Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape

The extent to which Anglo-Saxon society was capable oflarge-scale transformations of the landscape is hotly disputed. Thisinterdisciplinary book - embracing archaeological and historical sources -explores this important period in our landscape history and the extent to whichbuildings, settlements and field systems were laid out using sophisticatedsurveying techniques. In particular, recent research has found new and unexpectedevidence for the construction of building complexes and settlements ongeometrically precise grids, suggesting a revival of the techniques of theRoman land-surveyors (Agrimensores).Two units of measurement appear to have been used: the 'short perch' of 15 feetin central and eastern England, where mostcases occur, and the 'long perch' of 18 feet at the small number of examplesidentified in Wessex. This technically advanced planning is evident during twoperiods: c.600-800, when it may have been a mostlymonastic practice, and c.940-1020, when it appears to have been revived in amonastic context but then spread to a wider range of lay settlements. Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape is a completely new perspective on how villages and other settlement were formed. It combines map and field evidence with manuscript treatises on land-surveying to show that the methods described in the treatises were not just theoretical, but were put into practice. In doing so it reveals a major aspect of previously unrecognised early medieval technology.