Dales, long lands, and the medieval division of land in eastern England

The long, parallel fields of the marshlands between the Fens and the Humber estuary in eastern England, which are recorded on nineteenth-century maps, were the result of the division of the wetlands that occurred particularly during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Areas of common fen pasture were partitioned between tenants to provide land for grazing and arable. Similar division also took place on the coastal strip and in the peat fen for land for salt-making and cutting fuel. These long strips, known as dales, are compared to similar areas in open fields in parts of Yorkshire and Northamptonshire, which have been discussed elsewhere. It is argued that the field shape is the result of a type of division in eastern England in which considerable emphasis was placed on case of partitioning land equitably.

Parish farms and the poor law: a response to unemployment in rural southern England, c.1815-1835

Finding a ‘solution’ for the seemingly intractable problem of unemployment in post-Napoleonic rural England was the Holy Grail for many vestries. Yet, whilst we know much about the depth and consequences of unemployment, parish-driven schemes to set the poor to work have been subjected to remarkably little in the way of systematic study. This paper focuses on one such policy that remains entirely obscure: parish farms, the hiring of pre-existing farms or fields by the parish on which to employ those out of work. Bearing a ‘family resemblance’ to allotments and other land-based attempts to alleviate poverty, parish farms were unique in that they were managed in all regards by the parish and were an employment strategy as opposed to a scheme to supplement the incomes of the poor. Whilst the archive of parish farms is often frustratingly opaque, it is shown that before they were effectively outlawed by the passing of the New Poor Law, many southern parishes, especially in the Weald of Kent and Sussex, adopted the scheme, occasionally with great success.

How optimal life history changes with the community size-spectrum

This paper derives optimal life histories for fishes or other animals in relation to the size spectrum of the ecological community in which they are both predators and prey. Assuming log-linear size-spectra and well known scaling laws for feeding and mortality, we first construct the energetics of the individual. From these we find, using dynamic programming, the optimal allocation of energy between growth and reproduction as well as the trade-off between offspring size and numbers. Optimal strategies were found to be strongly dependent on size spectrum slope. For steep size spectra (numbers declining rapidly with size), determinate growth was optimal and allocation to somatic growth increased rapidly with increasing slope. However, restricting reproduction to a fixed mating season changed optimal allocations to give indeterminate growth approximating a von Bertalanffy trajectory. The optimal offspring size was as small as possible given other restrictions such as newborn starvation mortality. For shallow size spectra, finite optimal maturity size required a decline in fitness for large size or age. All the results are compared with observed size spectra of fish communities to show their consistency and relevance.

Tracking biological invasions in space and time: elucidating the invasive history of the green alga Codium fragile using old DNA

With the advent of 'ancient DNA' studies on preserved material of extant and extinct species, museums and herbaria now represent an important although still underutilized resource in molecular ecology. The ability to obtain sequence data from archived specimens can reveal the recent history of cryptic species and introductions. We have analysed extant and herbarium samples of the highly invasive green alga Codium fragile, many over 100 years old, to identify cryptic accessions of the invasive strain known as C. fragile ssp. tomentosoides, which can be identified by a unique haplotype. Molecular characterization of specimens previously identified as native in various regions shows that the invasive tomentosoides strain has been colonizing new habitats across the world for longer than records indicate, in some cases nearly 100 years before it was noticed. It can now be found in the ranges of all the other native haplotypes detected, several of which correspond to recognized subspecies. Within regions in the southern hemisphere there was a greater diversity of haplotypes than in the northern hemisphere, probably as a result of dispersal by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The findings of this study highlight the importance of herbaria in preserving contemporaneous records of invasions as they occur, especially when invasive taxa are cryptic.

The spatial turn: geographical approaches in the history of science

Over the past decade or so a number of historians of science and historical geographers, alert to the situated nature of scientific knowledge production and reception and to the migratory patterns of science on the move, have called for more explicit treatment of the geographies of past scientific knowledge. Closely linked to work in the sociology of scientific knowledge and science studies and connected with a heightened interest in spatiality evident across the humanities and social sciences this ‹spatial turn’ has informed a wide-ranging body of work on the history of science. This discussion essay revisits some of the theoretical props supporting this turn to space and provides a number of worked examples from the history of the life sciences that demonstrate the different ways in which the spaces of science have been comprehended.

Vegetation history at the multi-period prehistoric complex at Ballynahatty, Co. Down, Northern Ireland.

Palaeoecological methods can provide an environmental context for archaeological sites, enabling the nature of past human activity to be explored from an indirect but alternative perspective. Through a palynological study of a small fen wetland located within the catchment of a multi-period prehistoric complex at Ballynahatty, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, we reconstruct the vegetation history of the area during the early prehistoric period. The pollen record reveals tentative evidence for Mesolithic activity in the area at 6410-6220 cal. BC, with woodland disturbance identified during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transitional period ca. 4430-3890 cal. BC. A more significant impact on the landscape is observed in the Early Neolithic from 3944-3702 cal. BC, with an opening up of the forests and the establishment of a mixed agricultural economy. This activity precedes and continues to be evident during the Mid-Neolithic during which megalithic tombs and related burial sites were constructed at Ballynahatty. Due to chronological uncertainties and a possible hiatus in peat accumulation in the fen, the contemporary environment of the Ballynahatty timber circle complex (constructed and used ca. 3080-2490 cal. BC) and henge (dating to the third millennium cal. BC) cannot certainly be established. Nevertheless, the pollen record suggests that the landscape remained open through to the Bronze Age, implying a long continuity of human activity in the area. These findings support the idea that the Ballynahatty prehistoric complex was the product of a gradual and repeated restructuring of the ritual and ceremonial landscape whose significance continued to be recognised throughout the early prehistoric period.

The Decline of the Cow: Agricultural and Settlement Change in Early Medieval Ireland

This article considers cows and dairying as the basis a17of value system in early societies, particularly in Ireland. Only in a very few instances is it possible to demonstrate that such systems existed. When it does, it can be shown that cows and dairying were imbedded in the social or religious institutions of these cultures. Cattle had a value and meaning much greater than their economic worth in terms of food, hides, tallow etc. Such a systems, however, does not allow economic development as dairy produce does not easily lend itself to the production, and accumulation, of significant surplus nor is dairy produce particularly suitable for economic expansion based on trade. Its perishable nature militates against both roles. In order to develop political power that is based on economic power and wealth it is necessary to change the emphasis from livestock to cereal production.

Holocene climate change, vegetation history and human impact in the Central Mediterranean: evidence from the Maltese Islands

Holocene climates and human impact in the Mediterranean basin have received much attention, but the Maltese Islands in the Central Mediterranean, although a pivotal area, have been little researched. Here, sedimentary and palynological data are presented for three cores from the Holocene coastal and shallowmarine
deposits of the Maltese Islands. These show deforestation from Pinus-Cupressaceae woodland in the early Neolithic, and then a long, but relatively stable history of agriculturally degraded environments to the present day. The major climate events which have affected the Italian and Balkan peninsulas to the
north, and Tunisia to the south, are not reflected in the pollen diagrams from the Maltese Islands because of the strong anthropogenic imprint on the Maltese vegetation from early in the Neolithic. Previous suggestions of environmentally-driven agricultural collapse at the end of the Neolithic appear, however,
to be substantiated and may be linked to regional aridification around 4300 cal. BP. Depopulation in early Medieval times is not supported by the current palynological evidence.

Why are you tall while others are short? Agricultural production and other proximate determinants of global heights

We analyze the proximate determinants of the biological standard of living from a global perspective, namely high-quality nutrition and the disease environment during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Until the mid-twentieth century, the local availability of cattle, meat, and milk per capita and the local disease environment mainly determined the stature of the population – and, by implication, how long they lived and how healthy they were. During the late twentieth century, the trade of agricultural products and health-promoting technologies increased in relative importance; hence, the local availabilities became less decisive in explaining height differences.

Tracking the invasive history of the green alga Codium fragile ssp. tomentosoides

The spread of nonindigenous species into new habitats is having a drastic effect on natural ecosystems and represents an increasing threat to global biodiversity. In the marine environment, where data on the movement of invasive species is scarce, the spread of alien seaweeds represents a particular problem. We have employed a combination of plastid microsatellite markers and DNA sequence data from three regions of the plastid genome to trace the invasive history of the green alga Codium fragile ssp. tomentosoides. Extremely low levels of genetic variation were detected, with only four haplotypes present in the species’ native range in Japan and only two of these found in introduced populations. These invasive populations displayed a high level of geographical structuring of haplotypes, with one haplotype localized in the Mediterranean and the other found in Northwest Atlantic, northern European and South Pacific populations. Consequently, we postulate that there have been at least two separate introductions of C. fragile ssp. tomentosoides from its native range in the North Pacific.