Landscapes of Dispersed Settlement: Understanding People and Place in the Severn Valley, 1066-1500

该项目将重点关注征服后（公元1066 - 1500年）塞文谷中部分散定居点的景观（从伍斯特郡的Ombersley和Shrawley到什罗普郡的Morville和Claverley）。一般来说，中世纪定居点研究集中在有核定居点（大村庄，房屋聚集在一起）的地区，从英格兰西南部延伸到东北部，穿过东米德兰兹。因此，在中部地区，定居研究得到了一系列重要项目的支持，这些项目的重点是东部和中部有核的大型村庄。这样的定居点在该地区的西部并不常见。在这里，孤立的农场和村庄更为常见，但原因尚不清楚。尽管对个别定居点进行了有价值的研究，也不乏数据，但对塞文谷中部常见的农村定居点模式的调查却很少。自然因素和文化因素的相互作用是复杂的，不能孤立地用历史、考古或地形学的方法来理解。需要跨学科的方法。这一研究将填补我们目前对乡村聚落认识的地理和知识空白。中世纪聚落研究小组（MSRG）最近的一份综述概述了以下研究重点：征服后的聚落和景观；分散结算;中世纪乡村聚落的“生活体验”；跨学科研究。这些优先事项将通过围绕下列问题分析塞文谷分散的住区来处理：哪种因素对分散聚落模式的影响更大：物理因素（如土壤、地形）还是文化因素（如领主、农业、工业）？如何比较和对比整个地区的扩散模式？是否有可能确定一个分散聚落的发展年表？小的、孤立的定居点后来发展到什么程度？被砍伐的林地在多大程度上为后来的分散定居奠定了基础？该地区是否有一个独特的社会结构，特别是在领主、农民地位、土地规模、社区、教区、农业制度和工业方面，这说明了分散的定居点？两个当地的案例研究——有现存的庄园记录，中世纪定居点和地名的良好语料——将考察中世纪小而分散的定居点的居住者的生活经历、观点和文化，以及它们与居住在较大定居点的人们的生活有何不同。从考古学、历史学和地貌学的方法论角度评估分散的定居点及其居住者，将大大丰富我们对这些较少研究的景观的理解。中世纪文献阐明了被征服后英格兰社区的生活经历；它们的微观地形细节允许以精细分辨率重建中世纪景观，并形成社会空间分析的基础。考古调查将综合现有的数据集（例如历史环境记录和便携式古物计划数据）、航空照片和激光雷达图像，以及实地调查计划。地理信息系统分析将使分散的定居点及其社区跨越空间和时间的可视化成为可能。该项目将填补我们对中世纪聚落认识的重大空白，为中世纪聚落研究做出宝贵贡献。它将为地方考古学家在规划过程中考虑中世纪景观提供坚实的基础。伴随的公众宣传和参与（包括讲座、学校资源、导游步行和发现识别活动），以我在该地区考古方面的现有专业知识为基础，将使人们能够与前世联系起来

This project will focus on post-Conquest (AD1066 - 1500) landscapes of dispersed settlement in the middle Severn valley (from Ombersley and Shrawley, Worcestershire to Morville and Claverley, Shropshire). Generally, medieval settlement studies have focused on areas of nucleated settlement (large villages, with houses clustered together), stretching in a band from the south-west to the north-east of England through the East Midlands. In the Midlands, therefore, settlement research is underpinned by a series of important projects focusing on large nucleated villages in the east and central Midlands.Such settlements were not the norm in the west of the region. Here, isolated farmsteads and hamlets were more common - but the reasons for this remain unclear. Despite valuable studies of individual settlements and no shortage of data, there has been little investigation of patterns of rural settlement common in the middle Severn Valley. The interplay of physical and cultural factors is complex, and cannot be understood by historical, archaeological or toponomastic approaches in isolation. An interdisciplinary approach is required.This research will fill the geographical and intellectual gaps in our current understanding of rural settlement. A recent review by the Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG) outlined the following research priorities: post-Conquest settlement and landscape; dispersed settlement; the 'lived experience' within medieval rural settlements; interdisciplinary study.These priorities will be addressed through analysis of the dispersed settlements of the Severn Valley, framed around the following questions:1. Which factors were more influential on patterns of dispersed settlement: physical (e.g. soils, relief) or cultural (e.g. lordship, agriculture, industry)?2. How do patterns of dispersal compare and contrast across the region?3. Is it possible to determine a chronology of development for dispersed settlement?4. To what extent did small, isolated settlements subsequently develop?5. To what extent did colonization of cleared woodland generate later foundations of dispersed settlement?6. Did the region have a distinctive social structure, with special regard to lordship, peasant status, holding size, community, parish, farming regime and industry, that accounts for dispersed settlements?7. Two local case-studies - with surviving manorial records, and good corpuses of medieval settlement- and field-names - will examine the lived experience, outlook and culture of medieval occupants of small, dispersed settlements, and how it might have differed from that of people living in larger settlements.Assessing dispersed settlements and their occupants from the combined methodological perspectives of archaeology, history and toponomastics will enrich our understanding of these lesser-studied landscapes considerably. Medieval documents illuminate the lived experience of communities in post-Conquest England; their micro-toponymic detail permits the reconstruction of the medieval landscape at fine resolution and forms the basis for socio-spatial analysis. The archaeological survey will synthesise existing datasets (e.g. Historic Environment Records and Portable Antiquities Scheme data), aerial photographs, and LiDAR imagery, alongside a programme of field survey. GIS analysis will enable visualisation of dispersed settlements and their communities across space and time.The project will fill significant gaps in our understanding of medieval settlement and make a valuable contribution to medieval settlement studies. It will give Local Authority Archaeologists a solid foundation from which to consider the medieval landscape within the planning process. Accompanying public outreach and engagement (comprising talks, school resources, guided walks, and finds identification events), grounded in my existing existing expertise in the region's archaeology, will enable people to connect to past lives