Field boundaries
The boundaries that surround fields are variable in form, from hedges on banks to stone walls with or without ditches. It is clear that quite a few of these have been created over many millennia. While thousands of miles of hedge and wall were created at the time of the enclosure movement – from the 16th century onwards and particularly those that resulted from the Enclosure Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries – many other field boundaries are the result of creating fields out of woodland and marsh from prehistoric times onwards. The actual pattern of the field boundaries – their layout on the ground, whether they are regular rectilinear blocks or irregular in shape and size – is, in many cases, a clue to their origins. See also enclosures.

Fieldwalking
The systematic examination of ploughed fields carried out to sample the finds from the plough soil as part of a fieldwork project.

Fieldwork
One of the most interesting aspects of archaeology, fieldwork is concerned with the location, recording, surveying and identification of archaeological sites and historic landscapes. Much of it involves following up clues from aerial photography, maps and documents. Areas of earthworks are investigated, and scatters of finds in ploughed fields are recorded (see fieldwalking, above). Almost every activity that is not concerned with excavation, post-excavation work, research on finds and desk-bound research and writing can be thought of in some way as archaeological fieldwork. It even extends to the examination of vernacular buildings and research into the patterns of roads and hedges.

Finds processing
Any excavation, and indeed any type of fieldwork, can result in the discovery of very large numbers of objects, ranging from flints to pieces of pottery, coins, bones, metalwork and so on. Finding these pieces is only the beginning of the story, since if they are going to be able to tell us anything, they must be processed. First, their exact position is accurately recorded; then many will need some sort of first-aid conservation if they are not to deteriorate on exposure to the air (see wood conservation).

Generally speaking, finds of different materials are examined by different specialists, sometimes after the excavation or fieldwork has finished, and usually off the site. It is really only when this side of the work is complete that the director of the project can bring all the evidence together and assess what the site really means. In that sense, the finds processing, and all the other excavation and post-excavation activities (drawing, compiling the archives and so on), are only the tip of an enormous iceberg, of which the excavation (or fieldwork) itself is merely the most obvious, but smaller, part.

Fish bones
When found in archaeological deposits, which is relatively rarely, these give a good insight into an important aspect of early diet. Although there are many earthworks of fishponds remaining on medieval sites, for example, the evidence from fish bones shows that people in the Middle Ages ate more sea fish than freshwater varieties. Even quite small bones, such as those from the ears of certain fish, can be retrieved and examined by environmental archaeologists.

Flints
Apart from wooden objects that have not survived, the primary material used for tools in the early prehistoric period – the Neolithic and Bronze ages – was flint, a glassy material that forms naturally in chalk and which can be split and flaked to produce razor-sharp edges. Various techniques resulted in the manufacture of a wide range of implements, from arrowheads and axes to scrapers, blades and drills. Unfortunately, as we see these now, without their wooden, bone or leather handles, they look somewhat dull and unimpressive. See conchoidal rings.