General Themes: Landscape boundaries, communication and landholding systems
Definition
Activities carried out under Theme I will not only elucidate landscape processes but will also begin to generate knowledge of field boundaries and landholding or of transport systems (as flagged up in the preceding list of specific research areas - A1). More interventionist fieldwork strategies will allow us to take this forward in two ways: by defining relationships between landscape divisions, and by testing hypotheses concerning the dating of apparently morphologically diagnostic landscape features (for example the ladder settlements usually proposed as being of Iron Age date: A2, or the curvilinear enclosures conventionally dated to the early medieval period: B1). In this way, major episodes of re-planning, such as the development of open field systems and then of enclosure and improvement (C2), will be understood. Finally, the impact of provisions for social needs such as leisure in the form of ornamental landscapes and sporting facilities (C3) can be studied.
Methods
- Large scale topographical survey will be undertaken to develop the information provided by aerial photographic and related sources. This element might be transformed with access to a Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) system, for example that run by the Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Environment Agency.
- Environmental sampling will elucidate broad periods and length of use, deposit formation processes etc. in selected landscape features. Such exercises should also yield molluscan, seed and other environmental assemblages with palaeoecological significance, both for the immediate vicinity and for the region beyond (then allowing comparison with known faunas from southern English counties, for example in terms of molluscan evidence).
- Test pitting will define chronological and topographical relationships between landscape features at critical junctions, and perhaps generate dateable artefact assemblages (though NB the problems, noted previously, of understanding such evidence. Here detailed micromorphological analyses must be an integral part of the interpretative process).
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