19th May 2008, 12:33 PM
Good post 1man.
The only thing that I would add is that in the UK, the ploughing can become the archaeology. Depending on the type of work that you're doing, recording the earthworks of Medieval and Post Medieval ploughing is now standard practice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_and_furrow
The relationships of other landscape features to the ridge and furrow can be key in relative dating: i.e. is this feature on top of or under the R&F? Unfortunately, most of the earthworks of the Medieval period have been ploughed out in the last 50 years. I suspect that you might find ridge and furrow in the US in places like NH and VT, where farms were abandoned as the west was opened up for settlement.
The only thing that I would add is that in the UK, the ploughing can become the archaeology. Depending on the type of work that you're doing, recording the earthworks of Medieval and Post Medieval ploughing is now standard practice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_and_furrow
The relationships of other landscape features to the ridge and furrow can be key in relative dating: i.e. is this feature on top of or under the R&F? Unfortunately, most of the earthworks of the Medieval period have been ploughed out in the last 50 years. I suspect that you might find ridge and furrow in the US in places like NH and VT, where farms were abandoned as the west was opened up for settlement.