England’s Bone-Dry Soil Is Revealing Patterns of Ancient Buried Ruins

Artnet: Javier Pes

During Britain’s long, hot summer, archaeologists have been making hay, discovering scores of ancient sites from the air that have been revealed by the record-setting heatwave. Stone Age monuments, Iron Age settlements, a Roman farm, and the foundations of an Elizabethan hall are among the sites spotted from the air. Cropmarks, the telltale signs of buried structures, are more obvious when the soil is very dry.

Among the finds are two Neolithic monuments near Milton Keynes in the Midlands of England. The heatwave revealed the evidence of ancient processional routes, some of the UK’s oldest types of monuments, typically dating back more than 5,000 years ago. There are only around 100 such monuments known in England. …Read More

Pictured: Iron Age Round, St Ive, Cornwall | Damian Grady. Copyright Historic England.