Experiments on digging pits in pit zone alignments

Iron Age pit zone alignments are a relatively newly recognized type of system and research has focused primarily on why the pits were dug. There are numerous proposals, although the general perception of them as a kind of defence system has not changed since it was put forward by Eriksen and Rindel in 2001. But an experimental archaeological approach is, as of yet, untested, and by asking the ‘how’ before the ‘why’ the enigmatic tracts of thousands of pit-holes can be analysed from a new angle. Thus, in this article, the focus moves from the collective pit zone alignments to each individual pit-hole and the process involved in digging same. Systematic studies of spades, attempts to reconstruct double-spades, experiments digging pit-holes and the construction and use of parts of pit zone alignments helps make it probable that the inhabitants of a village from the pre-Roman Iron Age would have been able to dig a stretch of 100 metres by 4 metres of a pit zone alignment, broadly equivalent to seven holes, in 1 day. The experiments also made it clear that the pit zone alignment did not constitute an obstacle to sheep or cattle, and that they only, under exceptional circumstances, were an obstacle to people. But most significant was the insight gained into the process of digging the holes in terms of the organization of work, which undoubtedly lay behind the excavation work