How we investigated the site

Archaeological Discoveries

Downloads and Links

School Zone

Getting Involved

Back to the Lanton Quarry Homepage

 

Lanton Quarry

 

Sediment Coring

Sediment coring is a useful technique used by archaeologists to recover evidence for past vegetation and land use. Sediments can tell us a lot about a site without having to strip back the ploughsoil. A steel rod with a chamber, known as an auger, is driven into the ground and a column of the sediment removed for analysis.

A sediment core was taken at the south end of Lanton Quarry close to the River Glen. Once the core was extracted it was cleaned, photographed and the organic sediments analysed. Some material from the cores was also suitable for Radiocarbon Dating. The dates that were gained range from the Late Neolithic, around 2500 BC, and extend through to the Late Iron Age at around 200 BC.

For more information about the results of the Lanton sediment core see the Lanton Quarry Pollen Analysis Report.

 

  
A sediment core after extraction showing fine grained sediment to the right and coarse grained sediment to the left
  
A petrol-driven percussion corer is used to remove sediment for analysis