A presentation by Dr. Keith Wilkinson at the DART community workshop on the 27th April 2011 on the current field methodology

1. DART is a Science and Heritage project funded by the AHRC and EPSRC DART methodology: from field to laboratory and monitoring Keith Wilkinson

3. Initial geophysical and borehole surveys (January-March 2011)

4. Excavation, sampling and monitoring station installation at Harnhill (April 2011)

5. Proposed investigation strategy of Diddington (May 2011)

6. Geoarchaeological/geotechnical analyses planned for monolith samples (June 2011 +)

7. Data to be collected by monitoring equipment

8. Future geophysical surveys

9. Vegetation and spectro-radiometer surveys

11. The sites: Harnhill (Quarry Field), Cirencester Fluxgate gradiometer survey carried out of Quarry Field, Harnhill in January 2011

12. The sites: Diddington, St Neots

13. Fieldwork at Harnhill (April 2011) Excavation of a boundary ditch at Cherry Copse Trenches manually excavated and recorded prior to sampling and probe installation

14. Fieldwork at Harnhill Not everything went as planned! Pipes in ditch at Quarry Field ….. but samples were collected and probes installed at both Quarry Field and Cherry Copse

15. Fieldwork at Harnhill (installation of monitoring equipment) Inserting a probe into the (non-archaeological) part of the section in Quarry Field The monitoring equipment under construction

16. Planned excavation and probe installation strategyfor Diddington Plan view Machine excavated trench Ditch Cross section view Present soil c. 0.30m ‘Geology’ ‘Geology’ Ditch fill Step 1. Trench surveyed in and present soil removed by machine to the level of the underlying geology / top of the uppermost ditch fill. Artefacts are recovered.

17. Strategyfor Diddington Plan view Cores inside ditch Machine excavated trench Cores outside ditch Ditch Hand excavate ditch fills Cross section view c. 1.00m Present soil c. 0.30m ‘Geology’ ‘Geology’ Ditch fills Step 2. Ditch fills are removed separately by hand until the ‘geology’ is reached. Artefacts recovered from each ditch fill are kept separate. Total station/GPS measurements are taken on the surface of the ‘geology’ to produce a surface model. Cores collected.

18. Strategyfor Diddington Plan view Machine excavated trench Ditch Cross section view c. 1.00m Present soil c. 0.30m 1.2m Ditch fills ‘Geology’ Step 3. Machine excavate trench to 1.2m depth across its entire area.

19. Strategyfor Diddington Plan view Hand and machine excavated trench Ditch Cross section view Present soil 1.2m ‘Geology’ Monolith samples Step 4. Draw and photograph both long sections. Collect geoarchaeological and geotechnical samples. Mark sample locations on section drawing and photograph in situ.

20. Strategyfor Diddington Plan view Machine excavated trench Ditch Cross section view Present soil 1.2m Data logger, batteries etc. ‘Geology’ Sensors Step 5. Install monitoring equipment (on opposite long section from the monolith samples) Step 6. Machine backfill trench and compact

22. Moisture content measurement

23. Bulk density measurement

24. Atterberg limit tests

25. Grain size measurements

26. Organic carbon measurements

29. Magnetometry

30. Resistivity

32. Laboratory spectro-radiometry of vegetation samples (3/metre of transect)

33. Leaf litter-soil ratio

34. Surface moisture

35. Vegetation coverage (via vertical photographs obtained from pole-mounted cameras)

36. Chlorophyll content