The Penrith Museum field walking project seeks to map evidence for prehistoric settlement in the Vale of Eden, an important region in the Neolithic and Bronze Age (c.3800 - 1500 BC). Eden contains an exceptional number of monuments, including the stone circles of Long Meg and Her Daughters and the henges of Mayburgh and King Arthur's Round Table. Elsewhere are many barrows, chambered mounds and rock art sites.
Despite this proliferation of sites, we know almost nothing about the people who built and used them. One of the primary objectives of the 'Living Among the Monuments' project is to trace where people lived. Research has been conducted across the western coastal plain of Cumbria (eg Cherry and Cherry 1983) and in the limestone uplands to the south-east of Eden (Cherry and Cherry 1987), and considerable quantities of prehistoric artefacts discovered. But no survey has been conducted across the Vale itself, leaving a large gap in the evidence and our understanding.
This project seeks to map the distribution of artefacts collected from ploughed fields across the Vale of Eden, revealing the broad pattern of occupation. Did people live among their monuments, or were parts of this landscape infrequently visited?
Field Walking
One of the best ways in which we can begin to answer these questions is through the archaeological technique of field walking. Certain artefacts such as stone tools and pottery can survive from the time of the circle builders, but they are usually buried beneath the soil. When farmers plough their fields these artefacts are sometimes brought to the surface. By systematically walking across large areas of ploughed land it is possible to see and collect them.
With luck, we will locate artefacts that can also be dated. For example, leaf-shaped arrowheads belong the earlier Neolithic, whilst barbed-and-tanged arrowheads are from a later period. In this way we hope to build up a picture through time, revealing those areas of the Vale of Eden that were more frequently occupied. By walking fields in different location it will be possible to sample contrasting environments across the Vale, including the valley margins, sandstone hills and the River Eden floodplain.
