ABSTRACT

Civil engineering and construction activities can have a detrimental effect on buried archaeological remains. Apart from the obvious effects of building excavations, the effects of (bio-)chemical changes due to the building over or coverage by fi ll of a site are described in the literature (Huisman, 2009), as well as the potential damage of foundation construction (Huisman et al., 2011). Weak soils like unconsolidated clay and peat may deform and compress considerably under surcharge loading, for example, by sand bodies for roads, railways, and building developments. This may damage archaeological sites within such easily compressible soil layers. The vulnerability of archaeological sites to loading is thus largely dependent on soil properties like lithology, grain-size, and previous loading history.