Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T19:16:45.084Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coaxial field systems: some questions of time and space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Andrew Fleming
Andrew Fleming*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Curwen, writing in ANTIQUITY 60 years ago about prehistoric agriculture in Britain (Curwen 1927), found his best evidence for the fields of earliest times came from the hut-circles and enclosures of Dartmoor. Andrew Fleming has done the same in studying the large-scale land divisions made by the Dartmoor reaves. Until his work these prehistoric boundaries were thought to be of medieval date – understandably as they demonstrate not the piecemeal and local enclosing of little fields but planned land division on a medieval scale. In this paper Fleming extends his view out from Dartmoor to the wider pattern of land division on the grand scale at early dates, and to its social implications.

Type
Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 61 , Issue 232 , July 1987 , pp. 188 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atkinson, R.J.C. 1951. Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.Google Scholar
Ault, W.O. 1972. Open-field farming in medieval England. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Baker, A.R.H. & Butlin, R.A.. 1973. Studies of field systems in the British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bassett, S. 1985. Beyond the edge of excavation: the topographical context of Goltho, in Mayr-Harting, H. & Moore, R. I. (ed.), Studies in medieval history presented to R.C.H. Davis: 21–39. London: Hambledon.Google Scholar
Bell, M. 1981. Valley sediments and environmental change, in Jones, M. & Dimbleby, G.W. (ed.), The environment of man: the Iron Age to Anglo-Saxon period: 75–91. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 87.Google Scholar
Bell, M. 1983. Valley sediments as evidence of prehistoric land-use on the South Downs, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49: 119–50.Google Scholar
Bowen, H.C. 1972. Air photography: some implications in the south of England, in Fowler, E. (ed.), Field survey in British archaeology: 38–49. London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1978. Prehistoric field systems in Britain and north-west Europe: a review of some recent work, World Archaeology 9: 265–80.Google Scholar
Brisbane, M. & Clews, S.. 1979. The East Moor field systems, Altarnun and North Hill, Bodmin Moor, Cornish Archaeology 18: 33–56.Google Scholar
Burl, A. 1981. ‘By the light of the cinerary moon’: chambered tombs and the astronomy of death, in Ruggles, C. L. N. & Whittle, A.W.R. (ed.), Astronomy and society during the period 4000–1500 BC: 243–74. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 88.Google Scholar
Caseldine, C.J. & Maguire, D.. 1981. A review of the prehistoric and historic environment on Dartmoor, Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 39: 1–16.Google Scholar
Catt, J.A. 1978. The contribution of loess to soils in lowland Britain, in Limbrey & Evans 1978: 12–20.Google Scholar
Caulfield, S. 1978. Neolithic fields: the Irish evidence, in Bowen, H.C. & Fowler, P.J. (ed.), Early land allotment: 137–43. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 48.Google Scholar
Caulfield, S. 1983. The neolithic settlement of North Connaught, in Reeves-Smyth, T. & Hamond, F. (ed.) Landscape archaeology in Ireland: 195–216. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 116.Google Scholar
Clare, T. 1978. Recent work on the Shap ‘Avenue’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 78: 5–15.Google Scholar
Curwen, E.C. 1927. Prehistoric agriculture in Britain, Antiquity 1: 261–89.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 1979. Court cairns, passage graves and social change in Ireland, Man 14: 311–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drewett, P. 1982. Late bronze age downland economy and excavation at Black Patch, East Sussex, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48: 321–400.Google Scholar
Drury, P. 1978. Excavations at Little Waltham, 1970–1. London: Council for British Archaeology. Research Report 26.Google Scholar
Emmett, D.D. 1979. Stone rows: the traditional view reconsidered, Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 37: 94–114.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. 1973. Tombs for the living, Man 8: 177–93. 1978. The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor. Part 1: South Dartmoor, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 44: 97–123.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. 1983. The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor. Part 2: North and East Dartmoor, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49: 195–241.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. 1984. The prehistoric landscape of Dartmoor: wider implications, Landscape History 6: 5–19.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. 1985. Land tenure, productivity, and field systems, in Barker, G. & Gamble, C. (ed.), Beyond domestication in prehistoric Europe: 129–46. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. In press a. Coaxial field systems in later prehistory, in Nordstrom, H.Å. & Knape, A. (ed.), Bronze age studies. Stockholm: Museum of National Antiquities.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. In press b. The genesis of coaxial field systems, in Torrence, R. & van der Leeuw, S. (ed.), The social implications of technological change. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. & Ralph, N.. 1982. Medieval settlement and land use on Holne Moor, Dartmoor: the landscape evidence, Medieval Archaeology 26: 101–37.Google Scholar
Fowler, P.J. 1978. Lowland landscapes: culture, time and personality, in Limbrey & Evans 1978: 1–12.Google Scholar
Giot, P.-R., L’Helcouach, J. & Monnier, J.-L.. 1979. Préhistoire de la Bretagne. Rennes: Ouest-France.Google Scholar
Hogg, A.H.A. 1975. Hill-forts of Britain. London: Hart-Davis, Macgibbon.Google Scholar
Kristiansen, K. 1982. The formation of tribal systems in later European prehistory: Northern Europe, 4000–500 BC, in Renfrew, C., Rowlands, M.J. & Segraves, B.A. (ed.), Theory and explanation in archaeology: 241–80. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Laurie, T. 1985. Early land division and settlement in Swaledale and on the eastern approaches to the Stainmore pass over the North Pennines, in Spratt, D. & Burgess, C. (ed.), Upland settlement in Britain: 135–62. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series no. 143.Google Scholar
Limbrey, S. & Evans, J.G. (ed.). 1978. The effect of man on the landscape:the Lowland Zone: London: Council for British Archaeology. Research report 21.Google Scholar
Maguire, D., Ralph, N. & Fleming, A.. 1983. Early land use on Dartmoor – palaeobotanical and pedological investigations on Holne Moor, in Jones, M. (ed.), Integrating the subsistence economy: 57–105. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International Series 181.Google Scholar
Mercer, R. 1980. Hambledon Hill: a neolithic landscape. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Oliveira, D.L. 1986. Monuments and social complexity: a new line of enquiry, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 5: 103–7.Google Scholar
Palmer, R. 1984. Danebury, an Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire: an aerial photographic interpretation of its environs. London: RCHM.Google Scholar
Parry, M. 1978. Climatic change, agriculture and settlement. Folkestone: Dawson.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1968. The Druids. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. 1982. On the road to Stonehenge: report on investigations beside the A344 in 1968, 1979 and 1980, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48: 75–132.Google Scholar
Plunkett Dillon, E. 1985. The field boundaries of the Burren, county Clare. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Trinity College Dublin.Google Scholar
Powell, T.G.E. 1958. The Celts. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1980. Excavation at Fengate, Peterborough, England: the third report. Northampton & Toronto: Northamptonshire Archaeological Society & Royal Ontario Museum.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1982. Fengate. Aylesbury: Shire Books.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1984. Personalities of Britain: two examples of long-term regional contrast, Scottish Archaeological Review 3: 8–15.Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 1987. Etton 1986: neolithic metamorphoses, Antiquity 61: 78–80.Google Scholar
Raistrick, A. 1938. Prehistoric cultivations at Grassington, West Yorkshire, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 33: 166–74.Google Scholar
RCHM 1970a. An inventory of historical monuments in the county of Dorset. 2 South-East. Part 3. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
RCHM 1970b. An inventory of historical monuments in the county of Dorset 3 Central, Part 2. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
RCHM 1979. Stonehenge and its environs. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Renfrew, A.C. 1973. Monuments, mobilization and social organization in neolithic Wessex, in Renfrew, C. (ed.), The explanation of culture change: models in prehistory: 538–58. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Richards, J.C. 1978. The archaelogy of the Berkshire Downs: an introductory survey. Reading: Berkshire Archaeological Committee.Google Scholar
Riley, D.N. 1980. Early landscape from the air. Sheffield: Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Rodwell, W. 1978. Relict landscapes in Essex, in Bowen, H.C. & Fowler, P.J. (ed.) Early Land Allotment: 89–98. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 48.Google Scholar
Shee, E. 1972. Recent work on Irish passage grave art, Bollettino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici 8: 199–224.Google Scholar
Simpson, D.D.A. & Thawley, J.T.. 1973. Single grave art in Britain, Scottish Archaeological Forum 4: 81–104.Google Scholar
Smith, I.F. 1965. Windmill Hill and Avebury: excavations by Alexander Keiller. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Spooner, G.M. & Russell, F.S.. 1967. Worth’s Dartmoor. Newton Abbot: David & Charles.Google Scholar
Spratt, D. 1982. Prehistoric & Roman archaeology of North-East Yorkshire. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 104.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. & Whittle, A.. 1986. Anatomy of a tomb – West Kennet revisited, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 5: 129–56.Google Scholar
Thorpe, I.J. & Richards, C.C.. 1984. The decline of ritual authority and the introduction of Beakers into Britain, in Bradley, R. & Gardiner, J. (ed.), Neolithic studies: 67–84. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. British Series 133.Google Scholar