Drought 2017, aerial photos and archaeological finds

onrail

I was messing about with Google earth recently and noted an update to some of their aerial photographs which seems to date from the summer 2017 'drought'.

It reminded me of a Guardian article I read a while back talking about the role of drought/soil moisture in identifying evidence of ancient settlements.

I've had a (quick and insanely uneducated) look through an example from the Kilmuckridge/Blackwater area of Wexford without much joy. One strange circular pattern is attached, but it's very much guesswork.

Are the aerials likely to throw up anything new? Can anyone else see much?

cfuserkildare

Well I managed to find 4 as a result of the hot dry weather.

slowburner

onrail wrote: »

I was messing about with Google earth recently and noted an update to some of their aerial photographs which seems to date from the summer 2017 'drought'.

It reminded me of a Guardian article I read a while back talking about the role of drought/soil moisture in identifying evidence of ancient settlements.

I've had a (quick and insanely uneducated) look through an example from the Kilmuckridge/Blackwater area of Wexford without much joy. One strange circular pattern is attached, but it's very much guesswork.

Are the aerials likely to throw up anything new? Can anyone else see much?

Definitely an enclosure.
Have you checked it on the Sites and Monuments Record?

slowburner

This crop mark is not recorded. The Archaeological Survey of Ireland (NMS) should be notified.

The coordinates for the site are 712353, 637270. This is the preferred coordinate system used by the National Monuments Service (Irish Transverse Mercator).
The Google Earth coordinates are: 52.475182º N, -6.346344º E.

There is a possibility that there is a second enclosure attached to the north.

onrail

Excellent thanks!

Likely Norman? There are a couple of established Norman sites in the area. It's also quite close to the site where a neighbour recently found a coin that seemed to have Roman markings, so it's definitely an area with a few stories to tell. Whether the coin was genuine, and how it got there is another debate.

Interesting stuff!

slowburner

onrail wrote: »

Excellent thanks!

Likely Norman? There are a couple of established Norman sites in the area. It's also quite close to the site where a neighbour recently found a coin that seemed to have Roman markings, so it's definitely an area with a few stories to tell. Whether the coin was genuine, and how it got there is another debate.

Interesting stuff!

Likely much earlier than Norman.

onrail

Cool. Sure I'll fire an email off to the Archaeology Service and see what comes of it!

John Hutton

Anthony Murphy has a new book out now, Dronehenge about his discoveries in the Boyne Valley. I enjoyed it, goes into a lot of detail about the discovery, reporting it, using drones and Google Earth to find monuments, explains how and why cropmarks appear etc and all in layman's terms.

I really enjoyed it, it's very light on the 'mythology' aspects which dominate his previous books so I enjoyed it far more than his previous ones. Might be of interest to OP!

Am I right in saying that I can only change what google earth sat images I am using on the desktop version and not on my tablet?