Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: The Bioarchaeology of an Agricultural Revolution

Abstract

The medieval 'agricultural revolution' saw the spread of open-field cereal farming across much of Europe and is regarded as one of the transformative changes of the Middle Ages. In England there is a long-standing debate regarding the origins of open field farming and its impact on the country's social geography and political economy. The lecture will provide an overview of a new project, funded by the ERC, which is using plant macrofossils, animal bones, and pollen, together with settlement archaeology, to generate, for the first time, direct evidence for the conditions in which
medieval crops were grown.

The Medieval Seminar Series is sponsored by the World Archaeology Section at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the British Museum.

All meetings start at 6.15pm at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Attendees are invited to bring news items for announcement before the start of each seminar.

• The programme for the 2018-19 Institute of Archaeology/British Museum Medieval Seminar Series is available to download here»

Seminar Series Convenors:

• Sue Brunning (British Museum)
• Andrew Reynolds (Institute of Archaeology)