The Milfield Geoarchaeology Project is a long-running collaborative project between ARS Ltd and the Newcastle University. It aims to produce a detailed synthesis of landscape development and land-use history in what is one of the most important archaeological landscapes in the British Isles. The project is underpinned by a multi-disciplinary approach that draws on a whole range of field methods including Fieldwalking, Test Pitting, Excavation, Aerial Photograph Transcription, Geomorphological Mapping, Sediment Coring and Trenching and Lidar Survey
The findings of the project show the preferences for different geological areas for different activities throughout the past. The study has also provided important methodological advances including the effect of slope processes on surface artefact scatters recovered by fieldwalking.
The Milfield Project is an innovative study that will underpin future conservation and management decision making as well as contributing to our knowledge of the region and identifying future research questions.
For more information see:
- Passmore, D. G., C. Waddington and S. Houghton. 2002. Geoarchaeology of the Milfield Basin, northern England; towards an integrated archaeological prospection, research and management framework. Archaeological Prospection 9: 71-91.
- Waddington, C. (1999) A Landscape Archaeological Study of the Mesolithic-Neolithic in the Milfield Basin, Northumberland. Oxford, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 291.