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The subject of this work is the archaeology of exploitation of woodland on and around Exmoor, in south-west England. It fits into the existing body of research at three levels. Firstly, it attempts to analyse patterns of woodland management over a large area. In this respect, it forms part of a modern trend, with many writers on woodland now recognising the need to move away from histories of individual woods and adopt a wider perspective. Secondly, the area studied in this research is an upland and its fringes, with a dispersed settlement pattern, which is an environment of a type still under-represented in work on landscape development. In particular, work on woodland has, until recent years, tended to focus on the southern, eastern and central lowlands of England, which may have more centralised patterns of settlement. Thirdly, the geographical area selected for study, Exmoor and its fringes, saw relatively little sustained scholarly work until the 1990s, in comparison to other uplands of the south-west, and knowledge of its past land use has consequently been extremely limited. Perceptions of its woodland have been conditioned by the need to collect data for management purposes, generating a series of surveys and assessments carried out from the mid-1990s.The results of these surveys, which recorded a high level of archaeological features relating to woodland management, indicate that further progress can now be made by analysing and interpreting the data. The period covered by this research runs from the date of Domesday Book (1086) to the early 19th century.

This study investigates the nation and nationalism, national ideology, and national identity in Ireland during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The study aims to explore whether such terms as "nation "or "nationalism " may be applied to medieval Ireland. While many historians and sociologists argue that the nation may exist only in the modern world with the advent of the nation-state, others have shown that, at least, ethnic groups which appear to be nations existed in medieval Europe, possibly in antiquity. In Ireland, historiographical issues related to the creation of the modern Irish state in the early twentieth century have always guided the study of the nation and nationalism. The central questions addressed include whether there are observable manifestations of a nation, national identity, and ethnically-based ideology in Gaelic Ireland in the years 1200-1400, and the extent to which those manifestations may accurately be described in national terms. In this study, the nation shall be defined as a population sharing an ethnic history, tradition, language, and/or religion, and this population's connection with a particular, definable geographic region. In addition, this identity will be shown as often conflicting with the self-ascribed identity of another population sharing the same or neighboring geographic space. Hence, examples of a nation found in medieval Ireland will embody the double characteristics of being a means of self-identity for the Irish and of self-distinction from the Anglo-Normans.

This study takes as its subject a striking image found in fifteenth-century churches, paintings whose purpose is to warn the faithful of the consequences of working on Sundays. This detailed study of pictures of Christ, surrounded and wounded by the tools of everyday trades used on holy days, offers an in-depth exploration of a theologically complex subject. It illuminates many aspects of the functioning of late medieval devotion and the active role imagery could play in the formation and practice of devotional morality and communal identity. The medium of wall painting receives overdue attention as an arena of medieval artistic production and is shown to be the site of pictorial innovation and parochial expression.

The effect of ploughing on stratigraphy and on artefacts spread over the surface is explored in this much-needed book. Agricultural engineering literature and the analysis of three experimental datasets have been used to produce a computer simulation of the effect of ploughing on the distribution of portable objects (not on architectural remains). How much of the original patterning on archaeological sites has been destroyed, and how much survives? Can tillage-induced changes in surface patterns be 'cancelled out' by identifying their effects? This closely argued book suggests answers.

Black Horse Farm is situated on the Cambridgeshire fen-edge. During the Iron Age and early Romano-British period it occupied a low promontory reaching out into the surrounding wetland. This volume describes the archaeological excavation of the site and the Iron Age settlement and Romano-British activity that was recorded there. The wetland of the fen would have been a prominent part of everyday life at Black Horse Farm and the book examines the way in which the site's inhabitants utilised and exploited it. Fluctuations between dry and damp conditions were also a prominent aspect of life at this marginal location and the later sections examine how the population responded to these conditions. The book examines themes including the organisation of space within the roundhouse, the role of ditches and banks as flood defences versus their social and defensive function, and offers alternative interpretations for some commonly observed features at contemporary sites.With contributions by Beta Analytic Inc., Jane Cowgill, Nina Crummy, Julia E. Cussans, Val Fryer, Andrew Peachey, Ruth Pelling, Carina Phillips, Rob Scaife and Maisie TaylorIllustrations by Kathren Henry, Charlotte Davies and Caroline George

This publication began as an AHRC-funded doctoral thesis, 'Links to Late Antiquity: Understanding Contacts on the Western Seaboard in the 5th to 7th Centuries', completed at Newcastle University in 2016. This revised version presents a broad-scale discussion of the evidence for contacts and connections in the Atlantic Seaboard region, based principally on ceramics. It extends knowledge of a category of material with a long history of scholarship in Britain and Ireland: amphorae and fineware vessels of East Mediterranean origin. The presence of this imported pottery at sites in western Britain, such as Tintagel in Cornwall, has frequently been used to suggest direct links between post-Roman Britain and the Byzantine World. This work offers an alternative position - that the wares reflect active and evolving networks of trans-shipment and exchange operating in the Atlantic Seaboard region between the fifth and seventh century. This first examination of parallel French, Spanish and Portuguese publications provides a fresh perspective on this important group of artefacts for understanding early medieval Britain.

This work is a contribution to the body of 'new' landscape history drawing on a range of sources from archives, such as documents and maps, from archaeological excavation and from field survey in relation to the Doncaster district of South Yorkshire (UK). Rather than a focus on well-known national examples this study follows the lead established by authors whose studies examine developments in large-scale ornamental landscapes within a distinct geographical region. By taking a regional perspective, a systematic approach to survey can be adopted which enables coverage of sites throughout the social strata of the land-owning classes. Furthermore it allows parity in terms of any vernacular idiosyncrasies in social structure, economy and geography, which a countrywide survey would not allow. Following the introduction, the second chapter sets out these landscapes and the people who created them. This is done initially on a national scale, but then becomes focussed on the regional context in which the study sites are situated. The third chapter defines the methodology and the scale of analysis by which this survey is undertaken. The survey then uses four sites of the gentry as detailed case studies to examine the development of large-scale ornamental landscapes in the period c.1680-c.1840, placing them within a local and national framework. The chapters on context and the primary survey sites are elucidated with reference to a gazetteer of 57 survey sites within the study district. By using this device, which is included as an appendix to this work, a systematic approach to the study of designed landscapes within a regional context can be adopted. Furthermore, the gazetteer is intended to provide a resource for researchers wishing to undertake further investigation into the ornamental landscapes of the Doncaster area. In the final chapter comparisons are drawn between the development of designed landscapes, in a regional context, in relation to the models provided by art historical and contextual texts on the subject.

This volume, on a delightful area within sight of the towers and spires of central Oxford, is the result of 25 years work by the author. It began as a desk study which generated sufficient interest for the author to work on a base-line botanical survey of Port Meadow with Wolvercote Common, ancient pasture, and to contrast it with a similar survey of Picksey Mead, ancient hay-meadow. The historical research was extended to look at the history of the management of both these flood-plain areas in order to understand something of the differences in their species-composition and to enable the author to relate them to their past management. The pioneering environmental archaeology undertaken in the area is now an authoritative discipline and the ground-breaking use of a multi-disciplinary approach to grassland studies is at last being recognised by Natural England and others as an essential element in management plans for Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Since the early 1980s grants have been available for increasingly in-depth studies of a single topic. The publication of this volume represents a change of view in which multi-disciplinary studies, especially those relating to the history of man and the landscape he has influenced are recognized for the breadth of vision which is their strength. The description of the vegetation has proved invaluable when working with English Nature (now Natural England) over the intervening years as it provided a base-line from which natural and man-made changes in the vegetation could be measured. In particular, the description of Port Meadow Marsh was vital in connection with the study of Apium repens carried out by the Rare Plants Group of the Ashmolean Natural History Society of Oxfordshire for English Nature from 1996-2006. The author has brought the descriptions of the various communities into line with the relevant volumes of John Rodwell's British Plant Communities. The historical sections of the work have also stood the test of time and have been brought up to date where necessary and incorporated into this new volume. With the current interest in flood-alleviation plans for West Oxford, which include the possibility of constructing new channels associated with overflow areas within the river Thames flood-plain above Oxford, which could affect the hydrology and therefore the vegetation of these ancient pastures and meads, publication of this work is timely.

The Beazley Archive Studies in Gems and Jewellery VDr. Julia Kagan, Curator of post-Classical engraved gems in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, has devoted a lifetime of scholarship to the study of gem-engraving in Britain, in part inspired by the English Brown brothers who carved gems for Catherine the Great during the 18th century. The many articles she published in the 1960s and 1970s covering various aspects of the history of glyptics in Great Britain and the formation of the Hermitage's collection of British gems, an earlier dissertation which originally formed the basis of this book, and the attached catalogue, comprise a suitable tribute to the immense richness and diversity of gem engraving in Britain from Antiquity to the present. This comprehensive study includes a catalogue of the British engraved gems in The State Hermitage Museum, appendices of archive documents, and a table of British engravers.Translated (from Russian) by Catherine Phillips.Objects photographed by Leonard Heifitz, Svetlana Suetova and Leonid Volkov.

This book presents the author's digitization of Pirie's substantial yet flawed corpus of 9th-century Northumbrian 'stycas'. This database, enhanced by data from elsewhere, is compared by location with the artefactual database known as VASLE (created at the University of York, 2008) to demonstrate that the co-occurrence of coins and portable artefacts defines monetary evolution in Northumbria. Additionally, the author presents a new periodization and reveals the previously disparaged gold shillings of York to have been issued by Bishop Paulinus, a disruptive finding chronologically, with wider consequences. Northumbria benefited increasingly, both monetarily and fiscally, as the face value of coins fell. Other conclusions include the idea that Northumbrian coin production was erratic; that the Yorkshire Wolds were more highly monetized than the surrounding lowlands, indicating a more enterprising culture; that styca hoards represent episcopal expropriations; and that there were significant changes in settlement and economy in the central lowlands. This work demonstrates that monetization reflected northern independence, innovation and enterprise.

Ragstone to Riches tells the story of the huge Roman metalla extractive industries of the south east of the province of Britannia. These provided much of the iron to equip the military there, and ragstone to facilitate the construction of the built environment in the region during the occupation, through to the middle of the 3rd century AD. In the former case this was the Wealden iron industry, which, especially to the north of Hastings, featured sites as large as any industrial enterprise today. Meanwhile, regarding the upper Medway Valley ragstone quarrying industry, the work identifies for the first time the five specific quarries which provided the material to build Roman London. For both, the author also explores the role played by the military in running these enormous metalla enterprises.

This book presents the results of excavation and analysis of technological remains from the Devon village of Hemyock, on the north-west side of the Blackdown Hills. The first major subject covered is an examination of early medieval iron technology including the largest group of C14-dated furnaces of the late 9th to early 10th centuries in Britain, which has afforded a re-examination and modelling of all other dated examples in the UK, and a review of technological change in iron production. The second major element to this volume is the study of a later major pottery production centre, dated c. 1500-1550, using a combination of microscopic and macroscopic petrology, ICP-MS and QEMSCAN in novel analysis of over 50,000 sherds. The final chapter considers evidence for the contemporary landscape context of and historical framework behind these industries, the relationship with extraction sites, and the wider environmental impacts that they had.

This book interprets the exploitation of marine resources and the organisation of their uses during later prehistory in the Western Isles of Scotland. Particular attention is focused on the analysis of the fish, molluscan and cetacean remains recovered during the excavation of a settlement at Bostadh Beach in Great Bernera, Lewis. A key objective is the reconstruction of regional fishing practices particularly during the Iron Age and Norse periods. Five aspects of research are considered: fish biology, modern fisheries, ancient fisheries, taphonomy and ethnography. The role of fishing during the Iron Age and Norse periods around the Hebridean Islands is assessed, in terms of economic, social and technological factors. Fish biology and taphonomy provided the necessary association between modern and ancient fishing traditions. Taphonomy and ethnographical studies also linked past and present and allowed a more solidly based reconstruction of the islands' fishing industry through time. The combination of archaeological faunal analysis and ethnoarchaeological approaches provides data for understanding the character of fishing practices in the later prehistory of Great Bernera and other nearby Hebridean Isles.

This volume emerged from a conference held in Glasgow in October 2001, organised by Scottish Archaeological Forum. The study of cultural landscapes is growing increasingly more sophisticated in terms of technology and method, but also in terms of the conceptual approaches and theoretical frameworks applied to that study. At the same time, landscape as a modern construct is becoming ever more complex, even contentious: who owns and manages land, for what purposes and to whose benefit? what defines wild land, how 'wild' were our landscapes in antiquity and to what extent should this perceived wildness be preserved? In Scotland, in particular, issues of land reform have come to the fore in recent years, with crofters contesting the right to buy land and the recent establishment of the first national parks. Needs for economic sustainability are often at odds with the interests of heritage management and conservation. The 15 contributions to this volume are divided into four sections: Landscapes, Seascapes, The Management of Landscapes, and Approaches to Interpretation. The first two sections showcase particular studies of archaeological landscapes and seascapes from a variety of perspectives, although a number of common themes emerge from the diverse studies.

Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit - Monograph Series 6This volume presents the results from two excavations in the extra-mural area of Roman Godmanchester. Excavation at the Parks, to the north of the Roman town, was undertaken during 1998 in advance of a housing development, providing an opportunity to examine a large area flanking a Roman road. Important evidence for early Romano-British land-division and pottery production, mainly in the 2nd to 3rd centuries, was recorded. The most significant discovery was of a cemetery, probably dating to the 4th century, containing 62 largely well-preserved individuals. Excavation at London Road, to the south of Roman Godmanchester, was undertaken in two stages during 1997 and 1998, in advance of a school development, and investigated an area to the rear of the Ermine Street frontage. In addition to evidence of early-prehistoric activity, the excavation identified a sequence of Romano-British ditch-defined enclosures, a timber-framed building, and evidence for industrial activity and livestock herding or ranching. The results of other, smaller-scale investigations, at Chord Business Park, to the south of the Roman town, and at West Street, within the Roman town, are also summarised.

The three Iron Age and Romano-British sites presented in this volume demonstrate the implementation of the structured approach to developer-funded contracts promoted by PPG16. Investigation proceeded from desk top study with air-photo analysis, geophysical examination and fieldwalking, to intrusive evaluation and, finally, excavation. These processes are now commonplace, but in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the sites under discussion in this book were being investigated, they were new and even controversial. Many regarded this new 'business-based' approach to funding and negotiation (under PPG16 rules) with some distaste and even hostility. Nevertheless, they soon came to adopt at least some of the new practices and began to undertake developer-funded contracts. The volume reviews the story behind this development.With contributions by Paul Booth, Robert Bourn, M. Charles, Phil Collins, Barbara Davies, John Davies, Daryl Garton, J. F. Hamshaw-Thomas, Jonathan R. Hunn, David Jordan, Alison Locker, Rajka Makjanic, Graeham Mounteney, James Rackham, Jane Sandoe, James Symonds, P. Wagner and Angela Wardle

A wide-ranging study covering the significance of the Lower Palaeolithic lithic tool traditions usually referred to as Early, Middle and Late Acheulian and Clactonian. The work (concentrating on selected sites from the Upper and Middle Thames Valley) includes sections devoted to the interpretation of significant patterns of artefact manufacture and use and the question of the procurement and economic use of lithic raw material. Special emphasis is given to lithic styles and technology, recurrent morphological patterns within stone tool assemblages, and the effect of the varying distances between occupation sites and the lithic raw material sources.

This book gives a new account of society and social change in the upper and middle Thames Valley from the Late Bronze Age to Middle Iron Age, 1150-100 BC. A model is developed from social anthropological case studies setting out expectations on how societies are structured based on certain material manifestations. Patterns are found within the wide range of types of evidence that are integrated and synthesised. This includes settlements, house forms, metalwork, pottery, human and animal remains, monuments, landscape boundaries and special deposits.The main interpretation offered is that Late Bronze Age societies were fluid and unstructured by either social status differences or lineage identities, whereas Early Iron Age communities were more concerned with ancestral genealogy and inter-generational inheritance. By the Middle Iron Age, communal aspects of ritual practice and material practice were largely replaced by local and household concerns in which smaller groups displayed increasing autonomy from each other.

This work was inspired by research undertaken during a field survey of the later prehistoric remains of north-east Somerset (SW England) which showed that there were many cropmark sites of which little was known. The value of this evidence for the interpretation of prehistoric landscapes has been highlighted by a number of reports in recent decades. Across the country these surveys have added new dimensions to our understanding of prehistoric settlement patterns and the central role of aerial survey in elucidating these lost landscapes. The Bristol Avon Region had not previously been a primary research objective, as it lies outside the main concentration of known cropmarks. By collating the evidence from aerial photographs alongside that for previously recorded earthworks and excavations, then earlier hypotheses about this later prehistoric landscape could be re-evaluated. By taking the watershed of the Bristol Avon River as a whole it was hoped that regional differences in settlement morphology could also be identified to test these earlier hypotheses.

Based on her Doctoral research, Katherine Giles's study focuses on the physical structure and spatial arrangement of medieval guildhalls.

Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, this work presents an integration of osteological and historical evidence to examine the detrimental impact of the workhouse on inmates in nineteenth-century London and to assess whether the 1834 change to the English Poor Laws led to deterioration in health. Due to the new legalities of the New Poor Laws, reformers sought to create a nationalised system of welfare, which culminated in the establishment of the Union workhouse. All aspects of daily life were influenced within the institution, in an attempt to instil the 'virtues of the independent labourer'. It is hypothesised that the effects of the New Poor law would have exposed inmates to episodes of dietary deficiencies and infectious disease, detectable in the osteological record. This was investigated utilising published osteological data for five Post-Medieval London cemeteries and four associated historical registers of burials.

In the Middle Ages, Great Yarmouth was a town of considerable economic and strategic significance; in 1334, it ranked fourth in English provincial towns in its wealth. This work examines in detail the construction and, more especially, material composition of the Great Yarmouth town walls.

Ptolemy's second century geography is the main source traditionally used when dividing pre-Roman Britain into tribal areas. In it he describes the Durotriges as inhabiting Dorset and parts of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.

This monograph set out to reveal what an essentially geological analysis could tell about the churches and Nonconformist chapels that appeared so abundantly in the county of Berkshire, England, between the late eighteenth century and the First World War. In an attempt to understand the geological evidence, however, the work inevitably strays into other fields.

Megalithic tombs in Orkney have yielded some of the largest volumes of human remains in Neolithic Britain. However, discrete skeletons are lacking; the researcher is often presented with formidable volumes of disarticulated and comingled remains. Themes of transformation, fragmentation and manipulation of the body permeate the literature, conferring on the megalithic structures significance as places of transition. Previously, the inherent complexity of the remains has made them an unattractive proposition for detailed study. However, advances in taphonomic analysis mean that techniques now exist for approaching such complex assemblages. A study has now been successfully carried out on the Orcadian remains, uncovering the wealth of new data presented in this volume. This data draws attention to subtle variations in funerary ritual between and within the tombs, and pushes for a dramatic reconsideration of our current understanding of the practices and cosmologies associated with these enigmatic structures.

Towards the end of the 20th century, sand and gravel extraction in the Middle Trent moved from the higher terrace gravels down onto the wide floodplain zone. The lower Hemington terrace gravels presented waterlogged conditions with excellent preservation of riverine structures, organic artefacts and ecofacts. One of the first discoveries occurred at Hemington Quarry in 1985: a 12th century mill dam and vertical water mill. An ongoing watching brief recorded many riverine structures and culminated in the discovery of three medieval bridges. The present book describes the discoveries from 1998 to 2000 of numerous medieval riverine structures. Three fish weir complexes of the late 7th-12th centuries produced rare evidence for the capture of migrating silver eels. A 12th-century mill dam was later reused as a basket fishery. A series of stone and timber bank-side structures of the 14th century reflect a change in fishing technology: the cribs were used to manage the river and provide river conditions suitable for net fishing.With contributions by Matt Beamish, Jennifer Browning, Nicholas J. Cooper, Robert Howard, Patrick Marsden, Angela Monckton, Anita Radini and Deborah Sawday

Birmingham Archaeology Monograph Series 7This report describes the results of an archaeological programme undertaken by Birmingham Archaeology between 2005 and 2007 at King's Norton, Birmingham, for King's Norton Parochial Church Council. It also incorporates the documentary research conducted independently by George Demidowicz and Stephen Price, concentrating on tenurial history, the history of repairs, historic images and the wider village landscape. The work was largely associated with the restoration of two buildings adjacent to the parish churchyard in the centre of the former village, both of which contain substantial 15th-century timber-framed elements. The Old Grammar School and the Saracen's Head were the winners of the BBC Restoration programme competition in 2004, an event that facilitated the restoration aims of the PCC by precipitating access to Heritage Lottery Fund support. The finds included a large assemblage of pottery from the earlier and later medieval periods, as well as a number of Roman sherds. Several medieval clay roof tiles were represented, and there was a small collection of glazed floor tiles apparently contemporary with the Saracen's Head, some of which appear to have been in situ when recovered. Such an array of evidence for medieval occupation was not replicated during the excavation at No. 86 on the opposite side of The Green, where nothing that was definitely earlier than the 16th century was recorded or recovered. Although the site was close to or within the important medieval Prior's Court complex, the paucity of the archaeology may be related to the limited size of the excavation combined with the severe truncation of the site. It was fortunate that documentary evidence was able to provide an historical context to interpret the slim findings.Written by Malcolm Hislop, George Demidowicz and Stephen Price.With contributions by Robert Burrows, Mark Charles, Kevin Colls, Mary Duncan, Christopher Hewitson, David Higgins, Matilda Holmes, Rob Ixer, Phil Mills, Nicholas Molyneux, Natasha Powers, Stephanie Rátkai, Jennie Stopford, Ric Tyler and Meg Watters. Illustrations by Nigel Dodds, Helen Moulden, Bryony Ryder and Ric Tyler.

Birmingham Archaeology Monograph Series 4Areas adjoining Ryknild Street, King's Norton, Birmingham (England) were investigated between 2002 and 2007. The fieldwork was undertaken by Birmingham Archaeology on instruction from Birmingham City Council in advance of a new cemetery development. It comprised geophysical survey, trial-trenching, area excavation, watching brief and salvage recording.Written by Alex Jones, Bob Burrows, C. Jane Evans, Annette Hancocks and Josh Williams.With contributions from Emily Bird, Erica Macey-Bracken, Val Fryer, Pam Grinter, Kay Hartley, John Halsted, Rob Ixer, Paul Mason, Jane Timby, Felicity Wild and Steven Willis.Illustrations by Nigel Dodds and Bryony Ryder.

Archaeological works conducted during construction of the Chalgrove to East Ilsley gas pipeline identified two large and thirty-two small sites. These were predominantly late prehistoric in date, with Iron Age deposits being the most abundant. A small amount of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity was recorded, and a single Saxon site was found. Very little Roman activity was encountered outside the two main sites. No medieval and only one postmedieval site was encountered, although many undated ditches and pits recorded during the watching brief were probably from these periods. The largest archaeological site encompassed three or four separate settlement areas. The second largest site appears to have been a single enclosed settlement, probably a farmstead, established in the early Iron Age and occupied until the early Roman period. The watching brief located sixteen datable smaller sites and a further sixteen sites containing only undateable features. The earliest features discovered were two early Neolithic pits. An earlier Bronze Age burial, probably a barrow, was found. The Roman road from Dorchester-on-Thames to Silchester was located. A single high status Saxon burial was discovered. One site contained 17th to 19th century domestic structures. Medieval or post-medieval furrows and field boundaries were identified at eight sites.Written by Tom Wilson with Paul Booth, Kate Brayne, Derek Cater, Hilary Cool, Rowena Gale, John Giorgi, Malcolm Lyne, Hilary Major, Gemma Martin, James Rackham, Stephen Rowland, Susan Tyler, Alan Vince and Tania Wilson.

This work is an examination of those environmental and political factors which have influenced the distribution of settlement types in northwest Ireland during the Early Christian period (AD 500-1000). Various site types are discussed in Chapter One; the physical geography and history of the six counties of Northern Ireland which make up the study area is the subject of Chapters Two and Three. Cultural remains and written sources, both of which give insight into how society in general and the individual farm economies functioned during this period, are discussed in Chapter Four.