What is it about?
Ancient field walls are traditionally difficult to date, either by using morphological typologies or through the association of diagnostic or chronometric materials. For archaeologists and others working in karst landscapes (landscapes formed in areas where moving water has interacted with soluble bedrocks such as limestones, gypsums, and dolomites), however, measuring divergent rates of bedrock lowering beneath and adjacent to ancient walls provides a method for dating the walls.
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Why is it important?
The method for dating ancient field walls described here is a valuable tool that can be used by archaeologists and others working in karst landscapes around the world. It has the potential to be a great help when attempting to clarify chronologies of entire landscapes.
Perspectives
This publication has developed out of my wider project of survey and excavation in the karstic landscape of the Burren in western Ireland which is concerned with investigating the organization and dynamics of prehistoric societies (with a focus on the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Early Bronze Age periods). In addition to the investigations discussed in this article, the wider research project has involved the excavation of habitation sites and ritual sites (megaliths) and is now incorporating palaeoenvironmental and ancient DNA studies as well.
Dr Carleton Jones
National University of Ireland - Galway
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Dating Ancient Field Walls in Karst Landscapes Using Differential Bedrock Lowering, Geoarchaeology, December 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/gea.21531.
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