Interpreting the English Village

by Mick Aston

Author	: Mick Aston
Publisher	: Windgather Press
Total Pages	: 657
Release	: 2013-02-07
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 1909686069

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An original and approachable account of how archaeology can tell the story of the English village. Shapwick lies in the middle of Somerset, next to the important monastic centre of Glastonbury: the abbey owned the manor for 800 years from the 8th to the 16th century and its abbots and officials had a great influence on the lives of the peasants who lived there. It is possible that abbot Dunstan, one of the great reformers of tenth century monasticism directed the planning of the village. The Shapwick Project examined the development and history of an English parish and village over a ten thousand-year period. This was a truly multi-disciplinary project. Not only were a battery of archaeological and historical techniques explored - such as field walking, test-pitting, archaeological excavation, aerial reconnaissance, documentary research and cartographic analysis - but numerous other techniques such as building analysis, dendrochronological dating and soil analysis were undertaken on a large scale. The result is a fascinating study about how the community lived and prospered in Shapwick. In addition we learn how a group of enthusiastic and dedicated scholars unravelled this story. As such there is much here to inspire and enthuse others who might want to embark on a landscape study of a parish or village area. Seven of the ten chapters begin with a fictional vignette to bring the story of the village to life. Text-boxes elucidate re-occurring themes and techniques. Extensively illustrated in colour including 100 full page images.

The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain

by Christopher Gerrard

Author	: Christopher Gerrard
Publisher	: Oxford University Press
Total Pages	: 1105
Release	: 2018-01-11
Genre	: Social Science
ISBN	: 0191062111

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The Middle Ages are all around us in Britain. The Tower of London and the castles of Scotland and Wales are mainstays of cultural tourism and an inspiring cross-section of later medieval finds can now be seen on display in museums across England, Scotland, and Wales. Medieval institutions from Parliament and monarchy to universities are familiar to us and we come into contact with the later Middle Ages every day when we drive through a village or town, look up at the castle on the hill, visit a local church or wonder about the earthworks in the fields we see from the window of a train. The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between AD 1066 and 1550. 61 entries, divided into 10 thematic sections, cover topics ranging from later medieval objects, human remains, archaeological science, standing buildings, and sites such as castles and monasteries, to the well-preserved relict landscapes which still survive. This is a rich and exciting period of the past and most of what we have learnt about the material culture of our medieval past has been discovered in the past two generations. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research and describes the major projects and concepts that are changing our understanding of our medieval heritage.

Geographers

by Elizabeth Baigent

Author	: Elizabeth Baigent
Publisher	: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages	: 199
Release	: 2018-11-15
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 1350085529

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Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies, Volume 37 explores the concept of distinction in geography. Through the lives of six geographers working in Brazil, North America, Europe and Réunion, it investigates what distinction consists of, how we identify and celebrate it and how it relates to quotidian practices in the discipline. The volume highlights the continuing importance of biography and the International Geographical Union in recording and assessing distinction. It also considers the relevance of personal networks for the circulation and translation of distinguished geographical knowledge, and how this knowledge can underpin applied projects and critical appraisal of geographical scholarship, both at a national and sub-national level. Gendered notions of distinction are also addressed, particularly through June Sheppard, who found limited recognition for her work as a result of gendered expectations within the discipline and society at large. By reflecting on how we locate distinguished geographers and tell their histories, Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies, Volume 37 makes an important contribution to fostering less canonical work in historical geography.

Peasant Perceptions of Landscape

by Stephen Mileson

Author	: Stephen Mileson
Publisher	: Oxford University Press
Total Pages	:
Release	: 2021-11-04
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 0192647911

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Peasant Perceptions of Landscape marks a change in the discipline of landscape history, as well as making a major contribution to the history of everyday life. Until now, there has been no sustained analysis of how ordinary medieval and early modern people experienced and perceived their material environment and constructed their identities in relation to the places where they lived. This volume provides exactly such an analysis by examining peasant perceptions in one geographical area over the long period from AD 500 to 1650. The study takes as its focus Ewelme hundred, a well-documented and archaeologically-rich area of lowland vale and hilly Chiltern wood-pasture comprising fourteen ancient parishes. The analysis draws on a range of sources including legal depositions and thousands of field-names and bynames preserved in largely unpublished deeds and manorial documents. Archaeology makes a major contribution, particularly for understanding the period before 900, but more generally in reconstructing the fabric of villages and the framework for inhabitants' spatial practices and experiences. In its focus on the way inhabitants interacted with the landscape in which they worked, prayed, and socialised, Peasant Perceptions of Landscape supplies a new history of the lives and attitudes of the bulk of the rural population who so seldom make their mark in traditional landscape analysis or documentary history.

Assembling Enclosure

by Ronan O'Donnell

Author	: Ronan O'Donnell
Publisher	: Univ of Hertfordshire Press
Total Pages	: 177
Release	: 2015-11-16
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 1909291676

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The landscape history of North-East England has not been studied as much as other parts of the country. This book begins to fill this gap by utilizing Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to re-assess the familiar topics of enclosure and improvement. It reveals the contribution of local 'actors' – including landowners, tenants and the landscape itself – to these 'processes'. In so doing it transforms our understanding of the way in which the landscape of Northumberland was created during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and carries wider implications for how we might approach enclosure in other parts of the country.

Archaeology Hotspot Great Britain

by Donald Henson

Author	: Donald Henson
Publisher	: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages	: 251
Release	: 2015-03-12
Genre	: Travel
ISBN	: 0759123977

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The Archaeology Hotspots series offers reader-friendly and engaging narratives of the archaeology in particular countries. Written by archaeological experts with a general reader in mind, each book in the series focuses on what has been found and by whom, what the controversies and scandals have been, ongoing projects, and how it all fits into a broader view of the history of the country. In Archaeology Hotspot Great Britain, expert Donald Henson first chronicles the deep archaeology of a long settled region—including England, Wales, and Scotland—then explores both the famously ancient finds (cave art at Creswell Crags, Stonehenge) and more recent and iconic historic sites and monuments (such as Westminster Abbey and Ironbridge Gorge). He profiles the often larger-than-life personalities and also the previously-marginalized women who have contributed to British archaeology; the controversies influencing how we see the past are also highlighted. Henson considers London’s position in the antiquities trade and the safeguarding of heritage sites. As a whole, the book tells a fascinating story of Great Britain’s history, culture, national heritage, and ongoing role as a hotspot of archaeology.

The Routledge Handbook of Medieval Rural Life

by Miriam Müller

Author	: Miriam Müller
Publisher	: Routledge
Total Pages	: 586
Release	: 2021-10-26
Genre	: History
ISBN	: 1000450732

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The Routledge Handbook of Medieval Rural Life brings together the latest research on peasantry in medieval Europe. The aim is to place peasants – as small-scale agricultural producers – firmly at the centre of this volume, as people with agency, immense skill and resilience to shape their environments, cultures and societies. This volume examines the changes and evolutions within village societies across the medieval period, over a broad chronology and across a wide geography. Rural structures, families and hierarchies are examined alongside tool use and trade, as well as the impact of external factors such as famine and the Black Death. The contributions offer insights into multidisciplinary research, incorporating archaeological as well as landscape studies alongside traditional historical documentary approaches across widely differing local and regional contexts across medieval Europe. This book will be an essential reference for scholars and students of medieval history, as well those interested in rural, cultural and social history.

Interpreting Rurality

by Gary Bosworth

Author	: Gary Bosworth
Publisher	: Routledge
Total Pages	: 321
Release	: 2013-10-15
Genre	: Business & Economics
ISBN	: 113409051X

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The British countryside is a national institution; most people aspire to live there, many people use it for leisure and recreation and we can all watch rural life played out on our television screen, read about it in novels or consume its imagery in art and cinematography. The aim of this book is to explore the way that these aspirations and perceptions influence the way that the term "rural" is interpreted across different academic disciplines. Definitions of rural are not exact, leaving room for these interpretations to have a significant impact on the meanings conveyed in different areas of research and across different economic, social and spatial contexts. In this book contributors present research across a range of subjects allowing critical reflections upon their personal and disciplinary interpretations of "rural". This resulting volume is a collection of diverse chapters that gives an emergent sense of how the notion of "rural" changes and blurs as the disciplinary lens is adjusted. In drawing together these strands, it becomes clear that human relations with rural space morph materiality into highly complex representations wherein both disadvantage and social exclusion persist within a rurality that is also commodified, consumed and cherished.

The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology

by Charles E. Orser, Jr.

Author	: Charles E. Orser, Jr.
Publisher	: Routledge
Total Pages	: 1039
Release	: 2020-07-26
Genre	: Social Science
ISBN	: 1351786245

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The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology is a multi-authored compendium of articles on specific topics of interest to today’s historical archaeologists, offering perspectives on the current state of research and collectively outlining future directions for the field. The broad range of topics covered in this volume allows for specificity within individual chapters, while building to a cumulative overview of the field of historical archaeology as it stands, and where it could go next. Archaeological research is discussed in the context of current sociological concerns, different approaches and techniques are assessed, and potential advances are posited. This is a comprehensive treatment of the sub-discipline, engaging key contemporary debates, and providing a series of specially-commissioned geographical overviews to complement the more theoretical explorations. This book is designed to offer a starting point for students who may wish to pursue particular topics in more depth, as well as for non-archaeologists who have an interest in historical archaeology. Archaeologists, historians, preservationists, and all scholars interested in the role historical archaeology plays in illuminating daily life during the past five centuries will find this volume engaging and enlightening.