by Matthew Law

Above: Transverse section through ancient lynchets, drawn by Matt Law, after Evans 1978: 121

Lynchets are the result of a series of processes occurring on field boundaries. They appear in Lowland Britain as grassed-over terraces on hillsides (Evans 1978: 121). They start when a wall or low bank is built to mark a field boundary. If the field is ploughed, the soil will be broken up and hillwash will be created. This will mean that soil builds up against the uphill side of the boundary creating a positive lynchet (Evans 1978: 121). At the same time, there may be erosion on the downhill side, which will create a negative lynchet. When the field falls out of use, this process of erosion and deposition will cease and the lynchet will become stabilised and grassed over (Evans 1978: 121). Positive lynchets may cover buried soils, especially under the walls (Evans 1978: 122), and in the case of a positive lynchet at Cadbury Castle in Somerset, an early positive lynchet underneath a later bank was sealed by a fossil turf (Barrett et al. 2000:  54). Particularly striking examples can be seen in the Test Valley close to the Danebury hillfort (Evans 2003: 67).

Evans (2003: 67) postulates that lynchets may in themselves be monuments, citing the example of huge parallel 'strip lynchets' constructed in the Middle Ages in many parts of England, which would have required huge amounts of effort to build, but only produce a minimal surface for cultivation.

References

Barrett, J.C., Alcock, L., and Bishop, M.J., 2000, Enclosing the Hill, in Barrett, J.C., Freeman, P.W.M., and Woodward, A., Cadbury Castle Somerset: The Later Prehistoric and Early Historic Archaeology (London: English Heritage)

Evans, J.G., 1978: An Introduction to Environmental Archaeology (London: Elek)

Evans, J.G., 2003: Environmental Archaeology and the Social Order (London: Routledge)

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