The Anglo-Saxon Fenland

Oosthuizen, Susan

doi:10.2307/j.ctv13gvfnt

Cited by 43 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…In medieval and early modern times, floodplain terrains had intrinsic and distinctive human value for powering an essentially agricultural economy: directly as waterpower for mills, and indirectly via the meadowlands feeding livestock and the oxen that powered work on the land. In fenland border economies, wetlands had integrated and custom-set roles in local economies for food (fish, wildfowl), reed thatch and summer grazing (Oosthuizen, 2017). After the Black Death (from 1348 CE onwards), significant parts of the country transitioned from arable to sheep grazing, with the loss of traditional rights.…”

Section: Land Rights and Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shape-shifting form of UK floodplains: Fusing analysis of the territorially constructed with analysis of natural terrain processes

Lewin

O’Shea

2023

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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Physically, river floodplains have both the subdued morphology of natural terrain created as extreme discharges and sediments pass through catchment drainage systems and, to an increasing extent, the forms that arise from purposeful human constructions. Together, these direct out-of-channel inundation. As defined here, ‘territories’ and their humanly constructed physical forms have historically consumed or modified naturally created ‘terrains’ in a collection of actions that we summarize as ‘morphophagia’. A more inclusive physical geography is presented, adding-in explanations for the evolutionary phasing of humanly-generated, but environmentally functioning, physical forms in the UK in the Modern Era (since c.1500 CE). Floodplain developments here took place in five main episodes of historically-contingent accumulation: the Early Modern (c.1500–1780 CE) started with a framework of purposeful owned land, and then followed periods that can be related to Kondratieff global economic phases (c.1790–1840,1840–1900,1900–1947,1947–2000 CE). Three different groups of forcings operated: (1) the compartmentalizing and patched infill patterns set by territorial units, rights and developer ownerships; (2) the availability, motivations and timings for capital and labour investment; and (3) the evolving technical possibilities exploited by entrepreneurs and agents. Epistemic frameworks for broadening the analysis of coupled terrain and territory systems, exploring actuating social forces as much as their symptomatic physical outcomes, are discussed. Globally, there have been different forcings, timings and emplacement layouts operating at scales from local river reaches to city expansion and economic regions. As perceptions of environmental stasis now disintegrate, enthusiasm for reinvigorating economic growth, with further population increase and sprawling construction may, as in the past, discount the hazards of floodplain occupation. When and why risky anthropo-physical floodplain emplacements occur needs greater systematic understanding as social and economic initiatives are being considered.

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Section: Land Rights and Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shape-shifting form of UK floodplains: Fusing analysis of the territorially constructed with analysis of natural terrain processes

Lewin

O’Shea

2023

Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

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“…Bronze and Iron Age inhabitants are not known to have constructed drainage works, and although the Romans constructed a huge artificial transport canal, they again settled mainly on the silt marshes (Ash 2017). The extent of early Medieval occupation is uncertain; before historical-era drainage, the peat fens may have been impassable in winter, with summer grazing restricted to drier margins (Pryor 1984), but recent re-evaluation suggests a higher post-Roman human population, resource exploitation and environmental modification than previously thought (Oosthuizen 2017). Legend: blue (pale grey in black-and-white version), marine deposition; green (medium grey in black-and-white version), freshwater deposition; dark grey, higher ground; dotted line, modern sea level; star, natural subfossil site; circle, archaeological site (small circle, fewer than five pelican bones from site; large circle, more than 10 pelican bones from site).…”

Section: East Anglian Fensmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dalmatian Pelican Landscapes and Landscape Requirementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges for incorporating long‐term baselines into biodiversity restoration: A case study of the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus) in Britain

Crees

Oxley

Schreve

et al. 2022

Ibis

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Species reintroductions are a core component of conservation but require critical assessment of past baselines. The Dalmatian Pelican Pelecanus crispus formerly occurred in Britain during the Holocene and there is interest in its possible reintroduction, but its regional extinction dynamics remain poorly understood. Pelican bones are known from subfossil and zooarchaeological contexts at 11 British Holocene sites in three regions (East Anglian Fens, Somerset Levels and Moors, Humber Valley). Dalmatian Pelican is positively identified from four of these sites, with other specimens only identified to genus level. Pelican populations were probably only present periodically in Britain during intervals of suitable climate and available habitat: there is little evidence for pelicans before the Bronze Age, and most sites are known or inferred to be Iron Age. There is a suggested Medieval specimen but no secure evidence of pelican presence after the Roman period. However, no specimens are directly dated, with age estimation reliant upon indirect dates or inference. Climatic niche modelling indicates that southern Britain was the northwestern limit of pelican climate tolerance under postglacial conditions, and pelicans may have been unable to persist regionally until the mid-or late Holocene. Considerable pelican breeding and foraging habitat might have existed until the Medieval period, but availability of suitable habitat fluctuated throughout the Holocene. Probabilistic analysis suggests possible mean extinction date estimates between AD 589 and AD 1587, highlighting uncertainty associated with indirect data, and hindering our ability to correlate pelican disappearance with putative extinction drivers (overexploitation, human modification of wetlands, or non-anthropogenic environmental changes). Improving our understanding of conditions associated with past pelican occurrence is essential for potential reintroduction decision-making, and direct dating of bones from all sites is needed to establish a secure chronological framework for correlating pelican presence and disappearance with regional landscape change. This review provides a robust framework for how to integrate past environmental baselines into conservation decisionmaking and reintroduction feasibility assessments.

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“…However, as sampling has been dominated by the examination of unusual burials, our knowledge of the scale of migration and its impact on the overall population is impossible to assess. While the subsequent Early Medieval Period (5th -10th centuries CE) arguably resulted in major genetic shift towards higher affinities to Dutch, Danish, and other continental North Sea zone ancestries in eastern England, at the scale of 38-75% on average (Schiffels et al 2016;Gretzinger et al 2022), it is not clear whether this is due to migration only during the Early Medieval Period or if any of this change could be ascribed to gene flow during the Roman Period and before (Oosthuizen 2017); however, the long-standing ties between Britain and Gaul (Champion 2016)(pg. 155), both prior to and during the Roman period, may obscure the genetic distinction between local, indigenous Britons and incoming individuals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local population structure in Cambridgeshire during the Roman occupation

Scheib

Hui

Rose

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today the United Kingdom. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders and the military, the impact of imperialism on local population structure is invisible in the textual record. The extent of genetic change that occurred in Britain before the Early Medieval Period and how closely linked by genetic kinship the local populations were, remains underexplored. Here, using genome-wide data from 52 ancient individuals from Cambridgeshire, we show low levels of genetic ancestry differentiation between Romano-British sites and lower levels of runs of homozygosity over 4 centimorgans (cM than in the Bronze Age and Neolithic. We find fourteen cases of genetic relatedness within and one between sites without evidence of patrilineal dominance and one case of temporary mobility within a family unit during the Late Romano-British period. We also show that the modern patterns of genetic ancestry composition in Modern Britain emerged after the Roman period.

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The Anglo-Saxon Fenland

Cited by 43 publications

References 0 publications

The shape-shifting form of UK floodplains: Fusing analysis of the territorially constructed with analysis of natural terrain processes

The shape-shifting form of UK floodplains: Fusing analysis of the territorially constructed with analysis of natural terrain processes

Challenges for incorporating long‐term baselines into biodiversity restoration: A case study of the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus) in Britain

Local population structure in Cambridgeshire during the Roman occupation

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