History is constantly evolving

The current heat waves we’re having in some areas of the states are also being shared over seas! Some storms have finally cooled things off here in Western New York, but the heat isn’t just destructive and uncomfortable. Hot days and cool nights give us bright red juicy tomatoes and other garden delights. My black currant bushes were full to bursting this year, but what does this have to do with history you’re probably wondering.

Aerial photography. Aerial photography isn’t a new concept; it’s been used in archaeology for decades. It’s an incredibly helpful tool in locating and mapping sites over large areas of land and not just the obvious sites. So why is it easy to see the previous habitations of our fellow human beings from the air?

Vegetation is a complicated thing. Basic gardening knowledge tells us that what’s in the soil will affect how well your plants will grow. How tall they can get, how green their foliage will be, how fragrant and colorful their blossoms. What archaeology looks at when conducting research on historic and prehistoric sites, is how human occupation changes the soil that our plants now grow in. Human occupation does change the soil composition (if you’d like to know more about how much let me know and I’ll write another post), therefore where humans lived and changed the land even millennia ago, can and will affect how plants grow now. Many times this can only be read by special cameras and lasers or by walking on the sites and observing certain species. In a world of higher air traffic and now personal use of camera drones, aerial photography is a popular sport, but now you’re asking: what does this have to do with the heat?

The heat wave and drought that usually accompany them, change the plants on the surface drastically. There’s a lot of die off as root systems try and protect themselves. However, the plants growing in certain areas, changed by human habitation in the past, die off at different rates revealing incredible patterns visible from the air. The heat wave this year has done just that.

The Boyne Valley, north of Dublin, Ireland, has an intensive concentration of monuments and a long history of human habitation. It’s best known for its burial mounds, Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth, which I’ve had the pleasure of visiting on several occasions. In this valley, this years heat has revealed brand new monuments, and large ones. Ones that no one knew of previously, even with the extensive archaeological research conducted in this area.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-44767497 image courtesy of BBC

There’s a great article about this particular discovery here too.

Sites like this have been popping up in aerial photos all over the UK.

photo courtesy of MNN.com

Here’s an article about sites in Wales, where the nearly completely ploughed base to a castle and even a Roman Farm showed up in farmers fields.

One of my favorite “drought art” photos comes from Chatsworth House gardens. In this case it’s not a new monument, but it’s something that isn’t normally visible. Pictured below (courtesy of BBC).

The artful scroll work gardens dating back to 1699 can be seen again in the dying grass.

Our concepts of the past, what happened in history, and what the world looked like are constantly changing and evolving. You never know when a new discovery might just be the missing piece for you’re next novel. For writers of historical fiction, this is important to keep track of and follow. Creating a realistic setting is one of the key factors of a good piece of fiction.

Has your characters world changed recently?

#historicalfiction #history #writingfiction #archaeology #Ireland