Environment – Page 2 – Caroline Wickham-Jones

The Forests of the Sea

submerged forest Nova Scotia — The traces of this submerged forest in the Minas Basin, Nova Scotia lie below some 12m of water at high tide. It is an evocative experience to walk among them.

The tree remains at Lionacleit on Benbecula are less impressive than those of Nova Scotia, but you can see here that a considerable amount of organic matter from the woodland floor lies preserved in the peat.

We are slowly becoming accustomed to the idea that the world experienced by our ancestors was very different to our own, even within the span of a few millennia. Nowhere is that made clearer than when standing among the remains of a long-dead forest, especially when it lies in a landscape devoid of trees. Continue reading The Forests of the Sea

The limitations of modelling

This low resolution model of Orkney is good for giving a general idea of landscape change towards the end of the Mesolithic, but it does not tell you what the coast looked like in specific places. The models below, however, give an idea of the level of detail that can be reconstructed with more detailed analysis.

The submerged landscape touches us all, wherever we work. We need to bring a basic understanding of the original lie of the land to our site analyses. However, therein lies a problem. In many places, current understanding of the past position of the Continue reading The limitations of modelling

Archaeology: the Pick and Mix Profession

When I studied archaeology, it was a very different topic. We learnt about cultural change through the examination of specific artefact and monument types, often assuming that the pieces that we found were finished and perfect.

Flourishing Farmers

The Early Neolithic farmstead at Knap of Howar, Papa Westray. Farming seems to have flourished in Orkney, perhaps against the odds. Photo: Guille Lopez

The development of farming in Neolithic Orkney is a fascinating topic that has inspired research over the last century. From the days of Gordon Childe, through the work of Colin Renfrew to the publications of Anna and Graham Ritchie and Continue reading Flourishing Farmers

New Publication

Just to flag up a new paper that I have been working on with colleagues which has recently been published. It is in an expensive volume (apologies), the first of three. It is a series which will be useful, so persuade your university to get the books for the library. I note that all are available as ebooks, though the price is the same! This work was undertaken while I held a personal fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust – my thanks must go to them for enabling the research!

Wickham-Jones, C. R., Bates, R., Dawson, S., Dawson, A. and Bates, M. 2018. The Changing Landscape of Prehistoric Orkney. In Persson, P., Reide, F., Skar, B., Breivik, H. M. and Jonsson, L. (eds.) The Ecology of Early Settlement in Northern Europe. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 393 – 414.

Archaeology and Trees

A friend of mine has been researching links between the environment and people – past, present and future. She has recently written an interesting blog post for Oxbow, which you can access here. It is an interesting read!