Drought reveals the lost footprints of history from the air

[OpenMind]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...C-new_21082006


By Nic Fleming
(Filed: 21/08/2006)
While the summer drought has left fields and gardens parched, it has opened up aerial architectural treasures across the country.
Photographs taken from light aircraft have revealed hundreds of unknown or long forgotten sites. Archaeologists now face a busy autumn, interpreting images that will help shed light on how people lived up to 6,000 years ago.
Dr Toby Driver, of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, said: "It has been a hugely successful year for aerial archaeology. We may not see another like it for a decade.

"I now have months of work to go through the discoveries, notifying local archaeologists and ensuring that some of the most remarkable sites are visited on the ground and studied further."
Among the most significant finds are two 6,000-year-old Neolithic causewayed enclosures near Walton, Radnorshire, and near St Athan airfield, in the Vale of Glamorgan.
They are thought to be among the first large communal monuments built by prehistoric Britons and were probably used for markets, festivals and feasting.
Faint rectangular markings in a field near the Cana Barn Neolithic henge, at Hutton Moor, North Yorks, were discovered last month.
They are believed to be the remains of a rare 5,000-year-old cursus, a narrow rectangular earthwork enclosure from the Neolithic period presumed to have had a ceremonial function.
Another striking image is of the outline of a lost medieval church, with semi-circular apse, in the Vale of Conwy, once part of a township dating from the 11th or 12th centuries.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of aerial archaeology in Britain. A picture taken by Lt Philip Henry Sharpe, of the Royal Engineers' balloon section, over Stonehenge in 1906 showed clearly how even slight earthworks could be picked out and more easily understood from above. Developments in aircraft, camera and film technology during the two World Wars allowed the RAF to photograph almost all of the country as part of its national survey in 1946. Very dry summers, which occur on average once a decade, provide ideal conditions for aerial archaeology. Crops grow taller and greener above trenches dug as part of ancient barrows or hill forts because extra water and nutrients are found there. Conversely, buried walls or raised stone areas that were part of Roman villas or roads can deprive plants of nutrients and show up as yellow patches on greener backgrounds, known as parching. Deep green crop markings photographed at Claverley, near Bridgenorth, Shropshire, showed up parallel ditches in a field of sugar beet. They probably surrounded a late prehistoric settlement.
A similar example is the appearance of dark lines showing the site of a newly discovered Iron Age or Roman period farmstead at Greenrigg, Cumbria. Recent analysis of aerial photographs in that area show that British tribes maintained aspects of their ways of life during the Roman period.
A good example of the opposite parching effect was shown up near the village of Burgh by Sands, in Cumbria, where the walls of a 13th century manor house showed up clearly next to a now invisible section of Hadrian's Wall.
What may be a lost medieval village was discovered as crop marks, with field plots and a central road, near St Donat's, in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Scores of Bronze Age round barrows, or burial sites, have become visible, including some impressive examples at St Donat's. Local archaeologists speculate that they could be the graves of Beaker people - farmers and archers who settled in Britain around 2,500BC and who wore stone wrist guards to protect their arms from their bowstrings.
Three early medieval rare square barrow cemeteries have been discovered close to Caernarfon and Bangor, in Gwynedd, and near Corwen, Denbighshire.
Small Roman forts have been found guarding strategic passes near Llanerfyl, in northern Powys, and near Bala, Gwynedd.
Parts of the Roman town and military base of Corstopitum, near Corbridge, Northumberland, have been shown up with clarity not seen in decades, as were the remains of a nearby mausoleum outside the town boundaries.
Discoveries have also been made in Scotland. For example, at the major Roman fort of Carpow, south of Dundee, previously unknown details about the internal fixtures of the structure have been revealed.
Dave Cowley, of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, said: "Excavations, while important, are slow, expensive and look at a tiny proportion of a site. Aerial archaeology allows us an overview of the whole ground plan, which can also teach us a great deal about how these people lived."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.

[Marie5656]

Well, I am impressed. Thanks for sharing.

[Bryn Mawr]

Originally Posted by Marie5656

Well, I am impressed. Thanks for sharing.

A grreat article - althought I had visions of dinosaur paws in the riverbeds

[Bill Sikes]

I hope that people like the "Time Team" don't go trampling willy-nilly over
important sites and digging everything up.

[CheshireCat]

Are the photos on the web? I would love to see.

That's a really interesting article, thanks for posting it OM.

Yeah good article OM.

Wonder if the Royal Engineers, Balloon Section still exists I might re-enlist if it is

[OpenMind]

Originally Posted by ArnoldLayne

Yeah good article OM.

Wonder if the Royal Engineers, Balloon Section still exists I might re-enlist if it is

For a tour of duty every 10 years, eh?

[OpenMind]

Originally Posted by CheshireCat

Are the photos on the web? I would love to see.

I have no idea. The article was posted by The Telegraph and they didn't show or point to any.

[Lulu2]

How thrilling for the scientists involved! WHERE ARE THE PHOTOS? DO THEY WANT CHESHIRE & ME TO COME & TAKE SOME????