How come archaeological finds are so far down? Roman ruins are often under 6ft of earth - why?

Question

You see Time Team and they're working in deep pits to excavate Roman ruins and such like. A few years ago I was in Turkey and saw mosaics in fields, just a few inches under the surface (being trampled on by sheep, I should add). So where did all this extra earth come from that covers British archaeology but which apparently doesn't apply in Turkey?

Answer 1

Over time, debris collects in the ruins- leaves, down trees, ect. They decompose, forming dirt, and the cycle continues. Plus, wind and water can move dirt into an area. So over an unknown peroid of years, alot of dirt accumulates!

Answer 2

This is totally about the situation of the site. Usually archaeological sites are being buried with the later settlements. Usually these sites are founded in strategically good places, then people choose to settle down there many times through the history.

Burying is also a ritual for some societies. For example, some prehistoric people buried their houses and temples before they leave the settlement. This could be a kind of religious activity.

For Turkey, as an archaeologist living in Turkey, I would say, this is also same in Turkey too. As far as I understand you have seen one example about the depth of mosaics in Turkey. But there are many more sites which are deep under the soil too. This is totally according to the situation of the site again. If people choose to live there very long time, the depth of the soil increases. If people leaved and did not settle there again, the depth of the soil decreases.

Answer 3

It only seems that way. It all depends on the site; the Sphinx in Egypt was covered in sand when Napoleon 'Visited'.
It also depends on the local climate conditions too, those mosaics in Turkey would not have survived in the UK at that depth. If you look at Sacra Brae then that was uncovered by a storm and is now on the surface.

Answer 4

It all depends on the site.
Leaves are deposited on the ground every autumn, soil gets blown onto the site from elsewhere or rain washes material down from higher ground. It all adds up.
By the way, nothing sensible seems to apply in Turkey.

Answer 5

It's a balance between erosion and deposition. Some sites have had a build up of soil over centuries and others have had soil washed away. The deeper sites are, the better preserved they usually are, especially in a climate like England's.

Answer 6

They call it progress. As new things get built, things are piled on to the land, and even crops drop their remains and over centurys the ground level is built up.

If you look at the grand canyon, it is hard to imagine, that it started just like some normal river , and was carved out of the land due to erosion and volcanic activity.

Answer 7

Cities build up over rubble for centuries and also they used discarded things as land fill under buildings, etc. All the ancient artifacts are buried.

Time erodes land and covers the artifacts. People build on top of them or move dirt and debris over them; the become hidden under refuse and soil or sand

Answer 8

Typically settlements are built in good places with water protection etc. If a town is in a good place and gets destroyed, someone might choose to build there again because it is a good place. If this happens over and over again, the original settlement gets deeper and deeper

Answer 9

When you excavate you have to dump the spoils and it usually ends up on top of an undiscovered site.

Answer 10

they are deep down because of wind and rain and dust as the centerys pass , covers them in layers and layers of soil, and it gets deeper with time, in the middle east it is much drier and there is less rain , when the wind blows it very often uncovers the dry soil