When it comes to landscapes ArchaeoPhysica is primarily involved with projects to assess their archaeological potential & the subject areas listed below are not mutually exclusive & usually overlap to some degree. In addition the subjects are defined more by purpose than by technique & other services described in these pages can be brought to bear, e.g., geophysical survey, 3D modelling & GIS-based analysis.

Landscape characterisation involves the collation of a range of historical sources to determine how they are manifest in the current landscape & therefore how old that landscape is. Identification of the origins of field systems, the development of transport networks, changes in settlement & industry etc. all contribute to the study. The data is collated in GIS & then analysed objectively using spatial query techniques to highlight the predominant character of designated land areas.

The results are usually expressed as colour-coded thematic maps that indicate zones of common character, e.g., historic town centres, areas of surviving medieval or earlier enclosure, industrial zones, etc. Within each zone various metadata describe the character & it is possible to develop hierachies of character ranked in terms of influence upon the modern landscape.

Current research is seeking to apply these principles to upland survey, described below, both to aid future management of these regions & to build a predictive model.

Upland survey is a specialist reconnaissance service offered by ArchaeoPhysica with similarities to some of the pioneering exploratory work of the earliest archaeologists. It essentially involves selecting large areas of high & often mountainous ground & deploying well-equipped teams of people to intensively survey them, recording all monuments as they are discovered. The nature of the land means that the work can be difficult & physically challenging, especially as the systematic coverage usually requires access to mountainsides off recognised paths. Yields in excess of 100% are common & it is true to say that some areas would appear to have seen little human activity for many hundred of years if not longer.

Structures are recorded photographically & using written descriptions & locations are recorded using GPS. GIS is used to collate the field data with existing mapping, aerial photographic transcriptions, existing databases, etc. Once processed thematic studies are made & the effects of topography, proximity to water sources, etc. examined.

So far sixty square kilometers have been surveyed in North Wales with more area allocated for this year. The capability & experience of ArchaeoPhysica has meant that areas above 700m altitude have been surveyed in November without incident.

Although ArchaeoPhysica does not undertake aerial photography itself we are able to extract information from photographs & produce maps of their content through image rectification & georeferencing. Images can be mosaiced together & those from different sources collated & their information combined. False-colour & composite imagery can be produced as well as vector plans.