Sam Turner's important new interpretation of early medieval patterns of landscape development traces landscape change in the South West from the introduction of Christianity to the Norman Conquest (AD c. 450-1070). 16 pages of colour illustrations. The book stresses the significance of political and religious ideology in both the 'Celtic' west (especially Cornwall) and the 'Anglo-Saxon' east (especially the Wessex counties of Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset). Using innovative new research methods, and making use of archaeology, place-name evidence, historical sources and land-use patterns, it challenges previous work on the subject by suggesting that the two regions have much in common. Using modern mapping techniques to explore land-use trends, Turner advances a new model for the evolution of ecclesiastical institutions in south-west England. He shows that the early development of Christianity had an impact on the countryside that remains visible in the landscape we see today. Accessibly written with a glossary of terms and a comprehensive bibliography, the book will appeal to both veterans and newcomers to landscape archaeology.

The Atlantic Seaboard has attracted increasing interest as a zone of economic complexity and social connection during Late Antiquity and the early medieval period. A surge in archaeological and, in particular, ceramic research emerging from this region over the last decade has demonstrated the need for new models of exchange between the Mediterranean and Atlantic, and for new understandings of links between sites along the Western littoral of Europe. Ceramics and Atlantic Connections: Late Roman and Early Medieval Imported Pottery on the Atlantic Seaboard stems from the Ceramics and Atlantic Connections symposium, hosted by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, in March 2014. This represents the first international workshop to consider late Roman to early medieval pottery from across the Atlantic Seaboard. Reflecting the wide geographical scope of the original presentations by the invited speakers, these nine articles from ceramic specialists and archaeologists working across the Atlantic region, cover western Britain, Ireland, western France, north-west Spain and Portugal. The principal focus is the pottery of Mediterranean origin which was imported into the Atlantic, particularly East Mediterranean and North African amphorae and red-slipped finewares (African Red Slip and Late Roman C and D), as well as ceramics of Atlantic production which had widespread distributions, including Gaulish Derivees-de-Sigillees Paleochretiennes Atlantique/DSPA, ceramique a l'eponge' and 'E-ware'. Following the aims of the Newcastle symposium, the papers examine the chronologies and relative distributions of these wares and associated products, and consider the compositions of key Atlantic assemblages, revealing new insights into the networks of exchange linking these regions between c. 400-700 AD. This broad-scale exploration of ceramic patterns, together with an examination of associated artefactual, archaeological and textual evidence for maritime exchange, provides a window into the political, economic, cultural and ecclesiastical ties that linked the disparate regions of the Late Antique and early medieval Atlantic. In this way, this volume presents a benchmark for current understandings of ceramic exchange in the Atlantic Seaboard and provides a foundation for future research on connectivity in this zone.

Sam Turner's important new interpretation of early medieval patterns of landscape development traces landscape change in the South West from the introduction of Christianity to the Norman Conquest (AD c. 450-1070). 16 pages of colour illustrations. The book stresses the significance of political and religious ideology in both the 'Celtic' west (especially Cornwall) and the 'Anglo-Saxon' east (especially the Wessex counties of Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire and Dorset). Using innovative new research methods, and making use of archaeology, place-name evidence, historical sources and land-use patterns, it challenges previous work on the subject by suggesting that the two regions have much in common. Using modern mapping techniques to explore land-use trends, Turner advances a new model for the evolution of ecclesiastical institutions in south-west England. He shows that the early development of Christianity had an impact on the countryside that remains visible in the landscape we see today. Accessibly written with a glossary of terms and a comprehensive bibliography, the book will appeal to both veterans and newcomers to landscape archaeology.

Presenting the results of new research on the monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow-among the most sophisticated centers of learning and artistic culture in 7th- and 8th-century Europe, and the home of Bede-and their churches, this study examines the long-lasting effect of their buildings and estates on the surrounding region from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day. The authors trace these relationships through time with new studies of the changing landscape, the monastery precincts, and the surviving structures themselves, detailing how the historical archaeology of the sites reveals how the churches and their communities were rooted in the landscapes of Northumbria but flourished through their links with other parts of Britain and Europe. Researchers from many different backgrounds contributed to the project, using aerial, geophysical, geoarchaeological, and palaeoenvironmental surveys and digital mapping to examine the monasteries and surrounding lands. This book reveals not only the link between the churches and the region's political and economic history, but also demonstrates how their cultural significance for local people in northeast England has changed over time.