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IMC 2008: Sessions

Session 821: Mapping the Medieval Environment: Recent Research in Northamptonshire

Tuesday 8 July 2008, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:School of History, University of East Anglia
Organiser:Tom Williamson, School of History, University of East Anglia
Respondent:Glenn Foard, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Paper 821-aOpen Fields, Soils, and Tenure in Medieval Northamptonshire
(Language: English)
Tom Williamson, School of History, University of East Anglia
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 821-bA Balanced Economy?: Arable, Woodland, and Grazing in Medieval Northamptonshire
(Language: English)
Tracey Partida, School of History, University of East Anglia
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Economics - Rural, Geography and Settlement Studies
Abstract

This session will present some of the preliminary results of the AHRC-funded Agriculture and the Landscape in Northamptonshire project. This employs GIS technology to map a wide range of documentary and archaeological datasets relating to the medieval and post-medieval landscape of the county. We are now able to map, with considerable accuracy, the extent and layout of arable open fields and other types of land use in the medieval period, and to explore the extent to which different forms of agrarian organisation were related to variations in the natural environment, and how far they were the outcome of independent social and tenurial factors.