Abstract

Ploughzone (also plowzone/plow zone in North American usage) refers to the portion of a site disturbed by post-occupation ploughing or other agricultural activity (such as cattle grazing). In the past, and in some rare cases also in the present, archaeologists often treated the agriculture-related surface sediments of a site as “disturbed,” thereby either discarding or not analyzing in any meaningful way those surface contexts. Over the last 30 to 40 years, however, a broad literature on the importance of ploughzone archaeology has emerged, conclusively demonstrating the research value of these upper, disturbed stratigraphic levels.