Jessica Holmes

Sustainable landscapes: The archaeology of land-use in the Brecklands, East Anglia, UK
Supervisors: Dr Mark Bateman (Department of Geography), Dr Gianna Ayala (Department of Archaeology), Dr Jen Heathcote (English Heritage) and Dr David Robinson (English Heritage)

BA (Hons) Archaeology & Prehistory - University of Sheffield 2003
MSc Geoarchaeology- University of Reading 2005

The Brecklands region of East Anglia represents a unique landscape within Britain that is essentially defined by its well-drained sand rich soils.

Throughout the Holocene significant environmental changes have occurred within the region, which are thought to have induced the superficial sands to become unstable. This periodic sand movement has led to a unique archaeological record of human occupation and exploitation of the region. The suite of landscape features, some of which are entirely unique to the Brecklands, have both promoted and deleteriously affected this occupation. In turn, the human occupants have utilised and manipulated the landscape, effectively altering the natural dynamics, with both beneficial and disastrous consequences.

This research will focus upon the analytical and spatio-temporal recording of predominantly aeolian, but also glacial, fluvial and colluvial, deposits and landforms within the region in order to reconstruct the extent and phases of landscape instability. The analyses and techniques utilised will include OSL and radiocarbon dating methods, sedimentology, soil micromorphology, palynology, geophysics and small-scale excavation. Palaeo-environmental reconstruction of the landscape will also be tied directly to key archaeological sites in order to determine the relationships between changes in land-use/ settlement patterns and phases of instability. This will be also be achieved by using a number of models developed within a Geographic Information System database.

This research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and by English Heritage

Research interests

aeolian sediments, geoarchaeology & palaeo-landscape reconstruction, utilising Geographic Information Systems and the archaeology of dryland/ unstable landscapes

Conference Presentations

Geoarchaeology 2006 conference poster

Contact details

Email: J.Holmes@Sheffield.ac.uk