Landscape Archaeology considers the surrounding environment of an archaeological feature or site in order to provide further insight into its purpose or cultural significance. Factors such as water sources, terrain, roads, etc. may all be relevant in determining the reason why a feature is in a particular place or has developed in a certain way. Combining results from the different sources listed on the main page can provide insight into how, why and when the landscape developed into the form observed today. Some examples are briefly discussed below; if you wish to know more about any of these please use the contact details provided.
Example 1: Past Land Use
As part of the Smokedown project LiDAR imaging of the site, obtained from the Environment Agency, revealed the remains of medieval ploughing (see Figure left red- high, green low).
Known as “ridge and furrow” the areas marked A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 show curving furrows, the “aratral curve”, which is a product of using oxen as the plough beast as, unlike horses, they cannot cross their front legs so need to veer to one side to turn around.
Areas B2 and C2 show evidence of ridge splitting, a technique used to reduce the ridge height if it became too great. It may also have helped maintain soil fertility by avoiding the raising of subsoil and by uncovering soil buried under previous ploughing. This is evident at the north of B2 and east of C2. The whole of D1 seems to have been treated in this manner. The average furrow-furrow widths are on the upper bounds generally found but it is important to note that there is no orthodox width; the fields were ploughed to suit the land. It is possible that D1 was last ploughed by horse as the curvature is not particularly strong. This area also shows five wider ridges within the field and these may have been deliberately left undivided to act as balks, defining different “ownership” of the selions and strips.
The survival of the ridge & furrow suggests that these fields were last ploughed before the late 16th century, after which they were laid to pasture, probably in the 17th century to raise cattle for the increasing demand for meat from expanding urbanisation. Nevertheless, beneath the enclosure boundaries the ghost image of the medieval open field system can still be seen and reproduced. The straight lines are hedgerows planted when the land was enclosed (either by private agreement or by Parliamentary act) and the two strong linear features running SW-NE and NW-SE are roads created at Parliamentary enclosure and they truncate the ridge & furrow in places.
Example 2: Site Context and Interpretation
LA often provides information to support the interpretation of excavations, for example providing a historical context by analysis of similar sites in the area or, in some cases, beyond.
An example of this is shown in the Figure (left), which shows recorded Romano-British sites north and south of the Corallian ridge near Faringdon plotted using GIS. The “star” indicates the site of the current Smokedown excavation, just south of the river Thames. The purple dots show sites recorded by Allen [1], the red dots show R-B sites excavated since. There is a clear bias in the data to the south bank of the river but this may just be indicative of a lower number of developer-led excavations on the north bank.
What the data does show is the relatively large number of sites of this period, mostly farmsteads but also villas, small towns and temple sites. The map indicates that the area was quite densely populated and exploited over the first four centuries AD. Analysis of animal bones indicates that cattle were the majority species at most sites with sheep and pigs secondary. This provides information on the likely diet and possibly the economy of this area at the time. Given that produce would need to be transported to market, it also raises questions about the location of these and the tracks and roads in the area, together with possible crossing points of the river Thames. Analysis is ongoing with more results expected in 2025.
Example 3: Development of Settlements
A common application of LA is to analyse the evolution of settlements using old maps as references; many of these are freely available on-line; this can be useful to regress a settlement plan to a particular era of interest. Of course, this requires some subjective interpretation and knowledge of earlier land use strategies is helpful. (There are several, readily available books and websites to help with this).
The figures above show maps of Childrey and Sparsholt villages dating from 1761 and 1899 respectively; both are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon charters. The 1761 map provides a possible clue to the early history of Childrey as it shows a number of dwellings around the church, which is probably the original village site. It is thought that villages started to form around the mid ninth century, so it is possible that an earlier church stood on this site, the present church dates from the 12th century. The 1761 map also provides clear information about the land use at this time. It is interesting to note that much of the land to the north of the village was meadow, with the ploughed land to the south, rising up the sides of the downs. This land is divided into small fields of approximately 2 by 1 furlongs, probably indicating ploughing. The long, SW-NE fields south of Portway on the 1899 map were probably used for grazing sheep. Both villages have lanes that terminate in footpaths – West Street, Watery Lane in Sparsholt and Dog Lane and West Street (again) in Childrey – these are probably routes to the surrounding open fields. Interestingly, there is a detached part of Sparsholt parish to the NE within “Charlow” (West Challow) parish shown on the 1761 map, although it seems to have been absorbed by 1899.
References:
[1] (Martyn Allen, Nathan Blick, Tom Brindle, Tim Evans, Michael Fulford, Neil Holbrook, Lisa Lodwick, Julian D Richards, Alex Smith (2018) The Rural Settlement of Roman Britain: an online resource [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1030449)
[2] University of Bern https://ryhiner.ub.unibe.ch/en/world/volume/304/image/7314
[3] National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/