Historic Landscape Characterisation

Historic Landscape Characterisation is a GIS-based desk-top method for analysing the present-day landscape by defining its archaeological and historical components. It seeks to explain the historical development of the entire landscape, adopting a holistic approach to identify its integral ‘time-depth’ and to facilitate sustainable management. This is done by defining a particular area by its predominant character and allocating it a ‘polygon’ within the GIS map. The key difference between HLC and previous methods of landscape definition is that all elements of the landscape are given equal prominence, e.g. an area defined as ‘Medieval Assarted Enclosures’ is differentiated from an area defined as ‘20th Century Industry’ only by the colour used to infill the polygon. This allows all elements of the landscape to be assessed on their own merits, and avoids the iniquities of former classification systems based on defined areas of ‘interesting’ land, e.g. a scheduled ancient monument would be seen as worth preserving, but the landscape around it, by default, was not. It is, consequently, a powerful and subtle tool, useful to heritage management professionals and historical landscape researchers alike.

Archaeology South-East is a relative newcomer to the field of HLC (although the technique itself was only piloted in the early 1990s), but our many years of in-house expertise in landscape interpretation make it a natural field for the Unit to get involved in. We have recently created rapid summarised HLC mapping as part of a major study of the designated South Downs National Park, and we are actively seeking opportunities to build on this foundation.

Links:
The Surrey Interactive Map includes a fully searchable on-line version of the HLC

Contact: Richard James