1East Midlands Archaeological Research Framework: Resource Assessment of Medieval Lincolnshire An Archaeological Resource Assessment of

Note: For copyright reasons the figures are currently omitted from the web version of this paper. It is hoped to include them in future versions. 1 Characterisation of the resource The resource for the archaeological study of medieval Lincolnshire is a complex and intimate combination of surviving or partially surviving medieval structures; areas of residual landscape, subject to the mediation mentioned below; buried features, landscape and potential; artefacts; records of archaeological activity; and 'text'-documented entities. This is conceptually little different from earlier periods, but practically and because of the thoroughgoing impact of medieval land-use in the county it appears distinctive. For the medieval period in Lincolnshire, we are dealing (perhaps for the first time quite so clearly) with a completely and purposefully exploited landscape over effectively the whole land surface of the county- 'joined-up landscape'. The period spans half a millenium of continuity and change; 16th-century Lincolnshire was a very different place from 10th- or 11th-century Lincolnshire, but it develops recognisably from it. Yet also there were many social and economic vicissitudes- notably exceptional population growth during the 12th and 13th centuries and population decline in the 14th century and the economic consequences of that; there was no simple or unidirectional 'progress'. There were som