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barrows

During many periods in the past, earthen mounds were erected to cover one or more burials; these are generally known as barrows. In the neolithic period, long barrows were erected over wooden or stone burial chambers; very many round barrows of various sorts were built in the succeeding Bronze Age. Although most of the barrows that are still visible in vast numbers, particularly on uplands, date to this time, it should not be forgotten that there are also barrows from the Iron Age including some square ones in Yorkshire; barrows from the Roman period, in south-east England, often covered rich burials; and those from the Anglo-Saxon period include the spectacular cemetery at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk.

Beaker burial

A type of single burial from the Bronze Age, which gets its name from the distinctive type of pot, called a beaker, which is found in each grave. Usually the skeleton is in a crouched position, and frequently there are other things in the grave, such as the remains of arrows, daggers and what might have been joints of meat. These burials belong to the time when metals – in this case, bronze – were first beginning to be used in Britain.

Bede

This 8th-century monk (c 673-735) lived in the great Northumbrian monastery at Jarrow and wrote an ecclesiastical history of England which is a prime source for much that happened in Britain in the so-called Dark Ages and the early Anglo-Saxon period. He has been called the ‘father of English history’.

beetles

There are many different types of these shiny black insects, each of which prefers a particular type of environment. When the remains of a specific sort of beetle are found in archaeological excavations, it is possible, therefore, for the environmental specialists to make some suggestion of what the environment was like in ancient times. This work is based on the assumption that the various species liked the same kinds of places and conditions in the past as they do today. See environmental archaeology.

bloom

In early ironworking, the heating of iron ore, charcoal and limestone resulted in a ‘bloom’ – a lump of iron at the bottom of the furnace. This was hammered (forged) to remove impurities and charcoal, to produce ‘wrought iron’ which could then be made into various useful objects. Pieces of bloom and the slag associated with the heating of the ore are useful finds for the archaeologist, as they identify early metalworking sites.

bogs

These are archaeologically important areas of waterlogged fens and marsh – such as the Fenland of eastern England and the Somerset Levels. Here, anaerobic conditions are common, and so the sorts of objects and structures that would normally rot away may well be preserved. Biological evidence such as pollen, seeds, leaves and so on may also be preserved in the same way, enabling environmental archaeologists to work out what the landscape looked like in the past.

bones

The identification of bones – both human and animal – from archaeological sites can tell us a great deal. First, researchers must work out which bones they are (because they are often broken and in small pieces) and from which species they come. Once this has been done – and it is a very skilled job – some idea can be gained not only of species being hunted or farmed at the time and the butchery techniques and selection of joints preferred, but also of the wild animals in the area, down to the smallest frogs, mice and so on.

The examination of human bones can lead to a greater understanding of the prehistoric population’s range of diet, and the deficiencies and diseases (but only those that affect bones) which they were afflicted with.

Bronze Age

The period – from c 2000 to c 700 BC – when metal first began to be widely used. However, various types of stone such as flint remained very important for thousands of years after metal became available.

Burghal Hidage

Sometime during the Anglo-Saxon period, probably in the 9th century under Alfred the Great, a scheme was drawn up to provide defences for a number of towns and forts in southern England. It was based on the idea that one man standing on the battlements of a wooden fort could defend a length of defences of about 1.2m (4ft). From this it was clear to the Anglo-Saxon powers-that-be that x number of men would be needed to defend a town or fort of x dimensions. The countryside was assessed in the form of hides, which were not so much a measure of acreage as the amount of land needed to support a large extended family. Each hide had to supply one man to the local fortified site, or burh.

The Burghal Hidage is a document dating from c 909, which lists the number of hides (and, therefore, men) required to defend the perimeters of burhs. By using the formula above, even where we do not know the actual outline of the Anglo-Saxon defensive sites, it is possible to work out the length of the defences. The places listed in the Burghal Hidage include a number of old Roman centres such as Chichester, Bath and Winchester; some reused earlier hillforts such as Chisbury, Halwell and Pilton; some new promontory forts such as Lyng, Langport and Burpham; and, most interestingly, newly planned Saxon towns at Wallingford, Oxford, Wareham and Cricklade.

Celtic

A rather misused term, which really ought to be reserved for references to languages. In fact, it is used for art styles and racial or ethnic types and even as a geographical and chronological term. Best avoided if you can think of a more specific or accurate word!

charters

These were used particularly for the land grants and transactions of the Anglo-Saxon period, whereby the king granted blocks of land to monasteries and individuals. Such charters often record the boundaries of the land, making them some of the finest records for placenames and details of the Anglo-Saxon countryside.

Christians

There were certainly Christians in Britain in the latter part of the Roman period, before AD 400, and there were monasteries in Ireland and probably in western Britain as well by the later 5th and 6th centuries. The Saxons then introduced their own form of paganism. England began to be converted to Christianity following the missions of Northumbrian monks, via Iona and Lindisfarne, and the mission of Augustine to Kent beginning in AD 597. Over the next century, the country was converted by his followers and by monks from the Northumbrian Church, resulting finally in the conversion of the Isle of Wight in AD 686. Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, carried out a thorough reorganisation of the Church between AD 669 and 690.

coins

To an archaeologist, coins are invaluable as prime dating material. When they were produced (ie minted) is usually known; indeed, many of them were issued to commemorate certain events or were in some other way dated. Obviously a coin found on a site can only date from the earliest time that that coin became available. If it is in mint condition, the layer or context with which it is associated may be of the same date as the coin, whereas if the coin is well worn, it may well have been deposited (lost or buried) some time after it was produced. Thus, all the other things found with or around the coin can be roughly dated. A great deal of archaeology in the past has been based on this relatively simple idea. See also terminus post quem/terminus ante quem.

computer graphics

A catch-all term for all the computer techniques now available to help archaeologists in many aspects of their work. Uses of the computer range from accurate plans with data gathered from many sources and all depicted on the same base map, to elaborate programs that enable the three-dimensional reconstruction of sites on screen so that we can ‘travel’ through them, viewing the sites from different angles. Time Team use a number of these techniques, including those associated with mapping, geophysics survey and reconstruction drawings.

conchoidal rings

Flints occur commonly on early sites and, during fieldwork, conchoidal rings can be found almost everywhere. The problem is to know whether they were made by prehistoric people or are the result of the natural weathering of blocks of flint by frost and so on. One way is to look for the characteristic marks produced when flint blades were detached from a core by flintworkers. A blade produced by a blow to the top of a block of flint will have a ‘point of percussion’, a ‘bulb of percussion’ below, and below that a series of ‘ripples’ or ‘conchoidal rings’, evidence of how the force of the blow has passed through the flint. Although the blade may then have had other flakes removed to make it into a tool, these characteristic features are a good guide to whether a particular flint was man-made.

context

A vague word used by archaeologists to describe the position of a particular find or site in relation to other things. In fact, the context of a find or feature is of prime importance since it is only when its relationship to others is understood that some progress can be made in the investigation of a site. This is why objects removed by looting, whether after treasure hunting or other raiding, are of less value to archaeologists, in terms of the information they can give, than those carefully recorded as they are excavated. Out of the context in which they existed in the ground along with all the other earlier, later and contemporary features, objects and deposits, they can only be appreciated as single unrelated items.

cropmarks

See aerial photography. These are light and dark marks visible in growing and ripening crops, which reflect the differences in the subsoil beneath. Thus parched lines of grass may indicate hidden stone walls or packed stone layers such as Roman roads, and much greener grass may be growing over pits, ditches or gulleys. As crops, particularly cereals, come to maturity, any parts that are short of water will tend to grow less and to ripen first, while areas of crops over pits and ditches will tend to remain greener that bit longer, and be taller than the rest. Very large numbers of new cropmark sites have been found since the 1960s, and there are probably still very many more to be found.

In practice, however, it is often difficult to see why some cropmarks form at all. In many cases, their appearance is related to the geology, the weather at the time the crop was sown and/or is growing, and numerous other factors. Many are also formed as a result of modern activities: leaky muck spreaders, erratic sprinklers and tethered goats have all produced spectacularly ‘archaeological’ cropmarks!

cruck

A term employed in the study of buildings to describe timbers used in roof supports. Crucks or cruck blades are inclined posts often split in two to give matching pairs to support the roof ridge from which the rest of the roof hangs. The side walls can then be fitted in beneath without the roof weighing on them. Pairs of crucks are arranged down the building at intervals (in bays); large barns can have many pairs. The technique is often said to be Saxon, but cruck buildings were built right down to recent times.

Dark Ages

A term given by some to the centuries after the Roman period, from c AD 400, when it is very difficult archaeologically to see what happened as far as settlement, farming and so on are concerned. In most of Britain, people stopped using and making pottery, ceased producing and using coins, built in wood (which has rotted away) rather than stone and, in many other ways, have denied archaeologists the wealth of inorganic and concrete evidence they are used to from the Roman centuries. The period was really very similar to the Iron Age, and so was not ‘dark’ at all except by comparison to the Roman period with its consumer and commercial society, which is much more like our own and which some archaeologists find more satisfying. See medieval/middle ages.

dendrochronology

A relatively new and very exciting way of absolutely dating material from archaeological sites where wood has survived. It is based on the idea that the growth rings of trees – oak has so far been studied – vary from year to year according to weather conditions, and that patterns of greater and lesser growth can be compared from tree to tree and from area to area. By working backward from surviving trees, from timbers in old houses and in even earlier churches, and from timbers from excavated sites, a ‘master chronology’ can be built up. Any timber discovered in buildings or in waterlogged deposits (with anaerobic conditions) can then be compared with the growth rings already known. If the outer rings of the tree or the sapwood are present, a very precise date can be suggested for when the tree was felled. As most wood in the past seems to have been worked and used ‘green’, such a date will be very close to that of the construction of the feature under investigation. See also augering.

DMV

Jargon used by medieval settlement archaeologists for ‘deserted medieval villages’ – that is, those settlements that have been abandoned and where only earthworks remain to indicate where the former houses and farmsteads once stood. Some of these villages disappeared in the 15th century when a lot of arable land was put down to grass; a few disappeared as a result of the Black Death and other plagues in the 14th century; but most were just slowly abandoned as economic activity changed and people drifted away to new occupations elsewhere. Many are not medieval in origin but Saxon (or earlier) and were not abandoned in the Middle Ages but in the 16th, 17th or 18th centuries. In practice, few villages were ever completely deserted; there is usually at least a church, farm or few cottages left. And very many so-called DMVs were never actually ‘villages’ – ie they were never large settlements with their own churches and manor houses.

documents

A catch-all for the mass of paperwork (and parchments) produced, particularly in the Middle Ages and later, as part of the bureaucratic processes of government. Nearly all documents are of interest in discovering something about life in the past, and very many categories of document are essential for a full appreciation of what went on. See, for example, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Burghal Hidage.

dugouts

A rough-and-ready term for boats constructed from single logs that have been hollowed out using axes, adzes and fire. Also called logboats.

dykes

Earthworks usually made up of one or more sets of banks and ditches, often running across country and frequently intended to block unrestricted passage across the landscape. Originally they may have been topped with timber palisades, and may have had deeper ditches and steeper banks, which have been eroded over the years. Good examples include Offa’s Dyke along the Welsh border, Bokerley Dyke in Dorset and the Wansdyke in Wiltshire.

earthworks

These comprise mounds and hollows, banks and ditches made of earth, clay and soil, often representing collapsed structures.

EDM

This stands for ‘electronic distance measurer’, a surveying device that measures the distance between the point on the ground at which it is set up and a second point, by sending a beam of light towards a prism on the second point and calculating the time taken for the light to be reflected back to it. The position of a large number of points can be recorded rapidly and accurately using a combined EDM and theodolite, the latter measuring the horizontal angle or direction of the second point. This enables an archaeologist to record the position of anything – a building, a ditch, even a grid required for field walking – by measuring distance and direction to a number of points on the thing being surveyed. This information is integrated with Ordnance Survey maps and plotted on to a combined plan using a computerised software package (see computer graphics).

emmer

A type of early wheat. One of the earliest cereal crops to be brought to Britain at the time of the introduction of animal domestication and husbandry. The other main wheat is einkorn. The ultimate origin of these crops lies in the Middle East where similar cereals are still grown. Emmer is richer in protein than many modern wheats, but is rather harder to harvest because the heads are difficult to detach from the stalks.

enclosure

This, archaeologically speaking, is a bank and ditch. Many of the sites that archaeologists have to deal with are not very obvious except for the enclosures which now remain as earthworks. Many Iron Age sites which once would have contained round houses with all their attendant farmyard structures are now only visible as enclosures – rarely as earthworks but often as cropmarks. The larger settlements of the Iron Age, which must have been large villages or small towns, are now marked by surrounding ramparts and ditches and are known as hillforts. Medieval settlements that were once manors or farms now only remain as moated sites. (See also field boundaries.)

environmental archaeology

The part of archaeology concerned with seeds, pollen, snails, beetles and other insects, bones and so on, which can be used to reconstruct what the environment looked like in the past. Most of the specialists who deal with this sort of evidence come from the nearest related sciences, such as botany, zoology and ecology. A particularly interesting and exciting form of archaeology, it attempts to put the settlements and sites of past periods into context, enabling us to see what the countryside (and towns) were like for earlier people, by using information on the sorts of crops they grew (and weeds they endured) and the wild animals they hunted and the domesticated ones they managed for food.

excavation

What most people think archaeologists do, although it is merely one part of a long process of investigation of a site or area. This begins with research into what is already known, often from a Sites and Monuments Record, followed by field survey and recording on the ground, and an air survey and the examination of aerial photography. There must be good reasons for deciding to excavate a site as excavation actually means destruction; therefore, archaeologists must be sure that the site can only be understood by taking it apart. Excavations vary enormously – from small exploratory holes for evaluation and assessment work, through trenches dug to obtain information on dating and sequences, to great area excavations designed to recover all the evidence of ephemeral buildings and agricultural structures. A wide range of techniques and tools are also used, from big yellow diggers to small pointing trowels. See also rescue excavation.

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.

field walking

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 field walking, 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.

gatehouse

Any building housing a gate or sets of gates that could be barred or locked against outsiders. All periods have used these, from Iron Age hillforts, through Roman forts and towns, Saxon burhs, medieval manors, castles and towns to more recent forts of Georgian and Victorian times.

geophysics

A group of geophysical techniques are now available to archaeologists and others to help them find sites. The most common are magnetometry and resistivity. In the former, the earth’s magnetic field is measured together with any effects that structures in the ground may have on it. Walls, pits and trenches can all affect the readings, and these can then be plotted out, producing a sort of underground or subsurface map of features not always visible on the ground. With resistivity, the electrical resistance of the soil and any buried features in it is measured: where there are buried pits and ditches, there is little resistance, whereas walls and stone give great resistance.

Ground-penetrating radar may also eventually prove a very useful technique for archaeologists. It can examine deep deposits (ie some metres down), such as those found in towns, and initial results have been spectacular. As yet, however, the interpretation of the signals seems to be a difficult process.

No doubt other geophysical techniques will be developed, and the location of archaeological sites, where there is nothing to see on the surface, will become more common. This is one of the most exciting areas of archaeological research and development.

glass

Although there is some Roman, Saxon and medieval glass, and window glass from the Roman period has been discovered, most of the glass found is post-medieval (after 1550) and its relative abundance relates to the increasing use of bottles. These gradually developed in shape from squat, wide, thin-necked pieces to the more familiar wine bottle shape of today. Buried in the ground, glass often weathers to produce a patina of iridescent colours, very different to the green or brown with which we are familiar.

gold

A metal which seems to have been regarded as precious since its first use in the early Bronze Age, probably because it does not tarnish or need to be extracted from rock. When found on sites today, gold (and silver) objects are subject to the laws regarding treasure trove and their fate has to be decided in a coroner’s court.

grass tempering

All clay used in potting has to have a ‘temper’ added to assist it to dry without cracking and to help with firing so the pots do not explode. Very many things have been used as temper in the past, such as grit, crushed limestone and shells, and sand, and which material has been used is often a clue to the date and area of the manufacture of the pottery. One of the most distinctive is temper made from chopped-up grass, straw or chaff: when the pot is fired, this vegetable matter burns away, leaving distinctive voids. This type of pottery was common in the late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, c. AD 350-700.

grids

Excavation used to be conducted in a series of grids, but small trenches or large areas are now preferred. However, fieldwork is still often carried out by gridding a field in 10-, 20- or 50-metre squares and collecting from those areas. Geophysical survey is usually conducted within grids as well.

Halstatt

The name given to an Iron Age culture and style of weapons based on a site excavated in Austria.

handaxe

A general-purpose tool made over a very long period in the palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) by removing flakes from a rock core to produce a pear- or oval-shaped tool as big as a hand. Many have been found in gravels and elsewhere, and this at least indicates that human beings lived in Britain up to about a quarter of a million years ago.

hide See Burghal Hidage

hillfort See enclosure

hunter-gatherers

Before the introduction of animal husbandry and agriculture, and for a long time afterwards, the principal ways of getting enough to eat relied on the gathering of wild foods, berries, fruits, nuts, fungi and so on, as well as fishing and the hunting of wild animals. The term ‘hunter-gatherers’ refers to groups who principally get their food from non-agricultural sources, and of course, there are still people in the world today whose economy is based on this. It is easy to think that such people are at the margins of survival and are always looking for something to eat, but studies suggest the opposite – that it is a very leisurely existence, providing that population numbers remain low.

infra-red

False-colour photography, particularly with infra-red film that registers differences in heat loss from the ground, has been used to try to locate archaeological sites.

insects

A category of biological information which environmental archaeologists can use, where there are remains, to work out what the environment was like in the past. See also beetles and environmental archaeology.

Iron Age

The period c 700 BC to AD 43 – following the Bronze Age and before the Roman period – when the working and use of iron gradually becomes evident. It is characterised in Britain by the construction of large fortified hillfort centres and the full exploitation of the landscape with numerous farmsteads and extensive field systems.

joints in timber framing

The construction of timber-framed buildings and the timber roofs of manor houses and churches has been extensively studied in many areas, especially Essex and the Midlands. There are a large number of different styles of timber joints used, and many of these can be dated from documentary evidence of when various buildings were constructed, enabling some idea of building period to be gained for undocumented buildings. Now, however, dendrochronology is increasingly providing much more exact dates for such structures.

knapping

A synonym for working flint.

linear earthwork

See also dykes. Linear earthworks are usually banks and ditches that run across country, often for several miles. Today, there may appear to be no reason for their courses, but clearly there was one at the time of construction. Many seem to date from the later Bronze Age and the Iron Age and are assumed to be related to land divisions and ranching, while others dating to the so-called Dark Ages are territorial boundaries – eg Offa’s Dyke and the Wansdyke.

listed buildings

These are buildings, and structures such as bridges, which have been placed on a statutory list and so are protected by the various planning and conservation Acts because they have been assessed as being of architectural and/or historical importance. Grade I buildings include some of the most magnificent houses in Britain, whereas many of the Grade II buildings are the normal vernacular structures that comprise many of the villages and townscapes in which we live. Of these, Grade II* buildings have particularly good interiors. Despite legislation, a number of important buildings are lost each year through the activities of insensitive and unscrupulous owners and the inability (or lack of will) of local authorities and national government to press for the preservation of buildings. See also scheduled ancient monument.

logboats See dugouts

lynchets

These are little steps that form between fields usually as a result of ploughing, as the soil gradually moves downhill to pile up against a field boundary. They have caused a lot of trouble in the past as it was not clear when they might have developed. In prehistoric and Roman fields, which tend to be square or rectangular in plan, there are often lynchets along the sides of those that are on slopes. Elsewhere there are strip lynchets on the sides of hills, which have now been shown to be strips of the medieval common field system developed on steep slopes; as a result, they can be seen as parts of the open fields surrounding many medieval settlements. Whether these lynchets were constructed deliberately or came about as a result of ploughing is still not certain.