EAST BRITTANY SURVEY 1987 PU EAST BRITTANY SURVEY - OUST/VILAINE WATERSHED EASTER 1987 The seventh season in a programme of fieldwork, itself part of a larger, multi-disciplinary study of the relationship between 1and-use and settlement during the last two thousand years, took place from 20 March - 4 April in the communes surrounding Ruffiac, Treal, St-Nicolas-du-Tertre and Carentoir, in the departments of Morbihan and 111e-et-Vi1 ai ne in eastern Brittany. The aim of the study is to détermine when, how and why the exploitation of the environment changed direction within the historic period, and the effects of such changes on social groupings and labour patterns. The complète fieldwork programme consists of systematic fieldwalking of ail available ploughed fields within the four core communes of Ruffiac, St-Nicol as, Treal and Carentoir, together with sélective geophysical and geochemical surveys, and small excavations to test results; complementary environmental analysis is also being undertaken, as is a sùrvey of ail standing buildings in the core. The complète study involves (amongst other éléments) analysis of documents, including the very detailed cadastral maps and records of the early nineteenth century. This latter analysis has been completed and is of psrticular significance for fieldwork since it allows complète reconstruction of the early nineteenth-century landscape <Astill and Davies 19S2, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986). The 1987 season involved fieldwalking over large areas at wide intervais in sample transects in the communes surrounding the core. The team (consisting largely of past and présent students from the Universities of London, Reading, Cardiff and York) numbered twenty-two,' including the directors, and worked for twel ve deiys, from 22 March, with one day off. Six people went in advance, and worked for one day beforehand. Overall, 330 mandays were spent on this year's season, including travelling time and time off; 270 of thèse were working days. The weather was poor, with very considérable rainfal1 ; although the fields themselves were usually in good condition for walking, recording was exceptional1 y difficult. Fieldwalking in Runs at 50m intervais (Transect Walking) Sampling was organized in three 2km transects radiating from the core (P, M and R) and thèse were walked in the same way as Transects A to L within the core and Transect N outside it, in 1982-6. Transect P ran due west to the River Oust for 4.1km from the western boundary of Ruffiac (from the area of La Sourigaie to La Houssaie), passing through the communes of Missiriac and Malestroit and the northern outskirts of the town of Malestroit; Transect R ran north east for 7.75km from Trelo to Le Mur at the north-east corner of Carentoir, passing through the communes of Comblessac, Guer and Les Brûlais; Transect M ran due east to the River Vilaine for 21.5km front the area of Bat Colin and Le Boschet in south-east Carentoir, passing through the communes of La Chapelle 1 Baceline, Sixt, Bruc, Pipriac and Guipry, and just to the south of the bourg of Pipriac (see fig. 1). M was started in 1986, and six fields walked then: the alignment of this transect was slightly changed in 1987 to ensure adéquate coverage of a cross-section of land-use types between Carentoir and the Vilaine. Suitable fields under plough and with young crop within thèse transects were walked at 50m intervais, using collection units of 100m; some were too sodden for effective and damage-free surface collection. Field conditions, features, présence of varieties of schi ste and local pronunciations were noted on standardised recording forms. Ail available fields in Transects P and M and those in Transect R for a distance of some 7.75km were covered. Hence, 858 fields were walked (72 in P, 640 in M and 146 in R), encompassing 1044 hectares: 8.57. of the surface area of Transect P (95 ha.), 18.77. of Transect M (752 ha.), and 14.67. of the portion of Transect R walked (197 ha.): see fig. 2. Two sets of cropmarks, one platform and two areas of ridge and furrow were noted in M, together with forty-one lynchets; four and three lynchets, respectively, were noted in P and R. 32.82kg of pottery, 161.72kg of man-made building material, 23 flints and 611.72g of haematite were recovered from thèse transects, together with two worked pièces of quartz (from M). This breaks down, by transect, as follows: Brick/tile Pre-Rom. Roman Medi eval Post -med. Wei ght Fl int Haemati te kg Pottery Pot Pot Pot kg by no. g P 18. 49 1.47. 2. 97. 34. 67. 61. 17. 3. 67 1 2. 72 M 121.77 0. 767. 3. 87. 347. 61. 57. 26. 01 18 545 R 21. 46 1.37. 3.77. 8.27. 86. 87. 3. 13 4 64 Table 1: proportions and quantities of material recorded As in the core there were considérable variations in the concentration of recovered pottery, and the usual conventions are hereby used to distinguish between them: fields in which more than two neighbouring units each produced five or more sherds of the same broad period (or five or more fragments of building material) have been termed 'sites'; fields in which one unit produced five or more sherds or fragments of building material, and two or more neighbouring units produced one to four, or. two neighbouring units each produced five or more sherds or fragments, have been termed 'probable sites'; fields in which there were irregular concentrations of material not covered by the above catégories - for example, one unit with five or more sherds of the same period - have been termed 'possible sites'. (It should be stressed, yet again, that the terme are conventions for distinguishing between greater and lesser concentrations and for providing a means of référence to them; they do not necessarily dénote the location of former settlements.) In accordance with the conventions, the concentrations of surface material (total 219) may be classified as follows: P M R Si tes' 4 (5.67.) 18 (2. 87.) 4 (2. 77.) (37.) Probable' 10 (13. 9"/.) 73 ( 11 . 47.) 11 (7. 57.) 94 (117.) Possi ble' 13 (18V.) 69 (10 . 87.) 16 ( 117.) 98 (11.47.) Ail types 27 (37.5%) 160 (25 7.) 31 (21. 27.) 219 (25.57.) Fields 72 640 146 858 walked Table 2: concentrations of surface material (percentage of fields walked per transect and in toto) Of thèse concentrations none had predominanti y Roman or prehistoric pottery but a small proportion had some Roman or pre-Roman sherds. Some concentrations had predominanti y médiéval or predominanti y post-medieval sherds, others more than the necessary minimum proportions of médiéval and post-medieval sherds, and others had a prédominance of man-made building material. The proportions of such concentrations are as follows, by transect: Some Some Médiéval Post-medieval Med. + Brick Brick + pre—Rom. Roman Post-med. pottery 11. 17. P 11. 17. 7. 47. 11. 17. 48. 27. 11.17. 18.57. M 1.37. 10. 67. 8. 17. 32.57. 3.87. 45.67. 107. 6. 5 "<£ R 6. 57. 6. 57. 35. 5% 51. 57. Table 3: prédominant character of surface scatters Di scussion Clearly the character of the surface material differs from transect to transect. Transects P and M had areas which produced a little pre-Roman pottery - as had Transect N - a phenomenon that is extremely rare in the core communes (Asti 11 and Davies 1986: 115). P is notable for its relatively high proportion of fields with significant concentrations of surface material, high by comparison both with Transects M and R as also by comparison with the core, where fields with notable concentrations averaged only 24.27. of those walked. However, P, an area topographical 1 y characterized by the drop of land down to the River Oust, was not dissimilar to the eastern section of M, where the land dropped down to the River Vilaine; here, for a comparable distance, 6.77. of fields walked had notable concentrations of material (15.67. 'possible', 177. 'probable' and 4.57. 'site'). Transect M itself produced unusually high quantities of brick and tile, and a high proportion of its concentrations were characterized by brick and tile - some of which had Roman pottery associated. Transect R was notable for its very 1ow proportions of médiéval pottery and very high of post-medieval. Thèse results are striking by comparison with patterns of material recovered from the four core communes. Whereas the amounts of Roman material collected from the surface are mueh the same, the amounts and proportions of médiéval material are 1ower (especially in R) - as in N - while those of post-medieval material are considerably higher, though not as high as in N; in the core 507. of pottery collected from the surface was médiéval and 46.77. post-medi eval . The proportion of concentrations characterized by médiéval pottery is much lower than in the core (where it was 54.77.), and that by post-medi eval much higher (20.47. in the core). The overall distribution of material nevertheless shares some characteristics with that in the core. Again there are 'blank' areas in which nothing - or virtually nothing - can be found on the surface. It looks as if thèse 'blanks' are fields on land not cultivated in the historic period until the twentieth century; sometimes they are in areas clearly utilized as woodland until very recently. In P the 'blanks' lay on the steep si opes around La Hennelaye and Le Haut Couëdic. In R the 'blanks' lay near the Carentoir/Comblessac commune boundary and on the steep si opes to the north east of this area; also north of Comblessac bourg, in and around the Lande de Craon.