1. An Integrated Bioarchaeological Approach to the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’: A Case Study from Stafford, England,c.<scp>ad</scp>800–1200
- Author
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Matilda Holmes, Samantha Neil, Mark McKerracher, Elizabeth Stroud, Richard Thomas, Michael Charles, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Emily Forster, Amy Bogaard, and Helena Hamerow
- Subjects
2. Zero hunger ,Archeology ,060101 anthropology ,060102 archaeology ,business.industry ,06 humanities and the arts ,15. Life on land ,Scientific analysis ,Geography ,Agricultural revolution ,Agriculture ,Period (geology) ,Economic history ,0601 history and archaeology ,business ,Animal bone - Abstract
In much of Europe, the advent of low-input cereal farming regimes betweenc.ad800 and 1200 enabled landowners—lords—to amass wealth by greatly expanding the amount of land under cultivation and exploiting the labour of others. Scientific analysis of plant remains and animal bones from archaeological contexts is generating the first direct evidence for the development of such low-input regimes. This article outlines the methods used by the FeedSax project to resolve key questions regarding the ‘cerealization’ of the medieval countryside and presents preliminary results using the town of Stafford as a worked example. These indicate an increase in the scale of cultivation in the Mid-Saxon period, while the Late Saxon period saw a shift to a low-input cultivation regime and probably an expansion onto heavier soils. Crop rotation appears to have been practised from at least the mid-tenth century.
- Published
- 2020