Landscape Mapping at West Heslerton

Abstract

Archaeological research at West Heslerton, Yorkshire, England, began in 1978, following the chance discovery of Early Anglo-Saxon burials during sand quarrying (Powlesland et al. 1986). Subsequent excavations in advance of quarrying and plowing covered some 35 ha of the Vale of Pickering, exposing prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon settlements and cemeteries (Figs. 13.1 and 13.2). Revealing a portion of ancient landscape at such a large scale emphasized that the narrative of human occupation was expressed by a continuum of activity rather than by a number of dispersed sites of different ages. It also raised the question of the wider context of the excavated area and the nature of the landscape of which it formed a part. The Landscape Research Centre (LRC) was created to map the total archaeology of the Vale of Pickering, testing and developing methods of remote mapping and analysis. Now in action for more than the 30 years, the LRC has recorded over 1,000 ha of contiguous settlement in unprecedented detail.