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Archaeological information is retrieved in several ways.
The most obvious of these is excavation but other methods
include geophysical surveys and more traditional surveys
of various levels of intensity. Other information is
gathered from building surveys and searches of old records
and maps. Core repositories of archaeological information
are the Sites and Monuments Records held by the archaeological
departments of local authorities.
In many cases archaeological work is carried out as
part of the planning process. Archaeologists working
within the planning departments of local authorities
will decide what an appropriate archaeological response
would be to a particular development. This then becomes
one of the conditions to planning consent.
It
is then up to the developer to appoint an archaeological
contracting company to carry out the required work.
Sometimes
the only response required is archaeological monitoring,
sometimes known as a 'watching brief'. Sometimes a full-scale
excavation is required. Sometimes an evaluation excavation
is carried out in order to find out more about a site
before a planning decision is made.
Sometimes fieldwork is carried out for research purposes
- in order to gain a greater understanding of the archaeology
of an area. Projects of this type are funded by a range
of bodies such as the EU and the Heritage
Lottery Fund.
Whatever
the project, the most important part of it is the recording
of what is found.
In the field this is done by means of photographs, drawings
and descriptive text. In accordance with standard archaeological
practice, all records are computerised as quickly as
possible not only for security reasons (single copy
paper records can be easily lost or destroyed) but in
order to begin the process of analysis. |
