University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education
From Civilisation To Barbarism? Western Britain in the Early
Middle Ages
Tutor: Dr Kirsten Jarrett
Week Two:Urban Settlement
Student InformationContinuing Education Library
Rewley House, Wellington Square, Oxford, OX1 2HY http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/facilities/library/
Opening hoursTerm-time (to 14th Dec.): Mon–Thurs: 9am - 8.30 pmFri: 9am - 5 pmSat: 9.30 am - 5.30 pmSun: 1pm - 4pm
Vacation (to 7th Jan.):Mon – Fri: 9am - 5pmSat & Sun: ClosedClosed 22nd Dec.-1st Jan.
Necessary for Homework & Assignments!
AssignmentsOption A:• To enable feedback between each assignment: to tutor
ASAP • Complete portfolio (four answers, each x 250 words):
Preferably to tutor by 27th Nov.Final deadline: 4th Jan. (submissions after final class - to OUDCE)
Option B:• Essay plan to tutor before final class
• Final deadline: 4th Jan. (submissions after final class - to OUDCE)
Part One
• Group discussion: Home-study review and key questions • Written evidence and place names: settlement • Urban decline and change: dark earth & decay• Group exercise: placing place names (depending on
time taken on group discussion: if short of time, undertake as homework)
[Handout: p. 8, Worksheet 2A p. 9]
De Excidio Britanniae (‘D.E.B.’)
3:2. [Britain] is ornamented with twenty-eight cities….
24:3. All the major towns were laid low by the repeated battering of enemy rams…
26:2. But the cities of our land are not populated even now as they once were;
right to the present day they are deserted, in ruins and unkempt.
Towns of later Roman Western Britain
‘Nennius’s’ ‘Ancient Cities’
Cair gurcoc (Anglesey?)Cair custeint (Caernarfon)Cair guoranegon (Worcester)Cair merdin (Carmarthen)Cair lion (Caerleon-upon-Usk)Cair ceri (Cirencester)Cair gloui (Gloucester)Cair britoc (Bristol)Cair ligion (Chester?)
Cair guent (Caerwent)Cair guorcon (Warren, Pemb.?)Cairteimm (Teigngrace, Devon)Cair urnahc (Wroxeter)Cair colemion (?‘Camelet’)Cair meguaid (Meifod, Powys)Cair guorthegern (Salisbury?)Cair daun = dauri (Dorchester?)
Urban Transformation: ‘Decline’ or change?
General late 4th century trends in major towns:• Changing use / contraction of public buildings • Increased wealth of private buildings and
encroachment onto roads• Increased industrial activity• Enhanced defences and control of movement
Small Towns: Late C4: Commercial and industrial centres - Few indicators of continuity
Late 4th – 7th Century Transformation of Urban
Centres• Contraction of town walls• Possible intra-mural agriculture• Demolition of public buildings • Construction in timber• Intra-mural burial and / or construction of
ecclesiastical buildings in some towns
Place names
(Handout 2A, p. 7, & Worksheet 2A, p. 8)
Pen = Headland Avon = River
Wic = settlement
Creech = cruc
Coyd = wood
Ham = homestead
Tre = Farmstead
Caer = walled settlement
Chester = (Roman) Walled town
Walh = ‘foreigner’
Part Two
• Regional case studies • Session review / Home-study guidance [Week 2:
Session review sheet] • Group exercise: analysing urban settlements,
(depending on time taken on group discussion: if short of time, undertake as homework) [Worksheet 2B: p.9-10]
Wroxeter basilica
Gloucester
Castle
St OswaldsTilery
>LC4 <C6
>EC5
New Market Hall site:• Ash & molten lead = metalworking• Spearhead & human jaw on
mosaic• Hoard including early C5 coin• Late Roman ‘military ‘buckle,
bracelet & penannular brooch• Continued use of some later
Roman ceramics• ‘Dark earth’
Tilery:• Post-holes = timber building• Dark earth• Continued presence of some
later Roman ceramics• Early C5 coin• ‘Grass-tempered’ pottery
Castle Site:• Building continued use C5+(TPQ = 374 C14: TAQ =C6)• Post-holes cut into floor• Build up of loam• Hearths, lead ingot, &
charcoal = metalworking• C5 pottery• Human / animal bone
Caerwent
Group Exercise: Urban Settlements
