8
upon the type of site, you need to look for signs on the property that can show you where people would have been, or worked. An old house site / foundation which are By: Peter Gill probably the easiest sites to detect, have many spots where activity and therefore finds You have spent a lot of time talking to people would be found. asking them where good sites are for detectUsing your eyes, check out where the house ing. Maybe scanning the area using Google doors and windows would have been these Earth ™ and you have now found a site that are the top spots. Next would be the front looks promising. You have been reading and back pathways, from the street to the newspapers, or looking at photographs of front door, and from the back door to the promising sites, and cannot wait to get the wash line or out-buildings. Try drawing a plan metal detector out to start finding all the of where these structures would have been. treasure the site has to offer. You have done Next plot any out-buildings onto your plan, the research and now want the rewards of the followed by any dump sites that could have hard work of finding the sites. been at the site. Mark out any funny looking
Looking at Sites
You have arrived at the site and now where do you start? Where you start, and the way you detect the site is just as important as the actual detecting.
depressions that lay in the ground indicating that something like pit toilets or wells were situated.
Are there any trees in the yard that would The first thing to do is to “Look”. Depending have been there during the time of occupa-
tion of the house, mark these on the plan also. Look for cut off pipes in the ground indicating wash lines or children’s play equipment and mark these on the plan. If you have used your eyes and drawn out your plan of the site, by now you will know the best parts of the site, and where to start detecting. If the site is a field or a hill, again draw a plan and start walking around looking for places where people would have been. Look for items in fields like pottery or bricks showing where building once stood. Look for trees that you can see are not natural, maybe property boundary trees that the people planted. Are there flowers growing that should not be there? This could indicate old flower beds. Are there any rocks on the hill that have been moved to make space, or for marking out areas of interest? If you look at the photo above, you will see (Continued on page 9)