Afternoon, chums!

In North Somerset, we are still at the stage of collecting the basic data for geoarchaeology. The several regions of low-lying alluvial / peat geologies are quite varied: without going into detail, much recorded on geological maps is inaccurate (not really surprising given their published scale), and we are faced with varying numbers of bands of peat buried at various depths. Our response has been to condition the deposition of geotechnical trial pits and boreholes from any developments in the various parts of the Northmarsh. Some major undertakings (such as the Hinkley C connection project) are also producing a lot of material. This was why I enquired a few weeks ago about methods and software people were already using. There are also several sources of historic information, which while it is not to modern standards, is often better than nothing. I’m thinking my first stage is to plot the sites of such interventions, and hotlink them to the source material. But I’m going to think this through thoroughly first.

Vince

Hi Meredith,

We have plenty of blanket peat here in the Dales – in the order of hundreds of km2 , we don’t record it into the HER, although do record features such as peat cuttings, and where we find out about them – things from within the peat e.g. evidence of palaeoforests, and including a couple of antiquarian references to bog bodies.  A regional moorland project which finished a couple of years back collated all of the published info on pollen diagrams and one item on my task list is to make sure we have events/sources for all of these.

I’m not sure what the benefit of just identifying peat (for us) in the HER would be when there’s so much of it.  I guess there might be more benefit in identifying those locations that will have particularly complete palaeoenvironmental sequences – raised mires etc.  But there is an interesting question in that most of the environmental assessment of peat (here), has focussed on obtaining information from the most complete sequences, rather than proximity to particular archaeological landscapes.

For the last five years or so, there have been numerous moorland restoration projects on the higher ground - and we try to ensure these are informed by arch survey work – often including some kind of rapid assessment of the peat – recording of grenzhorizonts – tree remains etc – in HER terms it all goes in as events and sources..

All the best,

Miles

Happy Friday! 

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