A significant challenge facing archaeological research today is how to deal with the very large volume and diversity of existing data, together with the range of archives and other sources from which to access them. Another issue is how to best combine data collected for a range of purposes, with new custom-collated data, in order to answer current research questions. This article discusses these issues in the context of the Leverhulme-funded project ‘Beyond Walls: Reassessing Iron Age and Roman Encounters in Northern Britain’. The project utilized a broad range of existing and newly created data, drawn from a variety of sources across modern regional and national boundaries, to examine wide-reaching changes in late prehistoric to late antique settlement landscapes in northern Britain. Using this extensive range of data within a multi-scalar approach, the project has been able to assess settlement patterns and associated environmental evidence at a range of spatial and temporal scales, some preliminary examples of which are presented here.
Hardwick et al. (Fri,) studied this question.