Till - Tweed Catchment Aggregates and Archaeology project
Clive Waddington, David Passmore, 2010. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000129. How to cite using this DOI
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This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
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Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 976
- ALSF Project Number: 3325
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1000129
- How to cite using this DOI
Overview
The study area encompasses the valley areas of the lower Tweed from Coldstream to Berwick, and the tributary valley of the Till from its confluence with the Tweed at Tilmouth upstream from Powburn. This area has become increasingly well known for its wealth of archaeological reamins dating from the Mesolithic through to the Medieval period with many of these sites considered to be of national importance, and being scheduled accordingly. The valley floor areas of the Till and Tweed form the largest sand and gravel deposits in north-east England and it is these free-draining and fertile surfaces, situated above the flood plains of the rivers, that contain the bulk of the archaeological sites and most of the ancient monuments.
The Till-Tweed project included three major fieldwork elements: Geomorphological mapping and palaeoenvironmental sampling, aerial photograph transcription, and fieldwalking. The geomorphological mapping has produced a high-resolution map of the study area based on LiDAR data, ground truthing and aerial assessment. The aerial photograph work was undertaken to the same standards as English Heritage's 'National Mapping Programme' resulting in the enhancement of records for 218 sites and the recording of 254 new sites (representing a 117% increase in the number of recorded sites). The fieldwalking extended over an area of 391 hectares at the 40% sampling interval (5m spacing), and in the case of two fields at 100% (2m spacing). A total of 2142 Stone-Age artefacts were recovered, together with an additional 48 from a single test-pit, 30 fragments of pottery, once coin and a button. Together these datasets provide very detailed information that has produced a wealth of raw results.
The digital archive
The project archive (available from the Downloads page), consists of the following elements:
- Fieldwalking:
- Report and summmary
- Spreadsheet of finds
- Digital photographs of lithic artefacts
- Integrated GIS, comprising:
- Original user guide
- Results of fieldwalking and test-pitting
- Geomorphological mapping
- NMP data (imported into GIS from CAD files)
- Report and images from excavation at Norham
