Hadrian’s Wall Research Framework: Landscape and Environment resource assessment.

The aim of this section is to summarise the current state of knowledge regarding both the landscape (physical characteristics including sub-surface structures) and environment (especially climatic parameters) of Hadrian’s Wall. This will allow us to determine gaps in our knowledge and to assist in defining the research agenda. Historic landscape and environment studies can encompass various broad categories of evidence – the physical remains still visible on the ground today, proxy evidence such as that derived from, for example, pollen surviving in ancient soils and other deposits and also old maps, documents, aerial photography etc quite apart from place name evidence. The chronology of this section, although focussed upon the Romans, is essentially from the later pre-Roman Iron Age through to the 5th/6th centuries. Remotely sensing the landscape Landscape survey – aerial photography Studies of the physical historical landscape are probably best initiated from examination and transcription of aerial photographs for which there have bee