1,720,995 research outputs found
Exploring rural settlement in Iron Age Europe : an introduction
No full textThis paper provides an introduction to the edited volume on Rural Settlement. Relating Buildings, Landscape, and People in the European Iron Age
Enclosing space and opening new ground in Iron Age studies:An introduction
Get PDFIntroductory chapter for the edited volume: Enclosing Space, Opening New Ground: Iron Age studies from Scotland to Mainland Europe, edited by Tanja Romankiewicz, Manuel Fernandez-Gotz, Gary Lock, and Olivier Buchsenschut
Critical applications of KOCOA in Western Europe c. 26 BC - 1745 AD
Get PDFIn the thirty years since Conflict Archaeology has evolved as a discipline, it has
grown exponentially in scope. In order to define a methodological and
conceptual framework for the discipline, conflict archaeologists in North America
have adopted standard military analytical procedures and terminology. KOCOA
(or OAKOC) is the standard military terrain analysis that conflict archaeologists
use to aid in defining battlefield boundaries and interpreting battlefield remains.
KOCOA is a military acronym that stands for Key or Decisive Terrain;
Observation and Fields of Fire; Cover and Concealment; Obstacles; and
Avenues of Approach and Withdrawal. The KOCOA approach has been utilized
with success within the United States on a number of Revolutionary War, Civil
War, and American Frontier Wars battlefields. The National Park Service (NPS)
requires the application of KOCOA in evaluating the preservation potential of
historic battlefields as part of the American Battlefield Protection Program
(ABPP).
Conflict Archaeologists have utilized KOCOA without appreciating its full
potential or limitations. To date, KOCOA has mostly been applied to terrestrial
battlefields that are at least partially preserved or otherwise historically
documented. The majority of these projects were conducted under the auspices
of the ABPP: the primary interest being the location and evaluation of defining
battlefield features. Few attempts have been made to employ KOCOA in an
academic setting in order to assess the influence of terrain on the conduct of
battles, on command decisions made, or as a tool in the interpretation of
archaeological assemblages for the purpose of reconstructing battles that are
devoid of direct historical documentation. If KOCOA is to develop as part of the
methodological and conceptual framework of Conflict Archaeology, then it needs
to be applicable in wider chronological and geographical contexts.
This thesis critically evaluates the applicability of KOCOA through
answering a varied series of questions across a set of temporally and
categorically different Western European sites. In the well documented, early
modern Battle of Prestonpans (1745), KOCOA is used to rationalize how the
terrain influenced where the actual engagement took place. KOCOA is then
utilized to posit the location of the English siege lines and artillery fortifications
from the Siege of Edinburgh Castle (1573) that have been subsumed by the
urbanization of Edinburgh city center. The Second Scottish War of
Independence battlefield at Halidon Hill (1333) is well known, but the battle itself
is only documented in secondary chronicles, some written many years after the
battle. A KOCOA analysis was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the
chronicles, as well as to show how the English selection of the terrain served as
a critical factor in the Scottish defeat. The location of sparsely documented
Battle of Dún Nechtain (685) has generated fierce debate among scholars. A
KOCOA analysis was undertaken to evaluate the terrain of Dunnichen and
Dunachton and demonstrate which may have been the site of the battle. The
Roman conquest of the Cantabrian oppidum at Monte Bernorio (c. 26 BC) is not
documented in classical sources. Ongoing archaeological excavations at Monte
Bernorio have recovered an artifact assemblage that was interpreted through a
KOCOA analysis in order to reconstruct the course of the battle.
The KOCOA method itself is critically evaluated as an analytical tool
based upon the case studies, and it shows that when informed by other
components of METT-T, KOCOA is applicable in wide range of chronologically
and categorically different sites, both directly documented and undocumente
Kühn im Konzept, phantasievoll mit Resourcen:Architektur-archäologische Analyse am Beispiel eisenzeitlicher Rundbauten in Schottland
Get PDFThis paper introduces architectural analysis of construction and design to the archaeological evidence of the Scottish brochs – Iron Age stone roundhouses still preserved up to 13 m high. Despite their unique construction, analysis shows brochs to have been an integral part of the wider British roundhouse tradition, indicating supra-regional similarities. Architectural differences between stone and timber roundhouses, but also between individual brochs, however, suggest underlying long-lived regional traditions. These traditions could be adapted according to individual requirements, such as site-specific masonry patterns. The consumption of material and labour, sophistication in construction and design, and a visible presence within the landscape suggest that locally-based communities were utilising domestic architecture as the medium to convey social and economic potential. The analytical method introduced here can be applied to other building traditions elsewhere – with the potential to yield similarly nuanced archaeological interpretations.
Land, stone, trees, identity, ambition:The building blocks of brochs
Get PDFBrochs are impressive stone roundhouses unique to Iron Age Scotland. This paper introduces a new perspective developed from architectural analysis and drawing on new survey, fieldwork and analogies from anthropology and social history. The study of architectural design and constructional detail exposes fewer competitive elements than previously anticipated. Instead, attempts to emulate, share and communicate identities can be detected. The architectural language of the broch allows complex layers of individual preferences, local and regional traditions, and supra-regional communications to be expressed in a single house design. The proposed ‘productive households’ model moves beyond ideas of competing elites at times of stress, and invites a new debate by expanding a more complex broch concept beyond the Atlantic core
The building blocks of circular economies:Rethinking prehistoric turf architecture through archaeological and architectural analysis
Get PDFResearch into prehistoric buildings in northwest Europe has identified the ubiquitous use of turf. The study first introduces direct and proxy evidence for the material’s detection in the field, then analyses individual case studies to demonstrate how this locally available and renewable material shaped buildings and building practices. Turf, grown and sourced on or near a site, ties buildings to their landscape, while creating flexible shells that can shift as needed, metamorphosing built space and volume accordingly. Turf’s capacity to then compost and regrow embeds its buildings into a prehistoric circular economy that interweaves dwellings, people, animals, plants, soils, and nutrients into a holistic understanding of a “curated” rather than a “built” environment – an architecture borrowed from the soil to which it can return. The characteristics of turf blocks as a malleable and arguably metamorphosing building material call for a rethink of turf architecture, not resulting in static products but in ongoing circular processes. This new concept operates within an extended lifecycle of houses, not as in traditional approaches from birth (built) to death (abandoned), but within a cyclical, cradle-to-cradle approach. An experimental training project now translates this prehistoric cyclical model into modern sustainable turf building practice to demonstrate its potential for positive climate actiontoday
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Recent research on the Arras Culture in its landscape setting
No full textBetween 1815 and 1817 the Reverend William Stillingfleet, Barnard Clarkson and Dr Thomas Hull, with the aid of an unspecified number of workmen, undertook the excavation of a series of burial mounds at Arras Farm, near the East Yorkshire town of Market Weighton (Stillingfleet 1847; Stead 1979). Their discoveries included several chariot burials and other graves containing prestigious items. The distinctive style of the burials and the objects within them, paralleled on the near continent of Europe, eventually led to the coining of the term “Arras culture”. Although such constructs have been questioned and modified (e.g. Harding 2015, 4), there are definite differences between the material culture of this region and elsewhere in Iron Age Britain (Cunliffe 2005). The bicentenary of the end of the first Arras excavations, and new discoveries in 2017, provide an opportunity to reflect on the landscape context of these Iron Age people. The primary focus here will be on presenting the settlements and landscape changes, gained through developer funded archaeological excavation and other research projects, particularly those conducted by the author
Turf
Get PDFThis chapter contributes an archaeological and architectural reconsideration of the building material TURF to the "Unfinished Compendium of Materials", edited by Rachel Harkness. The book presents an outcome of the University of Aberdeen's research project "Knowing from the Inside: Art, Anthropology, Architecture and Design", led by Tim Ingold. The "Turf" chapter discusses the use of turf in Scotland for building homes, from early prehistory to post-medieval times and considers its potential for use in modern architectures. Following the overall innovative format of this publication, the TURF chapter takes an artistic-reflective approach to the topic
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