1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910597155303321

Autore

Hamerow Helena

Titolo

New Perspectives on the Medieval 'Agricultural Revolution' : Crop, Stock and Furrow

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Liverpool, : Liverpool University Press, 2022

Liverpool : , : Liverpool University Press, , 2023

©2023

ISBN

1-80207-904-1

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (308 pages)

Altri autori (Persone)

McKerracherMark

Disciplina

630.940902

Soggetti

Medieval history

Medieval European archaeology

Landscape archaeology

England

c 500 CE to c 1000 CE

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Sommario/riassunto

Across Europe, the early medieval period saw the advent of new ways of cereal farming which fed the growth of towns, markets and populations, but also fuelled wealth disparities and the rise of lordship. These developments have sometimes been referred to as marking an ‘agricultural revolution’, yet the nature and timing of these critical changes remain subject to intense debate, despite more than a century of research.

The papers in this volume demonstrate how the combined application of cutting-edge scientific analyses, along with new theoretical models and challenges to conventional understandings, can reveal trajectories of agricultural development which, while complementary overall, do not indicate a single period of change involving the extension of arable, the introduction of the mouldboard plough, and regular crop rotation. Rather, these phenomena become evident at different times and in different places across England throughout the period, and rarely in an



unambiguously ‘progressive’ fashion.

Presenting innovative bioarchaeological research from the ground-breaking Feeding Anglo-Saxon England project, along with fresh insights into ploughing technology, brewing, the nature of agricultural revolutions, and farming practices in Roman Britain and Carolingian Europe, this volume is a critical new contribution to environmental archaeology and medieval studies in England and beyond.