Henry Chapman

Can we characterise ‘openness’ in the Holocene palaeoenvironmental record? Modern analogue studies of insect faunas and pollen spectra from Dunham Massey deer park and Epping Forest, England

This paper examines the degree to which tree-associated Coleoptera (beetles) and pollen could be used to predict the degree of ‘openness’ in woodland. The results from two modern insect and pollen analogue studies from ponds at Dunham Massey, Cheshire and Epping Forest, Greater London are presented. We explore the reliability of modern pollen rain and sub-fossil beetle assemblages to represent varying degrees of canopy cover for up to 1000 m from a sampling site. Modern woodland canopy structure around the study sites has been assessed using GIS-based mapping at increasing radial distances as an independent check on the modern insect and pollen data sets. These preliminary results suggest that it is possible to use tree-associated Coleoptera to assess the degree of local vegetation openness. In addition, it appears that insect remains may indicate the relative intensity of land use by grazing animals. Our results also suggest most insects are collected from within a 100—200 m radius of the sampling site. The pollen results suggest that local vegetation and density of woodland in the immediate area of the sampling site can have a strong role in determining the pollen signal.

In situ preservation as a dynamic process: the example of Sutton Common, UK

In situ preservation is a complex and dynamic process, which requires an understanding of the nature and scale of the material to be preserved, an understanding of the context of the site in terms of managerial needs and a programme of scientific monitoring of changes within the burial environment. The example of a rural archaeological landscape in northeast England, which is undergoing a programme of hydrological management, is considered.

Visual Heritage in the Digital Age

This book presents methods for capturing data, modeling and engaging with heritage through digital interfaces, plus case studies of sites in Europe, North and Central America and collections relating to ancient Middle Eastern and North African civilizations.

Global warming The implications for sustainable archaeological resource management

Abstract Global warming is recognised as an important environmental, and consequently political, issue. Rising global temperatures have demonstrated the potential for raising sea levels and increasing surface temperatures, with wide-reaching implications for habitats and biodiversity. While this remains high on the priority list for ecological sciences and coastal management, the implications for archaeological resource management remain unexamined. This is surprising given the increasingly close relationship between ecological and archaeological site management. This paper aims to focus attention on the issue of archaeology and global warming, and presents an outline of the possible consequences and approaches that may be considered, particularly in relation to the archaeology of wetlands.

Quantifying the effects of erosion on the archaeology of intertidal environments A neW"approach and its implications for their management

Abstract While the high archaeological and palaeoecological value of intertidal deposits has become well known, approaches to their management remain extremely restricted. Despite the often high levels of erosion experienced by some sites there has been very little development in methods aimed at understanding or quantifying the threats. This paper presents an approach aimed at monitoring erosion within the Humber estuary, UK, where previous finds including Bronze Age boat remains and trackways have made it an area of international importance. Two sites have been investigated and the results from these demonstrate both the high rate of sediment removal and also the highly variable nature of intertidal erosion. It is argued that global figures relating to rates of erosion are wholly inappropriate when attempting to manage archaeological deposits that have survived in intertidal environments. Rather, management of such archaeologically rich but threatened landscapes is only possible through regular quantitative monitoring. Such an approach offers coastal protection authorities a valuable opportunity to assess the long-term progress of erosion and coastal change. This methodology could be employed alongside management agreements within those particular coastal cells or process units that have been identified in a Shoreline Management Plan.

Archaeological predictive modelling in raised mires – concerns and approaches for their interpretation and future management

Abstract Whilst raised mires retain high potential for exceptional preservation of organic archaeological remains, locating such features is problematic. Within dryland landscapes, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide a range of tools that enable the predictive modelling of site locations on the basis of observed trends in the relationships between environmental conditions and human agency. However, the formation processes of raised mires mean that this is apparently not feasible due to considerable spatial and temporal complexity. This paper re-defines this position arguing that predictive modelling of archaeological site locations within raised mires is possible through four-dimensional landscape reconstruction and analysis, using multiple strands of archaeo-environmental data.

Planning policy, in situ preservation and wetland archaeology in the United Kingdom – some present concerns

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The Landscape Archaeology of Bog Bodies

Abstract Bog bodies are well known from sites across north-western Europe, particularly from Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. The often exceptional organic preservation of these human remains has led to comprehensive forensic studies that have explored a range of factors relating to the individual, from aspects of demography to cause of death and circumstances of deposition. However, there has been surprisingly little analysis of the landscape context of these bodies at the time of their deposition. This paper promotes a landscape archaeology approach to the study of bog bodies by presenting newly modelled data relating to the spatial positioning of those discovered from Lindow Moss, Cheshire, England. It is argued that, by exploring the spatial positioning of the body within its contemporaneous landscape setting, it is possible to enrich previous approaches to their interpretation and to improve our understanding of the cultural context of the death of these individuals and the decisions surrounding their deposition within bogs.

The Catholme Ceremonial Complex, Staffordshire, UK

During the 1960s and 1970s, aerial reconnaissance on the northern side of the confluence of the Rivers Trent, Tame, and Mease in Staffordshire revealed a cluster of features indicative of prehistoric ceremonial activity. Some of the features within the cluster are morphologically unique, but a lack of previous investigation meant that their dating, phasing, and function were unknown. This paper details the results of a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing these questions about the complex and to place it into its contemporary landscape context. The results indicate that the complex represents numerous phases of symbolic and ceremonial activity extending from the late Neolithic and into the early Bronze Age. Furthermore, it has shown how these structures fit within a wider landscape of ceremonial activity extending back to the earlier Neolithic and continuing into the Bronze Age.

Gavin Glover, Paul Flintoft & Richard Moore (ed.). ‘A mersshy contree called Holdernesse’: excavations on the route of a national grid pipeline in Holderness, East Yorkshire. 2016. xii+286 pages, numerous colour and bw 978-1-78491-313-7 paperback £40.

Teasing out the separate strands of influence that created the Saharan qusūr is hardly an easy task, and with the exception of the eleventh-century foundations in the Mzab, firm chronological data are absent. Chekhab-Abudaya rightly sees the expanding concentric circles with radial streets that characterise the plans of many of the qusūr as the result of a series of new arrivals, settling outside the walls and then building new ones. She contrasts these concentric plans with those that contain rough grids, which she judges to be later. But none of these is easily dated. No excavations have ever taken place (except in the deserted Ibadi town of Sedrata) and, to my knowledge, no radiocarbon dating has been carried out on a qsar outside Libya (although radiocarbon dates for the qusūr of the Wadi Draa in Morocco are underway; Corisande Fenwick pers. comm.). Chekhab-Abudaya’s investigation thus serves the very useful purpose of pulling together all the available information, creating numerous and beautifully clear comparative plans, and asking a series of questions that certainly remain to be answered. New data could, and should, come from future archaeological work on these sites and, indeed, on the whole of the northern Sahara.