Evidence of Infrastructure ?

how much evidence would you need to verify that a site is was most likely a house or camp ? I've found buckets full of Medieval Pottery Shards across my field which is located near my house. I have also found loads of coins which have fell out of some farm workers pockets of the years. Two musket balls have popped up during one of my digs, they have a slight discolouring and are a sort of milky white colour. Also there is an old field entrance which is facing an old barn dated 1867. The entrance is no longer in use and is over grown but on either side of the entrance there is two pillars made out of brick and they both have a cement ball situated on top, the pillars are both in-line with the white barn door which is exactly opposite to it. What other evidence would i need to confirm that the filed was once a site of a house ?

Also why would musket balls be located in a field, most likely to do with a battle or something ???

Regards,

Jonathan

just about every field I have ever detected had at least 10 nor so musket balls in it, the older musket balls are bigger about the size of an oak 'ball' and rougher generally, your medieval pottery is probably 18th or 19th century(1700-1800)but they are still using the same types of pots now, the pottery you want to be looking for is yellow or light grey with lots of grit in the clay, or stone age pot shards which are very crude and tend to be thicker and crumbely. Jersey pottery is difficult to date as the same stuff was made for 600 years or so. Now Roman samien ware you can be sure of, as it is an orangey red and very finely made and hard to mistake it.
most every field has seen use for hundreds of years, over here, but there is very little evidence of anything over 300 years in 99% of them, unless you are very lucky.
good hunting
ken

The Medieval Pottery is dark and grey and has a lot of grit in. So i know for a fact that it's Medieval. I have a few odd bits of pot which are orange and are smooth but also contain grit in. I have found quiet a few handles and rims with the same patterns on. What date would the dark grey medieval pottery be ? Im thinking of building up a fact file about each field that i encounter and ask the farmer for any things that he has found or other people have found

light grey is older, the dark grey is probably the remains of water/cider jugs, and bowls they were used up to the 1930s I will post up some pics of pottery if I can find a good example, I had a good pic of the finds tray from mont Orgueil (gorey Castle)

ahh i see, i have quiet a lot of pottery rims that are quiet dark and are probably bowls and a few handles which are probably off cider jug. i have a few lighter grey sherds

Have a look at the pic I have posted pic 19 from my album of the dig, the oldest pottery is in the top right corner of the tray. the three gritty looking bits