- The UK’s HS2 high-speed rail project has prompted a surge in interest in archaeology.
- Historic England, the UK government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment, is determined to maximise the benefits.
- It is supporting R&D work on the Archaeologists Guide to Good Practice Handbook.
- This online guideline has grown from the shared inputs of archaeologists undertaking significant fieldwork across the UK.
- It’s a blueprint for conducting archaeological research with rigour, precision, and integrity.
When major excavation work started on the UK’s HS2 high-speed rail project, hopes were high it would transform public transport between London and the North. While the project is no longer completing all of its infrastructure targets, its construction crews are creating a wave of archaeological discoveries that have captured the public’s imagination and uncovered hidden layers of Britain’s past.
Historic England, the UK government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment and helping people understand, value, and care for historic places, is looking to maximise the benefits of all the archaeology that has been discovered. With that in mind, it is supporting Research and Development work on the Archaeologists Guide to Good Practice (AG2GP) Handbook – an essential directory to ensure that post-excavation work on the results of any archaeological dig is methodical, precise, and consistently adheres to the highest standards of practice.
Keith May is a visiting professor at the University of South Wales and an honorary senior research fellow in maths and statistics at the University of Sheffield. He is also an archaeologist with Historic England and the principal investigator for the AG2GP. Structured for use in ongoing professional development and university-based training of archaeology students, this online guideline has grown from the shared inputs of archaeologists undertaking significant fieldwork across the UK.
The groundwork
As the AG2GP Handbook explains, thorough site assessment and planning are crucial before any spade hits the ground. This initial phase involves historical research, site surveys, and preliminary geophysical investigations. At this point, it helps to imagine a detective piecing together clues from the past, gathering all the background information to form a coherent picture of what might lie beneath the surface. This is where stratigraphy comes into play.
Structured for use in professional development and university-based training, this online guideline has grown from the shared inputs of archaeologists undertaking significant fieldwork across the UK.
Stratigraphy is akin to reading the pages of a history book, where each layer (or stratum) of soil and debris represents a chapter in a site’s story. By carefully excavating and documenting these layers, archaeologists can reconstruct the sequence of events that took place over centuries. The key is to meticulously record details about each layer’s composition, content, and their interrelationships to ensure that the context of each piece of archaeology can be understood.
The Harris Matrix is one of the most powerful tools in an archaeologist’s arsenal. In essence, it’s a plan of action that helps archaeologists map out the chronological sequence of soil layers and features. As they dig deeper, the matrix helps visualise the relationships between different strata, like constructing a family tree for the site. This visual representation is crucial for maintaining clarity and precision in recording the site’s complex stratigraphy.
Photo credit: Science Animated – Adri Echeverria
Unveiling the past
Once the stratigraphic layers have been meticulously documented, the next steps are grouping and phasing. This involves grouping related stratigraphic units into coherent activities, each representing a distinct event at the site. Phasing then further condenses and sequences the stratigraphy by identifying major occupation activities and usage periods across a site or landscape, much like organising a cluttered photo album into different stages of life.
Archaeologists use dating evidence from finds and chronological modelling techniques, such as Bayesian chronological modelling, to achieve a more precise timeline. By integrating radiocarbon dates with stratigraphic information, these models provide high-resolution timelines that bring the past into sharp focus. It’s like using a powerful zoom lens to refine the details at key points in an ancient landscape.
Photo credit: Science Animated – Adri Echeverria
The excavation might seem like the climax, but it’s just the beginning. Post-excavation work, in a way, digs deeper. It involves the detailed analysis and processing of artefacts, ecofacts, and samples collected during the dig. This stage is akin to forensic investigation, where every piece of evidence is checked, cleaned, catalogued, and scrutinised to extract as much information as possible. This helps transform raw data into rich historical narratives that provide deep insights into the lives of past inhabitants.
From past to future: embracing the digital age
Digital documentation has become a cornerstone of modern archaeological practice. Creating high-quality digital records, including photographs, 3D models, and comprehensive databases, ensures that all the information gathered is preserved in a durable and accessible format. Digital archives safeguard valuable data and facilitate easier sharing and collaboration within the global research community.
To maximise the utility and longevity of archaeological data, the AG2GP Handbook promotes adhering to the FAIR principles – findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. This approach ensures that data can be easily located, accessed by anyone with proper permissions, integrated with other data sets, and reused for future research.
Implementing FAIR principles involves assigning unique identifiers and metadata to data sets, storing them in accessible repositories, using standardised formats, and providing detailed documentation and licensing.
A blueprint for success
Managing the vast amounts of data generated during an excavation is no small feat. Sophisticated data management systems can streamline the recording, analysis, and archiving processes. These platforms provide comprehensive solutions for handling complex datasets, supporting efficient workflows and robust data integration. For May and his colleagues at Historic England, efficient data management ensures that every piece of information is accurately recorded, easily accessible, and securely stored for future research, as some data that is only recorded on computers needs careful digital archiving to make sure it survives once the archaeology has been dug away.
The Archaeologists Guide to Good Practice Handbook is more than just a manual – it’s a blueprint for conducting archaeological post-excavation research with rigour, precision, and integrity.
The Archaeologists Guide to Good Practice Handbook is more than just a manual – it’s a blueprint for conducting archaeological post-excavation research with rigour, precision, and integrity. By following stratigraphic methods, leveraging the Harris Matrix, archiving and signposting digital documentation outputs, and adhering to the FAIR principles, archaeologists can ensure that each excavation is a step toward enriching our understanding of the past. Every dig becomes a carefully orchestrated endeavour, balancing meticulous fieldwork with innovative technologies and comprehensive data management, ensuring archaeologists not only uncover history but preserve it for future generations.
Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the handbook?
Talking with other archaeologists during The Matrix project brought home to our project team that many people undertaking fieldwork recording often did not get a good opportunity to learn post-excavation skills and techniques until much later in their careers. There seemed to be a good case for providing a post-excavation handbook for people in their early careers that would also be of equal use for teaching students on archaeology courses. In making the handbook openly available online, we think the quality of what people record during fieldwork will be enhanced by them understanding better how that information can be used later in the archaeological process.
How have digital tools revolutionised archaeology?
The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has grown extensively from the mid-1990s, enabling archaeologists to digitally map and spatially analyse the locations of finds, features and sites. Digital planning on site using electronic survey equipment is now commonplace amongst a suite of digital techniques used by archaeologists. The growth in the availability of satellite imagery, lidar and other remote sensing technologies, all processed on computers, has led to a huge increase in the detection of previously unknown archaeology at a landscape scale on both land and underwater. 3D modelling and visualisation software enable archaeologists to create interpretive reconstructions of structures and artefacts which can be used for research purposes and public engagement. Increasingly archaeological data is recorded in situ as ‘born digital’ which only exists digitally, and this has led to a growing requirement to make sure that the digital data held on computers can be safely stored and shared online in standardised digital formats to enable reuse by others.
In terms of practice, how is a typical dig different from, say, thirty years ago?
Thirty years ago, it was exceptional for anyone to be using a computer during the excavation. If they did, it would not have been out on site while digging and recording but rather in a site office (eg, portacabin) or back at HQ, remembering they would not have had Internet connectivity or mobile phones back then. Now, archaeologists are routinely recording data using tablet computers and laptops and much of the survey data is directly recorded digitally to produce geolocated plans and drawings of the archaeological structures and deposits which can be uploaded online. There were no digital cameras thirty years ago and all photos were taken on wet film, which had to be processed off site, meaning most people rarely saw the results of the photos taken. In recent years, scientific dating using statistical methods (Bayesian chronological modelling) has revolutionised the precision with which suitably sampled remains can be dated.
Imagine a dig in another thirty years; what will remain unchanged and what will be different in terms of practice?
In another thirty years, it would be nice to think that more people will be involved in how the archaeology of their local area is understood and looked after, and that more of the results of what lies hidden beneath our feet and in the fabric of historic buildings around us could be available to people to find out about.
In terms of practice, the detailed study of archaeological stratigraphy will remain as a fundamental principle underlying how archaeologists put together the pieces of the 4D jigsaw they uncover and how they interpret past events. What is likely to change is the quality and scale of the information that we discover about the past and increasingly the degree to which we can share and join up that information digitally. New scientific techniques will certainly be invented, allowing us to examine what is buried in more detail. Hopefully even more revolutionary dating techniques will enable us to be more accurate about identifying the dates in the past when the structures, items and deposits we uncover were constructed, used or discarded.
While the archaeologists will still need to dig the detail to better interpret what they find, it might be nice to have a robot helper or two (perhaps in the form of drones), to do the heavy lifting of soil to the spoil heap or deliver finds and other items to people in the site hut.
