Surrey Archaeological Collections

Surrey Archaeological Society, 2003. (updated 2023) https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221. How to cite using this DOI

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https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
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Surrey Archaeological Society (2023) Surrey Archaeological Collections [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221

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Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221
Sample Citation for this DOI

Surrey Archaeological Society (2023) Surrey Archaeological Collections [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000221

Testing transhumance: Anglo-Saxon swine pastures and seasonal grazing in the Surrey Weald

+DENNIS TURNER and ROB BRIGGS

It is commonly stated that the main pre-Norman Conquest use of the Weald was for transhumance – the grazing of certain pastures, to and from which livestock were moved over substantial distances at the beginning and end of a defined season. Often suggested to have been a phenomenon with prehistoric roots, in several ways transhumance seems to have been most important as a socio-economic institution in the earlier medieval centuries. Integral to such conjectures are those Wealden landholdings often known as denns, which are understood to have functioned as seasonal pastures for pigs or swine – the terms are interchangeable (Bennett 1970, 223) – at a considerable geographical remove from the associated estate centres (notably by Witney 1976 and Everitt 1986). While there is ample evidence that, at the time they emerge into documented history, many of these holdings were being used as swine pastures, the contemporary direct testimony for seasonal usage is slight at best, while the inherent problems surrounding any possible transhumance of swine appear great. Altogether, these call into question the validity of previous conjectures. By looking at a broader range of material, textual and landscape evidence, it can be demonstrated that the denns of Surrey did indeed operate as part of a seasonal grazing regime involving movement of swine into and out of the Weald. Further, there are hints that the regime involved some swine remaining in the Weald after the majority had been driven back to the estate centres, implying the benefit of year-round settlement at the wood pastures for the swineherds.

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