‘Rewilding’ later prehistory: Archaeological wildlife and its role in contemporary nature recovery with Anwen Cooper

Climate change and biodiversity loss are, understandably, of growing interest to a wide cross-section of people. David Attenborough’s recent ‘Wild Isles’ series both awakened us to the magical wildlife of the British Isles and warned us of its extreme fragility. Alarming statistics about climate change and diminishing species – from honeybees, to capercaillie, to elm trees – abound in wider media coverage, alongside more hopeful stories of human efforts to address these pressing global concerns. In this context, archaeologists are rightly revisiting their working relationships with ecologists and climate scientists in seeking to reconfigure archaeology’s contemporary relevance. This lecture will present initial findings from the UKRI-funded ‘Rewilding’ later prehistory project – a collaboration between Oxford Archaeology, the Universities of Oxford, Exeter and York, Centre for Ancient Genomics, Toulouse, Historic England and Knepp Castle Estate. Focusing on evidence for wildlife in the Bronze and Iron Ages in Britain, I hope to foreground the ‘wonder and enchantment’ (Monbiot 2013) of past wildlife and to outline varied pathways for reconnecting archaeology with current nature recovery practices.

Anwen Cooper leads the ‘Rewilding’ later prehistory project at Oxford Archaeology. Her main research interests include later prehistoric Britain and Ireland, interpretative approaches to landscape, material culture, and archaeological practice, and interdisciplinary working. She has worked across the sector in British archaeology as a fieldworker, curator, finds analyst, and researcher. Most recently, she worked with colleagues at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit in bringing to publication the fabulous findings from the Late Bronze Age pile-dwelling settlement at Must Farm, Cambridgeshire.