The current heatwave is providing a near-unprecedented bonanza for archaeologists, as scorched conditions all over Britain expose the previously undiscovered or long-hidden outlines of everything from ancient fortifications to remnants of the Second World War.
In what was described as “a frantic race against time and weather”, archaeologists are scrambling into aeroplanes or flying drones to search for the outlines which are visible from the air as “crop marks”, before they are once more erased by rain.
In Wales alone the new discoveries have included an early medieval cemetery in south Gwynedd, a Roman villa in the Vale of Glamorgan, a prehistoric or Roman farm near Newport and a Roman fortlet near Magor, south Wales.
Members of the public are spotting the signs of everything from Bronze Age burial grounds in their local park to long-forgotten Second World War air raid shelters in back gardens and schools. With Britain having experienced its longest heatwave since 1976 and the hottest June on record, a remarkable number of crop marks have appeared, sometimes showing the presence of buried remains that have lain unnoticed for decades or, in the case of the new discoveries, for centuries.
A buried ditch that once ringed a hill fort will collect more underground water and nutrients, so the plants above it will grow taller and greener while the hot weather parches all the neighbouring vegetation. The underground remains of a wall, meanwhile, will have drier and poorer soil above it, producing shorter and browner plants.
Ms Barker explained that the differences are more noticeable in the kind of prolonged hot weather that can affect even normally hardy greenery like grass. Which means that when the rain comes, the crop marks vanish again.
Maybe they'll find one of the places where that one homeless dunkin donuts guy lived.
Jason Rivera
wat
Jaxon Jenkins
...
Blake Myers
Pretty fucking cool tbh
Lucas Ward
...
Jonathan Thomas
...
James Foster
this is difficult to know, how would you tell an outline of a tractor that was burned into a field from and ancient ruin, unless you knew your stuff you would be lost. Unless your were some kind of archaeology geek then this stuff would be hard to point out.
Parker Clark
Ah, yes - the 6th bowl.
Don't forget who plugged your city in…
Jordan Martin
Yea, those 1st century Roman tractors would be hard to locate
Absolutely fascinating; they actually found a neolithic henge because of this. I think in Scotland. Should provide some insight into how these structures were formed if they can get the farmer to allow them in.
