IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1507: The Anglo-Welsh Frontier in the Middle Ages, I

Thursday 9 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:	Liverpool Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies, University of Liverpool / Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, University of Manchester / Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester
Organiser:	Marios Costambeys, Department of History, University of Liverpool
Moderator/Chair:	Thomas Pickles, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester
Paper 1507-a	Pollen, Penllyn, and the Early Medieval Environment of North Wales (Language: English) Tudur Davies, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History
Paper 1507-b	Archaeological Approaches to the Early Medieval Welsh Borderlands (Language: English) Nancy Edwards, School of History, Welsh History & Archaeology, Bangor University Index terms: Archaeology - General, Economics - General, Local History, Mentalities
Paper 1507-c	Mearcstapa: The Limits of Belonging in Mercia and the March (Language: English) Andrew Sargent, Department of History, Keele University Index terms: Archaeology - General, Charters and Diplomatics, Local History
Abstract	Paper -a will present palynological data from north Wales as a contribution towards understanding diachronic change in land use across the Anglo-Welsh frontier, and especially the effects of climate change and known historic events. Paper -b aims to define more precisely complex early medieval identities in the borders between the kingdoms of Powys and Mercia by comparing and contrasting the archaeological evidence for the dyke systems there, the most extensive of which is attributed to Offa. Paper -c begins with the observation that pre-Conquest Mercia and the post-Conquest March of Wales share the same etymological origin, meaning ‘boundary’. It asks why the northwest midlands appears to have attracted this label in two different historical contexts, and uses documentary, archaeological and topographical evidence to suggest that the region formed a historical 'borderland' between eastern and western Britain that depended on more than simply ethnic or political distinctions.