There are many soil phenomena which may confuse the archaeologist during the excavation of a site and an attempt has been made here to list the more common ones. It is hoped that this paper will help excavators to be aware of natural soil features and to recognise phenomena associated with their own archaeological sites, without necessarily having to resort to advice from an outside specialist. There are very few pedologists working in archaeology and it is therefore extremely useful if excavators can achieve at least a small degree of self-sufficiency in this area.