Manifestations of Empire: Palaeoenvironmental Analysis and the End of Roman Britain

帝国的表现：古环境分析和罗马不列颠的终结

• 批准号: AH/P013880/1
• 负责人: Andrew Seaman
• 金额: $ 25.75万
• 依托单位: Canterbury Christ Church University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FP013880%2F1
• 关键词: Manifestations; Empire; Palaeoenvironmental; Analysis; End

The end of Roman imperial control in Britain during the early-fifth century AD marks a period of far reaching socio-political and economic change at the boundary between what scholars regard as separate research areas, the Romano-British and early medieval periods. What happened at the end of Roman Britain is a contentious issue which both historians and archaeologists have struggled to fully explain. Some experts argue that there was widespread continuity between the late-Roman and early medieval periods, whilst others favour discontinuity associated with abrupt short-term change. The problem is that there are few historical sources, a limited number of archaeological sites with good dating evidence, and very little evidence with which to explore the use and function of the sites that have been identified. This project will offer a new perspective on the debate by adopting an approach that spans both periods and seeks to examine the transition between them through a programme of high resolution pollen analysis focused on South East Wales.Pollen analysis has long been used by archaeologists to reconstruct past agrarian and land-use patterns, particularly for prehistoric periods, but in this project the technique will be used to provide evidence about the patterns of land-use and agricultural exploitation associated with important Roman and early medieval settlement sites. This will allow us to explore how the use and function of settlements, including towns and villas, changed, and to assess the degree to which there was continuity between the late-Roman and early medieval periods. The potential benefits of such an approach have been highlighted by both historians and archaeologist, but a lack of suitable pollen sampling sites close to core areas of settlement - most sampling sites have tended to be upland peat bogs - and poor chronological resolution of cores have constrained the realization of the potential. A small number of research projects have undertaken high chronological resolution lowland pollen analysis, but these have not focused on Romanized areas and could not be used to address wider research questions.This project, however, will use high density, high resolution pollen analysis to investigate changes in environment and land-use across a densely settled and Romanized lowland region. A successful pilot study has demonstrated that it is possible to identify a suitable density of sampling sites within the study area, and pollen cores with chronological limits and levels of preservation to warrant further analysis were recovered. This project will focus upon a network of sampling sites in South East Wales. The most Romanized part of the Principality, and a predominantly lowland landscape, the south East is more in keeping with western England than upland Wales in terms of its topography and archaeology. Moreover, South East Wales has been identified as having special significance for the debate about the Roman to early medieval transition, as it represents a rare example of a part of the Western Roman Empire which, although Romanized, was not subject to 'barbarian' incursion following its collapse in the fifth century, and where early medieval power structures and state institutions developed as the result of indigenous processes alone. Analysis of this area could therefore greatly contribute to our understanding of the transformation of the Roman world in general by providing a comparative case study. This opportunity is enhanced by a substantial corpus of early medieval land charters preserved in the Book of Llandaff, and previous landscape surveys focused on the Gwent Levels. This project will examine multiple pollen cores close to a series of key archaeological sites, including Romano-British settlements and villas, Caerwent Roman town, the high-status early medieval settlement at Dinas Powys, and early medieval estate centres recorded in the Book of Llandaff.

公元世纪早期，罗马帝国对不列颠的控制结束，标志着一个影响深远的社会政治和经济变革时期，学者们认为这是一个独立的研究领域，即罗马-不列颠时期和中世纪早期。罗马不列颠末期发生了什么是一个有争议的问题，历史学家和考古学家都很难完全解释。一些专家认为，在罗马晚期和中世纪早期之间存在着广泛的连续性，而另一些专家则倾向于与突然的短期变化有关的不连续性。问题是历史资料很少，具有良好测年证据的考古遗址数量有限，而且用于探索已确定遗址的用途和功能的证据很少。该项目将提供一个新的视角，通过采用一种跨越两个时期的方法，并试图通过一个专注于威尔士东南部的高分辨率花粉分析方案来研究它们之间的过渡。花粉分析长期以来一直被考古学家用来重建过去的农业和土地使用模式，特别是史前时期，但在这个项目中，这项技术将被用来提供与重要的罗马和中世纪早期定居点有关的土地使用和农业开发模式的证据。这将使我们能够探索包括城镇和别墅在内的定居点的使用和功能如何变化，并评估罗马晚期和中世纪早期之间的连续性程度。历史学家和考古学家都强调了这种方法的潜在好处，但缺乏合适的花粉采样地点靠近定居点的核心地区-大多数采样地点往往是高地泥炭沼泽-以及核心的时间分辨率差限制了潜力的实现。少数研究项目进行了高时间分辨率的低地花粉分析，但这些研究项目没有集中在罗马化地区，不能用于解决更广泛的研究问题，然而，本项目将使用高密度，高分辨率的花粉分析，调查环境和土地使用的变化，在一个人口稠密和罗马化的低地地区。一项成功的试点研究表明，有可能在研究区域内确定适当的采样点密度，并回收了具有年代限制和保存水平的花粉芯，以保证进一步分析。该项目将侧重于威尔士东南部的采样点网络。作为公国罗马化程度最高的地区，以低地景观为主，东南部在地形和考古学方面更符合英格兰西部，而不是高地威尔士。此外，东南威尔士被认为对罗马向中世纪早期过渡的争论具有特殊意义，因为它代表了西罗马帝国的一部分，虽然罗马化，但在世纪崩溃后没有受到“野蛮人”的入侵，中世纪早期的权力结构和国家机构仅仅是土著进程的结果。因此，对这一领域的分析可以通过提供一个比较案例研究，大大有助于我们理解罗马世界的总体转型。这一机会得到了大量中世纪早期土地特许证的加强，这些特许证保存在兰达夫书中，以前的景观调查集中在格温特水平。该项目将研究靠近一系列关键考古遗址的多个花粉核心，包括罗马-英国定居点和别墅，Caerwent罗马城，Dinas Powys的高级中世纪早期定居点，以及Llandaff书中记录的中世纪早期房地产中心。

项目成果

Manifestations of Empire: palaeoenvironmental analysis and the end of Roman Britain

帝国的表现：古环境分析和罗马不列颠的终结

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Medieval Settlement Research
• 作者: Davies T