Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (517 page)

 
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An ecclesiastical building used by secular communities in Britain from about ad 1000 onwards and forming the religious focus of the smallest administrative unit defined at the time, the parish. Parish churches were essentially rectangular structures aligned broadly east–west. They were designed for congregational worship and thus have two main parts: the
nave
at the west end which provided accommodation for the laity, and the
chancel
which was the domain of the priest and contained the principal altar at the far east end. Aisles provided space for additional altars and chapels. The font used for baptism was traditionally adjacent to the main entrance on the south side of the nave. During medieval times the size of the parish church and the nature and extent of its decoration were largely dependent on the wealth of the local community. The church itself is usually surrounded by its graveyard, in which might be found a lychgate, cross, anchorage, bell tower, school, and a priest's house.

 
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Iron Age tribal group occupying north-eastern England around the Humber estuary. Communities in this area were in close contact with northern France in the later 5th century
bc
and this gives rise to the
ARRAS CULTURE
. There is little sign of continued contact with the continent in later centuries and the Parisi developed their own traditions down to the Roman conquest. The tribal capital is not certainly identified, but may be the large hillfort at Barwick-in-Elmet which later came to contain the
civitas
capital of Aldborough.

 
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A thin, dark grey, highly burnished ware decorated with impressed stamps and found mainly in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, dating to the late 1st and the 2nd centuries
ad
.

 
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In Anglo-Saxon times a park was simply any piece of land within a fence. In medieval times a park was an area for growing timber and/or keeping beasts of the chase such as deer. From the 16th century
ad
through to the 19th century many landscape parks were created around the country mansions and palaces of the landowning classes. These were chiefly designed and landscaped to look attractive according to prevailing tastes at the time of their creation, although many were still used to graze deer and cattle. Most recently, parks have become public open spaces for recreation and leisure.

 
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A traditional style of land use, also known as wood pasture, that was widely developed in later medieval times in Britain and parts of northern Europe comprising areas of open grassland studded with single established trees or deliberately planted clumps. These landscapes were browsed by deer and cattle with the result that the trees have a distinctive flat base to their foliage caused by maximum reach of the grazing animals. Parkland was economically important both for grazing and the production of substantial timber.

 
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