UK heat wave reveals archaeological secrets

The United Kingdom's scorching summer heat wave has revealed hidden archaeological secrets of buried history, with ancient farms, burial mounds and neolithic monuments among fascinating finds.

The dry summer has allowed experts to examine the landscape from the air, as cropmarks are more obvious when the soil is very dry.

Lost sites have been turning up all over Britain and Ireland, in areas where grass and crops grow at different heights, or show in different colors, over buried foundations and ditches.

A treasure trove of discoveries, including lost villages and military structures have been recorded during the summer by aerial archaeologists flying over the landscape for the Historic England project.

The aerial photography produces archaeological maps which help to assess the significance of buried remains.

These can be used to make decisions about protecting them from development or damage caused by plowing.

Sites in Yorkshire have been excavated to reveal spectacular burials with grave goods including chariots.

Few of the newly identified sites will ever be excavated, but now their location is known many will be given protection from deep plowing or development.

Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, said the weeks of very hot weather had provided perfect conditions.

"The discovery of ancient farms, settlements and Neolithic Cursus monuments is exciting. The exceptional weather has opened up whole areas at once rather than just one or two fields, and it has been fascinating to see so many traces of our past graphically revealed."

Exceptionally hot

Meanwhile, AFP reported a study published this week that claims man-made global warming and a natural surge in the Earth's surface temperature will join forces to make the next five years exceptionally hot.

The study, published in Nature Communications, said the double whammy of climate change and so-called natural variability more than doubles the likelihood of "extreme warm events" in ocean surface waters, creating a dangerous breeding ground for hurricanes and typhoons.

"This warm phase is reinforcing long-term climate change," said lead author Florian Sevellec, a climate scientist at the University of Brest in France.

"This particular phase is expected to continue for at least five years."

Earth's average surface temperature has always fluctuated.

Over the last million years, it vacillated roughly every 100,000 years between ice ages and balmy periods warmer than today.

Over the last 11,000 years, those variations have become extremely modest, allowing our species to flourish.