The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

'The Fields of Britannia: Continuity and Change in the Late Roman and Early Medieval Landscape.

'The Fields of Britannia: Continuity and Change in the Late Roman and Early Medieval Landscape.
'The Fields of Britannia: Continuity and Change in the Late Roman and Early Medieval Landscape.
It has long been recognized that the landscape of Britain is one of the 'richest historical records we possess', but just how old is it? The Fields of Britannia is the first book to explore how far the countryside of Roman Britain has survived in use through to the present day, shaping the character of our modern countryside. Commencing with a discussion of the differing views of what happened to the landscape at the end of Roman Britain, the volume then brings together the results from hundreds of archaeological excavations and palaeoenvironmental investigations in order to map
patterns of land-use across Roman and early medieval Britain. In compiling such extensive data, the volume is able to reconstruct regional variations in Romano-British and early medieval land-use using pollen, animal bones, and charred cereal grains to demonstrate that agricultural regimes varied
considerably and were heavily influenced by underlying geology. We are shown that, in the fifth and sixth centuries, there was a shift away from intensive farming but very few areas of the landscape were abandoned completely. What is revealed is a surprising degree of continuity: the Roman Empire
may have collapsed, but British farmers carried on regardless, and the result is that now, across large parts of Britain, many of these Roman field systems are still in use.
Oxford University Press
Rippon, Stephen J.
075e476f-d0fe-4285-a70f-67c66f5ae8b0
Smart, Chris
56254e17-7ffe-4e0e-b118-c1c4cf5092ab
Pears, Benjamin
36d04a0f-6948-4e68-8f60-3a2a54d70bd0
Rippon, Stephen J.
075e476f-d0fe-4285-a70f-67c66f5ae8b0
Smart, Chris
56254e17-7ffe-4e0e-b118-c1c4cf5092ab
Pears, Benjamin
36d04a0f-6948-4e68-8f60-3a2a54d70bd0

Rippon, Stephen J., Smart, Chris and Pears, Benjamin (2015) 'The Fields of Britannia: Continuity and Change in the Late Roman and Early Medieval Landscape. , Oxford. Oxford University Press, 445pp.

Record type: Book

Abstract

It has long been recognized that the landscape of Britain is one of the 'richest historical records we possess', but just how old is it? The Fields of Britannia is the first book to explore how far the countryside of Roman Britain has survived in use through to the present day, shaping the character of our modern countryside. Commencing with a discussion of the differing views of what happened to the landscape at the end of Roman Britain, the volume then brings together the results from hundreds of archaeological excavations and palaeoenvironmental investigations in order to map
patterns of land-use across Roman and early medieval Britain. In compiling such extensive data, the volume is able to reconstruct regional variations in Romano-British and early medieval land-use using pollen, animal bones, and charred cereal grains to demonstrate that agricultural regimes varied
considerably and were heavily influenced by underlying geology. We are shown that, in the fifth and sixth centuries, there was a shift away from intensive farming but very few areas of the landscape were abandoned completely. What is revealed is a surprising degree of continuity: the Roman Empire
may have collapsed, but British farmers carried on regardless, and the result is that now, across large parts of Britain, many of these Roman field systems are still in use.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: 2015

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 454998
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/454998
PURE UUID: 9751781b-b48b-4453-89db-75fabb0234ef

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 03 Mar 2022 17:40
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 16:03

Export record

Contributors

Author: Stephen J. Rippon
Author: Chris Smart
Author: Benjamin Pears

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×