places, perceptions

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Places,perceptions,rethinking landscapes

INTRODUCTIONThis paper is an elaborationof one of the chaptersinour Rethinking.Wetldnd Archaeology (Van de Noort& O'Sullwan 2006), an d concernsthe archaeologica lstudy of wetland landscapes.In this book, we arguethat many approachesto the archaeologyof wetlandshave failed to influence our peers and colleaguesin the broader field of landscape archaeology and,indeed,archaeologyitself,an d thus the great promiseof wetland a rchaeology remains unfulf i l led (Coles2 0 0 1 ) .

This failure to influence and inform the broaderarchaeological debates can be attributed to threeaspectsof currentresearchin th elandscapearchaeologyof wetlands.First, many researchprojectsremain de -contextualized geographically, as if wetlands wereislandsout at sea,rather than surrounded by non-wetland landscapes.Second, wetland archaeologyfrequently appearas being de-contextualizedin time,as if wetlandswere timelesslandscapes,disconnectedfrom the changes surrounding them. Third, mostwetland landscape projects ar e disconnectedfromcurrent theoretical debates in archaeology andare thus not actively attempting to contribute tocontemporaryarchaeologicaldebate.This critique does no t originate with ourselves,,but with external commentators who, fo r example,when reviewing compilations of wetland researchpapers or conferenceproceedings,comment on thismulti-period isolationism of wetland archaeology(eg Evans 1990). From thesecrit iques, i t is apparentthat the potential benefits of wetland archaeologyto broader debates ar e fully recognized, but thatwetland archaeologists must interact fully withcurrent theoretical debatesif that potential is to bereal ized(egScarre1989; Ti l ley 1997; Haselgroveetal 2001).Recent ly,s imi lar cr i t ic ismhas beenechoedfrom within the field of wetland archaeology (e gGearey 2002).

Th e ai m of this paper is to demonstrate howsuch a (re-)engagementwith mainstream landscape

boundariesand tasks:in wetland archaeology

ROBERTVAN DE NOORT and AIDAN O'SULLIVAN

archaeologycould be achieved.We needto start witha considerationof the meaningan d etymology of thewords 'landscape'and 'wetland', as the way in whichwe understandtheseterms in archaeologicalresearchha sbeenchanging.'Sfewill subsequentlylook at ho wwe should reconsider the archaeological study ofwetland landscapes,and finally, provide a casestudyof how this reconsiderationcan be made to work.

.LANDSCAPE'\7hat is a'landscape'?Th e Oxford EnglishDictionarydefines the word as 'a view or prospect of naturalinland scenery,such as can be taken in at a glancefrom one point of view; a piece of country scenery'an d 'a picture representingnatural inland scenery,asdistinguishedfrom a seapicture, a portrait, etc'. Theduality of meaning can be explained by consideringthe origin of the word. Etymologically, the termoriginated in the Dutch language (landscbap orlandscap) sometime during the Middle Ages, it wasadopted during the renaissancefor a particular genreof painting and was only then adopted into Englishtowards the very end of the sixteenth century. TheOxford English Dictionary names Richard Haydocke(rn Lomazzo's (G. P.) Tracte containing the artes ofcurious paintinge) as the first person to use the wordlandscapein English in 1598 in the sentence:'I n atable donne by Crs ar Sestiuswhere hee had p aintedLandskipes'.

In its original medieval meaning, however,landscapehad nothing to do with painting or art, butwa s a geopolitical idea, or an ideologicalconcept.Inthis original sense,the suffix -schapor -scap did notmean uiew or perspectiue,but skill or ability as inthe modern English workman ship and craftsmanship(and surviving in its corresponding Dutch wordambachtschap),or in the German word 'Wirtschaft('economy').Thus, the original meaningof the wordlandscape was the perception of the ability to livein , on and from the land. The Dutch planner Hans

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Schoen(1993)expressedthis landscapeas somethingthat was not in front of one's eves. but existedbetweenthe ears.Dur ing the renaissance,the conceptof landscapegained currency, and the philosopher Tom Lemaire(1970) argued that the developmentof scient i f icknowledge, an d th e growth of the market system,changedth e perceptionof landscapeinto somethingthat could be (increasingly) controlled, observed,enjoyed and used fo r acquir ing ever greater r iches.The new genreof landscapepaintings wa s producedprincipally for the nouueauxrichewh o investedtheirearnings from manufacture and trade into land.Thus,, these ne w paintings, with perspectiveandrealism, expresseda ne w understanding of what alandscapewas, as somethingthat can be seen,ownedan d exploited. Nevertheless,throughout th e earlymodern period, landscapepaintings were never freeof their pol i t ical (andmanipulated)context .Thus, inthe sixteenthcentury, PieterBreughelth e Elder oftenchoseas the topic of his work peoplerest ing,eat ing,dr inking, playing music, enjoying themselvesorsimply being outdoors, ,but not manifest lyworking(e g The Haruesters, c 1565), in landscapesthatwere f requent lyas much imaginedrather than real(e g Tbe Return of the Hunters, c 1565), and in th enineteenth century ' , Iohn Constable 's landscapes(e g Th e Haywain, 1821) present the rural poor ina 'natural ized'context , just i fy ing the social orderof the countryside,with people being part of thelandscapein much the sameway as the farm animals(Lambert2005, 14-16).

Th e academicstudy of the landscape(a s opposedto the geographical study of nature and naturallandscapesas advocated by von Humboldt in th enineteenth century) only developed around 1900,and the German geographerOtto Schliiter (7872-1952) wa s th e first to argue that landscapewa sthe central topic of geography. His landscapewas the visible landscapeas a reflectionof humansociety. It had become disconnectedfrom its socio-political context, and the concept of landscapewa saccrediteda 'face value', which forms the basis forthe functional analysisof landscapes.Hi s distinctionbetween the Kuburlandschaf t ('cultural landscape')and I,Jaturlandschaft('natural landscape') is sti l lcommonplace in much geographic alan d archaeo-logical landscape research in continental Europe,whilst similar ideasof the role of culturein th e makingof landscapeswas advocatedin the English-speakingworld by the American geographer Carl Sauer(1889-1975),for exarnplein his The MorphologyofLandscape(1925).BO

In recent years, post-modern cultural geographyin the English-speakingworld has (unwittingly?)returned to the medieval,and wittingly to the pre-capital ist, concept of landscape.Fo r example, th eBritish geographerDennis Cosgrove (1984) definesthe landscapeas: 'an ideologicalconceptrepresentinga way in which peoplewould havesignif iedthemselvesand their world through their imagined relationshipwith nature'. There ha s been a broad acceptanceof the idea that, in the modern world, landscapeisno t the representationof a society'sreality, but theenvironmentexperiencedthrough human/nativeeyeswhich can be (actively and passively)manipulated.Landscapes always present a certain perception,which is politically biased or coloured, zrnd everylandscapehas a political context. Alongside manyarchaeologists(e g Barrett et al 1991; Bradley 1993,1998,2000; Barret t 1994; Bradleyet al 1994;Tl l ley1994; Hi l l 1995; Cooney 2000; McOmish et al2002), we would arguethat the sameis true for pastlandscapes.

..STETLANDS'\fhat is a 'wetland'? Th e etymology of the wordshowsthat it is a modern',twentieth century,creation.According to the Oxford English Dictionary it wasfirst defined in the Nez Scientistin 7965 (1 7 June,76313: "ilTetlandsare defined to include marshes,bogs,swampsand any still water lessthan six metresdeep ' )and againrn Nature in 1969 (19 Apr i l,23912:'\Tetland ecosystemsin the lirnited senseof this workare defined as ecosys temswith a watertable, above,at or very near the substratesurface,,the substrateremaining saturated throughout the year ' ) . Onlyone earlier use of the word is recorded, dated to1955 (ScienceI ' lews Letter ,29 October 28112: 'Thewetland partridge is about twice the sizeof the valleyquai l ' ) ,but beforethat date,wet landsas a word didnot exist, and only emergedin the twentieth centuryout of a growing concernabout the habitat of birds,and especial lyducks,leadingto a number of federallaws in the USA that used the term wetland as agenericterm for such habitats.That the pressurefo rsuch laws came principally from the hunting lobbymatters not, but it explains the early preoccupationwith generic,rather than specif ic,wetland protection.During th e UNESCO-sponsored InternationalConvention on Vetlands in Ramsar,,Iran., in 1970,the term becameinternationally recognized.Bradley (2000) ha s argued that people in th e pastdid not think in terms of environmentalsystemsor


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ecosystems,bu t developed 'native ecologies',,usingtheir own terms to define specific topographicalfeatures or places.Recent cultural anthropologicalstudies have come to similar conclusions(e g Lopez7986; Ingold 1995; Harris 2000). 'W e ca n assumethat people in the past living within and outsideth ewetlands would have understoodtheselandscapesinterms of particular landforms, rather than by usingthe broad, genericterm 'wetlands', an d proof of thisis abundantly availablein the form of place-names.These never include th e generic term wetland as aprefix or suffix. Instead, we find plenty of Englishplace-names(often deriving from Anglo-Saxonroots)indicating specif ic kinds of wet landscapesor wetfeatures,,with suffixes such as -ings, -h^y, -moor,-dyke, -fen, -levels, -fleet, -pool, -mere, -beach,-ford, -bridge, or -on-the-water and -on-the-Marsh.We find the same in Irish, Dutch, German, French.Danish and many other E,uropeanlanguages.Rethought wetland archaeology should similarlydeconstructthe concept of wetlands when attemptingto understand how people in th e past engagedwiththese landscapes.It should developan empathy fo rthe characteristicsof the many wetlands as seenan dunderstoodby the peoplewe study.

RETHINKING TF{E LANDSCAPEARCHAEOLOGY OF \TETLANDSExamining the terms 'landscape'an d 'wetland' leadsus to two supposit ions.First, that ' landscape'is notsimply the representationof a society'sreality, an dthat as archaeologistswe cannot 'read the landscape'as a direct reflection of its daily use and function,without th e awareness that landscapes representpolit ically biasedand coloured perceptions,an d thatlandscapes have been actively created, re-createdand manipulated within political contexrs. Thus,landscapestudiesmust be hermeneutic- the (wetland)landscapedoesno t carry innate information. Second,that the term 'wetlands' is not often a useful unit foranalysis,as it meant nothing to the peoplewe studyand attempt to understand.Thesesuppositionsform th e basisfrom which wehave developeda 'rethought' approach to wetlandlandscapeswhich, we envisagefor the future, wouldincludethe following sevencharacteristics.CONTEXTUALIZATIONFirst, the landscape archaeology of wetlands hasto be contextualized. This includes geographical

P L A C E S , P E R C E P T I O N S , B O U N D A R I E S A N D T A S K S

contextualization, as no wetlands exists within aspace void of other landscapes,and interactionsbetween wetland and non-wetland landscapesar eomnipresent, both in the physical (e g th e run-offof nutrients-rich water from hil ls into a bog) an dcultural (e g the use of stone axes and non-wetlandtreesto build a trackway) spheres.Contextualizatronshould extend to includeth e passingof t ime and thecultural changessurrounding the conditions, and itshould also include the socio-politicalconrext of theresearchers,who should make their theoreticalstanceexplicit, as we always interpret our data 'through acloud of theory' (Johnson1999).It must be acknowledged here, that more an dmore wetland archaeologistsrecognizeth e need fo rth e geographical contextualization of their work,bu t the specializednature of the work has frequentlypreventedbroader theoreticalexplorations.DECONSTRUCTING TH E WETLAND META-NARRATIVESecond, we must deconstruct the meta-narrat ive ofwetlands, acceptingthat this terln had no significancefor peoplein the past. 'Wherethe term wetland is usedas shorthand fo r the mosaic of ecosystemsof wetan d damp places,or for definingthe area where wet-preserved archaeological and palaeoenvironmentalremainsma y survive,this shouldno t becomethe basisfo r cultural analysis.In th e study of the Humber \Tetlands in north-eastEngland, th e archaeologyof the later prehistoricperiod suggests,fo r example, that there wa s a neardiametrical opposition in the perception of alluvialwetlands an d peatlands (Van de Noort 2004).Archaeological survey of the former found fewmonumental sites, or types of sites traditionallyassociatedwith death and burial. Instead,the surveyidentified 'hunting camps' and 'flint productionsites', f ield systems, settlements an d sites ofindustrial activit ies,includingsalt winning and metalproduction or, if on ewishes,the archaeologyof 'dailyl i fe'. The palynologicalevidenceindicatessomethingsimilar; th e opening up of the indigenous forestthroughout the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, withlittle remaining woodland by the start of the IronAge. In contrast, th e archaeology of th e peatlandsoffers a dearth of settlementsand field systems,an dthere is also a pronounced lack of finds of flint orpottery. Instead,the antiquarian finds of bog bodiesfrom Thorne and Hatfield Moors in the HumberheadLevelsan d a large number of Bronze Ag e and IronAg e bronze objects'ritually deposited' in the moorsand f loodplain mires, testify to a perception that

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is strikingly different from that attributable to theminerogenicwetlands.However, such perceptions of specif ic types ofwetlands do not translateacrosscultural boundaries.A contrasting perception of peatlandsis shown inthe study of th e lowlands of North Holland. JanBesteman(1990) considersthe early medievalsocio-polit ical context of patrons an d clients. Th e king,occupyingthe top o f the feuda l pyramid, would havebeen perceivedas the la ndowner of any wildernesssuch as the peatlandsof North Holland. However,with the declining control of the Carolingiankings over their vassals after the middle of theninth century, the latte r usurped the peat bogs forthemselves.Continuing erosionof polit ical structuresand increasing geographical distance between theseatsof the local elitesand the areasof reclamationinthe subsequentcenturiesgaverise to groups of 'freefarmers'. These 'free farmers' were no longer boundby oath, obligation or tax to their patrons,and theseapparentlymarginal wetland landscapesha d becomefundamentallyattractiveplacesto l ive.The landscapeas understoodby the people livingwithin the wetlands would include a differentiationof the many landscapefeatures, producing nativeecologies,,which would have included a detailedknowledge of where to fish, where to build housesand to obtain buil ding material from,,where to takecattle for grazinein the spring months, and where thespirits, gods or ancestorslived. Particular streams,hummocks,treesan d fieldswould have been knownby their individu al names(e gSummerfield;Fishlake),with distinct connotationsan d memoriesattachedtothesefeaturesand names(egNelson 1983).PERCEPTIONThird, we should approach the significance ofspecif iclandscapesfrom th e perspectiveof th e peoplewe study. 'We cannot hope to start to understandthe signif icance an d meaning of trackways, bogbodies, lake settlementsand so on if we approachwetlands from a modern, functionalist perspective.Furthermore, we must also recognize that th eperceptionof wetlands,and other typesof landscapes,differs betweeninsidersan d outsiders.The most 'extreme'exampleof wetland occupationis probably provided by the Marsh Arabs of Iraq an dIran. These ar e best known to western observersthrough the writings of travellers such as \TilfridThesiger.He describedin the 1950s a people wh olived on reed islands, who built architecturally-spectacularcommunal meeting houses (mudhif) ofB2

dried reeds, fished and hunted from long canoes(mashuf), and grew rice and kept water buffaloesinthe marshes(Maxwel l 1957; Thesiger 1959, 7964;Young 1977). However, the Marsh Arabs wereregardedwith distrust by the Iraqi government,wh osaw the marshesas a refuge for bandits, smugglersand rebelsdisdainful of externalcontrol, and as basesfor Shi'ite resistancegroups (Lamb 2003). After theunsuccessfulShi' i terebellionsimmediately followingthe First Gulf .War,the Iraqi governmentconstructedcanalsand drains acrossthe marshes,while th e marshvillageswere bombed and their peoplesexpelled.An historical example of such contradictoryperspectivesof wetlandscomesfrom th e HumberheadLevelsregion in the seventeenthcentury.Th e drainageof the Hatfield Chaseby the Dutch engineerCorneliusVermuyden wa s financed by external monies, an dunder royal authority. The Chase was describedin1608 as 'utterly wasted' as it produced little or norevenuefo r the crown or the bi g landowners,but thecommonersenjoyedthe myriad resource sprovided bythe various wetlands:th e higher, free-drainingislandswere used as arable land, typically; the minerogenicfloodplainswere used for grazing stock and a s hayland, the meadowsan d ings provided the main sourceof food for livestockand plough animals; the lowestterrestrial areas,the ca rrs, moors and wastes, wereextensivelyexploited as seasonal pastures and assuch formed an essentialpart of th e rural economy,enabling the use of some of the higher ings as haylands.Furthermore,historicalsourcesshow that peat-cutt ing, for fuel and as building materials ('turves'),was an important activity by the thirteenth andfourteenth centuries.Th e we t parts of the landscapewere als o valuable for seasonalgrazing throughoutthe Middle Ages and the post-medievalperiod; forproviding reeds fo r building, thatching and basketmaking, but even more importantly for fishing an dfowling. Unsurprisingly,the commonerssidedduringthe EnglishCivil War with the anti-royalist s.This wa snot predicatedin socio-politicalterms, but representsa choic e that expressedtheir s ocial identity. As partof their reformed social identit ies,the commonerssabotaged much of the smaller drainage works,culminating in their attack on the drainageengineers'village at Sandtoft (Van de Noort 2004).ENCULTURATIONFourth, we should recognize that all through thehuman past, and indeed in th e present, th e naturalenvironment has been perceived as dynamic an dsometimes even alive. and often as imbued with


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supernaturalpowers (e gNelson 1983; Ingold 1995).Enculturing nature - and the spirits within them- forms a key theme of human behaviour, which canbe favourably studied in wetland landscapeswithits high-resolutiondating and close associationwithpalaeoenvironmentalsourcematerial.Christopher Tilley (1994) ha s argued that tracksand paths are primary human artefacts. They wereone of the first modifications people made to theirenvironment, forming a medium through whichthe environment could be integrated with thepsyche and transformed into a landscape,that is,an environment which reflects and is interpretedby human beings. The environment thus becomes'encultured'into landscape(Tilley 1.994,206-7). Theconceptsof paths and roads, and the journeys thatthey enable, are powerful metaphors (Tilley 1999,178), recognized by the Romans and even by us inou r modern, so-calledrational culture (e gexpressionssuch as 'taking the high road' an d 'road to success'us epaths as metaphors).Thus the path is not just aroute from on e place to another; more importantly,it transforms a wilderness full of unknowns into acultured landscape,a known place.'Wetland archaeology is particularly well-placedto study enculturation, for example, though thecontextualized research of trackways. Prehistorictrackways in mires' from the Neolithic SweetTrack through to medieval toghers in Ireland,were the principal cultural elements in otherwiseun-encultured landscapes.Th e contexts of manyprehistorictrackways includespecificobjectsthat canbe understoodas votive or ritual deposits,suggestingthat the locales where these deposit ions had beenplacedwereviewedasbeingconnectedwith ancestors,ghostsor gods (Cosgrove7993). Objects include th eunused jade axe found adjacentthe Neolithic SweetTrack (B 6. J Coles 1986), the wooden disc wheelsbeneaththe Neolithic Nieuw-Dordrecht trackway inthe BourtangerMoor in the easternNetherlands(Vander Sanden2001,1,41-2) ,the many bronzeweapons,artefactsand skeletalremains alongsideth e Fa g Fe nstake alignment, now reinterpreted as a series oftrackways (Pryor 2001), the bog bodiesalongsidethefirst century AD Valtherbrug in the Bourtanger Moor.Furthermore, many excavators have commented onthe limited functionality of trackways, for example,because it did not connect two complementaryregions (e g the Nieuw-Dordrecht trackway), it wa sonly in use for a very short period (eg the SweetTrack)'' it wa s periodically extended(e g th e Nieuw-Dordrecht trackway) or becausethe t rackways hadbeenpartially destroyedsoon after their construction,

P L A C E S . P E R C E P T I O N S .B O U N D A R I E S A N D T A S K S

as was the case for the second century sc Corlea Itrackway in the Irish Midlands (Raftery 1990).These contextual observations suggest that thefunction of these, invariably long, trackways wasno t simply l inking two areas of relative dr y landacrossa wetlan d. Rather, we would arguethat thesetrackways were often constructed with the objectiveto enculture the wilderness landscapesin between,or to make a statementabout th e prowessof cultureover nature.On a number of occasions,this ideawa srestated,through additional deposit ionsor throughextensionsof a track that in fact led nowhere.BOUNDARIES AND EDGESFifth, specialattentionshould begivento the boundariesand edgesof the landscapesor native ecologies.Fromour observationsof the perceiveddynamic nature ofthe natural environment,it follows that the boundariesand edgesof theselandscapesare often givenparticularsignificance,for exampleas 'natural places'in the senseusedby Richard Bradley(2000).Stockerand Everson'sstudy (2003) of the $Tithamvalley in Lincolnshire, England, offers an outstandingexample of the longevity of the significanceof somenatural placesin wetlands. In the Middle Ages, th eRiver Witham was the boundary of the independentstate of Lindsey. Researchfound that the medievalmonasterieswere located at strategic points alongthe valley where causewaysprovided accessacrossthe river and its extensiveriparian wetlands. In theMiddle Ages, the causewayswere already of greatage, and excavationsof one of them, at Fiskerton,showed a predecessorof Iron Age and Roman date(Field & Parker Pearson2003). Th e causewayswerealso associatedwith votive depositions,which occurin this area only at the term inals of the causeways.In turn, thesevotive depositionswere found to be inthe vicinity of Bronze Age barrow cemeteries.Stockerand Everson thus ar gue that specif iclocaleswithinthe \Titham valley were perceivedas places whereone could crossthis boundary for a period in excessof two millennia, despitethe evolvi ng nature of thiswetland landscape.BronzeAge perceptionsendured,in one way or another,into th e Middle Ages,with themedievalmonasterieseffectivelyChristianizingpaganpracticesand beliefs.MARGI NALI TY AND LIMINALITYSixth, we should distinguish clearly betweenmarginality and l iminality. Th e concept of liminalityis frequently invoked where wetlands are traversed.

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A R C H A E O L O G Y F R O M T H E I X / E T ' L A N D S : R E C E N T P E R S P E C T I V E S

Liminality is a notoriously fluid concept. Originallyproposedby Van Gennep(1908)',the conceptis l inkedto 'rites of passage'to describethe formalized ritualsand practices that accompany one's transition fromone particular state into another, especiallythe ritesassociatedwith birth, reachingadulthood, marriageand death. As part of theserituals, symbolic or real'thresholds'neededto be crossed,with the thresholdsconstituting l iminal zones. As economic and ritualactivities are not, on a landscapelevel, mutuallyexclusive,the recurrenr equation of liminality withmarginality is often mistaken.Although someliminalzones were to be found in what were consideredmarginal landscapes,others (eg th e threshold passedby newlyweds in the modern world) are locatedwithin settlementsor within areasin economicuse.Inother words we must be very specificwhen identifyingplacesthat were liminal.The lake-dwellings in the Holderness region inEast Yorkshire provide an exampleof liminality thatis unconnectedfrom marginality.A reappraisalof th e'SfestFurze'lake-dwelling'showedthat the sitewas ineffect a Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age trackwayacrossa sinuous wetland that had developedin theBail an d Lo w Mere complex (Van de Noort 1995;seealso Fletcher& Van de Noort this volume).Theseelongatedmires may have been seenas a boundarybetween the world of the living and the world of thedead,with evidenceof two burial mounds to the eastof the former meres, and somewhat tentatively, asettlementon their west bank. The trackway at WestFurze that crossed these wetlands included severalfeatures that could have symbolized this l iminalspace,most notably th e wicket or doorway at theeasternterminal of the short trackway. The symbolicfunction of this boundary was further reinforcedwitha number of human skulls.

TASKSCAPESSeventh'we should not underplay the importance ofmany wetland landscapesas taskscapes,areaswherethe rhythm of daily l i fe determinesthe signif icanceof how thesewetland landscapesar e perceived.Th ephrase' taskscape'was coinedby Tim Ingold (1993)to focus on the concept that the manner in whichlandscapesare experiencedan d perceivedis closelyrelatedto the activit iesor tasks that are undertakenin particular landscapesat particular times. 'Withthis, Ingold has effectively returned to the originalconcept of landscape,as in th e Dutch landschap.As we have argued akeady, th e insiders' view ofwetlands is on e that offersmyriad resources,rangingB4

from eels,f ish an d shellfish,to peat for fuel, reedsforroofing, to summer pasturesand hay lands. Raisedbogs can also be used intermittently for short-termseasonalgrazing by burning the top layer of thebog, for th e preservationof butter, the seasoningofwood an d the curing of leather.'Weshould recognizethat these activit ies, though seemingly economicpractices,ar e things that p eopledo every day, albeitin specificcultural and socialcondit ions.It is thereforenot surprisingthat the overwhelmingmajority of trackways excavated from wetlandsare not the long tracks described previously asplaying part in enculturation processes,bu t areshort tracks, often little more than 10m in length.In contrast to the long, over-designedand possibleceremonial tracks, these short trackways wereusually simple narrow pathways, platforms orbundlesof brushwood used to crearepassingplacesat especiallywet and boggyplacesalongsideexistingroutes through the landscape. 'We recognize thatlarge linear causewaysthat traversea bog from on eedge to another representa very small proportionof the total number of known sites (MacDermott1998, 7; Stanley 2003, 65). The absenceof exot icobjectsand bog bodies at these locations reinforcesthe concept that the short trackways were usedfunctionally in everydaylivesand had, in the eyesofthe people that usedthem, l i tt le in common with thelarge trackways that were constructed for specificoccasions.

RETHOUGHT \TETLAND LANDSCAPES:A CASE STUDY INTO THE EARLYRECLAMATION OF'INCLESMOOR'In this case study, into th e early reclamation ofInclesmooror Thorne Moors, we want to show ho wa rethought landscapearchaeologyof wetlands ca nbe undertaken. Long-standing research interests,into the history of reclamation and the exploitationof these wetlands, are neither forgotten norignored, but new, deeper, information is uncoveredthrough contextualization: consideration of th eappropriatenessof the wetland concept,comparisonsbetween insiders' and outsiders' perceptions,,th eintroduction of the enculturation concept, specialattention to boundaries and understanding th ewetland landscapesas taskscapes.'Inglesmoor' is the medieval name for the ThorneMoors, in the Yorkshire Humberhead Levels.TheseLevelswere formed by the pro-glacial Lake Humber,a meltwater lake that expandedand retractedwith the


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ffiffik1"ffi:i.1$-x

FIGURE1Th e Inclesmoor Map, c 7407 (PRO MP C 56).

seasonsan d the glaciers.Th e lake ceasedto exist notlater than c 11000 cal nc, when the icesheetblockingthe Humber Gap betweenthe Yorkshire \7olds and theLincolnshire \folds retreated, or possibly somewhatearlier through silting of the lake itself (Bateman etal 2000). The Lake Humber depositswere subject toaeolian reworking during the Loch Lomond Stadialof the Devensian,c 11500 to 10500 cal ec,,and thisreworking resulted in the formation of sandy dunesor 'islands', resulting in extensiveundulated flatland.Holocene sea-level rise initiated the developmentof expansive wetlands in the Humberhead Levels.Initially, the impact of sea-levelrise was restrictedtothe Late-glacialriver channels,but from c 3200cal rc,the impeded arterial drainage resulted in widespreadpaludifcation, and the onset of mire formation atThorne Moors (Buckland & Dinnin 1997).Recent archaeological research ha s shown theconstruction of a Neolithic trackway on nearby

Hatfield Moors (Gearey & Chapman this volume),and it seemslikely that similar activity would havetaken placeat Thorne Moors. To date,however,onlya very short Bronze Age brushwood trackway hasbeenidentif ied(Buckland 1979), alongsidea numberof isolatedfinds of stoneaxes,and it is unlikely thatne w archaeologicalsiteswill be discovered,as thisformer milled peatland has been converted into anature conservationreserve(egVan de Noort 2001).Th e time-transgressivenature of the developmentof the mire would have initially involved a number ofsmaller,mesothrophic,mires developingin the lowestareas, with deciduous woodland surviving on th ehigher grounds. Th e local impact of continued sea-level rise and impeded drainagewa s th e evolvementof a single,continuous ombrothrophic raised mire,which drowned the forest (Dinnin 1997). Thisraised mire appears to have survived more or lessundisturbed to the first half of the secondmillennium

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FIGURE4The villages of Eastoft and Haldenby

Redrawn from The Inclesmoor Mao. con the River Don.

1407 (Keith Mil ler) .

paths and canals,,vi l lageswith churchesan d stone,road-sidecrosseson the most important landownerboundaries. This encultured part of the Moorstands in stark contrast to the Moor proper, whereuncultivated and, largely,unproductive plants thriveunrestrained.Of course, Thorne Moors is no exception inrespect to the medieval reclamation of wetlands,and from the early twelfth century onwardsecclesiasticalinstitutionsacrossEuropewere engaged

in reclamation projects. In western Europe northof the Roman li*ets, Christianity wa s also part ofth e polit ical arsenal of the kings who derived th elegitimacy of their power from the divine rule ofth e Christian God, and it is unsurprising that on eof the earl iest wetland reclamations recorded, thatof the marshlandseast of the River Elbe, organizedby the Bishop of Bremen in 1103, wa s undertakenin th e Saxon heartland. In the case of the earlyreclamation of the Netherlands,Hub Zwart (2003,111-12) describedthe role of Christianity '... as anideology, fthatl rendered th e erection of dikes andthe reclamation of wetlands morally legit imate,oreven obligatory. A demarcation was introducedbetween the "baptized" and humanized areas onthis side of the dikes, and th e diffuseand unreliablerealmsbeyond.The dike materializeda form of moralcriticism, directed at previous generationsof paganswho, faced with natural phenomena, ha d beenoverwhelmed by a mixture of fearand awe. They hadregarded uncultivated nature as the abode of theirgodsand had sett ledfo r a more passiveattitude.Timehad come for th e demystif icationof nature.'


CONCLUSIONThis paper has argued for a rethinking of thelandscape archaeology approach to wetlands,based principally on the beliefs that the conceprof landscapeis something thar residesin people'sminds, rather than being a simple reflection ofculture-nature interactions,and that the concept ofwetlands had lit t le meaning to rh e people we studyand try to understand.The paper proposesne w waysof approaching wetland landscapesand has arguedspecifically for the need to contextualize wetlandresearch: consider the (in-)appropriatenessof thewetland name, appreciate the frequently divergingperceptionsof peopleliving and working in wetlandsfrom the perceptionsof outsiders,the importanceofthe enculturationconcept,the needto pa y particularattentionto boundariesand edges''and the signif icanceof wetland landscapesas taskscapes.

ACKNO\TLEDGEMENTCatherine Rackham' for drawing attention to thepaperby Hub Zwart (2003).

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