Towards an Integrated Methodology for Assessing Rural Settlement Landscapes in the Belgian Lowlands

ABSTRACT Although the Belgian lowlands witnessed a dense rural occupation in Roman and especially in medieval times, the exact nature of the settlement patterns, the farms and the interaction with the landscape is still poorly understood archaeologically, both scientifically and from a heritage curatorship point of view. Archaeogeophysical research has remained relatively limited in this area. However, other prospection techniques such as aerial photography provide ample evidence of historic rural settlement. The main aim of this research is to develop an efficient and integrated approach for the characterization of these rural landscapes, by combining and mutually evaluating data from geophysical methods including magnetometer, electromagnetic induction and ground‐penetrating radar, aerial photography, fieldwalking, historic accounts and test‐pitting. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.