153 1. Introduction: the “historic landscape” Within the history of archaeology, studying whole landscapes – as opposed to individual sites – is relatively new. Since the 1960s the advent of extensive survey techniques and the undertaking of rescue excavations on a large scale, meant that landscapes were explored in ways not previously possible. These landscapes were preserved in two ways: buried beneath the present day ground surface, or surviving as above-ground earthworks. The latter can be referred to as “relict” landscapes as these features, although visible above ground, no longer serve their original function. Buried and relict landscapes can be studied in a variety of ways such as aerial photography and fieldwalking, but in most cases these techniques provide fragmentary windows into the past: in northern Europe fieldwalking surveys are limited to areas of ploughed land (artefacts cannot be recovered from pasture, woodland, or urban areas), while cropmarks only occur in arable land and on certain geologies (most notably on relatively free-draining soils). There is, however, another way in which the past is preserved in the environment all around us, for which the term “historic landscape” has recently been developed. The “historic landscape” refers to the physical fabric (e.g. the buildings, settlements, roads, and fields), patterns of land-use (e.g. agriculture, unim- proved pasture, and woodland), and the cultural associations that many land- scapes have (e.g. areas with a strong tradition of particular industries, food production, or artists). The term historic landscape encompasses the func- tioning present-day settlement patterns, communication systems and land- uses, but is designed to stress the significant time-depth that is present with- Historic landscape analysis: understanding the past in the present STEPHEN RIPPON CHAPTER | 7