Erika Guttmann-Bond

Expertise

Erika Guttmann-Bond specialises in prehistoric landscapes and Environmental Archaeology, particularly geoarchaeology. Her key interests are in:

• The development of prehistoric agriculture
• Human responses to climate change in the past, present and future
• Sustainability in the past, and what we can learn from early farmers and engineers

Professor Guttmann-Bond has directed excavations in England, Scotland and Ireland and has published in journals such as World Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Environmental Archaeology, The Holocene, The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society.

Recent projects

• Neolithic and Bronze Age Ireland (Principal Investigator): Fieldwork was conducted in 2004 and 2005 at the Céide Fields and Belderrig, Co. Mayo. The project is an investigation into the nature of agricultural production within the Neolithic and Bronze Age field systems. Thin section micromorphology and allied geochemical techniques will identify the intensity of production and the nature of the land management techniques, in order to compare these with the sophisticated Neolithic and Bronze Age practices on the Continent and the much simpler contemporary practices in England and Scotland. Funded by NERC, the British Academy and the School of Human and Environmental Sciences (the University of Reading).
• Plaggen soils in prehistoric Shetland (Principal Investigator): An elemental analysis using PIXE (Particle Induced X-ray Emission) together with soil micromorphology to identify plaggen soils in prehistoric Scotland. The hypothesis is that this very sophisticated agricultural technique was developed in the Iron Age and was not introduced by the Norse. (funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland).
• The Iron Age economy of Shetland (Principal Investigator): An investigation into the economic complexity of the Iron Age in Shetland. This is a comparison of the economies of upland and lowland broch sites, based on the presence/absence of improved agricultural soils and the materials used to improve them. Funded by the Historic Scotland and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
  

Selected publications

• Guttmann, E.B., Simpson, I.A., Nielsen, N. and Dockrill, S.J. (2008). Anthropogenic soils in Iron Age Shetland: Implications for arable and economic activity. Geoarchaeology 23 (6), 799-823.
• Simpson, I.A., Dockrill, S.J., Guttmann, E.B., Bull, I.D. and Evershed, R.P. (2007). Soils and the early cultural landscape of Tofts Ness, Sanday. In S.J. Dockrill, J. Bond, A.N. Smith and R.A. Nicholson, Investigations in Sanday, Orkney, Vol. 2: Tofts Ness, Sanday - An island landscape through 3000 years of prehistory. Kirkwall: The Orcadian Ltd.
• Guttmann, E.B. (2006) ‘The soils’, in D.D.A. Simpson, E.M.  Murphy and R.A. Gregory, Excavation at Northton, Isle of Harris. Oxford: British International Series 408.
• Guttmann, E.B., Simpson, I.A, Davidson, D.A. and Dockrill, S.J. (2006). The management of arable land in prehistory: case studies from the Northern Isles of Scotland. Geoarchaeology 21 (1), 61-92.
• Simpson, I.A., Guttmann, E.B. and Shepherd, A. (2006). Characterising midden in Neolithic settlement construction: an assessment from Skara Brae, Orkney. Geoarchaeology 21 (3), 221-235.
• Gregory, R.A., Murphy, E.M., Church, M.J., Edwards, K.J., Guttmann, E.B. and Simpson, D.D.A. (2005). Verification of a Mesolithic occupation in the Western Isles of Scotland? The Holocene 15 (7), 944-950.
• Guttmann, E.B., Simpson, I.A. and Davidson, D.A. (2005). Manuring practices in antiquity: a review of the evidence, in M. Brickley and D. Smith, Fertile Ground: Papers in Honour of Susan Limbrey. Oxbow Books, pp 68-76.
• Guttmann, E.B.A. (2005). Midden cultivation in prehistoric Britain: arable crops in gardens. World Archaeology 37 (2), 224-239.
• Bond, J.M., Guttmann, E. and Simpson, I.A. (2004). Bringing in the sheaves: farming intensification in the post-broch Iron Age. In R.A. Housley and G. Coles (eds.), Atlantic Connections and Adaptations: Economies, environments and subsistence in lands bordering the North Atlantic. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 138-145.
• Cook, J., Guttmann, E.B.A. and Mudd, A. (2004). Excavations of an Iron Age Site at Coxwell Road, Faringdon. Oxoniensia LXIX, 181-285.
• Guttmann, E.B.A., Dockrill, S.J. and Simpson, I.A. (2004). Arable agriculture in prehistory: new evidence from soils in the Northern Isles. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 134, 53-64.
• Turner, V.E., Chrystall, F., Simpson, I.A. and Guttmann, E. (2004). Form and function in Shetland prehistoric field systems. In R.A. Housley and G. Coles (eds.), Atlantic Connections and Adaptations: Economies, environments and subsistence in lands bordering the North Atlantic. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 120-127.
• Guttmann, E.B.A., Simpson, I.A. and Dockrill, S.J. (2003). Joined-up archaeology at Old Scatness, Shetland: Thin section analysis of the site and hinterland. Environmental Archaeology 8 (1), 17-31.
• Guttmann, E.B. (2002). Time and Tide at East Wemyss: Excavations on the foreshore 1980-1995. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal.
• Simpson, I.A. and Guttmann, E.B. (2002). Transitions in early arable land management in the Northern Isles: the Papar as agricultural innovators? In B. Crawford (ed.), The Papar of the North Atlantic: Environment and History. Early Medieval Europe Research Group.
• Guttmann, E.B.A. and Last, J. (2000). A Late Bronze Age landscape at South Hornchurch, Greater London. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society vol. 66, 319-359.