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