Lindisfarne Landscapes: Geoarchaeological Approaches to Human-Environment Relations

该项目将使用跨学科的地质考古方法来调查林迪斯法恩圣岛的景观演变，并重建盎格鲁-撒克逊和中世纪时期的环境和土地利用，当时该岛是欧洲最重要的修道院遗址之一。林迪斯法恩圣岛是位于英格兰东北部诺森伯兰郡海岸的一个潮汐小岛。公元635年，诺桑比亚的奥斯瓦尔德国王和来自爱奥那的僧侣圣艾丹在这里建立了一座重要的盎格鲁-撒克逊修道院，这里一直是圣卡斯伯特崇拜的中心，直到9世纪末维京人袭击修道院后，圣卡斯伯特的遗物被转移到大陆。该岛的考古还包括中石器时代以来的史前特征，一个池塘（The Lough），该岛北部9至10世纪的一个定居点，称为Green Shiel，一个中世纪的修道院和村庄，一个后中世纪的城堡和军事堡垒，早期的现代石灰石采石场，窑炉和马车，以及一个渔港（Walsh 1993； Walsh等人1995；诺森伯兰郡议会和英国遗产2009；Petts 2015）。自2016年以来，杜伦大学（Durham University）和DigVentures对该岛进行的地球物理和考古发掘工作主要集中在盎格鲁-撒克逊修道院的假定位置上，该修道院位于今天仍然可见的中世纪修道院的东南部，以及村庄以西的开阔地带。这些研究揭示了中世纪早期的墓地和工业活动区、田野系统以及13世纪以来的中世纪职业（Petts 2017; Wilkins et al. 2017; Casswell 2018）。除了盎格鲁-撒克逊修道院、中世纪修道院和村庄之外，人们对更广阔的景观仍然知之甚少，尽管很明显，由于中世纪晚期沙丘的侵蚀，18世纪90年代以来修道院附近的田地和泻湖的封闭，以及18世纪以来村庄的扩张，今天的景观与中世纪早期有很大不同（Walsh等人1995；Wilson等人2001；Petts 2017）。然而，最近由中世纪定居研究小组、杜伦大学和DigVentures资助的一项地质考古评估表明，由于风沙掩埋了土壤和湿地，重建中世纪早期景观和圣岛土地利用的潜力很大。这个博士项目是林迪斯法恩正在进行的考古和环境研究的重要组成部分。利用一套跨学科的地质考古方法，博士生将调查、取样和分析圣岛的土壤和沉积物档案，以模拟景观如何随着时间的推移而演变，以及它如何受到人类住区和土地利用以及中世纪和后中世纪沙流的影响。该项目提供了一个独特的机会，有助于理解修道院社区及其租户如何体验并与环境互动。

Project OverviewThis project will use an interdisciplinary suite of geoarchaeological methods to investigate the landscape evolution of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, and to reconstruct the environment and land-use during the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, when the island was home to one of the most important monastic sites in Europe.Holy Island of Lindisfarne is a small tidal island on the Northumberland coast, in northeast England. It is best known as the site of an important Anglo-Saxon monastery founded in AD 635 by King Oswald of Northumbria and St Aidan, a monk from Iona, and as the focus for the cult of St Cuthbert until his relics were moved to the mainland in the late ninth century in the wake of Viking attacks on the monastery. The archaeology of the island also includes prehistoric features from the Mesolithic onwards, a pond (The Lough), a ninth- to tenth-century settlement in the north part of the island known as Green Shiel, an medieval priory and village, a post-medieval castle and military fort, early modern limestone quarries, kilns and waggonways, and a fishing harbour (Walsh 1993; Walsh et al. 1995; Northumberland County Council and English Heritage 2009; Petts 2015). Since 2016, geophysical and archaeological excavations on the island by Durham University and DigVentures have focussed primarily on the presumed location of the Anglo-Saxon monastery to the southeast of the medieval priory church that remains visible today, and open fields west of the village. These have revealed an early medieval cemetery and industrial activity areas, field systems, and medieval occupation from the 13th century onwards (Petts 2017; Wilkins et al. 2017; Casswell 2018). The wider landscape beyond the Anglo-Saxon monastery and the medieval priory and village remain poorly understood, although it is clear that today's landscape is substantially different from that of the early-medieval period due to late-medieval sand dune encroachment, the enclosure of fields and blocking of a lagoon near the priory from the 1790s, and the expansion of the village in and since the eighteenth century (Walsh et al. 1995; Wilson et al. 2001; Petts 2017). However, a recent geoarchaeological assessment funded by the Medieval Settlement Research Group, Durham University and DigVentures, has shown that there is excellent potential to reconstruct the early medieval landscape and land-use of Holy Island due to the burial of soils and wetlands by windblown sand. This PhD project forms an essential new component of the ongoing archaeological and environmental research at Lindisfarne. Using an interdisciplinary suite of geoarchaeological methods, the PhD student will survey, sample, and analyse the soil and sediment archive on Holy Island in order to model how the landscape has evolved over time, and how it has been impacted by human settlement and land-use, and by medieval and post-medieval sand drift. This project represents a unique opportunity to contribute to the understanding of how a monastic community and its tenants experience and interacted with the environment.