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Papers by Piers Dixon
This paper discusses the recent completion of Scotland’s Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) proje... more This paper discusses the recent completion of Scotland’s Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) project, a long-term partnership between Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) (now merged as Historic Environment Scotland) to map time-depth within the present-day landscape was completed in 2015. This paper places HLA within the wider context of historic landscape characterisation (HLC) in Europe and outlines some of the new insights and perspectives that this resource provides for Scotland’s landscapes. In particular, the historical complexity and time-depth inherent within the Scottish landscape is emphasised, along with the importance of HLA’s landscape-scale data and nationwide coverage. The paper finishes with a discussion of some of the possibilities and challenges for the future of HLA and HLC projects in general, concluding that HLA/HLC data have a significant part to play in understanding and communicating the role of the past in the formation of current landscapes and, in partnership with multidisciplinary data, helping to shape future landscapes.
Many upland environments are valued for their openness, which is often actively maintained by ext... more Many upland environments are valued for their openness, which is often actively maintained by extensive pastoral agriculture. Documentary sources indicate the complexity and longevity of regulations designed to protect the hill grazing resource from over-exploitation but these systems leave relatively few traces on the ground. Consequently pollen analysis is an important method for establishing the impact of centuries of grazing on the quality of hill pastures. This is demonstrated at Wether Hill, Northumberland, where a pollen sequence details changes in vegetation composition and diversity over the last c.1500 years. These are correlated with historical evidence over the last c.800 years for a more complete understanding of the socio-economic context that governed the use of hill grazing. Changes in grazing regimes had a profound influence on these hill pastures, contributing to permanent changes in the relative abundance of heather, grasses and herbs, and causing a severe decline in habitat diversity within the last c.200 years. The results have many regional parallels, indicating extensive reductions in the biodiversity of upland habitats. This has implications for future management and conservation policies and shows the contribution that an understanding of environmental and land-use history can make to debates surrounding current environmental issues.
Proceedings of the Society Antiquaries Scotland 130 (2000) , 2000
Medieval Europe 1997: Rural Settlement, papers presented at the Medieval Europe: Bruges Conference., 1997
The History of Soils and Field Systems, Scottish Cultural Press., 1995
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 128 (1998)
Architectural Heritage XXII, The Journal of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland , 2012
Ruralia IV: The Rural House from the Migration Period …, Jan 1, 2002
Books by Piers Dixon
This paper discusses the recent completion of Scotland’s Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) proje... more This paper discusses the recent completion of Scotland’s Historic Land-use Assessment (HLA) project, a long-term partnership between Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) (now merged as Historic Environment Scotland) to map time-depth within the present-day landscape was completed in 2015. This paper places HLA within the wider context of historic landscape characterisation (HLC) in Europe and outlines some of the new insights and perspectives that this resource provides for Scotland’s landscapes. In particular, the historical complexity and time-depth inherent within the Scottish landscape is emphasised, along with the importance of HLA’s landscape-scale data and nationwide coverage. The paper finishes with a discussion of some of the possibilities and challenges for the future of HLA and HLC projects in general, concluding that HLA/HLC data have a significant part to play in understanding and communicating the role of the past in the formation of current landscapes and, in partnership with multidisciplinary data, helping to shape future landscapes.
Many upland environments are valued for their openness, which is often actively maintained by ext... more Many upland environments are valued for their openness, which is often actively maintained by extensive pastoral agriculture. Documentary sources indicate the complexity and longevity of regulations designed to protect the hill grazing resource from over-exploitation but these systems leave relatively few traces on the ground. Consequently pollen analysis is an important method for establishing the impact of centuries of grazing on the quality of hill pastures. This is demonstrated at Wether Hill, Northumberland, where a pollen sequence details changes in vegetation composition and diversity over the last c.1500 years. These are correlated with historical evidence over the last c.800 years for a more complete understanding of the socio-economic context that governed the use of hill grazing. Changes in grazing regimes had a profound influence on these hill pastures, contributing to permanent changes in the relative abundance of heather, grasses and herbs, and causing a severe decline in habitat diversity within the last c.200 years. The results have many regional parallels, indicating extensive reductions in the biodiversity of upland habitats. This has implications for future management and conservation policies and shows the contribution that an understanding of environmental and land-use history can make to debates surrounding current environmental issues.
Proceedings of the Society Antiquaries Scotland 130 (2000) , 2000
Medieval Europe 1997: Rural Settlement, papers presented at the Medieval Europe: Bruges Conference., 1997
The History of Soils and Field Systems, Scottish Cultural Press., 1995
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 128 (1998)
Architectural Heritage XXII, The Journal of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland , 2012
Ruralia IV: The Rural House from the Migration Period …, Jan 1, 2002
by Claudia Theune, Guillermo García-Contreras Ruiz, Helena Kirchner, Natascha Mehler, Ingvild Øye, Haio Zimmermann, José Mª Martín Civantos, Rainer Schreg, Eva Svensson, Piers Dixon, Sabine Felgenhauer, Paolo de Vingo, Gunhilt Merker, Csilla Zatykó, Bert Groenewoudt, Benno Furrer, and Susanne Arnold
As President of the RURALIA assossiation I like to present the Program, Abstract Book . For furth... more As President of the RURALIA assossiation I like to present the Program, Abstract Book . For further information and the published conference papers see: ruralia.cz