WILDS: WICKLOW INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Kings River Catchment Pilot Investigation: outline of project aims.
Principal Investigators
Jonathan Turner (UCD School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy)
(UCD School of Archaeology)
Funding
UCD SEED FUNDING, UCD SCHOOL OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Abstract
Ireland faces a future of unprecedented climatic uncertainty and continuing rapid economic development. This means that there is an urgent need to develop understandings of the long-term links between human activity and environmental change, particularly in marginal areas. Upland catchments provide an ideal location to investigate such interactions, because of their sensitivity to environmental change and disturbance, coupled with their relatively sparse human occupation histories. Additionally, geomorphic and archaeological records are often well preserved in upland settings, providing essential information for retrodictive studies.
Figure 1: Contrasting sedimentation styles exposed in alluvial sections along the Kings River are indicative of changing sediment supply patterns and dynamics during the Holocene.
The Kings River Catchment, Co. Wicklow has been the focus of research and teaching programmes in the Schools of Archaeology and Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy (GPEP) for more than a decade. The WILDS: Kings River Catchment Pilot Investigation has been recently set up to establish baseline geoarchaeological information, including a synthesis of existing research data, in order to develop key research questions for landscape evolution models in the region. WILDS is funded internally by the UCD Seed Funding Grants programme. In particular, WILDS received funding to support the ‘preparation of interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary proposals … creating new knowledge which draw on different disciplines’. The project aims to develop generic, cost-effective approaches to landscape studies, through the integration of archaeological and geomorphological interrogative techniques, which may be applied to other strategically important river catchments in Ireland. Our research themes include the causal relationship between geomorphic adjustments, climate change and human occupation.
Figure 2: Relict glacial sediments and landforms that have been dissected by the R. Ballinagee (O 046 046), one of several tributaries in the headwaters of the Kings River.
The platform for this baseline investigation will be data acquisition through dedicated aerial photography and GPS survey as well as reviews of historical documentation. This will be followed by ground proofing of target archaeological sites and preliminary coring of relict floodplain surfaces, to establish dating control for valley floor alluviation in the catchment. Acquired data, including published and unpublished documentary information, will be integrated into a dedicated GIS. Fieldwork begins in spring 2007 and we look forward to keeping you informed of our progress.
Figure 3: This view of Ballinagee River shows a low boundary constructed on the lowest of the river terraces. Clear relationships between datable geomorphological and archaeological features will be of great importance to establishing chronologies of settlement in the region
