Agricultural History Review, Volume 56 Part 2 (2008), p. 260

This volume of conference proceedings is made up of twenty-three essays by forty-two contributors, framed by an introduction and conclusion. Eleven essays are in French, the rest in English. Although there is an understandable bias towards French evidence, there are papers on England and Wales (three), Spain and the Balearics (three), and one paper each on Rome, Morocco, Libya, Pannonia, Ireland, Iceland/Greece, Denmark and the Andes. The volume is divided into three sections: ‘symbolic markers’, ‘structured systems’ and ‘north-west Europe and the future’. Symbolic markers refer to such things as boundary stones, churches, shrines, tombs or settlements. Structured systems refer to Roman centuriation, terraced fields, road networks, drainage, and irrigation systems. The final section considers how these pre-industrial ‘marked’ landscapes are still relevant today and deals with cultural heritage issues in the present and future. The volume is well produced, with numerous illustrations adding a great deal to its usefulness. The chronological range is wide, ranging from two papers which deal with France in Antiquity to several dealing with current policy issues. In a short review it is not possible to deal with all papers equally, so I will highlight those I enjoyed most.

In the first section there are seven papers looking at late Antique land surveying (a thorough review of the evidence); religious sanctuaries in western France in the second century; churches in tenth- and eleventh-century Burgundy (a good survey based on extensive charter evidence, which locates the founding of many churches to the early Carolingian period); a survey of markers in medieval Morocco; a summary of the evidence for markers produced by historic mining in France, especially mining of metals. The remaining two papers deal respectively with pastoralism throughout Spain and olive oil production in Écija (Seville). Esther Pascua Echegaray, who has published widely on the history of medieval Spain, has a particularly interesting essay here on the landmarks left by pastoral activities. She shows how the markers produced by ‘town pastoralism’ (i.e. that practised close to urban settlements) were different to those produced by transhumant activities. For example, in the former, strong physical boundaries were enforced around village settlements: milestones were erected, which indicated ownership of land and water rights. By contrast, bridges were crucial markers within transhumant systems. She then goes on to explore the historical competition between these two systems and, importantly, how change over time occurred. Pastoralism in Spain as elsewhere was far from static or environmentally determined. The chapter on oil in Écija is also a most interesting study in the place of the mill as the main territorial marker. The paper investigates the expansion of oil production in the eighteenth century and substantial implications for the landscape. The authors point out that the characteristic counterweight towers are now in a state of collapse in the face of more profitable types of agriculture in Andalusia, such as sunflowers and cotton. Their role as landscape markers is rapidly disappearing and the need for their conservation pressing.

In section two the seven papers are as follows: a fascinating study of the ‘Via Domitia’ in the Narbonnaise over a long time period; a good survey of Roman field boundaries in Western Pannonia (eastern Austria and adjacent parts of Hungary) which points up the heterogeneity of Roman practice in this area; a discussion of the southern Libyan foggaras (massive irrigation works contemporary with the Roman empire), in which the author argues convincingly for the social importance of these features in the perception of the landscape, as well as their technical brilliance; an important discussion of the relationships between castles and roads in Northern Languedoc, which stresses the economic connection at the expense of the strategic; an interesting article which shows how fluid road networks were in Toury (Eure-er-Loir); an impressive survey of terraces in the Andes, which raises many questions about the origins of terracing here and about the sustainability of farming over a long timescale. Felix Retamero’s investigation of irrigated agriculture in the medieval Balearic Islands shows how eleventh-century court agronomists were deeply interested in soil types and soil improvement, manuring and watering, to produce a wide range of crops. He develops an interesting argument about the relationship between irrigation and settlement and the nature of Arab and Berber peasant migration. Irrigation caused not only increases in agricultural production but also in the strength of political power.

The nine chapters in the final section are equally diverse. The first paper describes relict field systems in later medieval Ireland (north Roscommon) drawing on a wide range of evidence; there follows a comparative analysis of human adaptation to volcanoes in Iceland and Greece; next is a discussion of field systems in Denmark and cultural heritage issues; similar issues are raised in a paper on the visual impact of enclosure in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England and Wales, which is interesting for the number of informal enclosures discussed. The next paper argues that English cities must be understood as landscape and that much can still be learnt about the pre-industrial past from such sites; this is followed by three papers about Normandy, two of which deal with field systems and timber-framed buildings in the light of contemporary farmers’ understandings of the historic landscape; the other is about the Regional national park of Normandie- Maine and the ways in which the park is marketed to tourists as a ‘natural’ site. The final paper argues that sustainable landscapes in Bonsall (Derbyshire, England) can be encouraged by new architectural designs which help to preserve the place as a working landscape rather than one aimed at tourism. As can be seen, these papers are very diverse in time and place, but the excellent introduction and conclusion help to hold the volume together. The editors and contributors have succeeded in their aim to highlight what markers were significant in past landscapes and how and why these are still significant today. There is much in this stimulating collection of interest to historians but much also for policymakers and planners.