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Glendale Local Histor y Societ y

CLOSE TO THE LAND FARMERS AND FARMI NG I N THE ROMAN WORLDA talk by Jeremy Paterson

Jeremy Paterson dedicated his talk to the Glendale Local History Society in December to RoyHumphrey, the Societys Chairman, who had sadly died the previous week. Before he began,Hilda Field, the Societys Vice-Chairman, recalled Roys enormous contribution to the Societyover more than ten years, and on behalf of the membership offered sincere condolences toRoys widow, Ruth.

Following a period of silence Jeremy, Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at NewcastleUniversity and one of Britains leading experts on the Roman Empire presented Close to theLand: Farming in the Roman Empire. We in Northumberland are doubly fortunate not onlyin having major Roman monuments such as Hadrians Wall and Vindolanda nearby, but alsoin having experts such as Jeremy on hand to interpret what we increasingly know to be a

complex and advanced civilisation with many parallels to our own. His encyclopaedicknowledge demonstrated extempore without a note in sight - was a real treat for theaudience of 50, who came away with many new insights into the Roman Empire.

Jeremys theme was the gradual change in the last 50 years or so of the view of the Romancountryside from being a backward, static place devoted to subsistence agriculture, to amuch more dynamic one that saw real progress and growth. The earlier view had been verymuch the brainchild of Moses Finlay, the then doyen of ancient historical studies, who didnot believe that the Roman Empire could be seen in modern economic terms, instead beinggoverned by social factors. Jeremy said that modern research has moved Roman studies onfrom this view, and that it has shown the expanding Empire led to urban growth which, bydemanding more and better organised food supplies, resulted in innovation in thecountryside to meet this increased demand. Evidence is now available from sources asdisparate as the Greenland Ice Sheet (gold and silver residues) and the Book of Revelation(the importance of the Empire to the whole Middle East) to demonstrate how large theRoman economy must have been and how substantial the farming effort must have beento support it.

Jeremy explained that we have to see Roman farming in Mediterranean terms that is, interms of a landscape mainly made up of mountains and with a very dry climate for much ofthe year, resulting in an agriculture largely based on corn, olives and vines. This was quiteunlike the rain-fed pastoral farming we are familiar with in north-west Europe, and in such alandscape you have to grow everything you can, against the risk of crop failure. There was a

huge trade from places such as North Africa - whose climate was more benign in Romantimes - and Spain, which continued until the Arab invasions of the 8th Century. The size ofthis trade can be seen by the number of Roman shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, and themany remains of Roman pottery containers, or amphorae, some of which were huge in size.

The Romans also introduced fruit trees such as the apple, pear, cherry and plum from theEast, and developed transhumance farming (moving livestock to higher and wetter mountainpastures in the summer to take advantage of better grazing). When they moved into Gaul(modern France) and Britain, different crops were grown to take advantage of the damperand cooler climate, such as short-flowering vines. Jeremy noted however that rice, an idealMediterranean crop, was one that was not grown by the Romans.

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Jeremy concluded by saying that there is now compelling evidence that Roman farming wasstable and gradually developing, and when its development was finally halted by theGermanic invasions from the North and Arab invasions from the East, the market which theEmpire had created was destroyed, not to be reborn on the same scale until theRenaissance.

Thanks to Jeremys fascinating exposition, this reporter at least left the meeting with aneven greater admiration than before of Roman ingenuity, and reminded himself it was hightime to make another visit to Vindolanda and the Wall.

The Societys next meeting will take place on Wednesday 7 January at 7.30pm at theCheviot Centre in Wooler, when Lord Walton of Detchant will speak on being a Doctor inthe House: Life in the House of Lords a not to be missed opportunity to find out whatreally goes on in the Corridors of Power!

Brian Cox, Secretary, 20 December 2008