Interpreting the Landscape

Most places in Britain have had a local history written about them. Up until this century these histories have addressed more parochial issues, such as the life of the manor, rather than explaining the features and changes in the landscape in a factual manner. Much of what is visible today in Britain's landscape is the result of a chain of social and natural processes, and can be interpreted through fieldwork as well as from old maps and documents. Michael Aston uses a wide range of source material to study the complex and dynamic history of the countryside, illustrating his points with aerial photographs, maps, plans and charts. He shows how to understand the surviving remains as well as offering his own explanations for how our landscape has evolved.

Michael Aston is Professor of Landscape Archaeology in the Department for Continuing Education, University of Bristol. He is the archaeological consultant and Team Leader of Channel 4's 'Time Team', and is involved with various other television projects.

Chapter 1 How do we know what we know?; Chapter 2 Early landscapes; Chapter 3 Estates and boundaries; Chapter 4 Status in the landscape; Chapter 5 Deserted villages and offer; Chapter 6 Surviving villages; Chapter 7 Farms and hamlets; Chapter 8 Sites and patterns; Chapter 9 Land uses; Chapter 10 Field systems; Chapter 11 Communications - the links between; Chapter 12 What does It all mean?;