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Early Medieval place-names and riverine flood histories: a new approach and new chronostratigraphic records for three English rivers

Early Medieval place-names and riverine flood histories: a new approach and new chronostratigraphic records for three English rivers
Early Medieval place-names and riverine flood histories: a new approach and new chronostratigraphic records for three English rivers
Environmental information from place-names has largely been overlooked by geoarchaeologists and fluvial geomorphologists in analyses of the depositional histories of rivers and floodplains. Here, new flood chronologies for the rivers Teme, Severn, and Wye are presented, modelled from stable river sections excavated at Broadwas, Buildwas, and Rotherwas. These are connected by the Old English term *wæsse, interpreted as ‘land by a meandering river which floods and drains quickly’. The results reveal that, in all three places, flooding during the early medieval period occurred more frequently between AD 350–700 than between AD 700–1100, but that over time each river's flooding regime became more complex including high magnitude single events. In the sampled locations, the fluvial dynamics of localized flood events had much in common, and almost certainly differed in nature from other sections of their rivers, refining our understanding of the precise nature of flooding which their names sought to communicate. This study shows how the toponymic record can be helpful in the long-term reconstruction of historic river activity and for our understanding of past human perceptions of riverine environments.
England, OSL, chronostratigraphy, early medieval, flooding, place-names, rivers
1461-9571
381-405
Pears, B.
36d04a0f-6948-4e68-8f60-3a2a54d70bd0
Brown, A.G.
c51f9d3e-02b0-47da-a483-41c354e78fab
Carroll, J.
da24afbd-cd70-4cfc-ab13-b0f2ef369352
Toms, P.
f1c0bf1a-ca98-4a07-bb64-efb6256acea5
Wood, J.
018e7a10-5836-420c-a7dc-250883977f5b
Jones, R.
07ec9869-ca4f-4859-9d15-fb902e4f6763
et al.
Pears, B.
36d04a0f-6948-4e68-8f60-3a2a54d70bd0
Brown, A.G.
c51f9d3e-02b0-47da-a483-41c354e78fab
Carroll, J.
da24afbd-cd70-4cfc-ab13-b0f2ef369352
Toms, P.
f1c0bf1a-ca98-4a07-bb64-efb6256acea5
Wood, J.
018e7a10-5836-420c-a7dc-250883977f5b
Jones, R.
07ec9869-ca4f-4859-9d15-fb902e4f6763

Pears, B., Brown, A.G. and Carroll, J. , et al. (2020) Early Medieval place-names and riverine flood histories: a new approach and new chronostratigraphic records for three English rivers. European Journal of Archaeology, 23 (3), 381-405. (doi:10.1017/eaa.2019.72).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Environmental information from place-names has largely been overlooked by geoarchaeologists and fluvial geomorphologists in analyses of the depositional histories of rivers and floodplains. Here, new flood chronologies for the rivers Teme, Severn, and Wye are presented, modelled from stable river sections excavated at Broadwas, Buildwas, and Rotherwas. These are connected by the Old English term *wæsse, interpreted as ‘land by a meandering river which floods and drains quickly’. The results reveal that, in all three places, flooding during the early medieval period occurred more frequently between AD 350–700 than between AD 700–1100, but that over time each river's flooding regime became more complex including high magnitude single events. In the sampled locations, the fluvial dynamics of localized flood events had much in common, and almost certainly differed in nature from other sections of their rivers, refining our understanding of the precise nature of flooding which their names sought to communicate. This study shows how the toponymic record can be helpful in the long-term reconstruction of historic river activity and for our understanding of past human perceptions of riverine environments.

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EJA_337_Waesse_article_resubmission_final - Accepted Manuscript
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Accepted/In Press date: 8 November 2019
Published date: 1 August 2020
Keywords: England, OSL, chronostratigraphy, early medieval, flooding, place-names, rivers

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 444420
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444420
ISSN: 1461-9571
PURE UUID: f658fa16-147b-4766-a26d-699f05b07de8
ORCID for A.G. Brown: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1990-4654

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Date deposited: 19 Oct 2020 16:31
Last modified: 13 Apr 2024 01:41

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Contributors

Author: B. Pears
Author: A.G. Brown ORCID iD
Author: J. Carroll
Author: P. Toms
Author: J. Wood
Author: R. Jones
Corporate Author: et al.

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