 | This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. (January 2014) |
In archaeology, a ring ditch is a trench of circular or penannular plan, cut into bedrock. They are usually identified through aerial photography either as soil marks or cropmarks. When excavated, ring ditches are usually found to be the ploughed‐out remains of a round barrow where the barrow mound has completely disappeared, leaving only the infilled former quarry ditch.[1] Both Neolithic and Bronze Age ring ditches have been discovered.
The term is most often used as a generic description in cases where there is no clear evidence for the function of the site: for instance where it has been ploughed flat and is known only as a cropmark or a geophysical anomaly. The two most frequent monument types represented by ring ditches are roundhouses (where the 'ditch' is actually a foundation slot or eaves drip gully) and round barrows. The term is not normally used for larger features than these. Larger features would instead be described as 'circular enclosures'.
Also related to ring ditches, is the causewayed ring ditch, which is a roughly circular ditch with a central area and multiple causeways which cross it. The causewayed ring ditch is a subcategory of the ring ditch.