Work focused (a) on training and (b) on case study research in south-west Ireland. The first area of training was in photogrammetry. This is used in digital humanities to survey cultural objects and archaeological sites in detail rapidly. The researcher learned to use Agisoft Metashape and used it to create digital 3D models of key sites in the main study area. The researcher also undertook further training in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), adding to their existing knowledge in this area. For example, the researcher learned how to anchor photogrammetric models into GIS maps and undertake multi-criteria predictive modelling of historic landscape change. During training, the researcher also received mentorship and career guidance.
The other important area of training and career development was in teaching and particularly postgraduate supervision. Uppsala University runs a Masters in Global Environmental History and the researcher was invited to partake. In addition to teaching on the course, 'Historical Ecology', the researcher supervised two masters theses to completion and examined a third. This was supported by a course in research supervision that the researcher undertook.
Lastly, the researcher undertook classes in Academic Swedish, which helped in undertaking historical research on Sweden.
The second major area of progress was in the researcher's main case study in Kerry, Ireland. The researcher assembled all available data (archaeological, historical and palaeoecological) for this landscape and brought them together in GIS. They also used satellite imagery and orthophotography to find and map out previously-unrecorded archaeological sites related to late medieval/early modern settlement, livestock herding and/or trade contacts with the coast and with towns. They then visited the area and created 3D photogrammetry models of a small number of herders' huts which likely date to the late medieval and early modern periods.
To contextualise and understand the land-use history of this region, the researcher undertook wider reading in European economic, agrarian, labour and climate history. Furthermore, they began comparative research on late medieval and early modern livestock farming in the forests of central Sweden.
In terms of dissemination, an article was published in Historical Methods. This considered how we might detect adaptability amongst late medieval and early modern upland farmers in north-west Europe, against the backdrop of the Little Ice Age (which emerged as an important factor along with economic change). An initial review of upland archaeology in south-west Ireland was finalised for publication in a volume on the history of settlement in Ireland, while the results of remote sensing and digital field survey in Kerry are being prepared for the Journal of Field Archaeology. An article on the origins of gendered work in livestock farming in the north of Europe was started. Lastly, the researcher co-wrote the first draft of an article on the environmental history of early modern agriculture (to be submitted in 2023). They also peer reviewed for Rural History and Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
The researcher gave 7 invited lectures at universities in Ireland, Sweden and the UK and 10 conference/workshop talks (to historical, archaeological and anthropological audiences). The researcher also organised a one-day symposium in Dublin in March 2022 called, ‘Forgotten Histories of Early Modern Ireland, 1450-1750’.
