Continuity and change: the field systems and patterns of land-use in early medieval England

Abstract

Britain ceasing to be part of the Roman Empire undoubtedly had a profound effect on society, and traditionally this was thought to include major changes in the economy and patterns of agrarian production, with large areas of the landscape being abandoned as population declined. Medieval fieldscapes were thought to be much later in date, with a large swathe of central England seeing the creation of vast open fields sometime between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Recent archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence – mostly from developer-funded work – has, however, dramatically transformed our understanding of landscape change in this period, with many regions seeing a far greater degree of continuity than was previously thought. Rather than open fields having been created through a «great replanning» of the landscape that swept aside all traces of the earlier field systems, in some cases they appear to have evolved within a framework of existing boundaries that had survived from the Roman period.

Keywords

• sistemas de campos
• evidencia polínica
• cultivos agrarios
• restos cerealísticos
• ganadería
• huesos animales
• cambio climático
• «open fields»