Contact zone, desertion, or endurance? A spatial digital humanities approach to interpreting Irish medieval settlements

Abstract Following a successful pilot phase, the Human-Environmental Exchanges in the Landscapes of Medieval Ireland Project (HELM) has developed an interdisciplinary methodology to identify the location and features of heretofore thought vanished medieval settlements. This innovative methodology integrates evidence from historical accounts, archaeological fieldwork, and remote sensing data collected by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, or drone). Digital models created and analyzed during project workflows are used to identify the minute remnants of medieval vernacular building in the present-day landscape. This article highlights the project’s methodology, illustrating how its innate adaptability is used to generate research hypotheses. In the case study provided the medieval town of Fore in County Westmeath, Ireland, at first appeared to have few remnants of medieval vernacular activity. However, contextual analysis led to the development of a new theory to the overall project of endurance and resilience at many medieval settlement sites. Fore also allows the examination of how ordinary people negotiated life in a medieval contact zone between two ethnic identities.