Abstract
Climate change poses an imminent physical risk to cultural heritage sites and their surrounding landscape through intensifying environmental processes such as damaging wetting and drying cycles that disrupt archaeological preservation conditions, and soil erosion which threatens to expose deposits and alter the archaeological context of sites. In the face of such threats, geospatial techniques such as GIS, remote sensing, and spatial modelling have proved invaluable tools for archaeological research and cultural heritage monitoring. This paper presents the application of secondary multi-source and multi-temporal geospatial data within a processing framework to provide a comprehensive assessment of geophysical risk to the Roman fort of Magna, Carvoran, UK. An investigation into the ancient hydraulic system at Magna was carried out with analysis of vegetation change over time, and spatio-temporal analysis of soil erosion risk at the site. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in place at the time of this study, these analyses were conducted using only secondary data with the aim to guide further archaeological research, and management and monitoring strategies for the stakeholders involved. Results guided inferences about the ancient hydraulic system, providing insights regarding how to better manage the site at Magna in the future. Analysis of soil erosion allowed the identification of hot spot areas, indicating a future increase in rates of erosion at Magna and suggesting a seasonal period of higher risk of degradation to the site. Results have proven that freely available multi-purpose national-scale datasets are sufficient to create meaningful insights into archaeological sites where physical access to the site is inhibited. This infers the potential to carry out preliminary risk assessment to inform future site management practices.
Highlights
IntroductionAD130, marked the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire for almost three centuries, stretching 73 miles across Northern
While this study successfully provided an understanding of the spatial distribution of critical sites prone to erosion, variation across the temporal domain was not investigated
Water is not lacking at Magna [16] and it is confirmed by the presence of the peat bog to the north of the fort
Summary
AD130, marked the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire for almost three centuries, stretching 73 miles across Northern. In 1987, the former military zone, which is home to the archaeological remains of numerous Roman forts, milecastles and turrets, was designated a UNESCO. World Heritage Site [1]. Previous excavations of Roman sites in the frontier zone have offered unprecedented insights into everyday life on the Roman frontier, transforming understanding of Roman Britain. Magna, meaning ‘fort at the rock’, is a unique Roman fort along Hadrian’s Wall that has not yet been the subject of a comprehensive research excavation. Magna is owned and managed by the Vindolanda Trust [2], and the distinctive
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