Internet Archaeology 27

Reports on small-scale excavation undertaken to clarify the nature of features identified by remote sensing, and to assess the condition of the archaeology and the risks posed to it by agriculture. Also discusses the use of hand-held digital recording equipment on the project. PP-B

This paper results from three small excavations undertaken when much of the agricultural land in large parts of England was inaccessible for fieldwork owing to restrictions related to foot and mouth disease. The objectives of the DigIt project were twofold - to examine groups of features identified through remote sensing, in this case primarily geomagnetic survey and air photography, and to examine through experimentation a range of digital recording techniques applied in archaeological excavation.The excavation objectives were in part unusual as they were focussed not only on excavating large areas with many features but also on trying to assess the condition of the archaeological deposits, which had formerly been protected by blown sand. Recent ploughing was shown to be aggressively truncating the buried deposits in one area, just starting to erode them in another, but causing minimal impact in the third. The opportunity to examine the blown sand itself in minute detail revealed a stratigraphic and chronological sequence which was only visible in the three dimensional distribution of tiny fragments of material. The excavation assessment is supported by specialist assessments of the environmental evidence and the Anglo-Saxon ceramics. The excavation confirmed the interpretation of some magnetic anomalies as Grubenhäuser, which were directly comparable with those excavated at West Heslerton 2.5km to the west; however, it failed to conclusively resolve the nature and purpose of the hundreds of small ring ditches termed 'barrowlets', revealed along 8km of geophysical survey, although evidence hints at their function as cremation burial sites. It also confirmed the presence of preserved and intact surface deposits associated with a segment of Iron Age and Roman 'ladder settlement' where they had been sealed by blown sands.The Landscape Research Centre (LRC) had been pioneering the use of hand-held computers and other tools within a primarily digital recording system for more than 15 years and this project provided an opportunity, through a collaboration with the English Heritage Centre for Field Archaeology, to test a full range of digital recording techniques employing more up to date technology than had been used in the past. If this experiment deploying different technologies was to be of any value then it was important that they were tested in a normal environment and thus this article combines both the excavation assessment report and discussion of the digital recording approaches and, where these were fit for purpose, uses them to support the needs of archaeological documentation and excavation objectives. The context of the work within the LRC's established methods and philosophy with regard to excavation recording is discussed and reviewed with reference to changes in the available technology.

This article presents the results of archaeological, (ethno-)historic, and ethnographic research in the Shala River valley of northern Albania. We argue that through time and in different periods of occupation - Middle Palaeolithic, Iron Age, Late Medieval, and Modern - the valley's residents have met similar challenges of extreme geography and a harsh environment differently, in particular by interacting in different ways and at different levels of intensity with the outside world. These shifts caused changes in population, settlement, and socio-political organisation that are reflected strongly in the local landscape and built environment. Population, settlement, and socio-political organisation did not hold constant, but were influenced by external forces, despite the seeming isolation of the valley and its occupants.

This article aims to reconstruct agrarian land use for a rural community in the Roman frontier zone in the Netherlands. The Dutch River Area was characterised by a dynamic landscape. Rivers regularly flooded the surrounding low-lying land. Only the higher streamridges provided suitable places for habitation and arable agriculture. The limitations of the landscape dictated to a large extent both the types and quantities of crops and animals that could be produced.An interactive map of the micro-region of Tiel-Passewaaij shows how the land was used for agrarian production and sourced for other products. These symbols link to short texts that discuss the archaeological evidence for aspects such as growing cereals, raising livestock and the exploitation of wood and wild animals. The complex and dynamic geological situation of the Dutch River Area is also explained, and the consequences for agriculture discussed.We address three main research questions. How were the different elements of the riverine landscape used by rural inhabitants? How were arable agriculture and animal husbandry organised spatially, both within the settlement and in its immediate surroundings? Which natural resources were used and managed? Our research is mainly based on one large and well-excavated settlement complex (Tiel-Passewaaij), but we will use complementary data from several other settlements in the region.Our results show that the river landscape offered plenty of opportunities for agriculture. The interaction between arable and pastoral farming was essential, with livestock providing manure and agricultural labour, and the fields offering fodder and additional grazing (after harvest or during fallow years). The location of large enclosure ditches suggest that even minor differences in height, caused by older streamridges, may have made arable farming possible in the flood basin.