Field Monuments Research Articles

Bunker Museology

After the Cold War ended in 1991, many former nuclear bunkers were discarded by the British state and left as field monuments. This article examines the two-stage evolution of bunker museology in Scotland, wherein these archaeological remains have been converted into museums, initially by private collector-enthusiasts and latterly by community groups. My case study of the Gairloch Museum in the Wester Ross documents the reincarnation of a Cold War monument as a community museum, illustrating the positive potential of transforming unofficial into official heritage with the participation of local people. The Gairloch Museum is considered alongside two other local bunker restoration projects in Edinburgh and Dundee, advocating the need for public bodies to give greater priority to the preservation of Cold War heritage in Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole.

Early architecture in Tonga: implications for the development of Polynesian chiefdoms

AbstractDurable architecture is a hallmark of Polynesian chiefdoms, associated with centralised control of residential and agricultural land. Previous work in West Polynesia has indicated a relatively late date for the onset of such construction activity—after AD 1000—suggesting that political development was influenced by events such as post-colonisation migration. The authors report new dating evidence from the excavation of a large earth mound on the island of Tongatapu. Its construction 1500 years ago indicates that, in contrast to previous findings, well-developed chiefdoms and field monuments probably dominated the landscapes of West Polynesia substantially prior to the colonisation of more easterly island nations.

Holocene Vegetation Dynamics, Landscape Change and Human Impact in Western Ireland as Revealed by Multidisciplinary, Palaeoecological Investigations of Peat Deposits and Bog-Pine in Lowland Connemara

Palaeoecological investigations, involving pollen analysis, dendrochronology, and radiocarbon dating of bog-pine, provide the basis for reconstruction of vegetation dynamics, landscape development, and human impact in two contrasting parts of lowland northern Connemara, western Ireland, namely Ballydoo and Derryeighter in the east, and Renvyle/Letterfrack/Cleggan at the Atlantic coast some 40 km to the west. The history of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is traced in detail. Standout features include the dominant role the tree played from the early Holocene onwards and especially at Ballydoo, its ability to grow on peat surfaces (so-called pine flush) over the course of several millennia during the mid-Holocene (centred on c. 5 ka), and its demise in a three-step fashion to become regionally extinct at c. 2.3 ka. The factors influencing these developments, including climate change, are discussed. Another natural phenomenon, namely the spread of blanket bog, is shown to be an on-going process since the early mid-Holocene, with accelerated spread taking place during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. The course of human impact, as reflected in pollen records and in archaeological field monuments, including megaliths and prehistoric stone walls, is reconstructed in detail.

Identification of Archaeologically Relevant Areas Using Open Geodata

Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and digital terrain models (DTM) revolutionized archeological prospection in the last two decades. Using the new technique, comprehensive areal detections of archeological relief structures (field monuments) hidden under dense vegetation became possible and archeologists found new sites even in well-known areas. In times of Open Geodata policies, archeologists have access to geospatial data sets such as DTM. Assessing its full potential requires automated workflows, which is a recent research topic in archeological research. However, all approaches, both manually and automated, are affected by misclassifications caused by confusions of archeological and modern structures. Digital landscape models (DLM) help differentiating structures by their location. Concerning these data, only 74% of the total area of Westphalia and Lippe need archeological investigation, increasing precision of automated classification approaches.

Automated Detection of Field Monuments in Digital Terrain Models of Westphalia Using OBIA

While Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) revolutionized archaeological prospection and different visualizations were developed, an automated detection of cultural heritage still poses a significant challenge. Therefore, geographers and archaeologists from Westphalia, Germany are developing automated workflows for classifying field monuments from special terrain models. For this project, a combination of GIS, Python, and Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) is used. It focuses on three common types of monuments: Ridge and Furrow areas, Burial Mounds, and Motte-and-Bailey castles. The latter two are not classified binary, but in multiple classes, depending on their degree of erosion. This simplifies interpretation by highlighting the most interesting structures without losing the others. The results confirm that OBIA is suitable for detecting field monuments with hit rates of ~90%. A drawback is its dependency on the use of special terrain models like the Difference Map. Further limitations arise in complex terrain situations.

Pit-and-mound Features in the New Forest: Excavations at Ashurst Lodge, 2013

Three field monuments were investigated at Ashurst Lodge, New Forest, Hampshire (NGR SU 341085) in 2013 as part of the New Forest History and Archaeology Group's Pit-and-Mound Project. Two of c. 70 such monuments in this location were selected for excavation in Trench 1, and proved to be classic pit-and-mound features with flanking pits, while a third, excavated in Trench 2, was simpler and more circular in shape, and was intersected by a poorly-preserved linear feature. Two stages of development were seen in the larger of the two mounds in Trench 1, which led eventually to the creation of a secondary flanking pit. No traces of funerary evidence were found, and an interpretation of this type of monument as having a practical function, for instance in processing of animal or plant products, is hypothesised. The only indicator of dating was a single small piece of probably Bronze Age pottery. The third, smaller mound was different, with a simpler structure and an accompanying lithic assemblage of both Mesolithic and Neolithic/Bronze Age tools and waste, together with burnt flint. Its purpose appears to be linked to different activities from the pit-and-mound features of the Ashurst Lodge group. This mound was stratigraphically earlier than the linear feature, which is likely to be of later prehistoric or early historic date.

Recent deep-seated coastal landsliding at San Onofre State Beach, California

Airborne LiDAR collected during the period 1998–2010 and differential GPS surveys conducted over 2008–2013 show recent reactivation and movement of a large deep-seated coastal landslide at San Onofre State Beach, San Diego County, California. The overall slide complex extends about 700m alongshore, 150m inland, and an unknown distance offshore. Differencing digital elevation models and tracking field monuments (benchmarks) provide time series of quantitative topographic landslide changes and new insight in to the slide motion sequences and mechanics. The slide contains several distinct primary and secondary regions moving and deforming at different rates. Primary slide motion includes slow seaward translational motion, rotational slipping, and upward offshore movement. Secondary processes of basal wave erosion and new inland cliffline failures contribute to primary landslide destabilization. The landslide exhibits lithologic and structural controls, is driven by a combination of marine and subaerial processes, influences local beach morphology, and deviates from typical southern California coastal cliff processes which mostly involve shallow landslides and topples. Large-scale, cross-shore slide rotation has recently created new nearshore reefs. Eroded cliff sediments provide a local beach sand source and probably influence local nearshore ecosystems. All known time periods of major historical landslide activity were preceded by elevated seasonal rainfall and analysis suggests elevated rainfall generated primary slide motion as opposed to wave action. As of spring 2013, landslide activity has slowed, but continued positive feedbacks including toe removal by wave activity suggest that future landsliding will probably threaten coastal infrastructure.

Offa’s Dyke: a historiographical appraisal

Offa’s Dyke is one of the largest and best known, if rather less well understood, field monuments in Britain. Despite this, there have been very few primary studies of it. This article makes a critical examination of the principal bodies of work dealing with the dyke. It argues that in many respects our knowledge is less certain than is usually believed. In particular it discusses the time and labour necessary for the construction of the earthwork and it is suggested that it could have been constructed much more quickly, and with a much smaller workforce, than is generally supposed. More fundamentally, the purpose and function of Offa’s Dyke are considered, and it is argued that, in addition to any practical utility it may have had, the earthwork had important ideological significances that until recently have been largely neglected. Specifically, it is argued that the dyke was a manifestation of eighth-century Mercian royal ideology, intended to consolidate the power of the Mercian kingship, in the west midlands in particular and southern England more generally.

SERFing in the Scottish heartlands: artefacts and the research strategy

This paper describes the first phase (2006–11) of the SERF (Strathearn Environs & Royal Forteviot) project and outlines the research strategy developed by a team of prehistorians and medievalists. Particular attention is given to our approaches to material culture and its role in providing a context for field monuments. Previously known archaeological and historical evidence has been utilised to frame the research programme, which has engaged university archaeologists from Glasgow and Aberdeen, public sector archaeologists from Historic Scotland, the RCAHMS and Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust. The fieldwork was undertaken as part of a field school which provides training to university students and volunteers.

Samoan Archaeology—A Review of research history

Abstract:Some aspects of prehistoric material culture of Samoa were described by Buck, Thompson and Freeman in 1920s‐60s, but archaeological work did not begin until 1957, initially by Jack Golson and Wal Ambrose. Work in American Samoa was conducted by Kikuchi in 1963 and continued by Emory and Sinoto in the mid 60's. Subsequent to the independence of Western Samoa, two archaeological programs under the leadership of Roger Green in the 1960s and Jesse Jennings in the 1970s respectively have laid a firm foundation for the understanding of Samoan prehistory from an archaeological point of view. Subsequent research in American Samoa has also added to this knowledge. This review describes some of the major findings and contributions of archaeological research in Samoa and discusses important theoretical and methodical issues for future research.

Are the earliest field monuments of the Pacific landscape serial sites? In A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific. Papers in Honour of Jim Specht

Are the earliest field monuments of the Pacific landscape serial sites? In A Pacific Odyssey: Archaeology and Anthropology in the Western Pacific. Papers in Honour of Jim Specht

Recent excavations and speculations on the Navan complex

Emain Macha, the legendary seat of the kings of Ulster, has long been identified with the Navan complex, 2.6 km west of Armagh. This complex comprises more than a dozen proximate, in some cases presumably associated. prehistoric monuments (Warner 1994). Excepting a number of outlying monuments, the major portion of the Navan complex is anchored between to large enclosures, each with adjacent sitcs associated with votive depositions in water. On the east is Navan Fort defined by a hengiform bank-and-ditch enclosure some 230 m across and containing two field monuments: Site A, a ring-work c. 50 m across with a low rise in the centre, and Site B, a 6–7-m high mound (FIGURE 1) . At the eastern base of the drumlin on which the enclosure sits is Loughnashade, a small lake from whose marshy edge four large Iron Age horns, at least one of which bore La The decoration, were recovered in the late 18th century (Raftery 1987).

Spoliation of the past: the destruction of monuments and treasure-hunting in nineteenth-century Ireland

This article discusses the destruction of archaeological sites and field monuments in the early nineteenth-century and the fate of material remains that were uncovered in the process. Ordnance Survey records of the 1820s and 1830s show that very much of Ireland’s medieval inheritance survived the ravages of war and conquest but began to disappear in the decades before the Great Famine.

Sport, Status, and Field Monuments in the Polynesian Chiefdom of Tonga: The Pigeon Snaring Mounds of Northern Ha'apai

Socio-political development in the late prehistoric Tongan Chiefdom was among the most complex in Polynesia. Chiefly prerogative extended over a variety of resources and was visibly reproduced in several forms of field monuments. Archaeological research in the northern Ha'apai island group has recorded 14 mound sites that oral tradition reports were used as platforms for the snaring of the Pacific pigeon. This type of site, and the sport itself; are firmly associated with the chiefly elite. Based on construction attributes, pigeon snaring mounds can be classifed into three types. Oral traditions in Ha'apai associate their construction with a specific chiefly line appointed to the position of governor in the mid-15th century A.C.

Sport, Status, and Field Monuments in the Polynesian Chiefdom of Tonga: The Pigeon Snaring Mounds of Northern Ha'apai

Sport, Status, and Field Monuments in the Polynesian Chiefdom of Tonga: The Pigeon Snaring Mounds of Northern Ha'apai

Where Eagles Dare: the Iron Age of Norfolk

A survey is presented of the Iron Age in Norfolk, the area containing the heartland of the tribal territory of the Iceni during the Late Iron Age. It makes use of new information from prolific artefact finds from recent excavations and fieldwork, and employing unpublished data from the county Sites and Monuments Record. Settlement evidence and artefact distributions are analysed and used to construct a model for the development of settlement from the Early Iron Age to the Boudican rebellion of AD 60–61. The model emphasises a process of continuous change, showing the population expanding, moving from west to east and finally onto the central claylands. Evidence for field monuments is reviewed, revealing regional groupings and an association between hillfort-type and rectangular enclosures and linear earthworks with strategic locations on the boundaries of better soils. Three zones are thus defined. Artefact types including tores, coins, coin hoards, and horse equipment also reveal distinct regional patterning. Some larger sites are identified as serving more than simple agricultural functions, playing a key role within and between the three defined zones. The importance of ritual and religion within Iron Age society is emphasised and is considered to underlie the deposition of artefacts and hoards around Snettisham and in the vicinity of the south Norfolk border; a practice later revived in the Romano-British period.

Henge Monuments: Reappraisal or Reductionism?

Classification has been a fundamental tool in archaeology since the birth of the discipline, particularly in artefactual analysis. All artefacts, including field monuments, have a limitless variety of characteristics and their reduction into a system of classification necessitates the selection, summarization and simplification of those characteristics regarded as diagnostic in order to clarify groupings of related monuments which might otherwise be obscured by concentration on detail. While some doubt has been cast on the value of the classification of henge monuments as an internally coherent group (and the discovery of many more sites has certainly done little to consolidate that coherence) it can still be argued that a strictly defined class of henge is a useful contribution to our understanding (Harding 1987). Other classes of monument of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC which seem to have ceremonial/funerary functions have also been defined, such as enclosed cremation cemeteries, recumbent stone circles, postcircles, ring cairns, ring ditches and so on. It is widely agreed that there are complex relationships between these various types and their myriad hybrids, or at least that comparisons can be made between various constructional elements.

New evidence of ritual monuments at Long Meg and her Daughters, Cumbria

A note on Long Meg and her Daughters, the monolith and stone circle in Cumberland,provides excuse to quote both Stukeiey on the whole: ‘A great Celtic temple’; and Wordsworth on Long Meg herself: Speak Thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn The power of years - pre-eminent, and placed Apart, to overlook the circle vast Speak, Giant-Mother!More to the point, these new findings from air photography report new field monuments to with the standing circle and the second circle that Stukeley drew, and require a reappraisal of the Neolithic to Eariy Bronze Age monuments in Cumbria.

Managing for Effective Archaeological Conservation: The Example of Salisbury Plain Military Training Area, England

Salisbury Plain Military Training Area, Wiltshire, England is the major zone of southern Engizsh chalk downland where archaeological field monuments are comparatively well preserved over large areas. The land is currently managed with regard to military considerations, to its secondary use for forming, and to conservation concerns. Following expressions of concern about archaeological damage, a working party was set up to evaluate the present state of archaeological survival and to recommend for the future. A survey of all sites evaluated their condition by means of a scoring system. Recommendations were made about military use, agriculture, and controlling natural agencies of destruction; and a solution was offered that incorporated eight elements of strategy. The Salisbury Plain study is considered in its context—the English national policy that there should be an archaeological stock-taking of what we have, and a scoring system to make possible some rational choice in selecting from it what is most precious and what is in most need of protection.

Gordon Parry's West Burra Survey

SummaryIn the course of casual fieldwalking during the early part of the Tougs excavations, Parry observed a number of field monuments on West Burra which were not included in the Royal Commission Inventory (1946), the Ordnance Survey Antiquity Cards (nd) or Colder's list of ‘neolithic’ houses, cairns and burnt mounds (1956; 1963). These sites included houses with field systems, spatially associated and seemingly unassociated burnt mounds, and dykes which appeared to partition the island. The recording of such a well preserved archaeological landscape was of obvious value and, as it was felt that this would add to our understanding of the site being excavated, the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments authorised a survey of West Burra as an integral part of the Tougs project. The survey was carried out over a three week period in April 1977 by Gordon Parry with the occasional assistance of R Barcham and R Wallace.