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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.
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Carroll, J.
f52f9e49-060c-4d25-97ee-b2d3a7a962f6
Toms, P.
f1c0bf1a-ca98-4a07-bb64-efb6256acea5
Wood, J.
438523f8-3c01-459e-aee0-83ba429fd11a
Jones, R.
0f9913f4-543e-47a4-a811-4a199ca04c5b
Pears, B.
36d04a0f-6948-4e68-8f60-3a2a54d70bd0
Brown, A.G.
a4ccc60f-ec67-48ce-8e28-e09fb4ce9b3f
Carroll, J.
f52f9e49-060c-4d25-97ee-b2d3a7a962f6
Toms, P.
f1c0bf1a-ca98-4a07-bb64-efb6256acea5
Wood, J.
438523f8-3c01-459e-aee0-83ba429fd11a
Jones, R.
0f9913f4-543e-47a4-a811-4a199ca04c5b

Pears, B., Brown, A.G., Carroll, J., Toms, P., Wood, J. and Jones, R. (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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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

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Date deposited: 19 Oct 2020 16:31
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 09:34

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Contributors

Author: B. Pears
Author: A.G. Brown
Author: J. Carroll
Author: P. Toms
Author: J. Wood
Author: R. Jones

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