THREAD. Here’s a fun game for a rainy day based on the proposition: where 1 line in the landscape is crossed by another, then the one being crossed is the older of the 2. Eg the M11 in Cambs. built 1975-80 cuts rectangular fields of Parliamentary enclosure c1803 into triangles+ pic.twitter.com/X6lLOGTTL7
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) September 29, 2019
THREAD. Once upon a time …. see those long pale strips w/ dark outlines leading from the fore- into the middle-ground of the photo? Hold onto your hats: #RomanoBritish #peat diggings close to then coast line & now in the Cambs #fens, dug before the mid-3rdC AD. pic.twitter.com/yHY9V0QTba
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) April 2, 2019
THREAD. Maurice Beresford’s 1954 study of #deserted #medieval villages was a game-changer. He showed that few #villages were lost as a result of the Black Death of 1348-50. Most were lost c1450-1540. Some disappeared because they were too small to be viable … pic.twitter.com/gOuyYQzgZU
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) March 6, 2019
Were early #medieval/medieval dedications to St Michael particularly correlated with high places? And if so why? Here are all dedications to St Michael (in Richard Morris’ brilliant ‘Churches in the Landscape’) *but*the map includes dedications of all periods not just early ones pic.twitter.com/splyVlagGr
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) July 13, 2019
THREAD Sir Thomas Tresham's fabulous unfinished religious landscape at Lyveden New Bield, begun in the mid-1590s & abandoned after Tresham's death in 1605. The house, whose lovely shell still stands, was built on the plan of a Greek cross & studded with religious symbolism. pic.twitter.com/iQmRpW6juv
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) December 27, 2018
THREAD. This thread is about how the location of a lost royal manor was identified, and partly about the importance of the landscape to an understanding of the past. It’s the story of the king’s manor at Kingston, Cambs., already ancient in 1086. pic.twitter.com/G1xBTiA3Nw
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) February 7, 2020
THREAD. Some years ago I began to wonder whether the collective cultivation of arable land in open fields *was* an early medieval innovation of the 7th-10thC or whether they might have earlier origins. Here’s what I found out. (Photo: https://t.co/QKQiqx9SI9)+ pic.twitter.com/as6viwDWyh
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) September 20, 2019
THREAD. Here’s a story that always thrills me – the clues in some field- & #placenames to early #medieval daily lives, landscapes & society in the period between c400-700AD, using an example from Cambridgeshire in a landscape that wouldn’t usually get a 1st let alone a 2nd glance pic.twitter.com/AB7hRnheok
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) October 26, 2019
THREAD. Here’s the story of the reconstruction of the layout of a small #medieval town in 1249-5 – including who was living where: #CanYouBelieveIt? It’s March, in fenland like many of my examples, but the methods are straightforward & can be applied anywhere. pic.twitter.com/crAikDaIYf
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) March 7, 2020
#Landscapethroughtheireyes: some observations on John Hexham's 1589 drawing of a wind-driven ‘Engyne’ lifting water into the R Nene near Elm, Cambs., assisting the flow of several natural streams into the river from the undrained, but managed, fen wetlands. /1 pic.twitter.com/FazhJ5SP00
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) January 14, 2020
Why did the styles of goods used by people in England change (from Mediterranean-influenced to NW European-influenced) after Roman administration was withdrawn from Britain in the early 5thC AD? Some thoughts about the traditional explanation https://t.co/nx3YffWKGE
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) May 22, 2019
#TodaysHappiness c175BC #IronAge communities along the Rhine estuary nor Rotterdam minimised the flow of salt water onto their coastal grazing in a system that was maintained for at least 350 years… pic.twitter.com/bqYRGFZYeS
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) October 9, 2019
THREAD #Exciting understated #earthworks: See that low bank rippling across the field? It's part of a long #prehistoric linear alignment running from SW to NE across a valley floor to the top of the plateau forming the watershed of a tributary of the R Cam called the Bourn Brook. pic.twitter.com/sOhw6YNN1u
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) March 13, 2019
THREAD. The gold foil crosses found at Prittlewell appear to have been placed over the eyes of the person buried there, and are accepted by @MOLArchaeology as a signal of his Christianity. pic.twitter.com/aCXXckpo10
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) May 13, 2019
THREAD. Houses like this one in Rampton, Cambs., have so much to tell about the social and economic history of their communities – and they are easy to read: for the period when they were built, for how they were used at the time & for their subsequent history… pic.twitter.com/3JPR0c8Lc0
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) May 17, 2019
THREAD. Well, here’s a thing. This is Toft in Cambs. – &, as you can see, the church (red dot) is quite a way from the village which lies to the NW, W & SW. Only the rectory & its cottages stand nr the church. Why the distance between church & village? (https://t.co/nn5BLVRyta) pic.twitter.com/hCmnIkUqSm
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) June 15, 2019
Terrific research by @peterherring10 suggests that many upland stone rows & standing stones were deliberate visual markers of the specific areas of upland grazing in which 1 or another #BronzeAge group, settled at a distance, had rights of common pasture and that… (1) pic.twitter.com/WESkPwvoOz
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) July 28, 2019
THREAD. c1430 a #mapmaker drew the only surviving record of the #landscape of #medieval Crowland, Lincs., showing the R Welland flowing from S to N along thro the town, up the centre of the map (Nat. Archives MPCC 1/7). Today, tho, that view has almost *but not quite* disappeared pic.twitter.com/vd8WkH3mxx
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) August 16, 2019
THREAD. For years and years, everyone was sure that in 1086, at the time of the Domesday Survey, hardly anyone lived in the Cambridgeshire fenland. So here’s the story of what I found out when I tested that belief & the data it rested on… pic.twitter.com/IO97x1HAOA
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) August 26, 2019
THREAD. Fabulous work by @ThamesDiscovery & @Nathalie_Cohen has identified a plethora of #AngloSaxon #fishtraps along the Thames. Once wattle-sided, the surviving framing posts widen as they lead up the riverbank, filling at high tide & once trapping fish in the apex on the ebb.. pic.twitter.com/CV5qH45BMU
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) August 14, 2019
THREAD: I came across this gorgeous photo yesterday evening, of ridge & furrow at Meaux, Yorks E Riding, in the @Cambridge_Uni Collection of Air Photographs. You can tell it’s made by #medieval ploughing by the strips’ characteristic backward-S curve.https://t.co/JgBQm8gkaS pic.twitter.com/2bfUsTwnYz
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) November 24, 2019
Tugging at a short THREAD. I came across this lovely mid/late 19thC painting by a Dutch artist yesterday of a paddle #sluice in pasture – the paddles are lifted up to let the water through or to keep it in (to feed the grass) or let it out (to relieve flooding)… pic.twitter.com/OgxETmyICd
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) December 3, 2019
THREAD. Artificial watercourses across the Cambridgeshire #fenland are called ‘lodes’ locally – from the Old English (ge)lād (derived from the verb ‘to lead’) – because they lead water from one place to another. Why was that necessary? The #landscape holds the clues.. pic.twitter.com/Mv4F6JTEB2
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) June 29, 2019
Here's a THREAD I’ve been mulling over recently: it’s about an #IronAge fenland site called Stonea Camp, claimed to be the lowest-lying ‘#hillfort’ in Britain. What does its location & archaeology suggest about its original purpose? (Photo https://t.co/Qu4YU3X2Tv) pic.twitter.com/DKhZScxzkC
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) November 21, 2019
#FunWithLandscapeHistory we paused briefly in Thame’s High Street (here, looking E) at the weekend to buy a small something to take to a friend’s for tea. Hmm… the street’s very wide which suggests a planned market, most likely medieval and (if so) 12/13thC… /1 pic.twitter.com/3B4TaIKSmk
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) December 9, 2019
THREAD. Maps of open fields in 4 contiguous Cambs. parishes, drawn by different surveyors c1810-1840, show wide 'commons' running W/E pic.twitter.com/QaT4AqWeD4
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) October 9, 2017
THREAD. Whether poring over old/modern maps or going for a walk in new/familiar places it’s always fun to wonder what the landscape we see today was like in the past & why/how it became the world we know today. Here are my #Top10Books for beginners in #medieval #landscape history pic.twitter.com/Jirp8KJsFT
— Prof Susan Oosthuizen 💙 (@DrSueOosthuizen) March 19, 2020
Professor Susan Oosthuizen 