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The Outside Inside: Combining Aerial Photographs, Cropmarks and Landscape Experience

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Abstract

This paper seeks to make a contribution to current debates concerning the dislocation in landscape research between experiential approaches and quantitative techniques of landscape analysis. It focuses upon a group of archaeological sites that are caught in the centre of this divide: plough-levelled sites recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The application of experiential landscape analysis to plough-levelled sites is explored, along with the value of incorporating information derived from the study of the aerial photograph. It is contended that richer, more rounded, interpretations of landscape are possible when combining aspects of quantitative and qualitative landscape research.

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Acknowledgments

Elements of the paper are drawn from doctoral research funded by an AHRC collaborative doctoral award between Glasgow University and RCAHMS. I would like to thank Dorothy Graves, my co-organiser of the conference from which this special issue arises and from whom the initial inspiration arose. Thank you, too, to Jeff Oliver for his help, support and advice in setting up and running the conference at Aberdeen, to Aberdeen University Archaeology Department for hosting it and all the contributors who helped to make the conference a success. I am grateful to Kenny Brophy and Dave Cowley for their comments and criticisms, all of which helped refine the content of this paper. Any inaccuracies remain my own.

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  1. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, John Sinclair House, 16 Bernard Terrace, Edinburgh, EH8 9NX, UK

    Kirsty Millican

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Millican, K. The Outside Inside: Combining Aerial Photographs, Cropmarks and Landscape Experience. J Archaeol Method Theory 19, 548–563 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9140-9

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