Typically rainy Scotland is in the middle of an unusually dry summer — and local archaeologists are taking advantage of it . As theBBCreports , the drouth has revealed ancient site , including Roman inner circle and Iron Age graves , that have been enshroud by farm soil for years .
Historic Environment Scotlandhas been conducting ethereal surveys of the country ’s landscape painting since the 1930s , but it ’s in season like this , when the crop draw back during wry weather , that the buried remains of ancient anatomical structure are easiest to blemish . precondition this summertime have been the ripe since 1976 for documenting archeological web site from the sky .
The crescent - influence craw sign in the photo above indicates a souterrain , or undercover passageway , that was built in the Scottish Borders during the Iron Age . The surveyor also find remains of a popish temporary camp , marked by straight line in the landscape , build in modernistic - 24-hour interval Lyne — an area in the south of Edinburgh already known to have housed a complex of Romanic camps and forts .
In the image below you ’ll see four lowly ditch — three circles and one square — that were likely used as sepulture sites during the Iron Age . When crops are plant over an ancient ditch , they have more piddle and nutrients to flow on , which helps them grow taller and greener . Such crops are specially visible during a drought when the ring vegetation is sparse and brownish .
Historic Environment Scotland has a team of aerial surveyors trained to spot the clue : To appointment , they ’ve key more than 9000 archaeological sites from the atmosphere . HSE plans to continue scoping out new areas of interest as long as the dry tour lasts .
It ’s not just in Scotland that long - blot out closure are add up to visible light : similar aerial surveys in Wales arefinding themtoo .
[ h / tBBC ]
