Project Consultant : Christine Shaw
Sherd Movement in the Plough Zone : 1
This paper formed another of the cornerstones of Peter Reynolds' research at Butser Ancient Farm. It covers all the early studies on the presence of Bronze Age sherds at Camel Down and at Manor Farm, Chalton, Hampshire UK. It records the breakage of naturally occuring sherds under modern ploughing regimes. It then goes on to describe the thinking behind the attempts to simulate such sherds, so that they could be monitored for their movement under different ploughing regimes.
This led to ten years of studies on the movement of artificial sherds, when ploughed with ards, in two different fields at the BAF Research Site on Little Butser. The artificial sherds were moulded from resin with small magnets embedded within.
A follow-up to this work was undertaken, using artificial sherds at Manor Farm, subject to modern ploughing. These studies were still under way at the time of Peter's death. The studies were due to be extended but fell by the wayside. The early results from Manor Farm are more fully dealt with separately.
This paper here was published in English in "Festschrift zum 100 jaehrigen Jubilaeum der Abteilung Vorgeschichte der Naturhistorischen Gesellschaft Nuernberg e.V. pp 315-340 in 1982". The title was "The Ploughzone". This paper [in Adobe format] is one of the more detailed presentations of the work undertaken on this topic at Butser Ancient Farm.
Created 01 September 2010 - Updated 01 September 2010