Farming in the First Millennium AD: British Agriculture between Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror

by Peter Fowler

Overview

At a time early in the twenty-first century when the nature and future of British farming is very much a matter of public debate, this volume presents an up-to-date overview of the subject between one and two thousand years ago. Its importance lies in providing an authoritative and scholarly synthesis of a great deal of research—environmental, archaeological and historical —which cumulatively makes a significant shift in the understanding of Britain and its farming peoples, of the British landscape and of farming itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521890564
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/14/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.81(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.98(d)

About the Author

Peter Fowler absorbed the elements of field archaeology informally from several gifted teachers before he graduated in History at the University of Oxford. Later he came under the inspiring influence of Colin Bowen, field archaeologist par excellence, who helped develop what became the author's lifelong interest in fields, farming and landscape. His principal career moves took him from the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England) into Adult Education at Bristol University - where he became Reader in Archaeology - back to the Royal Commission as Secretary, and then to the University of Newcastle upon Tyne as Professor of Archaeology. He eventually resigned his Chair to pursue full-time writing and research. This book is a sequel to The Farming of Prehistoric Britain (1983), also published by Cambridge University Press.

Table of Contents

1. The first millennium; 2. Evidence; 3. Environment; 4. Land; 5. Settlements; 6. Farms; 7. Fields; 8. Technology; 9. Ards and ploughs; 10. Arable; 11. Livestock; 12. Food and diet; 13. An agrarian society; 14. Farming in the first millennium.

Editorial Reviews

"[A]n example of a balanced scholarly work that successfully maintains its readability while fulfilling its stated objective as a textbook intended for undergraduates and general readers...capably traverses difficult scholarly territory and presents an engaging general picture of British agriculture over a thousand-year period." Bryn Mawr Classical Review

From the Publisher