An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered online only by Dr Alice Wolff (IASH-HCA Postdoctoral Fellow, 2025-26).
Biodiversity on the Edge of Empire: Agricultural Plant Communities in Medieval Northumbria
Biodiversity loss is a pressing issue in the present day, but biodiversity change before the modern period is generally not well understood. My fellowship project focuses on medieval plant communities and their intersections with humans in northeast England and southeast Scotland. Between the 4th and 15th centuries CE, the landscapes of this region underwent dramatic transformations as kingdoms waxed and waned. Using plant remains recovered from archaeological contexts, I aim to reconstruct changes in both biodiversity and agricultural practices. This work-in-progress will present preliminary data from one of my research sites, Bamburgh Castle. Bamburgh was the capital of the early medieval kingdom of Northumbria and became the seat of the Norman governors of Northumberland after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Its central role as a consumer site in the agricultural networks that supported this region provides a broad look into the plants that were collected by humans across the landscape in the medieval period.
Please follow the link below to join: