The village I live in is called a "nucleated settlement" with dwellings concentrated at one spot in the landscape and formerly surrounded by the Open Fields. The experts say that prior to this dwellings were dispersed over the landscape. So, when did nucleation begin? Also, there are signs that the village layout was replanned at some time in the past to give it a more regular appearance. When did this happen? I started to dig in the back garden in order to answer these questions ...
... and I have decided that answering these questions is more important, at the moment, than finding the end or the continuation of the Iron Age ditch. Finding pottery (or anything else) provides a chance of obtaining dating evidence for continuous habitation on this plot of land. That could help with the nucleation question if not the one of replanning.
After I've documented the current dig and packaged the finds so that I can obtain expert advice on type and date, I plan to open a test pit at the bottom end of the garden in order to explore something completely different!
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