Dating Ancient Field Walls in Karst Landscapes Using Differential Bedrock Lowering

Abstract

While karst environments present methodological and interpretive challenges to archaeologists, they also provide some unique opportunities. One of these opportunities is the ability to date field walls by measuring divergent rates of bedrock dissolution underneath and adjacent to ancient walls. Field walls are traditionally difficult to date, either by using morphological typologies or through the association of diagnostic or chronometric materials. The method presented here, therefore, represents a valuable tool for archaeologists working in karst landscapes. The methodology is described along with a discussion of potential problems, drawing in particular upon evidence from the karstic terrain of the Burren in western Ireland. The methodology is then applied to a group of field walls on the Burren, which are shown to date to the Chalcolithic ‐ Early Bronze Age.

Isotopic evidence for changing mobility and landscape use patterns between the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in western Ireland

“…In the subsequent Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age periods, areas which had previously witnessed Neolithic activity seem to become par ticularly important activity foci (Jones et al, 2015), and many formerly more 'quiet' parts of the landscape show evidence for settlement and ritual activity as well (Delaney et al, 2012;Hull & Taylor, 2010). The Neolithic Parknabinnia court tomb is, in fact, set in the midst of a 'busy' Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age landscape consisting of the densest concentration of Chalcolithic megalithic wedge tombs in the country along with Chalcolithic/Early Bronze habitation enclosures and field walls (Jones, 2016).…”

Along the Margins? The Later Bronze Age Seascapes of Western Ireland

“…Stone walls represent an investment of labour designed to increase the productivity and security of both agricultural and pastoral subsistence economies. While pre-bog field systems have been identified in several locations in western Ireland, most of these field systems remain undated (Cooney, 2000; Jones, 2016), though some researchers are starting to address this problem (e.g. Whitefield, 2017).…”

Neolithic ‘Celtic’ Fields? A Reinterpretation of the Chronological Evidence from Céide Fields in North-western Ireland

“…Much could be gained through greater engagement in comparative and collaborative studies with researchers investigating later prehistoric field systems in Britain and Continental Europe (see Chadwick, 2008a: 1), as well as elsewhere in Ireland (e.g. O'Brien, 2009; Jones et al, 2010; Jones, in press).…”