This work falls into two major sections. After a brief introduction (chapter 1), a preliminary chapter describes the landscape and climate of Wales and the Marches and the limitations which they impose upon settlement and agriculture. The history and archaeology of the region is then summarised in five chapters which deal with Late Bronze Age and Iron Age society and economy (chapter 3), the Roman conquest (chapter 4), the Roman occupation and its effects (chapter 5), the Late Roman period and the Roman withdrawal (chapter 6) and the post- Roman period (chapter 7). In the second major section, six chapters discuss broader themes against this background. These themes are the density and growth of the population, the development of agriculture, non-agricultural aspects of the economy of the region, the changing patterns of settlement, the social organisation of the region and the systems of land tenure employed there. It is argued that the population of the region was relatively high throughout the period under study, and did not suffer a decline comparable with that postulated in post-Roman England (chapters 8, 14); tha the economy of the region was fundamentally rural and that urban development, foreign to the region, was only achieved under external pressures (chapters 9, 10); that the pattern of settlement expanded as a result of population pressures (chapter 11); that society was fundamentally conservative, retaining in the post-Roman period elements probably derived from the pre-Roman period, for instance the close dependence of status on the possession of a certain amount of landed property (chapters 12, 14), as a result of which the native elements in the land law limited the powers of the individual to alienate inherited land and stipulated an extended period for the acquisition of land (chapters 13, 14). Particular attention is paid throughout to the effects of the Roman occupation on the development of the region.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:580782 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Jones, Myfanwy Lloyd |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a88047e9-b5bb-4057-bab5-23638b701dd6 |
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