How to read landscapes like an archaeologist
Stewart Ainsworth The Guardian, Saturday 4 April 2009 Article history
Every earthwork, building, road and hedge tells us something about lost places and forgotten times. Objects in the landscape such as these are the pieces of one enormous archaeological puzzle. However, by turning yourself into a landscape detective, you can unlock some of its secrets.
• You may have seen a hill in the distance and asked yourself, why is it that one hill appears to have rings around its top and others nearby don't? Hills are not naturally formed with deep trenches and large steep-sided banks encircling them - these rings are ditches and banks constructed to ward off intruders and demonstrate that it was an iron age hillfort and a centre of power 2,500 years ago.
• Say you spot a single stone standing by itself in a field in the middle of nowhere, how do you know if it is prehistoric too? One clue is that stones that have been standing upright for thousands of years will be heavily eroded by rain running down them, smoothing out the surfaces and often also creating complex channels running from the top downwards. However, a single large stone erected in the middle of a field with no erosion and lots of tool marks may be a relatively modern feature called a "rubbing stone", put up by farmers so that cattle can have a good scratch.
• Ever wondered why there is an old-looking church standing by itself surrounded only by fields with no buildings or village nearby? Probably a medieval village once lay around it, since deserted and forgotten. A walk in the fields close by can often reveal the lumps and bumps of the former streets and homes of the abandoned settlement.
Armed with the skills of a landscape detective - an inquisitive mind, a touch of common sense, and an Ordnance Survey map - it is possible to decode evidence like this to help you understand and enjoy your surroundings. Monuments in the landscape are like fingerprints - every time our ancestors introduced something into the natural landscape, such as a fort, a village or a stone circle, they literally imprinted themselves into it, and you don't have to dig to find evidence of their way of life.
• Stewart Ainsworth is resident landscape archaeologist on Channel Four's Time Team
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/apr/04/landscape-archaeology-time-team