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Source: Thinkstock
The exceptionally dry early summer months in Britain have
revealed the ghostly outlines of several hundred previously unknown
ancient sites buried in fields across the English
countryside.
From Roman forts to Neolithic settlements and military remains
dating to World War II, English Heritage has been busily
photographing the exciting discoveries from the air.
Known as crop marks, the faint outlines of unseen buried structures
emerged because of the length of the dry spell, leading the
national conservator to label 2010 a vintage year for
archaeology.
The outlines show up when crops grow at different rates over buried
structures.
Shallower soils tend to produce a stunted crop and are more
prone to parching, bringing to light the new features.
"It's hard to remember a better year," said Dave MacLeod, a senior
investigator with English Heritage.
"Crop marks are always at their best in dry weather, but the last
few summers have been a disappointment," he said.
"This year we have taken full advantage of the conditions. We try
to concentrate on areas that in an average year don't produce much
archaeology."
One of this year's most important finds is a Roman camp in Dorset,
southwest England.
Experts say it is a relatively rare structure in that part of
the country with only three others known of in the region.
The lightly built defensive enclosure, which emerged from parched
barley fields, provided basic protection for Roman soldiers on
manoeuvres in the first century AD.
In the Holderness area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, an area
rich in agricultural land on the east coast, 60 new, mainly
prehistoric sites, were found in just one day.
Archaeologists say at least 200 new historic sites have been
discovered with detail on many more existing structures revealed
for the first time.
At another Roman site for example, a fort at Newton Kyme in North
Yorkshire, the crop marks showed stronger defensive walls built of
stone three metres thick, together with a massive enclosing
ditch.
English Heritage says some important structures have not been seen
in their entirety since the scorching conditions of the 1976
drought.
