Dry weather makes 2010 ‘vintage year for archaeology’ says
English Heritage Britain’s dry early summer has made 2010 a
“vintage year for archaeology” with crop marks revealing several
hundred new sites, according to English Heritage. The hot, dry
conditions in May and June allowed aerial researchers to
identify ancient sites visible through the appearance of crop
marks in one of the busiest years for such finds since the long,
hot summer of 1976. A Roman camp near Bradford Abbas, Dorset,
was revealed in June after three sides became visible in rain-
parched fields of barley. The lightly built defensive enclosure
would have provided basic protection for Roman soldiers while on
manoeuvres in the first century AD and is one of only four
discovered in the south west of England. Crop marks are produced
when barley or wheat growing over buried features develop at a
different rate from those growing next to them because
differences in the depth of soil and the availability of
nutrients. English Heritage said ”full ad