Environmental change and Iron Age land management in the area of the Antonine Wall, central Scotland: a summary

Abstract

Summary Palaeoenvironmental evidence from two Roman sites in central Scotland indicates that by the time of the Agricolan and Antonine Roman presence in this area, much of the landscape was already open. Forest clearance appears to have been pre-Roman in origin, and was principally associated with pastoral agricultural practices. By the time the Antonine Wall was being constructed, this agricultural landscape was in decay, with evidence for a decline in grazing intensity and the spread of heathland, although some elements of the agricultural landscape, such as hedges, may still have been present.