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Dr J. Edward Schofield

Dr J. Edward Schofield
Dr J. Edward Schofield
Dr J. Edward Schofield

BA, MSc, PhD, FSA Scot

Senior Lecturer

About
Email Address
j.e.schofield@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number
+44 (0)1224 273589
Office Address

G19 St Mary's Building, Department of Geography & Environment, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen AB24 3UF, UK.

School/Department
School of Geosciences

Biography

  • 2007-present: Lecturer in Geography, Department of Geography & Environment, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen; 2015-present, Adjunct Lecturer in Archaeology within the same School
  • 2004-07: PDRF, Department of Geography & Environment, University of Aberdeen
  • 2002-04: PDRA, School of Earth Sciences and Geography, Kingston University
  • 2002: RA, Wetland Archaeology and Environments Research Centre (WAERC), University of Hull
  • 1996-2001: PhD Vegetation Succession in the Humber Wetlands
  • 1995-1996: MSc Environmental Analysis & Dynamics, University of Hull
  • 1991-1994: BA (Hons) Geography, University of Hull

Memberships and Affiliations

Internal Memberships
  • Course co-ordinator for GG1510 (Global Worlds, Local Challenges)
  • Library Representative for Geography & Environment
  • Member of the Teaching Committee for Geography & Environment 
External Memberships
  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSA Scot).
  • Book review editor for the international journal Environmental Archaeology.
  • Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF): Science in Scottish Archaeology panel member 2010-12 (based at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh). Contribution to the Science Report on Pollen Analysis.
Research

Research Overview

  • Reconstructing past environments (specialising in palynology)
  • Viking settlement across the North Atlantic islands, with an emphasis on the Norse colonisation of Greenland
  • Human-environment relationships through prehistory and into the late Medieval period
  • Vegetation history and plant succession in British wetlands
  • Biogeography

Current Research

I am currently pursuing interests that connect directly with the University of Aberdeen's strategic theme of The North. In this respect, my core research activities continue to focus upon the impacts of Norse settlement on the vegetation and landscapes of southwest Greenland. The colonisation (landnám) of Greenland by people of Scandinavian origin - the Norse, or 'Vikings' of popular culture - took place around AD 985 following the arrival of settlers from Iceland led by Erik the Red. Settlement continued for a period of around 400 years before the colonies collapsed for various economic, social and climatic reasons which are still being debated. My research in this field is centred upon the characterisation of signatures for Norse activity in palaeoecological records from Greenland using pollen analysis and associated proxies (such as microscopic charcoal, fungal spores, radiocarbon dating, and peat geochemistry).

 

(Above) The ruins of Hvalsey church and farm, Eastern Settlement, Greenland (June 2011, photograph by J.E.Schofield). The last definite (written) record to emerge from Norse Greenland is a letter reporting a wedding at Hvalsey church in AD 1408.

 

Funding and Grants

  • Leverhulme Trust Standard Grant (2014-17) Calving glaciers: long-term validation and evidence (CALVE) (Co-investigator)
  • AHRC Standard Grant (2014) Bennachie landscapes: investigating communities past and present at the Colony site (Co-investigator)
  • SNH 'Year of Natural Scotland' (2013) A stratigraphic survey and pollen analysis of peat deposits at Bennachie, Aberdeenshire (in collabaration with the Scottish Sculpture Workshop)
  • Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland Research Grant (2010) The potential of the Norse Middle Settlement of Greenland for a major interdisciplinary research project (joint with Prof. K Edwards)
Teaching

Teaching Responsibilities

Course co-ordinator for Level 1 Geography (Semester 2)

  • GG1510 Global Worlds, Local Challenges

...with teaching contributions on the following Geography modules:

  • GG1008 Global Worlds, Global Challenges
  • GG2508 Skills & Techniques in Geosciences
  • GG3069 Remote sensing and GIS
  • GG3575 Techniques in Physical Geography
  • GG4571 Environmental Change

...plus guest lectures, lab practicals and seminars for various modules in Archaeology.

Publications

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  • First evidence of cryptotephra in palaeoenvironmental records associated with Norse occupation sites in Greenland

    Blockley, S. P., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E., Pyne-O'Donnell, S. D., Jensen, B. J., Matthews, I. P., Cook, G. T., Wallace, K. L., Froese, D.
    Quaternary Geochronology, vol. 27, pp. 145-157
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Moving forwards? Palynology and the human dimension

    Edwards, K. J., Fyfe, R. M., Hunt, C. O., Schofield, J. E.
    Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 56, pp. 117-132
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Europeanization of sub-arctic environments: perspectives from Norse Greenland's outer fjords

    Golding, K. A., Simpson, I. A., Wilson, C. A., Lowe, E. C., Schofield, J. E., Edwards, K. J.
    Human Ecology, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 61-77
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Taphonomy or signal sensitivity in palaeoecological investigations of Norse landnám in Vatnahverfi, southern Greenland?

    Ledger, P. M., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E.
    Boreas, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 197-215
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • The geography of the past: a North Atlantic saga

    Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E.
    The Geographer, vol. Spring, pp. 6-7
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • A multiple profile approach to the palynological reconstruction of Norse landscapes in Greenland's Eastern Settlement

    Ledger, P. M., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E.
    Quaternary Research, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 22-37
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Terminus-driven retreat of a major southwest Greenland tidewater glacier during the early 19th century: insights from glacier reconstructions and numerical modelling

    Lea, J. M., Mair, D. W., Nick, F. M., Rea, B. R., Weidick, A., Kjaer, K. H., Morlighem, M., van As, D., Schofield, J. E.
    Journal of Glaciology, vol. 60, no. 220, pp. 333-344
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Vatnahverfi: a green and pleasant land? Palaeoecological reconstructions and environmental land-use change

    Ledger, P. M., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E.
    Journal of the North Atlantic, vol. 6, pp. 29-46
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Toftanes. A Viking Age Farmstead in the Faroe Islands

    Bending, J. (ed.), Buckland, P. C. (ed.), Christensen, K. (ed.), Edwards, K. J. (ed.), Hunter, F. (ed.), Jouttijarvi, A. (ed.), Schofield, J. E. (ed.), Hansen, S. S. (ed.), Vickers, K. (ed.)
    Acta Archaeologica, vol. 84, no. 1, pp. 5-239
    Contributions to Journals: Special Issues

  • Re-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity

    Swindles, G. T., Galloway, J., Outram, Z., Turner, K., Schofield, J. E., Newton, A. J., Dugmore, A. J., Church, M. J., Watson, E. J., Batt, C., Bond, J., Edwards, K. J., Turner, V., Bashford, D.
    The Holocene, vol. 23, no. 10, pp. 1493-1501
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Palynology supports 'Old Norse' introductions to the flora of Greenland

    Schofield, J. E., Edwards, K. J., Erlendsson, E., Ledger, P. M.
    Journal of Biogeography, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 1119-1130
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: palaeoenvironment of the 'Mountain Farm', Vatnahverfi, Greenland

    Ledger, P. M., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E.
    The Holocene, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 810-822
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Investigation of proposed irrigation channels and dams at Garðar/Igaliku, Greenland

    Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E.
    Water History, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 71-92
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Estimates of relative pollen productivity (RPP) for selected taxa from southern Greenland: A pragmatic solution

    Bunting, M. J., Schofield, J. E., Edwards, K. J.
    Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, vol. 190, pp. 66-74
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Palaeoenvironmental investigations of mire deposits from Unst

    Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E., Swindles, G. T.
    Viking Unst: Excavation and Survey in Northern Shetland 2006-2010. Turner, V. E., Bond, J. M., Larsen, A. (eds.). Shetland Heritage Publications, pp. 75-90, 16 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • Towards a first chronology for the Middle Settlement of Norse Greenland: 14C and related studies of animal bone and environmental material

    Edwards, K. J., Cook, G. T., Nyegaard, G., Schofield, J. E.
    Radiocarbon, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 13-29
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Long-term development of a cultural landscape: the origins and dynamics of lowland heathland in southern England

    Groves, J. A., Waller, M. P., Grant, M. J., Schofield, J. E.
    Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 453-470
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • First comprehensive peat depositional records for tin, lead and copper associated with the antiquity of Europe's largest cassiterite deposits

    Meharg, A. A., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E., Raab, A., Feldmann, J., Moran, A., Bryant, C. L., Thornton, B., Dawson, J. J.
    Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 717-727
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Bogged down in history

    Meharg, A., Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J.
    Planet Earth, no. Summer, pp. 24-25
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Problematic but promising ponds?: Palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland

    Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E., Kirby, J. R., Cook, G. T.
    Journal of Quaternary Science, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 854-865
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Grazing impacts and woodland management in Eriksfjord: Betula, coprophilous fungi and the Norse settlement of Greenland

    Schofield, J. E., Edwards, K. J.
    Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 181-197
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Norse-Inuit interaction and landscape change in southern Greenland?: A geochronological, pedological and palynological investigation

    Golding, K. A., Simpson, I. A., Schofield, J. E., Edwards, K. J.
    Geoarchaeology-An International Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 315-345
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Is there a Norse ‘footprint’ in North Atlantic pollen records.

    Edwards, K. J., Erlendsson, E., Schofield, J. E.
    Viking settlements and society: papers from the Sixteenth Viking Congress, Reykjavík and Reykholt, 16-23 August 2009.. Sigmundsson, S., Holt, A., Sigurðsson, G., Ólafsson, G., Vésteinsson, O. (eds.). Hið íslenska fornleifafélag and University of Iceland Press, pp. 65-82, 18 pages
    Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters

  • An integrated geochemical and palynological study of human impacts, soil erosion and storminess from southern Greenland since c. AD 1000

    Schofield, J. E., Edwards, K. J., Mighall, T. M., Martinez Cortizas, A., Rodriguez-Racedo, J., Cook, G.
    Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, vol. 295, no. 1-2, pp. 19-30
    Contributions to Journals: Articles

  • Was Erik the Red's Brattahlið located at Qinngua?: a dissenting view

    Edwards, K. J., Schofield, J. E., Arneborg, J.
    Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 83-99
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
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