Shadow marks are a form of archaeological feature visible from the air. Unlike cropmarks, frost marks and soil marks they require upstanding features to work and are therefore more commonly seen in the context of extant sites rather than previously undiscovered buried ones.
They are caused by the differences in height on the ground produced by archaeological remains. In the case of ancient, eroded earthworks these differences are often small and they are most apparent when viewed from the air, when the sun is low in the sky. This causes long shadows to be cast by the higher features, which are illuminated from one side by the sun, with dark shadows marking hollows and depressions.
Shadow marks are best viewed obliquely rather than from directly above in order to emphasise the effect of the shadows.
Famous quotes containing the words shadow and/or marks:
“Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world—in order to set up a shadow world of “meanings.””
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean,—roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin,—his control
Stops with the shore;”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)