| Abstract: |
Many years' multidiscip!inary study of one of the most completely recognisable ancient landscapes in Western Europe has culminated in a volume of essays with accompanying maps and gazetteer. Summary and interpretation by P Salway (pp 1-21) shows the area was concerned less with arable, more with livestock, than previously thought. Settlement began in 1st century AD, flourished in 2nd, but suffered during disastrous 3rd century floods. Recovery was slow, and a 4th century renewal of occupation (?imperial estates) was short-lived; vital watercourses decayed when central administration withdrew, and the Fens were deserted by 450 at latest. Sylvia Hallam (22-113) catalogues Roman settlement around the Wash; John Bromwich (114-26) gives the evidence for freshwater flooding during the Roman period; S C A Holmes (127-31) provides an outline geology and stratigraphy; D M Churchill (132-42) describes post-Neolithic to RB sedimentation in the southern Fenlands, and A G Smith (147-64) deals with the stratigraphy of the northern Fenlands. Pottery examined by K F and B R Hartley (165-9) confirms the "3rd century gap" due to flooding, and indicates beer rather than wine as the chief drink. |
