Expansion and Decline: Bronze Age and Iron Age farms

The story of Greenhead Moss from 4150 years ago (152 cm) - in the bronze age - until the present is one of increasing human disturbance, which transformed the whole landscape. The woods were replaced by more fields around 3470 years ago (110 cm). The patchwork around the Moss included lots of pastoral grassland but also some fields of barley. Woods that had existed for thousands of years disappeared but we probably lost much more: food chains are complex and include many organisms. Of course people have also changed: we no longer need to make pottery, carve or mould tools, and grow or raise our own food, so we have forgotten the skills that our ancestors knew.

What will you make of the future? Conservation>

This Late Bronze Age agricultural expansion, 3470 years ago, lasted into the Iron Age, around 2340 years ago, or 390 BC (78 cm). After this, there seem to have been fewer animals grazing in the area and so perhaps fewer people as well. Free from such heavy grazing pressure birch, alder and heather plants grew and flowered more abundantly on and around the Moss. Patches of the once widespread oak and hazel woods still survived on drier soils around the bog where there were still some fields of grass and barley.

In archaeological terms, the Iron Age lasted from around 600 BC to AD 400, or 2600-1600 years ago. During this archaeological period people first understood how to work with iron, which is a far harder metal than bronze and so it made more effective tools, such as axes or weapons.

Many people today probably know a little about Iron Age people – they are familiar to anyone who has read Asterix cartoons. They are often all called ‘Celts’, but in reality there were many different tribes who would not have recognised this collective name.

The Iron Age is interesting for many reasons. It is the first time we know about past people from written records. The Romans were busy expanding their empire across northern Europe so Roman writers have left us descriptions of Iron Age tribes that they encountered and some of their religious beliefs. These often sound fantastic and brutal but this may be because the records are partly Roman propaganda - the Romans wanted to justify their take-over by portraying tribes as barbarians in need of the ‘civilising’ Roman influence.

In Scotland, Roman military campaigns started around the AD 70s-80s, but Roman occupation north of the modern Border did not last for very long. Hadrian’s Wall (built in the early AD 120s) and the Antonine Wall (built by AD 142) are some of the best known remains from this time and these show us the northern limits of Roman occupation. Roman military occupation in Britain came to an end in the 4th century AD.

Life near the northern frontier in Roman Britain:
www.hadrians-wall.org/

Letters from home: writing tablets preserved at Vindolanda Fort:
www.vindolanda.com/

The Romans in Scotland>
www.hunterian.gla.ac.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/history/

Roman literature suggests that Iron Age people lived in a fierce war-like tribal society, where warriors painted their bodies and put lime in the hair to whiten and stiffen it, to intimidate enemies. Women may have been just as fearsome: Boudicca (or Boudicea), queen of the Iceni tribe, launched a fearsome attack against the Roman army in what is now Essex in AD 60-61.

Several of the most famous and well-preserved bog bodies come from the Iron Age and are suggested to be human sacrifices, reflecting religious practices of the times.

Bog bodies>
www.archaeology.org/online/features/bog/

But in contrast to this picture of war and death, Iron Age life also included feasting, drinking and beautiful works of art, such as metalwork with complex knotwork designs and stylised animals.

Find out more at www.bbc.co.uk/history/

Iron Age people were also farmers, probably not that different from the Bronze Age, as we see at Greenhead Moss.

A reconstructed Iron Age farm, a hillfort and a Roman marching camp at Archaeolink>
www.archaeolink.co.uk/home.htm

Reliving the past: Iron Age farms and experimental archaeology at Butser>
www.skcldv.demon.co.uk/iafintro.htm

Alternative accommodation: life over the water at the Scottish crannog centre>
www.crannog.co.uk/

The Romans have left us descriptions of Iron Age people but it is difficult to know how the Iron Age farmers and the incoming Romans got on in frontier areas like Scotland – archaeologists, historians and pollen analysts still debate about it. Did they fight, trade, co-exist or just ignore each other? Possibly a mixture of all of these.

Greenhead Moss is about 24 km south of the Antonine Wall and the A721, just to the west of the bog, follows the course of a Roman road.

Did the Romans have anything to do with the Iron Age decline in agriculture around Greenhead Moss ?

The radiocarbon dates suggest that the Iron Age agricultural recession began around 390 BC, well before the Romans reached the area, so it does not seem that hostile Roman activity had anything to do with it.Your guess about why farming declined is as good as anyone elses. Disease in animals or their owners, tribal disagreements or changes in land ownership: any of these are possible.

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