
W. Paul AdderleyUniversity of Stirling · Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
W. Paul Adderley
PhD
About
51
Publications
13,711
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,472
Citations
Publications
Publications (51)
In the original publication, two pairs of Figures, Fig. 2 and 3, and Fig. 9 and 10 have correct captions but images are reversed. The original article was corrected.
This paper investigates the once ubiquitous vernacular earth-built structures of Scotland and how perceptions of such buildings were shaped and developed through periods of intense cultural and environmental change. We focus upon the past exploitation of traditional resources to construct vernacular architectures and on changes in the perception of...
In the south eastern United States of America and particularly in Louisiana, a distinct form of colombage construction - Bousillage - is found. This earth construction method uses `loaves' or `cats' of earth applied over cedar wood battens. A highly distinctive characteristic of the method is the incorporation into the earth mixture of an indigenou...
The study examines historic occupational lead poisoning (occupational plumbism) amongst the mining labour force at Tyndrum lead mine in the Scottish southern highlands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries set against the backdrop of the wider national context. Traditional archival research is combined with environmental science to both identi...
The most significant concentration of surviving vernacular mudwall structures in Scotland is found in and around the town of Errol in the Carse of Gowrie. Mudwall, or cob, is particularly susceptible to climate-related impacts such as water ingress and freeze-thaw cycles. A lack of recognition can exacerbate the effects of these factors significant...
The British lead mining industry peaked and declined well before environmental protection and aftercare became a statutory requirement in the post-war period, and as a consequence left in its wake pockets of barren and degraded land. Metal-rich waste tips rarely return to vegetation, and environmental pollution continues through wind erosion and ad...
Radioactive 'hot particles' that occur in the environment present specific challenges for health and environmental regulators as often their small size makes them difficult to detect, and they are easily dispersed and accidentally ingested or inhaled by members of the public. This study of nine hot particles recovered from the beach at Dalgety Bay,...
Earth-built structures were historically very common in Scotland. As building techniques have changed, the number of standing earth buildings has reduced. Now the few earth buildings that remain are significant testaments to a lost craft tradition. Understanding the composition of earthen materials used in construction enables better decision makin...
The domains of the ancient polities D’MT and Aksum in the Horn of Africa’s highlands are a superior natural system for evaluating roles of environmental change on the rise and fall of civilizations. To compare environmental changes of the times of the two polities, we analyzed stable hydrogen isotopic ratios (δD) of land-plant derived fatty acids (...
We identify and offer new explanations of change in water management infrastructure in the semi-arid
urban hinterland of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka between ca. 400 BC and AD 1800. Field stratigraphies and
micromorphological analyses demonstrate that a complex water storage infrastructure was superimposed
over time on intermittently occupied and cultiv...
Durbi Takusheyi is a burial site composed of at least eight mounds located between the modern towns of Katsina and Daura in northern Nigeria. Parts of the mounds were first excavated in 1907 by Herbert Richmond Palmer in cooperation with the Emir of Katsina and later again in 1992 in the course of a German research project under the lead of Dierk L...
Historical domestic livestock grazing in sensitive landscapes has commonly been regarded as a major cause of land degradation in Iceland. Shieling areas, where milking livestock were taken to pasture for the summer, represented one element of grazing management and in this paper we consider the extent to which historical shieling-based grazing pres...
The impact of human activities on soils can be examined at many spatial scales. This chapter considers human activities that directly influence soils and regoliths such as agricultural practices, application of waste materials and land clearance through fire husbandry. These practices result in a wide range of anthropogenic features, which may be o...
Soils surrounding ancient settlements can hold evidence of the activities of past societies. To seek an understanding of how past societies have reacted and contributed to environmental change requires many data sources. The real-time audiovisual installation Ground-breaking problematises the presentation of such data gained through the image-analy...
Land, its organisation and management as well as its intrinsic quality are little understood aspects of the settlement process in Iceland. Yet an understanding of the concept and significance of land is vital if we are to recognise the way in which environmental resources were used to create and maintain social structures, the role of management de...
The site of Gásir in Eyjafjörður in northeast Iceland was excavated from 2001–2006, revealing details of one of the larger seasonal trading centers of medieval Iceland. Interdisciplinary investigations of the site have shed light upon the organization of the site and provided confi rmation of documentary accounts of both prestige items (gyrfalcons,...
Adaptation of farming practices to inherent site conditions was essential to the success of Norse colonization in pristine landscapes. A key factor in the initial success of colonization, or landnám, of Iceland was management of the area adjacent to the domestic dwelling, the home-field, to provide fodder for over-wintering livestock. In this paper...
Whilst there has been an increasing recognition of the infl uence of natural agency on human society in Scotland in the medieval period, conventional historiography has generally presented the wholesale reconfi guration of structures of secular lordship in the Scottish central Highlands in the 14th century as an essentially political consequence of...
Archaeological soils and sediments reflect the cultural environment in which they have been formed. Their analysis allows assessment of the nature and intensity of past events. With the results of such analyses playing an increasing role in forming archaeological interpretations there is a need to verify optical analysis and interpretation of mater...
A thousand years ago Viking age voyagers crossed the grey waters of the North Atlantic, colonizing the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland between AD 800 and 1000. However, early transatlantic migration was not to have the historical impact of the later European re-discovery of North America, and by the 16th century the Scandinavian North Atlan...
Early settlement in the North Atlantic produced complex interactions of culture and nature. A sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration focused on ninth- to 13th-century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of Myvatn in Iceland and to contribute a long-term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soi...
Technical Report. Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre. https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/76540/
Technical Report. Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre.
https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/76518/
Establishing and sustaining agricultural production was a key factor in the success of Norse settlements during the landnám colonisation across the North Atlantic. In light of the occurrence of channel features in several abandoned home-field areas of the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland, and the irrigation requirements of present-day Greenlan...
Establishing and sustaining agricultural production was a key factor in the success of Norse settlements during the landnam colonisation across the North Atlantic. In light of the occurrence of channel features in several abandoned home-field areas of the Norse Eastern Settlement of Greenland, and the irrigation requirements of present-day Greenlan...
The archaeological interpretation of past land management practices can be greatly enhanced through examination of soil thin sections. Features relating to manuring practice are among those key to interpreting agricultural practices. The sources and the processes leading to the distribution of these manure materials may further improve knowledge of...
In the early Norse settlement period throughout the North Atlantic, effective management of the land area surrounding the domestic settlement, the home-field, was essential. In the Faroe Islands, the extent of home-field land suitable for growing fodder or cereal crops is limited by topography and by drainage highlighting the need to optimize the m...
Hovsdalur, an area delimited by the great cirques of upland central Suduroy, draining into the valley of the Hovs´a and terminating in the east at the coastal amphitheatre of Hovsfjørdur, is a microcosm of the Faroes. The area contains the physical and economic features which characterize the greater part of the island group—mountain, valley, and c...
The physical characteristics of the soil at the root–soil interface are crucial because they determine both physical aspects of root function such as water and nutrient uptake and the microbial activity that is most relevant to root growth. Because of this we have studied how root activity modifies the structure and water retention characteristic o...
Hovsdalur, an area delimited by the great cirques of upland central Su uroy, draining into the valley of the Hovsá and terminating in the east at the coastal amphitheatre of Hovsfjørdur, is a microcosm of the Faroes. The area contains the physical and economic features which characterize the greater part of the island group—mountain, valley, and co...
Ethno-pedology, the systematic definition and classification of indigenous technical knowledge of soil attributes, has often ignored scientific knowledge of soil properties. This paper considers one ethno-pedological class, cesa–goz soils, managed by Kanuri and Shuwa Arab peoples in the Kala–Balge region, northeast Nigeria. Soil micromorphology dem...
The occurrence of amorphous calcium (Ca)iron (Fe)phosphate infilling features in thin-section samples from archaeological stratigraphies is increasingly being reported and used in the cultural interpretations of sites. In some contexts, these materials are the product of dissolution and recrystallization of bone material within pores of the soil or...
We propose a new method of investigating variation of preservation within a parchment sample, which allows a more detailed analysis of alteration of the material structure. X-ray diffraction analysis of parchment typically involves the sample aligned with the plane of the parchment perpendicular to the direction of the X-ray beam, with a beam size...
Soil protection policies are being developed in many countries, particularly those in the European Union where pan-national regulatory frameworks now exist. We report an analysis of a survey of the views of a wide range of stakeholders in the soil resource of Scotland, including representatives of rural and urban land users, public bodies and autho...
One little understood aspect of the settlement and colonisation of Iceland is fuel resource use. In this paper we identify fuel ash residues from temporally constrained middens at two contrasting settlement age sites in Mývatnssveit, northern Iceland, one high status, the other low status and ultimately abandoned. Fuel residues derived from experim...
Early arable activity in Iceland, introduced in the late ninth century A.D., has been characterized as marginal and at a subsistence level, largely abandoned by the 1500s as a result of climatic deterioration. This view has been advanced without considering soils data, the medium in which crops are grown and in which evidence of early land manageme...
Quantitative micromorphological approaches have been developed for a variety of purposes in recent years. This paper describes a methodology developed for contexts where the spatial distribution of a large number of small objects is of interpretative value, and where colour is a determining criteria of the object description. Such contexts include...
Micromorphological analysis of soils and sediment thin-sections is a recently established interpretative method applied to samples from geoarchaeological contexts. To further the quantitative element of thin-section micromorphology studies, image analysis methods have been used to segment and quantify section images. Despite these advances, the pro...
Micromorphological analysis of soils and sediment thin-sections is a recently established interpretative method applied to samples from geoarchaeological contexts. To further the quantitative element of thin-section micromorphology studies, image analysis methods have been used to segment and quantify section images. Despite these advances, the pro...
Modeling of soil systems is an essential approach to discussions of the historical dimensions of soil sustainability, but as yet there has been no formal testing and application of such models. In this paper we first test the ability of the CENTURY agroecosystem model to predict soil organic carbon levels in anthropogenic plaggen soils from ethnogr...
The characteristics and variability of soils within a 30 ha experimental site in N. E. Nigeria are analysed in relation to tree establishment. Profile description and analyses for some 480 surface samples of the sandy to clayey surface soils from Lake Chad lacustrine sediments provide baseline properties against which any subsequent modifications r...
X-ray diffraction analysis of parchment typically involves the X-ray beam travelling through the entire thickness of a piece of parchment, giving a diffraction image that consists of the composite diffraction features from the entire thickness of the sample1,2. Microfocus X-ray technology3 has allowed the development of X- ray beams with dimensions...
This paper examines the use of geoarchaeological information gained through soil micromorphology in a new context, that of a science-art project. The project is called “Ground-breaking: Experience Past Landscapes in Grains and Pixels” and was commissioned from the authors by the UK research councils as part of a programme to foster communication of...
Scientific and Sonic Perceptions of the African Sahel: Societies are often required to react to extreme events that arise through either anthropogenic or natural processes. Such extremity might be measured is in terms of its immediacy and intensity; it demands comprehension against understood norms. For example, our present-day debate on future cli...
Until recently very little was known about the history of environmental change in Mývatnssveit, although many other parts of Iceland have been investigated in some detail since the pioneering work of Sigurður Þórarinsson in the 1940s (e.g. Þórarinsson 1944) and Þorleifur Einarsson in the 1950s (e.g. Einarsson 1957,1963). Notable multi-disciplinary...