Updating the maps of prehistoric landscapes by DEMs

Menne KOSIAN

(National Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscape and Built Heritage, Amersfoort, The Neteherlands)

In the Pleistocene sand-areas of The Netherlands still lie the remains of prehistoric farmlands. These fields are characterized by their checkerboard layout of small earthen embankments surrounding small rectangular fields, and called Celtic Fields.
They date from late Bronze Age, Iron Age into the early Roman era, and are among the best visible archaeological remains in the Dutch Pleistocene sandy landscape.
The nature of these monuments make them prone to erosion. That is why the National Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscape and Built Heritage, the RACM, ‘Dutch Heritage’, started a pilot project to reassess these archaeological terrains. The aim of this pilot was twofold: on the one hand evaluate the conservational state and actual size of the Celtic Fields and on the other to develop a methodology for research on Celtic Fields.
Next to field surveys, aerial photography and the maps of earlier researchers, a new tool proofed invaluable for studying Celtic Fields; the use of the data from the Detailed Digital Elevation Map of the Dutch Ordnance Survey, the AHN. Combining the ‘older’ data with the DEMs made from AHN-data not only reassessed state and size of known Celtic Fields, but also proofed to be a tool for finding new ones, and so updating our knowledge on the Dutch prehistoric landscape.

Keywords: Digital Elevation Dataset (AHN) of the Netherlands, Celtic Fields, combining DEMs with old research