Introduction
We were asked to evaluate the geoarchaeology of a site at Lyonshall, Herefordshire to help the excavating archaeologists, both in understanding the origins of the deposits and in assessing the archaeological potential of the site.
Background
The bedrock of the area was known to be upper Silurian, Raglan Mudstone Formation, covered by glacial till, we found the soils to be typical argillic brown earths. The site lies on a gentle north facing slope, near the base of a valley to the south of the Curl Brook. At the time of excavation the site was an area of farmland.
We evaluated the site from five bags of samples collected by the excavating archaeologists.
Findings
We found the samples to represent a variety of natural and archaeological contexts, which all share a fairly silty texture and mineralogy derived from the till parent material. There appeared to be no evidence of a significant contribution from colluvial sediments eroded from the hillside, and there was plenty of evidence that the soils had undergone mixing by bioturbation and other processes that can obscure the boundaries between fine archaeological stratigraphy.
Conclusions
From our investigations, we were able to tell the excavating archaeologists that due to the amount of disturbance by post-depositional processes, that any further analysis was unlikely to provide more information.