Detecting a Landscape

From the Twitter feed of Prof Susan Oosthuizen ( @DrSueOosthuizen) Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology, University of Cambridge (slightly edited for clarity).

 Prof Susan Oosthuizen @DrSueOosthuizen · 8 hours ago.

Field bank

"OK then: see that long low bank just beyond the rise in the land? That's a medieval furlong boundary - it re-uses and so preserves a long prehistoric linear bank of unknown date/purpose that runs from high to low ground just W of Cambridge. And/ it (arrowed) is just one of a whole system of similar banks preserved in medieval field boundaries, parish boundaries, footpaths, roads and hedgerows across c.77 sq.km. - the light grey lines on the map.

They run across a valley from one plateau to the other./The thing is, most prehistoric landscapes are preserved because the land they lie on was on was converted to grass. This one survives *because* it has been continuously exploited as arable or pasture for the last four millennia: the boundaries have been in use all that time.

Another bank

And here’s another in the same system. It looks like nothing, of course, when you see it, but I think it's just so exciting - and it's just an everyday landscape on the way to/from work. 

How many more similar landscapes are out there? There must be loads. PS @HistoricEngland's Lidar project (eg photo) shows that the landscape on the slopes of the Bourn Brook was typical of W Cambs landscapes extending from the fen-edge in the north to the Icknield Way in the south. More details here and here."

LIDAR

On reading that, my question is, if it is alleged that 'metal detectorists' are so 'interested in the past', maybe one of the archaeologists repeating this mantra can substantiate it by telling us how artefact hunters and collectors see this landscape, and where on the map would they use their metal detectors to reveal more about this landscape? Serious question.