Project:
'As One Monastery in Two Places: Wearmouth and Jarrow in their Landscape Context'
Project Leader(s): Dr Sam Turner and Dr Sarah Semple (Durham University)
Staff: Alex Turner
Sponsors: English Heritage
Homepage: http://www.omtp.org.uk/
Taking its inspiration from the research and recent publications of Prof. Rosemary Cramp on the excavations at Wearmouth and Jarrow, the project seeks to examine these early Christian monuments in their landscape setting across time, from their foundation to their place in contemporary society.
The project is bringing together a large team of archaeologists and other heritage professionals and seeks to harness the value of different sources by integrating historical records and archaeological data in an innovative GIS (Geographical Information System). We will draw together and interpret information gathered from Historic Landscape Characterisation, the National Mapping Programme, historic maps, written records, place-name data, aerial photography, buried archaeology and new surveys.
New fieldwork will include geophysical and palaeoenvironmental surveys around the monasteries and in their hinterland, providing new data on the full extent and form of the monastic sites and their impact on the wider landscape. A new digital survey of the structures will be complemented by geological analyses of the buildings’ fabric and OSL dating of the mortars, to give us new information on the construction of these remarkable buildings.
We will bring our study right up to the present by collecting and analysing current public perceptions and understandings of the monasteries. By means of lectures, exhibitions, publications and a dedicated website, the combined results of the project will be disseminated at the widest possible scale to academics, professional archaeologists, local people and the public.
