u/DemetaeMerc

I will probably use this for all of my searching now. Ive gone back over known finds and locations and this layer seems to be the best all around for spotting and quickly fine tuning for detail. Im now certain on a few suspected sites so will be sending off to the HER. And ive easily spotted new sites too.

The pictures are of a couple of (im guessing) Iron Age enclosures i spotted with the new layer when just testing it out. I doubt i would have noticed them with a normal LiDAR DTM hill shade.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=6.8&lat=53.20099&lon=-2.07275&layers=6&b=vat&o=0

"We have added a new Combined Visualisation for Archaeological Topography (CVAT) LiDAR layer covering England and Wales. CVAT is particularly useful for identifying subtle earthworks and other features of different sizes, shapes and orientations. It combines four different LiDAR visualisation techniques and works well across many landscape types, helping to pick out more subtle features in relatively level areas, while also providing useful detail across steeper ground. A key new feature is a set of contrast controls which enable the layer display to be 'tuned' to best suit a particular area of study. The new layer provides new ways of exploring archaeological features in England and Wales, and can be viewed alongside historic maps, modern satellite imagery and other LiDAR visualisations."

Only for England and Wales at the moment. Hopefully more of the UK will follow.

This has caught my eye and i cant tell if im really reaching after looking for too long, or if theirs something 100% there.

Keep in mind the LiDAR render has me really working QGIS to get it to highlight what my mind is already projecting. Also the linear lines across fields i see in many places, it doesnt seem to always be evidence of something man made.

Im not going to add any historical context deliberately to get your unbiased opinions.

I will say is the this looks like some kind of enclosure/platform to me. The location is a river valley with lots of evidence of changes to the watercourse. And im sure the hedge to the southern end used to be a river bank that has changed its course sometime in the past (you can see the current river route in the LiDAR as a smooth "ribbon" effect. I think the rounded hedge line below the "enclosure" used to be the meander of the old course).

The last pic is North to South as best lighting/angle, so its flipped with the hedge at top being the historic riverbank. Sorry if it adds confusion!

Anyone who saw that episode should recognise this. The old ramparts we're no match for the sheep.

>LiDAR – Knoll Bury - Diddly Squat Farm - Oxfordshire

>Location: SP316229

>DTM- (Digital Terrain Model, i.e. No buildings or foliage)

>PRN: unknown

>After watching S5 of Clarkson’s Farm where he talks, briefly about the ‘Neolithic fort’ on his farm, I thought I’d have a look on LiDAR to see if the footage on the show correlated with the data, and it does.

>As the Oxfordshire - Historic Environment Records (HER) doesn’t have an online map portal listing historical sites, I managed to dig-out some more information on ‘Clarkson’s Fort’ (as it should be known : )

>‘Knoll Bury; a sub-rectangular earthwork enclosure north-west of Millend, was so called by 1767, and encloses an area roughly 150 m. by 100 m. Its single limestone rubble and earthen rampart standing up to 4m high with a south-east entrance and a filled-in outer ditch. Although often described as an Iron-Age hillfort, a geophysical survey of its interior suggested the presence of at least one roundhouse and associated storage pits, implying that the enclosure may have surrounded a high-status Iron-Age farmstead. A slightly smaller rectangular ditched enclosure has been identified from aerial photographs on Bury Hill, where surface pottery suggests the presence of a Romano-British farmstead, while a cropmark enclosure on Barley Hill (indicated) has produced Roman pottery and tile. Further Roman activity is suggested by surface finds of coins and pottery elsewhere in the parish’. –

>(VCH Oxfordshire XX11. Chadlington Landscape by Simon Draper)

>Clarkson’s Farm has therefore been farmed for around two and a half thousand years, at least.

>Iron Age – Circa 800 BCE - 43 CE

>Romans – Circa 44 CE - 440 CE

>Post-Roman evidence sporadic – 440 CE to 2026 CE

>Iron Age tribal association (conjecture based on location): Dobunni or Atrebates

>Maps from Google.

>Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0

https://www.instagram.com/mrtedgfx/

Loads of great renders on their instagram!

https://ukhillfortlidar.myportfolio.com/hillfort-discoveries

Not a big description, but a very interesting cluster of Barrows in Carmarthenshire.

>Site visit by Ken Murphy confirmed my evaluation March 2024

Click the ">" or scroll right to reveal...

This one was recorded as an "Unknown Enclosure" after sending off. There is another enclosure that was already recorded approx 900m to the South West, i would say it has similarities (but not an expert) and that is recorded as:

>Prehistoric?;iron Age? Defended Enclosure?

So doesn't really help with dating this one...Iron age? Romano-British? Older? Newer even?

The best time to film and photograph these is always sunrise/sunset or they're basically invisible...and it makes for the most glorious shots.

https://ukhillfortlidar.myportfolio.com/hillfort-discoveries

>LiDAR – New discovery #2 in Tower Wood – Kent

>Location: 51°15’17”N 0°04’25”E DTM- (Digital Terrain Model, i.e. No buildings or foliage)

>Kent HER: TBA

>Directly south of the village of Westerham within Squerryes Park lies a nice bivallate contour hillfort of the same name.

>On the same LiDAR tile, I noticed a possible multivallate IA site with an extensive defensive outwork NE of Squerryes Park hidden within Tower Wood. This went off to KENT HER for their evaluation a few weeks ago.

>KENT HER has given it the nod and as awaiting additional evaluation from their in-house archaeologists:

>‘Thank you very much for spotting this and alerting us. I have had a look, and we do not have a record for these earthworks, so we will create one as soon as we can. I will check with my colleagues to see whether anyone has any comments to add to your interpretation and will let you know if they do. ‘ – Dr Rose Broadley, KENT HER

>Many thanks to u/anders.archaeology for mentioning it to KENT HER after my previous post!

>This is exactly what LiDAR based archaeology is all about and what keeps me investigating.

>(Scheduled Monument-TBA)

This one is only about a kilometer "up the road" from my last post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiDARdiscoveryUK/comments/1sal6ts/a_very_cool_bivallate_enclosure_spotted_west_wales/

It is just about visible on the ground if you're looking out for it, and from the air at the right angles. Its a decent size at roughly 60x60m , a lose square shape with an elongated Southern corner.

Not really spotted one with that corner before.

The messy "line" you see going through the field from top to bottom is the old edge of the woodland you can see in the drone shots. The treeline must have been cut further back at some point, presumably extend the field as far as it could go before it becomes a steep slope.

There's a whole lot going on in the fields North of it too, not sure what has caused that. It just grazing fields in the satellite, nothing else there. Possibly old field boundaries and pens.

Im not sure what link it has, if any to the site i have previously posted.

This is growing a lot faster then i expected, so thank you to all who have joined up!

I still see a few commenters asking how to get the LiDAR terrain maps. So i also wanted to make a post just to remind everyone there is a guide on how to access LiDAR Terrain Maps (and other very useful things like historic maps, satellite images etc).

Its still admittedly a work in progress but it will improve will time:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiDARdiscoveryUK/comments/1r5psh6/an_easy_guide_to_lidar_maps_where_to_find_them/

If you just want to jump straight in TDLR and start searching, then just click the link below for a excellent (UK) LiDAR terrain map:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=6.9&lat=53.13753&lon=-0.06542&layers=GoogleSatHyb&right=LIDAR_DTM_1m

You should be able to zoom straight in and start searching.