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Landscapes Ofpre~Medieval 1Se Ent ,Mall Occupation of Land Less STEPHEN RIPPON :Sl 3 Ider­ that [h~ Landscapes ofPre~Medieval 1se ent ,mall Occupation of land less STEPHEN RIPPON :Sl, :he an THE D IST INCT IVE LANDSCAPES O FT H E ty, SOUTH-WEST PEN INSULA The South West is well known for its wealth of archaeological sites, most notably In, on the granite uplands of Dartmoor, Bodmin M oor and \X/est Penwith, but the Ith­ fUeLlS (l this chapter is not individual monuments but rather the whole landscape and in panicular how prehistoric, Romano-British and early medieval S5 communities shaped the character of the present countryside. Chronologically this chapter bc:g ins at the end of the ice age and finishes a century or so before the . orman ~ onquest, by which time many or the essential characteristics of mc\cty"'s 'historic landscape' had come into being - a settlement pallern typically of smaH hamlets and isolated farmsteads, the network ofwinding sunken lanes, th~ complex systems of small fields enclosed by high hedgebanks, and the legacies from the. extraction of a wide range of mineral resources. The eastern boundary of U1C South West is a fundamel1lal and long-lasting ~ ion dil·ision in the cultural and physicallandscare, which runs approximately along the wat ersheds of lie Quantock and Blackdown hills to the west of the ri ve rs Par-rell and Axe (Fig. 3.1). It encompasses the whole of the medi 'val counties of Del·un and Cornwall along with the western part of Somerset, including Exmoor. This boundary divides the tribal areas of the Iron Age and Romano­ British Dumnonii in the west and the Durotriges in the cast. but also marks a fundamcnwl di vision in the character of the cultural landscape of southern Cuast Britain as a whole in being the westerly limit of extensive Romanisation and a 111 ~1 countryside characterised by nucleated villages and open fields in the medieval and post-medieval period. The special character of south-west England's landscape has an antiquity lhat goes back over two millennia. A number of distinctive features of the region'S archaeological research have greatly influenced the extent to which we understand its landscape history. "j(lj1ographical ly, the landscape is dominated by a series of uplands of which those formed of ranirc havc given rise to abundant, well-preserved relict n lands cap 's due to the. freely ava ilable loose stone boulders used for lie construction of tield walls and buildings. The other major upland, Exmoor, comprises mostly sandsroncs, slates and grits, and the lack of good quality stone results in a range of less visually impressive monuments, the exte nt of which has it's. onl) recently been fully appreciated. D espite the excellent preservation of this upland archaeology. lie long history of fid d work on D artmoor. and recent SI![\'C.Ys on 130dmin Moor and Exmoor, the amount of recent excavation in south-west England's uplands is in fact surprisingly limited . 41 LANDS - P ES OF PR E Me D I EVA L OCCUPATIO In the Il" · tu nd ~ locatc as s u bg~qu o ('ten h • \') [,iI, e"""tent of crop m: such a, \'fessex. I surfacc cotkclior Major wetlands (Ihe Somerset Levels) though the rcgiol m::tny later prSii -Land over 400m the' , pcri()d~ ar<: understanding 01 Land over 200m 1980s with the in Civitas capital unsuspeL'tt:d den • large-scale lIeopl­ Villa or other substantial '\ some oth r part Roman building ( De von c.'c;Jvations, thol ... ..... Western Ilmil of wholly nucleated and pipelines arc settlement In the 19th century • Exeter arc onc .Igam re .l Oartmoor THE CHRO The chronologie Co rn wa ll artefact-bdS 'd Ie South Hfl ms ,y\ iddk B ronze Po N 3,1. D istribution Plymoulh His/()ricuL .. Iduo 01 Sound ~ . I iley and Xi ibun WfS. catibrated/calend Pe nwith W'hile discllssi upon the discrell 25."OOIO_ =. · ...O ____.25km arollnd five broa , communities wei I ,andscapes 01 d L'\'dopmcnr ( Fig, 3,1 77,0 south-wesf peninsula, \:xptoited by n ' Disrriblilion of villa s and other slIbsr m lial landscape stigl rOlllallised bllildings, alld tlte ,,'estern limit of around the for wholly nlldearni sflliemcnt pallerm ill the 19th ccll!lIry,jolilYwing the work of Roberts I: ld capes 01 alldWralllmeJl 2000. Bronze ! gc: ~ woodland crclo hunting-gatht: claim to terrirl monuments JI Fig, 3.2 Raddon, Stockleigh Pomeroy, central Devon (5S 885031). TIre emp marks • L;\ Il d s c Jre~ 0 of litis Early N colirliic cam ewaved CIIclosw'c to ?carlv 1st n; "lid iron A ge hllljo,.r, which was re-occ/.Ipi d i ll stable (he ear!v medievaJ period, Imw OIlly beell visible tlmmgh acrialpholOg mphy for a few wceks every /irUJ years, Following a goap"),sical slI1Tey. the :ii I ' wa, excavared ill advallce of road cOlI$trucliuTl, W'ilhow rhe /.ISC of radiocarbon dal rllg lire aceramic early medieval phase would probably no/ have beeli recognised. 42 LA N D S \P [ S OF PR E- MEDI F VAL O C lI P A I IC '\J In th e lowlands past sites and landscape' an.:, in contrast, m or" dillicull to locaLe ~ s subseljuent extensive ploughing ha, fl a Ltened m ost earthworks, while ofte n heavy soils and a modern predominance of p asto ral fanning makes the extcm of cro p m arks visible from the air rc!ati vel limited co m pared to regions such as \'(1essex.There has, however, been a lo ng traditio n of opportunistic surface coll ection, which has revealed large nu m bers of p rehistoric f1ln t scatters. though th e region's often acidic soil s, and a genuine s arcity of p ottery II ed on many Lller prehi toric to early medieval rural ettlements means thal sites of these pLCriods are rarely located through fi eldwalking. A transformation in our understanding of south-west England's lowland landscapc started in the mid­ 1980s with the initiation of regular aerial photography that rcvealed a previously unsuspected density of crop-mark sites (P ig . 3.2 and see also Fig. 3.13) while large-scale geo physical survey is also starting to have an impact. Compared to somc (,r her pans of Britain there have been r~lat.ively few large-scale reSCll e ~xca\'8ri o ns, though a number of linear devc!opments such as road constructions and pipelines are now providing valuahle cross-sectjons across the landscape and arc oncc again revealing a hitherto uns uspected range and density of sitcs_ THE CHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK The chronological framework of the So uth West is based u pon the traditi lIlal anefact-based tenTlinology w;ed by Bri tish p rehistorians - for example the ,\Iiddk Bronze. ge - and these d iscrete cultural periods are ' ummarised in Table 3.1. Distrihution maps [o r sites fro m m ost o f these periods can be found in the [-/is{(lriCLli IJlias of SOlllh- ~t'kS I EIlf!land and The Field A n;/iaeolugy of fix.moor (see Riley aml\Xiil son- orth 200 1). Alllhe dates re ferred to here are based on caltbratcd/calendar years (eg 3rd millen nium BC; c. AD 55/6U) . While discllssion of t'he a rchaeolocr ical evidence from the outh \':(Iest is based Ufl llTl the discrl,tt' cultural periods li sted in Table 1, this chapter is structured around fin: broader phu es defined by !lIe way in which p ost-glacial human c<)mmullities \\we c: xp loiting , m odifying and managing landscape: l .an d ~ capl's of hunter-gatherers ( 1esolithic: 1otil to 5th millennium Be): dc\clopmml f post-glaeial d ima..'i. vegetation (mixed deciduous woodland) ex pl oi ted 0\' mobile hunter-gatherer groups IVho may have modifi ed the landscape sli ghtl y thr ugh Lh us of fire ro pen up woodland clearings aro ul1d thc rnr..:st margins. l.Al nllscapcs or the earliest agriculturalists and their ancestors (Neolithic/Early Bronze Age: 4th to m id-2nd milleonlum Be): initial significant clearance of \\()odl and crenting a moderately open landscape used for agriculrure and hunting-gathering by semi-seden tary, socially stratified communities who laid daim to terri tori s through the co nstructio n of cerem o nial and burial rnOI1UI1ll'nlS and the creati o n o f ancestors. l .undscapt: 5 nC the lir t edentary farmers (Middk:PL at Bronze Aae: mid-2nd [p ~cll rly 1st millt>nnium Be): em ergence of sedentary co mmunities living in lubk settlements (both open and enclosed) often associated with small-scale ildJ syste ms, with large-scale enclosure 0 the up land margins o f Danmoor. C"ntinued usc or som . barrow cem eteries but relGlt ively few archaeologically vi sible- signs of social st:rati ficati on. P ossible decrease in the intensity of Llndscapl' c;.;p lnitation in the ate Bronze Age. I"Illdscapcs of a stratified s ciety (Iron Age, Rom ano-British and earliest early m~dll' \ ' a l periods: mid-lst millennium llC to mid/late I st millennium AD): 4-3 L A N DS C AP U o r PR E l'vIEDIE V A I O C CU P ATJ ON reneINed exp TABLE 3.1 THE CULT URAL PERIODS OF THE SOUTH W E T em ~f1!:en(;t: 0 ~c llkmem , \ (AFTER GENT AND QU!l-\NE LL 1999 ( EARLY . 'EOLITIIIC) ; HOLBRO OK 20D 1 ( ROM . N O-B RITI S H ) ; NEEDH.
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