Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T20:35:50.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hillforts and Power in the British Post-Roman West: A GIS Analysis of Dinas Powys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2020

Andy Seaman Open the ORCID record for Andy Seaman [Opens in a new window]  and
Leo Sucharyna Thomas
Andy Seaman
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK
Leo Sucharyna Thomas
Affiliation:
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The (re)occupation of hillforts was a distinctive feature of post-Roman Europe in the fifth to seventh centuries ad. In western and northern Britain, hillforts are interpreted as power centres associated with militarized elites, but research has paid less attention to their landscape context, hence we know little about the factors that influenced their siting and how this facilitated elite power. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide opportunities for landscape research, but are constrained by limitations of source data and the difficulty of defining appropriate parameters for analysis. This article presents a new methodology that combines data processing and analytical functions in GIS with techniques and principles drawn from ‘traditional’ landscape archaeology. A case study, focused on Dinas Powys, suggests that the strategic siting of this hillfort facilitated control over the landscape and has wider implications for our understanding of patterns of power in post-Roman Britain.

L'occupation (ou réoccupation) de sites de hauteur fortifiés est un trait caractéristique de l'Europe post-romaine, entre le Ve et le VIIe siècle apr. J.-C. Dans l'ouest et le nord de la Grande-Bretagne, on interprète les sites de hauteur fortifiés comme représentant des centres de pouvoir associés à des élites militarisées, mais le paysage dans lequel ils s'inscrivent est moins bien connu. Nous sommes donc mal informés sur les facteurs qui ont influencé leur implantation et comment leur position topographique a facilité l'exercice du pouvoir des élites. Les systèmes d'information géographique (SIG) nous permettent d’étudier le paysage mais sont limités par les données de base et par les difficultés de définir des paramètres d'analyse adéquats. Les auteurs de cet article présentent une nouvelle approche méthodologique qui combine le traitement des données et les fonctions analytiques des SIG avec les techniques et principes de l'analyse « traditionnelle » du paysage en archéologie. Un cas d’étude, Dinas Powys au Pays de Galles, démontre que la position de ce site de hauteur fortifié lui permettait de contrôler le paysage environnant et ceci a des répercutions plus profondes sur notre aptitude à déchiffrer l'organisation du pouvoir en Grande-Bretagne à l’époque post-romaine. Translation by Madeleine Hummler

Die (Wieder-) Besiedlung von befestigten Höhensiedlungen war ein Kennzeichen der nachrömischen Zeit in Europa, im 5. bis 7. Jahrhundert n. Chr. Im britischen Westen und Norden werden die befestigten Höhensiedlungen als Machtzentren einer militarisierten Elite gedeutet, aber der landschaftliche Rahmen dieser Höhensiedlungen ist weniger gut erforscht. Deswegen sind die Umstände, welche die Standortwahl beeinflusst haben und die Machtausübung der Elite gefördert haben, nur wenig bekannt. Die Methoden der GIS-Analyse ermöglichen es, die Landschaft zu untersuchen, aber die Analyse ist durch die Beschränkungen der Datenquellen und Schwierigkeiten in der Bestimmung von geeigneten Parametern behindert. In diesem Artikel wird eine neue methodologische Vorgehensweise vorgestellt: Diese kombiniert die Datenverarbeitungsleistungen und analytischen Funktionen des GIS mit den Methoden und Grundsätzen der „traditionellen“ Landschaftsarchäologie. Eine Fallstudie, Dinas Powys in Wales, zeigt, dass die strategische Lage der befestigten Höhensiedlung die Überwachung der umgebenden Landschaft erleichterte. Dies hat weitreichende Folgen für unser Verständnis der Ausübung der Macht in nachrömischer Zeit in Großbritannien. Translation by Madeleine Hummler

Keywords

hillfortspowerpost-Roman BritainGISviewshedsleast-cost pathssites de hauteur fortifiéspouvoirGrande-Bretagne post-romaineSIGcônes visuelsanalyse distance-coûtbefestigte HöhensiedlungenMachtnachrömische Zeit in GroßbritannienGISSichtbereicheMinimalkostenpfade
Type
Article
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 547 - 566
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alcock, L. 1963. Dinas Powys: An Iron Age, Dark Age and Early Medieval Settlement in Glamorgan . Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Alcock, L. 2003. Kings and Warriors, Craftsmen and Priests in Northern Britain ad 550–850. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Alcock, L. & Alcock, E. 1990. Reconnaissance Excavations on Early Historic Fortifications and Other Royal Sites in Scotland, 1974–84: 4, Excavations at Alt Glut, Clyde Rock, Strathclyde, 1974–7. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland, 120: 95–149.Google Scholar
Bedford, E. 1872. Sailing Directions for The Bristol Channel. London: The Lords Commission of the Admiralty.Google Scholar
Blair, J. 2018. Building Anglo-Saxon England. Princeton (NJ) & Oxford: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bowden, M. & McOmish, D. 1989. Little Boxes: More About Hillforts. Scottish Archaeological Review, 6: 12–16.Google Scholar
Brown, P. 2013. The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, ad 200–1000 (3rd ed). Oxford: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Burnham, B. & Davies, J. 2010. Roman Frontiers in Wales and the Marches. Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales.Google Scholar
Burrow, I. 1981. Hillfort and Hill-top Settlement in Somerset in the First to Eighth Centuries ad (BAR British Series 91). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, E. 1989. A Blue Glass Squat Jar from Dinas Powys, South Wales. Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, 36: 59–66.Google Scholar
Campbell, E. 1991. Imported Goods in the Early Medieval Celtic West with Special Reference to Dinas Powys (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Wales, Cardiff).Google Scholar
Campbell, E. 2007. Continental and Mediterranean Imports to Atlantic Britain and Ireland, ad 400–800. York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Campbell, E. & Lane, A. 1993. Excavations at Longbury Bank, Dyfed, and Early Medieval Settlement in South Wales. Medieval Archaeology, 37: 15–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.1993.11735556CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, D.R. & Jordan, A. 2014. Visibility and Power: Preliminary Analysis of Social Control on a Bandanese Plantation Compound, East Indonesia. Asian Perspectives, 52: 213–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, M. 2015. Commerce and Cult: Confronted Ideologies in 6th–9th-century Europe. Medieval Archaeology, 59: 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2015.1119404CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carver, S. & Müller, C. 2014. Wildness Study in Wales [online] [accessed 21 March 2017]. Available at: <https://wildlandresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/39/2016/10/Report_WildMappingWales-v.2-Feb-2015.pdf>>Google Scholar
Charles-Edwards, T.M. 1989. Early Medieval Kingships in the British Isles. In: Bassett, S., ed. The Origins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms. Leicester: Leicester University Press, pp. 28–39.Google Scholar
Charles-Edwards, T.M. 2013: Wales and the Britons 350–1064. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Christie, N. 2004. Landscapes of Change: Rural Evolutions in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Conolly, J. & Lake, M. 2006. Geographic Information Systems in Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Constant, A., Ségura, J. & Valenciano, M. 2015. Hilltop Settlement Dynamics in Provence Between the 5th–9th c.: Results and Research Prospects. In: Vicelja-Matijašić, M., ed. Swords, Crowns, Censers and Books. Rijeka: University of Rijeka, pp. 374–403.Google Scholar
Creighton, O. 2002. Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England . London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Cummings, V. & Whittle, A. 2003. Tombs with a View: Landscape, Monuments and Trees. Antiquity, 77: 255–66. http://doi:10.1017/S0003598X000922CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunliffe, B. 2000. The Danebury Environs Project: The Prehistory of a Wessex Landscape, Volume 2. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Dark, K. 1993. Discovery by Design: The Identification of Secular Elite Settlements in Western Britain, ad 400–700 (BAR British Series 237). Oxford: Tempus Reparatum.Google Scholar
Davey, J. 2005. The Roman to Medieval Transition in the Region of South Cadbury Castle, Somerset (BAR British Series 399). Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, T., Rippon, S. & Seaman, A. forthcoming. Geoarchaeology Survey at Cog Moor, Glamorgan (Report). Canterbury: Canterbury Christ Church University.Google Scholar
Davies, T., Rippon, S. & Seaman, A. In prep. Pollen Analysis at Nant y Arge, Glamorgan.Google Scholar
Davies, W. 1978. An Early Welsh Microcosm: Studies in the Llandaff Charters. London: Royal Historical Society.Google Scholar
Davies, W. 1990. Patterns of Power in Early Medieval Wales. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, O. 2017. Filling the Gaps: The Iron Age in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 83: 325–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2016.14Google Scholar
Davis, O. & Sharples, N. 2016. Excavations at Caerau Hillfort, Cardiff, South Wales, 2015: An Interim Report (Cardiff Studies in Archaeology 36). Cardiff: Cardiff University.Google Scholar
Driver, T. 2018. New Perspectives on the Architecture and Function of Welsh Hillforts and Defended Settlements. Internet Archaeology, 48. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.48.9Google Scholar
Dunning, R. & Howell, K. 2005. Waterfronts in Southeast Wales: Phase 2, Volume 2, Gazetteer. Unpublished GGAT report no. 2005/039. Swansea: Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Francovich, R. & Hodges, R. 2003. Villa to Village: The Transformation of the Roman Countryside in Italy, c. 400–1000. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Frieman, C.J. & Gillings, M. 2007. Seeing is Perceiving? World Archaeology, 39 (1): 4–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, A. 1985. The Nation-State and Violence. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Gillings, M. 2017. Mapping Liminality: Critical Frameworks for the GIS-based Modelling of Visibility. Journal of Archaeological Science 84: 121–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.05.004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gresham, C. 1965. Review of Dinas Powys. Antiquaries Journal, 45: 127–28. http://doi.org/10.1017/S000358150005174XGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, S. & Manley, J. 2001. Hillforts, Monumentality and Place: A Chronological and Topographic Review of First Millennium bc Hillforts of South-East England. European Journal of Archaeology, 4: 7–42. https://doi.org/10.1179/eja.2001.4.1.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, D. 2012. Iron Age Hillforts in Britain and Beyond. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemer, K., Evans, J., Chenery, C. & Lamb, A. 2013. Evidence of Early Medieval Trade and Migration Between Wales and the Mediterranean Sea Region. Journal of Archaeological Science, 40: 2352–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2013.01.014CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzog, I. 2014. Least-cost Paths: Some Methodological Issues. Internet Archaeology, 36. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.36.5Google Scholar
Holbrook, N. & Thomas, A. 2005. An Early-medieval Monastic Cemetery at Llandough, Glamorgan: Excavations in 1994. Medieval Archaeology, 49: 1–92. https://doi.org/10.1179/007660905×54044CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howey, M.C.L. & Brouwer Burg, M. 2017. Assessing the State of Archaeological GIS Research: Unbinding Analyses of Past Landscapes. Journal of Archaeological Science 84: 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.05.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hu, D. 2011. Advancing Theory? Landscape Archaeology and Geographic Information Systems. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 21: 80–90. https://doi.org/10.5334/pia.381Google Scholar
Jones, M., Jones, R. & Woods, M. 2004. An Introduction to Political Geography: Space, Place and Politics . London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R. 1999. Mann and Men in a Medieval State: The Geographies of Power in the Middle Ages. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 24: 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-2754.1999.00065.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knight, J. 2005. From Villa to Monastery: Llandough in Context. Medieval Archaeology, 49: 93–108. https://doi.org/10.1179/007660905×54053CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kobylinski, Z. 1990. Early Medieval Hillforts in Polish Lands in the Sixth to the Eighth Centuries: Problems of Origins, Function, and Spatial Organization. In: Austin, D. & Alcock, L., eds. From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Studies in Medieval Archaeology. London: Unwin Hyman, pp. 147–56.Google Scholar
Lane, A. & Campbell, E. 2000. Dunadd: An Early Dalriadic Capital. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Lewis, E. 1927. Welsh Port Books: 1550–1603. London: Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.Google Scholar
Lewit, T. 2004. Villas, Farms, and the Late Roman Rural Economy (Third to Fifth Centuries ad) (BAR International Series 568). Oxford: Archaeopress.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liddiard, R. 2005. Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066–1500. Macclesfield: Windgather.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Llobera, M. 2012. Life on a Pixel: Challenges in the Development of Digital Methods within an ‘Interpretive’ Landscape Archaeology Framework. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 19: 495–509. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9139-2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lock, G., Kormann, M. & Pouncett, J. 2014. Visibility and Movement: Towards a GIS-based Integrated Approach. In: Polla, S. & Verhagen, P., eds. Computational Approaches to the Study of Movement in Archaeology. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 23–42.Google Scholar
Longley, D. 1997. The Royal Courts of the Welsh Princes in Gwynedd, ad 400–1283. In: Edwards, N., ed. Landscape and Settlement in Medieval Wales. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 41–55.Google Scholar
Murrieta-Flores, P. & Williams, H. 2017. Placing the Pillar of Eliseg: Movement, Visibility and Memory in the Early Medieval Landscape. Medieval Archaeology, 61: 69–103. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2017.1295926CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, G. 2016. Fortified Settlement and the Emergence of Kingdoms in Northern Scotland in the First Millennium ad. In: Christie, N. & Herold, H., eds. Fortified Settlements in Early Medieval Europe: Defended Communities of the 8th–10th Centuries. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 26–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, G., Gondek., M., Campbell, E., Evans, N., Hamilton, D. & Taylor, S. 2019. Rhynie: A Powerful Place of Pictland. In: Noble, G. & Evans, N. eds. The King in the North: The Pictish Realms of Fortriu and Ce. Edinburgh: Birlinn, pp. 58–80.Google Scholar
O'Brien, E. 2008. Early Medieval Sentinel Warrior Burials. Peritia, 20: 323–30. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.Peri.3.638CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Driscoll, J. 2017. Hillforts in Prehistoric Ireland: A Costly Display of Power? World Archaeology, 49: 506–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2017.1282379CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ogburn, D. 2006. Assessing the Level of Visibility of Cultural Objects in Past Landscapes. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33: 405–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.08.005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oksanen, E. 2019. Inland Navigation in England and Wales Before 1348: GIS Database [dataset]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor]. https://doi.org/10.5284/1057497Google Scholar
Pierce, D. & Matisziw, T. 2018. Prehistoric Panopticon: Settlement Visibility at Ancient Cahokia Mounds. Space and Culture, 21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331218805388CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ray, K. and Bapty, I. 2016. Offa's Dyke: Landscape and Hegemony in Eighth Century Britain: Landscape & Hegemony in Eighth-Century Britain. Oxford: Windgather.Google Scholar
RCAHMW 1976a. An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Volume 1: Pre-Norman. Part II: The Iron Age and the Roman Occupation. Cardiff: HMSO.Google Scholar
RCAHMW 1976b. An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Glamorgan Volume 1: Pre-Norman. Part III: The Early Christian Period. Cardiff: HMSO.Google Scholar
Redknap, M. & Lewis, J.M. 2007. A Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales Volume One: Glamorgan, Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, Radnorshire and Geographically Contiguous Areas of Herefordshire and Shropshire. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Riley, S., DeGloria, S. & Elliot, R. 1999. A Terrain Ruggedness Index that Quantifies Topographic Heterogeneity. Intermountain Journal of Sciences, 5: 23–27.Google Scholar
Rippon, S.J. 2004. Historic Landscape Analysis: Deciphering the Countryside. York: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Sami, D. & Speed, G. eds. 2010. Debating Urbanism: With the Beyond the Walls, ad 300–700. Leicester: University of Leicester.Google Scholar
Seaman, A. 2013. Dinas Powys in Context: Settlement and Society in Post-Roman Wales. Studia Celtica, 47: 1–22.Google Scholar
Seaman, A. 2016. Defended Settlement in Early Medieval Wales: Problems of Presence, Absence and Interpretation. In: Christie, N. & Herold, H., eds. Fortified Settlements in Early Medieval Europe: Defended Communities of the 8th–10th Centuries. Oxford: Oxbow, pp. 37–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seaman, A. 2017. Further Research on A Predictive Model of Early Medieval Settlement Location in South Wales: Exploring the Use of Field-names as Proxy Data. Medieval Settlement Research, 32: 27–34.Google Scholar
Semple, S., Buchanan, B., Harrington, S., Oliver, D. & Petts, D. 2017. Power at the Edge: Yeavering, Northumberland, England. In: Semple, S., Orsini, C. & Mui, S., eds. Life on the Edge: Social, Political and Religious Frontiers in Early Medieval Europe. Braunschweig: Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, pp. 91–112.Google Scholar
Smith, J. 2005. Europe after Rome: A New Cultural History 500–1000. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Supernant, K. 2017. Modeling Métis Mobility? Evaluating Least Cost Paths and Indigenous Landscapes in the Canadian West. Journal of Archaeological Science, 84: 63–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.05.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tejerizo-García, C. & Canosa-Betés, J. 2018. Power, Control and Social Agency in Post-Roman Northern Iberia: An Archaeological Analysis of Hillfort Occupations. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 10: 295–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2018.1504383CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, G. 2018. Mead-Halls of the Oiscingas: A New Kentish Perspective on the Anglo-Saxon Great Hall Complex Phenomenon. Medieval Archaeology, 62: 262–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2018.1535386CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilley, C. 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Verhagen, P., Nuninger, L. & Groenhuijzen, M. 2019. Modelling of Pathways and Movement Networks in Archaeology: An Overview of Current Approaches. In: Verhagen, P., Joyce, J. & Groenhuijzen, M., eds. Finding the Limits of the Limes: Modelling Demography, Economy and Transport on the Edge of the Roman Empire. Cham: Springer, pp. 217–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walters, G. & James, B. 1984. George Yates's Map of Glamorgan (1799). Barry: South Wales Records Society/Glamorgan Archive Service.Google Scholar
White, D. 2015. The Basics of Least Cost Analysis for Archaeological Applications. Advances in Archaeological Practice, 3: 407–14. https://doi.org/10.7183/2326-3768.3.4.407CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickham, C. 2005. Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, T. 1987. Early Co-Axial Field Systems on the East Anglian Boulder Clays. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 53: 419–31. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00006319CrossRefGoogle Scholar