Four test pits were excavated in Aarle in April 2019 with the local history club ‘Dye van Best’ in a event run as a pilot before the formal launch of the CARE project in the Netherlands.
Only test pit 2 produced medieval pottery, which was of fifteenth century date.
In test pits 2 and 9 natural was not reached because the sites were perceived to have been subject to modern disturbance, but a final check revealed intact layers present below these. These sites will be re-dug next year.
Although the archaeological finds were of limited significance for understanding the medieval settlement development, the exercise proved invaluable in fine-tuning the organisational and operational process, and moreover allowed a first observation of the stratigraphy of the soil within the current settlement itself.