Arable farming in north east England during the later prehistoric and Roman period : an archaeobotanical perspective.

It has been the aim of the present study to analyse and interpret recently collected
archaeobotanical data from north-east England, a lowland area within the Highland Zone
of Britain, in order to improve our understanding of the role of arable farming in this
region, and to assess the extent to which the increase in scale of arable farming, as
witnessed in parts of the Lowland Zone of Britain, took place in this region. The data
used are carbonized seed assemblages collected by the writer from seven prehistoric and
two Roman period sites located in this region. This data base consists of 325 samples
and ca. 89,000 seeds.
The archaeobotanical analysis of the data set has indicated that within the prehistoric
assemblages two separate groups could be identified, Group A and Group B, with both
the crops and the associated weed species pointing to differences in the crop husbandry
practices of the two groups. The assemblages of Group A are interpreted as reflecting
intensive, small-scale agriculture, those of Group B larger-scale cultivation and arable
expansion. These differences could not be 'explained' by chronological differences. The
marked geographical difference between the two groups of sites (Group A sites located
north of the Tyne, Group B sites south of the Tyne) could not be explained by intraregional
variation in environmental factors, but does appear to relate to differences in
settlement type and location, and these two factors appear to be connected to cultural
and socio-economic differences in the two parts of the region. The evidence from the
Roman assemblages indicated that the Roman army was, at least partly, supplied with
grain by the local farmers, probably by those living in the Tyne-Tees region.
The results of the present study have indicated that arable farming played an important
role in the economy of the late Iron Age people of this part of the Highland Zone, that an
expansion of arable farming did take place in part of the study area, and that differences
in the scale of arable farming within the region were probably more a function of socioeconomic
than of environmental factors.