Can Top Soil Finds Tell A Usefull Hiistorical Story?

[Spooyt Vane]

Some Arkies would have us believe that finds out of context in ploughed soil are of no use and alot of that unseived  soil is thrown on the spoil heaps...I have had a coastal farm in the south of the island for the last 37yrs and it still produces interesting artefacts from all periods including one field that has produced manyt vikling arefacts from the top soil...It is heavy minerslisedf and a beggar to work but it produced artefact  from expanding viking world.....Arabic Dirahams,Byzantine vessel; in many piecxes ,Iriish pins,Norwegian gaming  pieces ,Nortthumbrian strap ends and pins ,Part of hScottish brooch....We believe that the site started in Early Christian Period and ended in 1330S with the treaty of Perth with English gaining control of the Isle of Man....All finds from this site have been loggged with the local museum and a interesting Geo Phyiscal Survey has been done ...My arguement if a excavation ihad been carried out on ths site ,would they find the arefacts that show this settlement traded far and wide at its height..?..Without the hard work of local detectorist to find the site ,the artefacts would be rottting in the ground....

[Chef Geoff]

Of course they can As they are still in geographical context if not chronological.
But first you have to get rid of images of Time Team, archaeological surveys and rescue archaeology etc, on a properly planned dig only the thinnest layer of soil is discarded with techniques from sieving to floatation being used to find items down to the size of pollen.
Individually topsoil finds don't in themselves tell us anything other than they have been lost or discarded, one Roman coin for instance only proves it's existence and could equally have got there via a childs coin collection 20 years ago as it could from a passing Romano-Brit 2000 years ago but as your example shows an accumulation does add massive weight to a sites heritage.
One thing though, the Vikings as we all know were great seafarers and the existence of Persian, Arabic, Byzantine and even Russian coins in viking hoards is not uncommon and so the coins alone doesn't prove trade with these far flung places, only the item that these coins bought would prove that

[Spooyt Vane]

Hens teeth i mighht suggest for the arteffacts of this site.........unccmmon lol......

[Chef Geoff]

"Not uncommon" yes when in relation to the contents of Viking hoards and therefore shows a certain availability of these coins in a Norse context. But Viking hoards in themselves are like hens teeth.

[Spooyt Vane]

"Not uncommon" yes when in relation to the contents of Viking hoards and therefore shows a certain availability of these coins in a Norse context. But Viking hoards in themselves are like hens teeth.
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At least twenty viiking hoards ffound here,probably a similar number of pagan boat burials and of them 3/4 excavated,,30 + viking periiod coastal forts and 100+ inscribed viking crosses....But if this site turns out to be a Viking pagan period trading or market centre at the earliest settlement of Norwegians in the Isle of Man by one expert who looked at the material....Well unique i would say for here and you only needd to look at Dublin and York to understand its importance on a smaller scale ..