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Making time work: sampling floodplain artefact frequencies and populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2015

Christopher Evans ,
Jonathan Tabor  and
Marc Vander Linden
Christopher Evans
Affiliation:
Cambridge Archaeological Unit, Department of Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
Jonathan Tabor
Affiliation:
Cambridge Archaeological Unit, Department of Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, UK
Marc Vander Linden
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, UK
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Abstract

The expansion of large-scale excavation in Britain and parts of Continental Europe, funded by major development projects, has generated extensive new datasets. But what might we be losing when surfaces are routinely stripped by machines? Investigation by hand of ploughsoils and buried soils in the Fenlands of eastern England reveals high densities of artefacts and features that would often be destroyed or overlooked. These investigations throw new light on the concept of site sequences where features cut into underlying ground may give only a limited and misleading indication of the pattern and timing of prehistoric occupation. The consequential loss of data has a particular impact on estimates of settlement density and population numbers, which may have been much higher than many current estimates envisage.

Keywords

eastern Englandprehistorysamplingartefact frequencysettlement density

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Method
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Antiquity , Volume 88 , Issue 339 , March 2014 , pp. 241 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2014

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