement 133
tom wiLLiamsoN

8 Calendar Illustration in Anglo-Saxon England: Realities and Fictions 157
of the Anglo-Saxon Landscape
catHeriNe e. karkov
9 The Anglo-Saxon Plough: A Detail of the Wheels 169

DaviD HiLL
10 ‘In the Sweat of thy Brow Shalt thou eat Bread’: Cereals and Cereal 175
Production in the Anglo-Saxon Landscape

DeBBy BaNHam
11 The Early Christian Landscape of East Anglia 193
ricHarD Hoggett
12 The Landscape and Economy of the Anglo-Saxon Coast: New 211
Archaeological Evidence
peter murpHy
Index 223
Illustrations
Plates
II.1 Standing coppice at Henley, W. Sussex 24
II.2 Fence-building at Bede’s World, Jarrow 29
II.3 ‘Thirlings A’ under construction at Bede’s World, Jarrow 32
II.4 Reconstruction of Sparsholt Roman villa, Butser Ancient Farm 33
II.5 Replica of Grubenhaus at New Bewick under construction at 35
Bede’s World, Jarrow
VIII.1 Pruning vines (February) 160
VIII.2 Ploughing (January) 161
VIII.3 Hunting with birds (October) 164
VIII.4 a: Chopping wood (June); b: Reaping (June) 166
IX.1 Nineteenth-century Danish plough 172
XI.1 Burgh Castle looking west 198
XI.2 Tasburgh fort looking south 201
XI.3 Venta Icenorum looking north-east 205
XII.1 Anglo-Saxon fishtrap on the Stour estuary, Essex 220
Figures
3.1 The ‘central province’ of England 40
3.2 Roberts and Wrathmell’s model for the spread of villages and 42
open fields from the East Midlands to the rest of their ‘central
province’
3.3 Examples of major investments in landscape management and 46
estate centres dating to the ‘Middle Saxon’ period
4.1 The Anglo-Saxon estate centres and pays of eastern Kent 68

4.2 A comparison of burial and find-spot data 69
4.3 Prime-choice settlement, showing the relationship between early 70

estate centres and resource patches within their site exploitation
territories
4.4 Phases of estate centre development 73

4.5 Models of habitat selection 76
5.1 Location map of southern England showing the locations of the 86

CORS sites investigated by the HEFA project in East Anglia in
2005–08

5.2 East Anglia, showing the percentage of excavated test pits which 102
produced pottery of Anglo-Saxon (mid fifth to mid eleventh

century AD) date
5.3 East Anglia, showing the location of HEFA sites where pottery 104
of mid-fifth- to mid-ninth-century date has been recovered from
test pits within currently occupied settlements
5.4 East Anglia, showing the location of HEFA sites where pottery of 105
mid-ninth- to mid eleventh-century date has been recovered from
test pits within currently occupied settlements
6.1 England: nucleations in the mid-nineteenth century 109
6.2 England: aspects of field systems 110
6.3 England: the putative extent of open fields 111
7.1 The ‘central province’ of medieval England 134
7.2 Soils and terrain in and around the ‘central province’ 136
7.3 Domesday population and free tenures 138
7.4 The distribution of arable land use in c.1940 142
7.5 England’s three natural ‘provinces’ 146
7.6 ‘Anglian’ artefacts, cremation cemeteries and the ‘North Sea 148
Province’
7.7 Major Scandinavian place names, the principal ‘Viking’ 154
strongholds and the ‘North Sea Province’
9.1 Agricultural activities illustrated in the Bayeux Tapestry 170
9.2 Schematic illustration of the action of the plough 171
9.3 A light plough or ard 173
9.4 Light ploughs from eleventh-century manuscripts 173
10.1 Climate in the Middle Ages 181
11.1 Sites mentioned in the text 194
11.2 Mileham in 1814 208
Tables
2.1 Hazel usage at Bede’s World and possible land requirements 31
2.2 Coppiced material needed for reconstructing Building ‘Thirlings 34
A’ at Bede’s World
4.1 Distribution of burials in eastern Kent with respect to pays by 72
period
12.1 Radiocarbon determinations from fishtraps around the East 218
Anglian coast
Contributors
Debby Banham, University of Cambridge
Stuart Brookes, University of London
Christopher Grocock, independent scholar
Nick Higham, University of Manchester
David Hill, University of Manchester
Richard Hoggett, NAU Archaeology
Catherine E. Karkov, University of Leeds
Carenza Lewis, University of Cambridge
Peter Murphy, English Heritage
Susan Oosthuizen, University of Cambridge
Stephen Rippon, University of Exeter
Tom Williamson, University of East Anglia