3.5: Archaeological Sites


An archaeological site is the name given to the units by which various parts of a research project are divided and labelled. A site may fall anywhere within a range from those with few or no remains visible above ground, to buildings and other structures still in use. It is a discrete place in which evidence of past activity is preserved in the form of a part of the archaeological record. The boundaries of the site may be a physical feature (such as a wall or ditch), a boundary between an area where a certain type of evidence appears and is absent (such as the edge of an artefact scatter) or it may be nominal, the term being a label to define part of an area being studied [sometimes known as a locus] within a broader cultural landscape (Link). In development-led archaeology a site will be defined rather arbitrarily by the limits of the intended development.

Sites fall into two groups, those that are "soil structure" sites, and those that are "above ground".

"Above-Ground sites"
This category will include things like upstanding earthworks (such as a deserted Medieval village), or a standing building such as a church or castle.  These sites can be documented non-intrusively (measured drawings of stonework, photogrametry, LIDAR surveys, contour surveys etc.). Such sites of course will also usually have a component that is stratified below the ground too.

Lenborough from the air

Wharram Percy deserted medieval village - visible earthwork remains (Historic England)

 deserted Medieval village of Lake in Wilsford parish, Wiltshire (copyright RCHME/English Heritage).
A site that is a standing building (wikipedia)

Recording a standing wall (Agnieszka Niemierko)

"soil structure sites"
This category will include things like stratified sequences preserved underground as well as sites that have been ploughed (surface sites). A specific manifestation of this group are cropmark sites where the evidence 'in the ground affects the crops growing above its different elements. These sites can be examined non-intrusively (systematic collection of material from the surface exposures) by geophysical methods (Ground-penetrating radar, magnetometry, resistance) or excavation.

Soil layers forming stratigraphic sequence (CART)
Base of infilled ditch on site after ploughsoil removed,

Marnel Park and Merton Rise (Wessex Archaeology)

  

Features visible in plan after ploughsoil stripping (WW1 trenches Lützow-linie 1915, Bikschote)
Medieval road metalling visible in ploughed field
near Coughton, in Warwickshire. Photograph:
The Oxford Archaeological Unit.

Archaeological features near Exeter visible
as soil colour changes (Devon CC)
systematically plotted patterned artefact scatter in ploughsoil (Evans)
Pattern analysed

Tamara Kroftova comments:
"Again, the terminology used by British archaeologists is confusing for outsiders. In a case when it is so ambiguous, the word 'archaeological site' means everything and little. No wonder they apparently find it so difficult to explain what it is they want to protect". 







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