Benjamin Gearey

Biographic Data

ID201960
NAMEBenjamin Gearey
GIVEN NAMESBenjamin
FAMILY NAMEGearey
SIGNATUREGEAREY B
AFFILIATIONSUniversity College Cork
ORCID0000-0003-0323-4921
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS44
TOTAL CITATIONS100
AUTHOR COUNT44
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2000
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX7

  • Reconstructing prehistoric land cover and landuse in complex ‘blue-green’ landscapes

    Open AccessKimberley L Davies, M Jane Bunting et al.ARTICLEVegetation History and…2026References: 8

    Environmental context is vital when analysing archaeological sites and interpreting past human activity. Pollen, being widely dispersed and readily preserved in wetland sediments, is frequently used to investigate past land cover, especially in wetland-rich ‘blue-green’ lowland landscapes (landscapes formed in locations where hydrology is an important determinant of natural vegetation, geomorphology and land use, such as river valleys and estuari…

  • Last chance to see? The ‘Crisis of Preservation’ and pathways to a sustainable future for Europe’s peatland archaeology

    Open AccessBenjamin Gearey, Richard Everett et al.ARTICLEAntiquity2026References: 23

    Despite repeated calls for action from various sources, peatland archaeological sites continue to deteriorate; the passive strategy of preservation in situ is failing. Here, the authors consider four challenges to peatland preservation—physical degradation, mapping and monitoring of sites, communication, and policy frameworks—with climate change ultimately causing further problems. Drawing on positive policy developments in England, they argue th…

  • Meitheal Adhmadóireachta” Exploring and Communicating Prehistoric Irish Woodcraft Through Remaking and Shared Experience

    Open AccessBenjamin Gearey, Orla-Peach Power et al.ARTICLEOpen Archaeology2025References: 5

    This article discusses the Pallasboy Project, an exploration of prehistoric woodworking, based around the “experimental” crafting of replicas of artefacts preserved in waterlogged deposits. These artefacts included the eponymous Pallasboy vessel, an Iron age alder wood trough from Toar Bog, Co. Westmeath, Ireland; the Bronze Age “Red Man of Kilbeg” anthropomorphic figurine; the Lees Island 5 Iron Age log boat; and the Iron Age Ballachulish Goddes…

  • Irish peatscapes

    Claire Nolan, Benjamin Gearey et al.ARTICLELandscape Research2025Cited by: 1References: 39

    This paper outlines the concept of ‘peatscapes’: hybrid assemblages of human and more-than-human, formed from past exploitation, present policies, identities and perceptions, and future plans for Irish peatlands. Following centuries of drainage and peat extraction, peatlands are now targeted for rehabilitation/restoration for biodiversity and ‘ecosystem services’, including net carbon sequestration. However, there are significant economic and cul…

  • Adapting to the Little Ice Age in pastoral regions

    Open AccessEugene Costello, Kevin Kearney et al.ARTICLEHistorical Methods A Journal of…2023References: 68

    This paper uses interdisciplinary methods to investigate responses to the Little Ice Age in regions where livestock farming was dominant, a neglected subject due to the scarcity of detailed written records regarding pastoral land use. It argues that landscape-level histories which include pollen evidence and archaeology can address this challenge and reveal local processes of climate adaptation. Here we focus on Ireland and Scotland and a fascina…

  • Between reclamation and restoration

    Open AccessMairi H Davies, Mairi Davies et al.ARTICLEJournal of Wetland Archaeology2022

    This editorial introduces the context for a special issue of the Journal of Wetland Archaeology, co-edited by Mairi Davies, Tom Gardner, Benjamin Gearey, Tymon de Haas, Mans Schepers and Michael Stratigos. The volume is a result of a session of the 2021 Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists hosted virtually by Kiel University entitled ‘The Historical Ecology of Reclamation Landscapes: Towards a Cross-Cultural Comparative Pe…

  • A multi-proxy Holocene palaeoenvironmental record of climate change and prehistoric human activity from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland

    Open AccessKevin Kearney, Benjamin Gearey et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2022Cited by: 2References: 31

    A multiproxy (pollen, microcharcoal, loss-on-ignition, magnetic susceptibility and geochemistry) sequence from Lough Cullin, southeast Ireland, supported by a high-resolution radiocarbon chronology, modelled using Bayesian approaches, provides a record of environmental change for much of the Holocene. Following the establishment of mixed deciduous woodland, climatic deterioration was likely responsible for pronounced vegetation change and erosion…

  • Recession or Resilience

    Sophie Mcdonald, Kevin Kearney et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Archaeology2021References: 23

    A consistent theme in British prehistoric studies is a perceived lack of evidence for settlement and agriculture in the Neolithic (c.4000 cal BC – 2500 cal BC), which then increases in prevalence during the Bronze Age. This lack of evidence for Neolithic settlement and farming has been linked to a collapse of agriculture associated with population decline and climatic deterioration from c.3600 cal BC onwards, with population recovery and the resu…

  • ‘Black butter melting and opening underfoot’

    Open AccessMaureen O’connor, Benjamin GeareyARTICLEGreen Letters2020

    In this paper, we discuss ‘turf-cutting’, or the ‘harvest’ of peat, a centuries-long agricultural practice in Ireland. Although healthy peatlands are known to be carbon sinks, calls for the end of peat cutting are controversial in a country still largely defined by rural traditions. We consider the relationship between peat, peat cutting and identity: the ‘bog’ features significantly in literature and has played a central role in notions of a spe…

  • The Elm Decline is Dead! Long Live Declines in Elm

    Kevin Kearney, Benjamin GeareyARTICLEEnvironmental Archaeology2020Cited by: 2References: 20

    The Elm Decline (ED), is a marked reduction in Ulmus recognised in pollen diagrams from across north/northwest Europe c. 5-6000 cal BP, the causes of which have been much discussed for over half a century, partly because of its broad chronological correspondence with the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. We present a formal statistical analysis of the ED chronology in Ireland, analysing its association with early Neolithic anthropogenic activity a…

  • I didn't know you were into that sort of thing?!”

    Open AccessBenjamin GeareyARTICLEInternet Archaeology2019References: 10

    Editorial for issue 53, Environmental Archaeology - Theory and Practice: Looking Back, Moving Forwards

  • Bog Bodies in Context

    Open AccessHerrick Chapman, Roy Van Beek et al.ARTICLEEuropean Journal of Archaeology2019Cited by: 7References: 5

    Bog bodies are among the best-known archaeological finds worldwide. Much of the work on these often extremely well-preserved human remains has focused on forensics, whereas the environmental setting of the finds has been largely overlooked. This applies to both the ‘physical’ and ‘cultural’ landscape and constitutes a significant problem since the vast spatial and temporal scales over which the practice appeared demonstrate that contextual assess…

  • Towards an Archaeology of Pain? Assessing the Evidence from Later Prehistoric Bog Bodies

    Open AccessHenry P Chapman, Herrick Chapman et al.ARTICLEOxford Journal of Archaeology2019Cited by: 4References: 1

    This paper highlights the potential for what could be termed an 'archaeology of pain', reflecting on the potential significance and role of the infliction, suffering, endurance and observation of pain by individuals in the past. It presents a case study of 'bog bodies', human remains recovered from wetland which, due to the anoxic, waterlogged conditions, preserves human flesh and associated evidence, including injuries and cause of death. The ce…

  • Heaney's Hauntings

    Open AccessRichard Everett, Benjamin GeareyARTICLEJournal of Wetland Archaeology2019Cited by: 3References: 2

    In this paper we discuss the entangled relationship between literary creation, archaeology and representations of gender in the poetry of Seamus Heaney, in particular the 'bog poems' The Tollund Man and Bogland. We trace the early formative connections between the poet, peatlands and 'bog body' research, in which both literary critical and archaeological scholars have analysed themes including 'the bog as archive', theory and practice of archaeol…

  • The Impacts of Climate and Environmental Change on the Historic Environment

    Andy J Howard, David Knight et al.ARTICLEThe Historic Environment Policy &…2017

  • Wetland indicators

    Open AccessBenjamin GeareyARTICLEJournal of Wetland Archaeology2017

    Wetland indicators: a guide to wetland formation, identification, delineation, classification and mapping." Journal of Wetland Archaeology, 17(1), pp. 74–75

  • Palaeoenvironmental Investigations of the River Chelmer, Chelmsford, Essex, UK

    Open AccessK Krawiec, E-J Hopla et al.ARTICLEJournal of Wetland Archaeology2017References: 12

    The value of understanding the landscape context within which sites of human occupation are situated is key to understanding their function and locality. The recovery of a borehole adjacent to the current course of the river Chelmer during the replacement of the existing A138 Chelmer Viaduct and river bridge allowed the palaeoenvironmental analysis and radiocarbon dating of floodplain sediments. The results of which demonstrated that woodland cle…

  • From Rackham to Reveals

    Open AccessStephen Richer, Benjamin GeareyARTICLEEnvironmental Archaeology2017Cited by: 4References: 28

    In this paper we reflect on aspects of palaeoecological approaches to understanding past woodland environments. With increasing requirements for interdisciplinarity in research, and an increase in popular interest in the ‘natural environment’ such as ‘new nature writing’, we suggest that palaeoecology is potentially well situated to engage with other audiences and disciplines, and inform wider debates. However, in order to achieve this, we tentat…

  • The Medicine Tree

    Open AccessStephen Richer, Suzi Richer et al.ARTICLEJournal of Social Archaeology2017Cited by: 1References: 63

    In this paper, we consider palaeoecological approaches to past landscapes and reflect upon how these are relevant to archaeological themes concerning concepts of environmental change and the role of past and present human communities in these processes. In particular, we highlight the importance of local context in the perception and understanding of landscape. Utilising a case study from Nepal, we look to 'unsettle' a conventional palaeoecologic…

  • Down By the River

    Benjamin Gearey, Henry Chapman et al.BOOKDown By the River2016

  • Down By The River

    Benjamin Gearey, Andrew J Howard et al.BOOKDown by the river2016

    Whilst East Anglia has long been known as a key area for the preservation of important Palaeolithic archaeological and palaeoenvironmental deposits, relatively little study of the Holocene record has previously been carried out. This volume presents the results of palaeoenvironmental, archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations focused on the Post-Glacial record preserved in the Suffolk river valleys. The work discussed includes two phase…

  • Managing, Valuing, and Protecting Heritage Resources in the Twenty-First Century

    Benjamin Gearey, Benjamin R Gearey et al.ARTICLEConservation and Management of…2014

    This paper argues that the development of the Ecosystem Services framework, which has recently emerged as an internationally recognized framework for valuing 'the 'natural capital' of ecosystems, presents a number of opportunities for heritage management and the archaeological record, arguing that the inclusion of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental 'value' within this framework presents an opportunity to incorporate heritage alongside a range…

  • Assessing the changing condition of industrial archaeological remains on Alston Moor, UK, using multisensor remote sensing

    Open AccessMark Kincey, Lesley C Batty et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science2014Cited by: 4References: 3

  • Chronology and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the sub-tidal zone

    Open AccessGriffith, Fraser Sturt et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science2014Cited by: 2References: 10

  • A Late Prehistoric Timber Alignment in the Waveney Valley, Suffolk

    Open AccessKristina Krawiec, Benjamin Gearey et al.ARTICLEJournal of Wetland Archaeology2011References: 5

    This paper describes the results of excavations and associated palaeoenvironmental analyses at Barsham Marshes, Suffolk, England. The site is a triple post alignment of oak stakes built at the edge of a palaeochannel of the River Waveney. The alignment has been traced for over 30 m but neither terminus of the site has been excavated. Dendrochronological dating of the timbers has produced a range of felling dates between 8 BC and AD 8 indicating a…