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
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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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Page 2 of 3 Results 26 to 50 of 65
Europeanization of sub-arctic environments: perspectives from Norse Greenland's outer fjords
Human Ecology, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 61-77Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-014-9708-y
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/5469/1/Human_Ecology_accepted.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Taphonomy or signal sensitivity in palaeoecological investigations of Norse landnám in Vatnahverfi, southern Greenland?
Boreas, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 197-215Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12089
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/5320/1/Boreas_authors_post_print.pdf
The geography of the past: a North Atlantic saga
The Geographer, vol. Spring, pp. 6-7Contributions to Journals: ArticlesA multiple profile approach to the palynological reconstruction of Norse landscapes in Greenland's Eastern Settlement
Quaternary Research, vol. 82, no. 1, pp. 22-37Contributions to Journals: ArticlesTerminus-driven retreat of a major southwest Greenland tidewater glacier during the early 19th century: insights from glacier reconstructions and numerical modelling
Journal of Glaciology, vol. 60, no. 220, pp. 333-344Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3189/2014JoG13J163
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/3245/1/lea_et_al_2014_KNS_LIA.pdf
Vatnahverfi: a green and pleasant land? Palaeoecological reconstructions and environmental land-use change
Journal of the North Atlantic, vol. 6, pp. 29-46Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3721/037.002.sp605
- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3721/037.002.sp605
Toftanes. A Viking Age Farmstead in the Faroe Islands
Acta Archaeologica, vol. 84, no. 1, pp. 5-239Contributions to Journals: Special IssuesRe-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity
The Holocene, vol. 23, no. 10, pp. 1493-1501Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPalynology supports 'Old Norse' introductions to the flora of Greenland
Journal of Biogeography, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 1119-1130Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12067
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Shieling activity in the Norse Eastern Settlement: palaeoenvironment of the 'Mountain Farm', Vatnahverfi, Greenland
The Holocene, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 810-822Contributions to Journals: ArticlesInvestigation of proposed irrigation channels and dams at Garðar/Igaliku, Greenland
Water History, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 71-92Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-012-0066-7
Estimates of relative pollen productivity (RPP) for selected taxa from southern Greenland: A pragmatic solution
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, vol. 190, pp. 66-74Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2012.11.003
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Palaeoenvironmental investigations of mire deposits from Unst
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 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersTowards a first chronology for the Middle Settlement of Norse Greenland: 14C and related studies of animal bone and environmental material
Radiocarbon, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 13-29Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.v55i1.16395
Long-term development of a cultural landscape: the origins and dynamics of lowland heathland in southern England
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 21, no. 6, pp. 453-470Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-012-0372-0
First comprehensive peat depositional records for tin, lead and copper associated with the antiquity of Europe's largest cassiterite deposits
Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 717-727Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2011.10.037
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Bogged down in history
Planet Earth, no. Summer, pp. 24-25Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Problematic but promising ponds?: Palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland
Journal of Quaternary Science, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 854-865Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.1518
Grazing impacts and woodland management in Eriksfjord: Betula, coprophilous fungi and the Norse settlement of Greenland
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 181-197Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-011-0281-7
Norse-Inuit interaction and landscape change in southern Greenland?: A geochronological, pedological and palynological investigation
Geoarchaeology-An International Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 315-345Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20351
Is there a Norse ‘footprint’ in North Atlantic pollen records.
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 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersAn integrated geochemical and palynological study of human impacts, soil erosion and storminess from southern Greenland since c. AD 1000
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, vol. 295, no. 1-2, pp. 19-30Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.05.011
Was Erik the Red's Brattahlið located at Qinngua?: a dissenting view
Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 83-99Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VMS.1.102137
Palynology 'On The Edge' and the Archaeological Vindication of a Mesolithic Presence?: The case of Shetland
From Bann Flakes to Bushmills: papers in honour of Professor Peter Woodman. Finlay, N., McCartan, S., Milner, N., Wickham-Jones, C. (eds.). Oxbow Books, pp. 113-123, 11 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersGeoarchaeological investigations at Sandhavn, south Greenland
Antiquity, vol. 83, no. 320Contributions to Journals: Articles