The appropriation of the material of places in the landscape: The case of tufa and springs

Abstract

Springs have long been recognized as being significant places in the landscape, and there is ample evidence of later-prehistoric and Roman activity at spring sites. The Christian appropriation of springs as 'places', either indirectly by assigning their origin to saints, or directly by building chapels and churches on spring-head sites, is also well evidenced. The possibility that the material of petrifying springs-tufa-was both transplanted and appropriated, and that the symbolic properties of the material may go back well into British prehistory, is explored.