3.6 Topsoil Assemblages



Evidence contained only in
ploughsoil: Medieval road
metalling visible in ploughed
field near Coughton, in
Warwickshire. Photograph:

An archaeological assemblage (in the sense that it is used here, as it has other archaeological meanings too) refers here to a discrete area in which (usually) artefactual evidence of past activity is preserved in the form of a part of the archaeological record. The boundaries of an assemblage is 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. These topsoil scatters (surface sites) are the symptoms of the existence, or former existence of a "soil structure site". These sites can be examined and studied by systematic collection of material from the surface exposures.

Many types of topsoil assemblages exist, such as those relating to the site of a battle, where artefacts dropped and fallen on the ground surface never entered the subsoil (Sutherland 2004, Foard and Morris 2012). Other examples include lithic scatters () and fairground sites. Material evidence contained only in the topsoil will include the traces of ancient manuring practices.

Irresponsible and unmethodical collection-driven exploitation of such sites is causing a huge amount of damage. As Sutherland points out (p 944) in his review of Foard and Morris 2012, in the case of battlefields:
 “Metal detecting outside the framework of archaeological survey is almost certainly the greatest threat to historic battlefields in England” and “the highest profile threat is posed by metal detector rallies” (p. 154); further, “If effective action to limit the decay and destruction of the evidence is not taken soon, in as few as ten or twenty years little of value will be left to study” (p. 173). Battlefield archaeology is therefore portrayed as a race against time with the metal detector as both saviour and sinner.
The same applies to lithic scatters, as the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework page on them stresses:
scatter sites are vulnerable to a number of threats primarily through development and landuse practices but also from [...] the over-zealous and selective collection of artefacts which can destroy the spatial integrity of the deposits and ultimate remove the site itself before it has been properly investigated.
It also applies of course to any surface site. 

systematically plotted patterned artefact scatter in ploughsoil (Evans)
Pattern analysed
Bibliography:
Battlefields:
Tim Sutherland 2004, 'Archaeology of Ancient and Historical Conflict, Guidelines for the British Archaeological Job Resource (BAJR)' online resource.

Foard, G. and Morris R. 2012, 'The Archaeology of English Battlefields: conflict in the pre-industrial landscape', CBA Research Report 168 York

Lithic scatters:
Wickham-Jones, C. 2019, 'Scatter sites: more than meets the eye', Caroline Wickham-Jones. Archaeology
Bond, C. J. 2009, 'Biographies of Stone and Landscape: Lithic Scatters' Internet Archaeology 26.

Oxford Archaeology 2019, 'Managing Lithic Scatters', Historic England: Archaeological guidance for planning authorities and developers.

Market sites:
Besly, E 1995, 'Short Cross and other Medieval coins from Llanfaes, Anglesey', British Numismatic Journal 65, 46–82.

Manuring: 
Jones, R. 2004 Signatures in the Soil: The Use of Pottery in Manure Scatters in the Identification of Medieval Arable Farming Regimes. Archaeological Journal, 161:1, 159-188.

 Jones, R. 2011 Elemental theory in everyday practice: food disposal in the later medieval English countryside. In Klápšte, J. Sommer, P. (eds.) Food in the Medieval Rural Environment: Processing, Storage, Distribution of Food (p. 145-154). Turnhout: Brepols.


Tamara Kroftova comments:
"The idea that archaeology is only done on the basis of excavation of stratified sites is one that for some reason is difficult to shake in Britain. This is all the more puzzling in that it is precisely in the British context that landscape archaeology - with the attention it pays to the use of surface sites and assemblages in reconstructing past land use - was to develop.  Yet it is very clear that though they are not as readily visible in the cultural landscape as upstanding ruins and earthworks, they are extremely significant". 





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