Lecture
Beacons of the Past and LiDAR – shining new light on the Iron Age landscapes of the Chilterns
Speaker: Edward Peveler
Tue, 6 Apr 2021
About the lecture:
The results of the UK’s largest ever archaeological LiDAR survey have recently been made publicly available for citizen science analysis. The 1400 km2 survey, covering the Chilterns AONB and its surroundings, records the topography of the landscape in great detail. Any archaeological sites surviving as earthworks, even just a few centimetres high, will be detected, giving us evidence of people living and working in the region from the Neolithic to the 20th Century.
The technique is particularly powerful in wooded landscapes, able to show up sites beneath the tree canopy where the archaeological survey has traditionally been very difficult; with more than 20 % tree coverage, the Chilterns AONB has many secrets to reveal. In this talk Dr. Ed Peveler will be introducing this National Lottery-funded project, explaining more about the survey, letting us know how we can access the data to do our own archaeological exploring, and showing us some of the exciting results that are already emerging.
Dr Ed Peveler is the Landscape Heritage Officer at the Chilterns Conservation Board, responsible for the technical elements of the Beacons of the Past project, and for the development and delivery of volunteering opportunities such as skills workshops. Prior to joining CCB, Ed completed his AHRC-funded DPhil at the University of Oxford, investigating the process of construction and building materials in Roman Oxfordshire. He also worked as Assistant Director of the University of Oxford excavations at the Roman small town of Dorchester-on-Thames between 2014 and 2017 and has excavated at sites in Britain, Italy, Albania, Tunisia, and India.
- Edward Peveler
I am currently the Landscape Heritage Officer for the Chilterns Conservation Board ‘Beacons of the Past’ project (2018-2021).
I completed my doctorate in 2018 at the University of Oxford School of Archaeology, which explored the technical, economic, logistical, and social aspects of Roman building material production and trade in southern Britain.
Between 2014 and 2017 I worked as Assistant Director of the Discovering Dorchester excavation project, run jointly by the University of Oxford, Oxford Archaeology, and the local community of Dorchester on Thames.
I completed my Bachelors (in Classical Archaeology and Ancient History) and Masters (in Archaeological Science) also at the University of Oxford, producing theses on social and cultural readings of Roman construction techniques at Butrint, Albania, and on the trade of Roman grey coarseware pottery in Oxfordshire, respectively.