Helena Hamerow

Early medieval farmers expanded cereal production largely by adopting ‘low-input’ forms of farming. These involved increasing the area of land under cultivation while decreasing the amount of ‘input’—manure and human labour—per land unit. Weed flora vary according to soil fertility and tillage, and the seeds of arable weeds that grew among medieval crops and were preserved with them provide a valuable indicator of soil conditions. Analysis of weed flora is used here to distinguish crops grown in low-input (‘extensive’) conditions from those grown in higher input (more ‘intensive’, presumably smaller scale) conditions. This is complemented by an analysis of the stable isotope values of cereal grains to investigate how intensively crops were manured and whether cultivation expanded onto heavier, more productive soils. Finally, a national database of archaeobotanical remains is interrogated to establish what arable weeds reveal about the chronology and regional trajectory of arable ‘extensification’. The results reflect a shift to ‘low-input’ regimes beginning around the eighth century, indicating an expansion in the scale of arable farming.

Systematic crop rotation, whereby farmers followed an agreed sequence of sowing and fallow, was a fundamental feature of medieval farming. A regular short fallow period enabled more land to be brought under the plough while the fallow field provided valuable grazing. A review of what written sources suggest about crop rotation is followed by a consideration of how archaeobotanical remains can be used to distinguish between crops grown in rotation, crops grown in separate fields, and mixed crops such as maslins. Analysis of arable weeds reveals evidence for seasonal sowing while the stable isotope signatures of medieval cereal grains are analysed to investigate the likelihood of systematic rotation. Increased uniformity of crop stable isotope values from the tenth century onwards, supported by evidence for seasonal sowing, indicates that this period saw the widespread adoption of systematic crop rotation.

Chapter 1 examines the new forms of cereal farming that developed between c.AD 700 and 1300. These involved expanding the amount of land under cultivation and ultimately enabled landowners to amass wealth by exploiting the labour of others. Increases in agricultural outputs in the later part of the period are well documented, but the nature of the farming regimes that underpinned this growth are much debated. The lack of agreement regarding whether there was a period of ‘revolutionary’ change or a gradual process of ‘cerealization’, and how closely innovations like the mouldboard plough and systematic crop rotation were linked with each other and with field and village form, is explored. It is argued that new, direct evidence is needed and the range of bioarchaeological data now available is introduced. The ‘mouldboard plough package’ is introduced as a framing device, the regional and chronological frameworks used are introduced, and the structure of the volume is explained.

This chapter considers the implications of the evidence presented in Chapters 3–6. It concludes that the ‘long eighth century’ was a period of innovation in farming regimes that brought a new emphasis on surplus production. The tenth to early eleventh centuries saw the establishment of ‘proto-manorial’ settlement complexes alongside more widespread take-up of the mouldboard plough and systematic rotation, as well as a calibration of cropping regimes to local conditions. The mid-eleventh and twelfth centuries, when planned, ‘nucleated’ villages were established in many parts of the country, are not obviously associated with agricultural innovations but did see a ‘scaling up’ of production and increasing take-up of systematic rotation and the plough. The potential drivers of these developments—technological innovation, demographic change, local lordship, climate change, long-distance trade, etc.—are considered in relation to regional patterns. The conclusion revisits the question of whether there was a medieval ‘agricultural revolution’.

The mouldboard plough is traditionally regarded as a key part of a technological package that boosted agricultural productivity north of the Alps. Chapter 5 reviews the evidence for the transition from ard to plough and considers when it changed from being a high-status implement used at a few elite sites to an essential piece of equipment for farmers wishing to implement an extensive cultivation regime. A study of cattle bones allows the changing emphasis on traction over time and regionally to be traced. The results, combined with an ecological study of arable weeds to gauge soil disturbance (reflecting the type and frequency of tillage), indicate that use of the plough increased from the eighth century, with a majority of settlements displaying a distinctive ‘draught cattle signature’ by the tenth and eleventh centuries.