Early medieval landscapes: Lindisfarne - a case study

This research is an integral part of an ongoing archaeological field project on the Northumbrian island of Lindisfarne (also known as Holy Island) directed by Deirdre O'Sullivan and Rob Young of the School of Archaeological Studies at the University of Leicester. The project is multi-period, and has investigated sites spanning from the Mesolithic to the industrial period. The specific aim of the work for this thesis is the reconstruction the environment contemporary with the early medieval settlement site of Green Shiel on the north shore of Lindisfarne, and to consider the relationship of environment to site function and economy. The principle aim of the work is to show how no site can be interpreted without recourse to a wide range of data sources including archaeological data, environmental evidence and historical sources. Fundamental to such a synthetic approach is the analysis of spatial scales beyond the site itself as no settlement can be interpreted in isolation from other settlements and the broader landscape. The reconstruction of the environment around the Green Shiel site is located within a broader discussion of the early medieval period in Northumberland. It is argued that the interpretation of this site, and indeed any site, is limited if off-site environmental reconstruction is not attempted. Such work should then be integrated within a broader historical framework that considers the nature of socio-economic systems that would have obviously influenced the ways in which any environment was exploited. This research was carried out as a part of the Lindisfarne Excavation Project which many people have been involved with. Other than thanking my two supervisors, Tony Brown and Deirdre 0' Sullivan, special thanks must also go to Rob Young, co-director of the Lindisfarne project. I am also indebted to a number of other people who have contributed to the project and have allowed me to consult the results of their own work, most notably Pete Boyer and Sarah Crane. I should also like to thank the following people for their assistance and advice during the period of research: Martin Bell, Neil Christie, Gerraint Coles, Tony Gould well, Graham Morgan, Andy Plater, Alex Powers, Michael Tooley, Marijke van der Veen, and David 0' Connor and Phil Davey of the English Nature NNR.