Rievaulx Abbey, the Cistercian taskscape and environmental change

Abstract

Rievaulx Abbey, the Cistercian taskscape and environmental changeThe work contributes to the growing body of revisionist research into the Cistercian order by extending the concept of ‘taskscape,’ originally devised by anthropologist Tim Ingold to describe an array of related, interlocking activities. Extending taskscape to Cistercian contexts offers an interpretative framing with potential for nuance, illustrated by the issue of documented Cistercian ‘transformation’ of landscape. The interdisciplinary research reported briefly here used taskscape to analyse documentary and archaeological data alongside a catchment hydrological model. The research found that the first Cistercian monastery in Northern Britain, Rievaulx Abbey, developed in a complex physical and socio-cultural context on which the monastery’s impact was likely to have been correspondingly complex