51ÁÔÆæÈë¿Ú

Abstract:

Abstract This chapter considers the implications of the evidence presented in Chapters 3–6. It concludes that the ‘long eighth century’ was a period of innovation in farming regimes that brought a new emphasis on surplus production. The tenth to early eleventh centuries saw the establishment of ‘proto-manorial’ settlement complexes alongside more widespread take-up of the mouldboard plough and systematic rotation, as well as a calibration of cropping regimes to local conditions. The mid-eleventh and twelfth centuries, when planned, ‘nucleated’ villages were established in many parts of the country, are not obviously associated with agricultural innovations but did see a ‘scaling up’ of production and increasing take-up of systematic rotation and the plough. The potential drivers of these developments—technological innovation, demographic change, local lordship, climate change, long-distance trade, etc.—are considered in relation to regional patterns. The conclusion revisits the question of whether there was a medieval ‘agricultural revolution’.

Abstract:

Abstract This chapter presents an analysis of pollen data collated from over fifty cores supplemented by new analyses to provide an overview of land use from the Roman period to the fourteenth century. Existing pollen studies show that much of England was already cleared of woodland by the late Roman period and that the post-Roman centuries saw relatively little woodland regeneration. A new method is presented that allows for a more focused investigation within these open landscapes to establish whether arable expanded or reduced relative to pasture and heath. This approach is used to trace regional changes in land use over time, with consideration of type of land cover, emphasis of land use (i.e. arable, pasture, mixed), strength of the land use signal, and diversity of key crops and weeds. The results allow several hypotheses to be tested, for example that the end of the Roman period saw a marked ‘abatement’ of cereal farming and that changes in farming regimes in some regions were driven by a shortage of pasture.

Abstract:

Abstract Chapter 1 examines the new forms of cereal farming that developed between c.AD 700 and 1300. These involved expanding the amount of land under cultivation and ultimately enabled landowners to amass wealth by exploiting the labour of others. Increases in agricultural outputs in the later part of the period are well documented, but the nature of the farming regimes that underpinned this growth are much debated. The lack of agreement regarding whether there was a period of ‘revolutionary’ change or a gradual process of ‘cerealization’, and how closely innovations like the mouldboard plough and systematic crop rotation were linked with each other and with field and village form, is explored. It is argued that new, direct evidence is needed and the range of bioarchaeological data now available is introduced. The ‘mouldboard plough package’ is introduced as a framing device, the regional and chronological frameworks used are introduced, and the structure of the volume is explained.

Abstract:

Abstract As in the rest of Europe, the population of medieval England grew steeply, especially between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. This volume investigates how medieval farmers managed to produce sufficiently large harvests to sustain this growth—which in turn fuelled a major expansion of towns and markets—and the impact of this ‘cerealisation’ on the landscape. It presents new evidence recovered from hundreds of archaeological excavations for the development of the medieval farming regimes that shaped the English landscape in ways still visible today. Medieval farming is a contentious topic, not least because of the different approaches taken by historians, archaeologists, and geographers. No consensus has been reached about the cultivation regimes that underpinned the remarkable increase in cereal production seen in this period. A large-scale analysis of the excavated remains of medieval crops, weeds, livestock, and pollen has generated new evidence using a range of science-based methods. The results reveal the conditions in which medieval crops were grown and the way in which land use changed between the late Roman period and the Black Death. The authors relate the results to archaeological and written evidence for farms and farming, bringing an ecological perspective to the debate about the so-called medieval agricultural revolution. The ‘cerealisation’ of England emerges as a regionally variegated process lasting several centuries, whose overall impact can nevertheless be described as ‘revolutionary’.

Abstract:

Abstract Systematic crop rotation, whereby farmers followed an agreed sequence of sowing and fallow, was a fundamental feature of medieval farming. A regular short fallow period enabled more land to be brought under the plough while the fallow field provided valuable grazing. A review of what written sources suggest about crop rotation is followed by a consideration of how archaeobotanical remains can be used to distinguish between crops grown in rotation, crops grown in separate fields, and mixed crops such as maslins. Analysis of arable weeds reveals evidence for seasonal sowing while the stable isotope signatures of medieval cereal grains are analysed to investigate the likelihood of systematic rotation. Increased uniformity of crop stable isotope values from the tenth century onwards, supported by evidence for seasonal sowing, indicates that this period saw the widespread adoption of systematic crop rotation.