Interpretation and significance of urban deposits

In many UK cities, the late Roman to medieval periods are an archaeological blank, so that pedological and micromorphological techniques of study become crucial. Investigation of anthropogenic deposits in London and Exeter showed that previous interpretations of these flood loams or so-called Dark Earth deposits are inadequate. Optical microscopy of undisturbed soil samples, plus other archaeological information, showed that at Exeter there were phases of local soil dumping from, for example, military ditch digging in London the deposits are tentatively interpreted as accumulations of partly or fully reworked materials derived from the collapse of flimsy buildings, hence urban activity may have been grossly underestimated.