The Colonisation of Uplands in Medieval Britain and Ireland: Climate, Agriculture and Environmental Adaptation

Costello, Eugene

doi:10.1080/00766097.2020.1826123

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Insofar as the initiation of long-term settlement does not appear to coincide with any notable climate shifts in the paleoenvironmental record and continues despite oscillations in environmental conditions, climate does not seem to have been a limiting factor, or indeed a stimulus, for upland expansion. Examples of upland settlement initiation or expansion between the 10th to 13th centuries are also found in southwest Britain, Denmark and southern Sweden [ 100 , 101 , 112 – 114 ]. While the more clement conditions of the Medieval Climate Anomaly may have facilitated upland expansion, it cannot be seen as a specific “pull” factor, at least in the case of Slieveanorra, given that no seeming climate amelioration is evident in the 12th century.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bucking the trend: Population resilience in a marginal environment

Plunkett

Swindles

2022

PLoS ONE

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Evaluating the impact of environmental changes on past societies is frequently confounded by the difficulty of establishing cause-and-effect at relevant scales of analysis. Commonly, paleoenvironmental records lack the temporal and spatial resolution to link them with historic events, yet there remains a tendency to correlate climate change and cultural transformations on the basis of their seeming synchronicity. Here, we challenge perceptions of societal vulnerability to past environmental change using an integrated paleoenvironmental and land-use history of a remote upland site in the north of Ireland. We present a high-resolution, multi-proxy record that illustrates extended occupation of this marginal locality throughout the climate oscillations of the last millennium. Importantly, historically-dated volcanic ash markers enable us to pinpoint precisely in our record the timing of major national demographic crises such as the Black Death and the European, Irish and Great (Potato) Famines. We find no evidence that climate downturns or demographic collapses had an enduring impact on the use of the uplands: either the community escaped the effects of these events, or population levels recovered rapidly enough (within a generation) to leave no appreciable mark on the palaeoenvironmental record. Our findings serve to illustrate the spatial complexity of human activity that can enable communities to withstand or quickly bounce back from largescale calamities. In neglecting to consider such local-scale variability in social and economic organization, generalized models of societal collapse risk overplaying the vulnerability of populations to long- and short-term ecological stressors to the detriment of identifying the social constraints that influence a population’s response to change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bucking the trend: Population resilience in a marginal environment

Plunkett

Swindles

2022

PLoS ONE

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“…Yet in the context of intense economic expansion of the long eighth century (Rippon 2010: 45-51;Higham and Ryan 2015: 181) it is possible that intensive agriculture took place in this region soon after the Dyke was built. If this is correct, then within a generation of Offa's Dyke's construction, the process of removing it from the landscape could have been initiated, building in intensity as a pressure on suitable soils became more severe (Costello 2021). This would have only intensified again as agriculture became further intensified and mechanised in the post-medieval period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilising Lidar Survey to Locate and Evaluate Offa’s Dyke

Delaney

2021

OD Journal

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The enigmatic and gigantic Offa’s Dyke has long been understood as a demonstration of the power of the Mercian state in the long eighth century. Despite this, rarely have previous studies involved anything more than the visual observations of the earthwork. Moreover, ground-level perspectives cannot possibly contextualise its total breadth and character. The shortcomings in the resulting quality of data on the Dyke has led to uncertainties and debate over its route, extent, and placement in the landscape. With the application of lidar and other digital technologies, my ongoing doctoral research is providing a fresh understanding of the nature and original extent of Offa’s Dyke’s route by the creation of an accurate and empirical dataset. This digital dataset for Offa’s Dyke is identifying hitherto unknown sections of the monument. Furthermore, it is providing the foundation for new investigations of the nature of the frontier in the eighth century by creating the basis for new investigations into the placement and landscape context of the monument. This article presents interim results on the investigation of the Herefordshire section of Offa’s Dyke, a stretch that has been among the most problematic and poorly understood from all sections of the earthwork. This study thus provides fresh perspectives utilising digital heritage tools and data sources to examine and re-evaluate evidence of the nature and extent of the monument and the wider Mercian frontier.

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“…This sense of ‘natural’ in Britain is more accurately described as ‘deserted’ or ‘de‐populated’, with near ubiquitous evidence for former settlement, enclosure and pastoral activity in uplands as high as 600 metres above sea level across Britain for the most of the past two millennia, and in most cases stretching back to at least the Bronze Age (between approximately 4500 and 2800 years ago; e.g. Costello, 2020; Johnson, 2015; McDonnel, 1988). In addition, the perceived ‘natural’ openness of these landscapes is heavily dependent on continued management, especially for sheep grazing and grouse shooting (see Evans et al, 2006; Yallop & Clutterbuck, 2008).…”

Section: Britain's Pasmentioning

confidence: 99%