ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND PASTORAL LAND-USE ON THE FEN EDGE, PETERBOROUGH, ENGLAND: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION, (2500 BC-A.D. 1350)

• Main Author: BIDDICK, KATHLEEN A
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: history, medieval
• ISBN: 9780315078970; 0315078979

The processes precipitating change in medieval agricultural systems in Northwestern Europe are still largely unknown. Part of our difficulty has been the absence of systematic information on animal husbandry and pastoral land-use. The dissertation addresses this deficiency by establishing the following: (1) a model describing the archaeological and ecological framework for the emergence of the common waste--a keystone in medieval agricultural organization; (2) a case study of the archaeology of animal husbandry and pastoral land-use based on the excavations at the Fengate sites, Peterborough, England; (3) an archaeological analysis of social complexity at the end of the first millenium ac in relation to the ability of these social systems to structure territories and control access to pastoral resources; (4) an application of this model for the political ecologies of the Peterborough area from the Later Iron Age to the Early Medieval periods; (5) a quantitative analysis of the organization of demesne animal husbandry on the Peterborough estates from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries based on the account rolls and related documents of the Abbey. A short conclusion places the archaeological and historical records side by side in order to explore their similarities and differences. An archive of the archaeozoological data appears in the technical appendix. A set of master tables documents the data from the study of the account rolls.
The findings of the dissertation demonstrate that medieval agricultural organization cannot be properly understood without the long-term perspective that archaeology alone can provide for the historian. The change in livestock economies through time in the local area reflected change in regional configurations. Regional units were not static structures and their emergence and history require further study. Finally, the results document and highlight the considerable spatial complexity of medieval livestock management at regional scales.