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Walking through time: a window onto the prehistory of the Yorkshire Dales through multi-method, non-standard survey approaches
Saunders, Mary K.
Saunders, Mary K.
Publication Date
2017
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The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.
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Accepted for publication
Institution
University of Bradford
Department
School of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences
Awarded
2017
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Abstract
Walking through time: a window onto the prehistory of the Yorkshire Dales
through multi-method, non-standard survey approaches
Keywords: Yorkshire Dales, prehistory, veneration, natural places, geophysical
survey, walkover survey, field-system, clearance, land tenure
The large-scale field-systems, ubiquitous across upland and marginal parts of
the Yorkshire Dales, are insecurely dated and poorly understood. Apart from
some sporadic academic interest, the archaeology of this region has yet to
receive the level of scholarly attention it deserves.
The research presented here involved an intensive investigation of an area
near Grassington, Upper Wharfedale, UK. Detailed field analysis revealed a
section of one of these field-systems to be only a single element in a complex,
multi-layered prehistoric landscape, which it is proposed may have roots as far
back as the early Neolithic. Contextualisation of the survey area against
palynological data, radiocarbon dates and comparative material moves the
date of inception of the field-systems back to the middle Bronze Age, some
1000 years earlier than is currently assumed.
The combination of empirical data and theoretical ideas has allowed a relative
chronology to be determined in the survey area, together with the creation of a
testable hypothesis surrounding the development of Upper Wharfedale and the
wider Yorkshire Dales through prehistory. A sense of place and the veneration
of natural places are key themes within this landscape and it was possible
through these to draw out elements of prehistoric society and to show the
evolution of ideas such as land tenure and monument significance. This dual
empirical-theoretical approach is novel in upland landscape archaeology in the
UK and is shown here to have significant merit.
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Type
Thesis
Qualification name
PhD
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