Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
was fierce resistance, the conquest of South Wales was completed and by
AD
78 the Romans had estab-
lished a series of military roads and forts. The Roman fort at Loughor lies below the medieval castle and
there was a Roman building at Oystermouth, where fragments of mosaic are on view in the church. Isaac
Hamon noted that 'part of the churchyard was formerly paved with small bricks like dices, but something
larger, of divers colours as red, white, yellow &c, which lies scattered abt still, The people called it The
Saints pavemt.' Above the quarry at Barland, pottery, glass, charcoal and ironwork have also been found,
indicating that another Roman settlement was located nearby in the second century.
Despite the introduction of towns, Roman Britain was still essentially a rural society, with the vast
majorityofthepopulationlivinginfarmsandsmallsettlements awayfromtheurbancentres.Mostsettle-
ments in Gower are likely to have operated a mixed farming economy, with sheep, pigs and cattle being
the main species, although there is known to have been an increase in the numbers of cattle during this
period. Other domesticated animals included goats, chickens, ducks and geese.
As it is likely that Gower already contained extensive field systems in the late Iron Age, the impact
of the Roman conquest would not necessarily have been to increase the amount of land used for cultiv-
ation. The Romans themselves had a long tradition of hedging and there is some evidence, elsewhere in
Britain, of a system of small fields bounded by ditches, which had been hedged with hawthorn
Crataegus
monogyna.
ThebasicunitsoflandtenurewerenotalwaysalteredbytheRomanconquest.Therewasalso
continuity in farming methods, with a similar type of iron ploughshare being found at both Iron Age and
Romano-British sites, although the range of cereals grown increased noticeably through this period.
Enormous quantities of oysters and other shellfish were also eaten, to judge by the numbers of shells
found at most Roman sites. British oysters were a delicacy in Rome, indicating that they were regularly
exported. Sea fish would also have been an important part of the diet for many people in Gower. Fishing
with nets and fixed baskets were the main methods, but fishing hooks and tridents for spearing fish have
been recovered from sites elsewhere.
Apart from agriculture it is known that a wide range of activities occurred in rural areas such as
Gower, from mining and manufacturing to hunting and fishing. Hunting with dogs was particularly popu-
lar,andindeedtherewerespeciallybredanimalsthatwereregularlyexportedfromBritainduringboththe
IronAgeandRomanperiod.Brownhares
Lepus europaeus
wereprobablyintroducedinthisperiod,since
there is no evidence of their presence in Britain before Roman times, and these may have been hunted,
but the reasons fortheir introduction are not clear.Some bones have, nonetheless, been foundin IronAge
deposits, which may indicate an earlier introduction. This argument is supported by the note that Julius
Caesar wrote on arriving in Britain around
AD
44, 'These Britons think it wrong to eat hare and fowl,
rathertheykeepthemaspets.'Butthismayhavereferredtothesmallernativemountainhares
Lepus tim-
idus.
Whatever the exact date of introduction, as they spread into lowland farming districts like Gower,
brown hares would have displaced any mountain hares that may have previously inhabited these areas.
In Ireland, where the brown hare is absent, mountain hares are found in lowland districts to the present
day. Because of predation and hunting for food, brown hares were possibly never very abundant until the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the combination of land enclosure, agricultural improvement
and predator control allowed populations to rise.
TheRomansalsointroducedanumberofimportanttreespeciestoBritainsuchasthecultivatedsweet
cherry
Prunus avium
,medlar
Mespilus germanica
,fig
Ficus carica
,walnut
Juglans regia
,sweet chestnut
Castanea sativa
andpossiblyalsothehorsechestnut
Aesculus hippocastanum
andholmoak
Quercus ilex.
Sycamore
Acer pseudoplatanus
,whichissometimesthoughttohavebeenbroughtintothecountryinthis
period, is probably a later introduction.