Contact, concord and conquest: Britons and Romans at Scotch Corner

Abstract

historical models and particular exemplars, Silvester instead situates analysis in the datacentric results of a study in 2015 by the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust. The result is an important and potentially seminal analysis that highlights differences and divergences at a local and regional level. This theme of locality is further adopted in David Austin’s contribution analysing in detail the development of an estate and landscape surrounding the Abbey of Strata Florida in Ceredigion. Subsequently, Rhiannon Comeau demonstrates the origin of the thirteenth-century term In rodwallis in the inter-related practices and seasonal practices of land-use in pre-Conquest Wales through a detailed study of the lordship of Cemais. Continuing this theme of demonstrating the enduring value of focused analyses of specific localities, Andy Seaman emphasizes the value of the Llandaff charters for understanding landscape, exploitation and political dynamics in the case of the estate surrounding Llangorse. Demonstrating how different a picture they present to eighteenthand nineteenth-century accounts of agricultural norms, Seaman also expertly elucidates the operation of a major royal and ecclesiastical landscape. Tudor Davis thereafter marries concerns for the locality, with a regional and national focus, demonstrating temporal and spatial variation across Wales from a palaeoecological standpoint. This exceptional work of synthesis is perhaps the most significant, original and comprehensive piece of research within this excellent volume, challenging many of the dominant narratives surrounding agricultural expansion, decline and contraction. Wrapping up the volume, Andrew Fleming presents a thought-provoking and powerful discussion of the need to consider both continuity and change against a range of scales, emphasizing how powerful a lens this is for the analysis of the nexus of agriculture and landscape in Wales. As a whole, this volume is an exceptionally important statement of the potential of focused local and regional scale analysis to transform understandings of the nature of agricultural practice, and its significance in wider social, political and cultural developments. The contributions complement each other excellently, and together describe a cohesive overview of interest to those studying Wales, but also more broadly to students of landscape, agriculture and medieval society elsewhere.