This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Abroad from the KU office of International Programs.
Brits might be lamenting the heatwave, but the freak conditions have made this summer one of the best for what archeologists call “parch marks” – ghostly, pale outlines of vanished castles, settlements, and burial sites that materialize when the land dries out and grass and crops die off. Archeologists in light aircraft, residents with drones, and even people walking through their local parks have discovered Iron Age farms in South Wales, a Roman road near Basingstoke, burial mounds in Ireland, and the outline of Second World War bomb shelters on the lawns of Cambridge. The last time the parch marks were so good – and Britain was so hot – was the summer of 1976. It’s a race against the weather to record all these new sites, before the traditional rain washes away their traces away.
With thanks to Alison Watkins for this text, from the KU Office of International Programs, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.
