The physical and human landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds : its geological and archaeological heritage : YGS fieldtrip guide 21st June 2008

The Yorkshire Wolds represents a truly distinctive landscape. Its meandering network of dry
valleys, rolling hills and abundant earthworks reflect a long and varied history of geological and
archaeological events. Geological processes, including the effects of the last ice age, have
provided the fertile soils, building materials and sources of water that have supported human
settlement. In turn, human processes, from the Mesolithic onwards, have sculpted the landscape
to produce the range of field systems, earthworks and ditches that we see today.
This field trip aims to examine the Chalk foundations of the Wolds and subsequent key
archaeological processes and settlements. It will aim to investigate the geological factors that
may have influenced the location of settlements and earthworks. Most importantly, the field trip
aims to illustrate how geological and archaeological processes act together to shape the character
of the landscape and countryside that define the Yorkshire Wolds.