Search results for ""Author Dr Thomas Walker""

Environment, Archaeology and Landscape is a collection of papers dedicated to Martin Bell on his retirement as Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Reading. Three themes outline how wetland and inland environments can be related and investigated using multi-method approaches. ‘People and the Sea: Coastal and Intertidal Archaeology’ explores the challenges faced by humans in these zones – particularly relevant to the current global sea level rise. ‘Patterns in the Landscape: Mobility and Human-environment Relationships’ includes some more inland examples and examines how past environments, both in Britain and Europe, can be investigated and brought to public attention. The papers in ‘Archaeology in our Changing World: Heritage Resource Management, Nature Conservation and Rewilding’ look at current challenges and debates in landscape management, experimental and community archaeology. A key theme is how archaeology can contribute time depth to an understanding of biodiversity and environmental sustainability. This volume will be of value to all those interested in environmental archaeology and its relevance to the modern world.

Read more less

Gwithian, on the north coast of Cornwall, is a multiperiod archaeological site. Excavations by Charles Thomas in the mid-twentieth century provided evidence of human activity from the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period. The present work explores the palaeoenvironment of the area around the settlement sites, from the Neolithic, when sand dunes initially developed in the Red River valley, to the present post-industrial landscape. Multiproxy analyses on sediments from coring, a test pit and mollusc columns provide a view of the changing landscape and how it may have influenced, or been influenced by, human presence and settlement. Mollusc studies are used as the principal analytical method. Multiple radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminesce dates permit these changes to be studied on a tighter time frame than was previously possible. Mining activity from the Bronze Age to the present is explored using fine-resolution geochemistry. Dating allows the timing of the extinction and introduction of some mollusc species to be refined.

Read more less