14th September 2013, 10:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 14th September 2013, 10:19 PM by John Walford.)
You should have a look at the 'Experimental Earthwork Project' report, if you haven't seen it before. In brief, banks and ditchs were created on Overton Down and at Wareham in the 1960s, and then regularly observed to see how they was eroding and filling in. The results up to 1992 were published as a CBA Research Report, which can be downloaded from the ADS website.
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/arch.../rr100.cfm
One limitation of the work is that it was done on chalk and gravel geologies (if I recall correctly), and so the results will be a bit different from what you would get if the ditch cut sand, or clay, or something else. But it is a good starting point for thinking about the sorts of processes that can go on.
http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/arch.../rr100.cfm
One limitation of the work is that it was done on chalk and gravel geologies (if I recall correctly), and so the results will be a bit different from what you would get if the ditch cut sand, or clay, or something else. But it is a good starting point for thinking about the sorts of processes that can go on.
"Hidden wisdom and buried treasure, what use is there in either?" (Ecclesiasticus ch20 v30)