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Exploring the long-term storage of England's archaeological archives
Arts Council England (ACE) and Historic England (HE) are jointly funding a new project to assess strategic options for the ongoing issue of storing archaeological archives. The options appraisal will review existing and future capacity for archaeological archives within England, considering a full range of archive solutions and evaluating the potential of each to meet the needs of archive creators, managers and users.
The volumes of undeposited archives has dramatically increased as developer-funded excavations bring forward new discoveries on a previously unimagined scale, and access to this material for research is being hindered by a lack of suitable storage and access space. This crisis was recognised by the Mendoza Review of Museums (2017) resulting with a series of recommendations targeting the sustainability of archaeological archives. This project is a key part of the action plan led by Historic England with Arts Council England to address the long-standing challenges for archaeological archives identified by Mendoza. Further details of the Action Plan can be found here:
https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/new-plan-englands-archaeology-archives-challenge/
The overarching aim of this new project is to understand how the museum and wider archaeological sector can be best supported to ensure a sustainable model for the long-term storage of archaeological archives. Specifically, this research and options appraisal will explore what capacity already exists, review its effectiveness, identify different potential models considering future needs and benefits. The project will estimate the level of resourcing required to ensure the sustainability of options presented, providing a comprehensive report to help inform next steps.
The ambition of this project is to
The project has been commissioned and funded by Arts Council England (ACE) and Historic England (HE).
This options appraisal will help national bodies such as HE and ACE work together in identifying a workable, sustainable solution to an important issue. Creating stable and accessible archives from archaeological work is often difficult, hampered by over-stretched resources and the limitations of physical space. If that problem is removed, there will be greater opportunity to ensure that projects are able to achieve more impact, increasing public benefit and value from work undertaken in development.
Manda Forster, DigVenture’s Director of Operations, is managing the project and undertaking some of research, joining the team of leading archive professionals and researchers. Manda has worked with archaeological archives throughout her professional life, from the various perspectives of research, post excavation management, education and standards.
Quinton Carroll, is the Historic Environment Team Leader for Cambridgeshire County Council, and is the project’s director. Quinton is the current chair of the Archaeological Archives Forum and of ALGAO: England. Also joining the research team from Cambridgeshire County Council, Sally Croft (Senior Archaeologist, Cambridgeshire HER) and Justin Wiles (Archaeological Officer) have both been involved in reviewing the management of archives in England, as well as being involved in implementing changes to the storage of archaeological archives from Cambridgeshire.
Last but not least, Samantha Paul is acting as a key researcher and comes from a background of working with museums to understand, rationalise and develop procedural guidelines for archive accession and deposition. Samantha is also just completing PhD research investigation the value of archaeological archives in wider research, education and social contexts.
If you have any questions about the project, you contact the project team directly via the Project Manager, Manda Forster (manda@digventures.com).
For further information about the project background and ambitions, please contact:
Project Director
Quinton Carroll – Quinton.Carroll@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
Assistant Director, Cambridgeshire County Council
Arts Council England
Zelina Garland-Rowan – zelina.garland-rowan@artscouncil.org.uk
Senior Manager, Collections and Museum Programmes, Arts Council England
Historic England
Barney Sloane – Barney.Sloane@HistoricEngland.org.uk
National Specialist Services Director, Historic England
October 2020
We’ve had a lot of input so far from across the heritage sector, but have realised we are still a bit stumped about the question of volume. We know roughly how much archive material is out there now, how much is undepositable and what is consists of… but we are missing a key figure.
So, this super short survey is aimed at contracting organisations working across England. We are asking for an educated guess and not expecting exact figures. We know things are variable and you’re far more qualified to do the guessing than we are!
Here’s the link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YRR87TV
The survey will close on the 6th November…
August 2020
One of our project objectives is to understand how users of archaeological archives would like to access archaeological archive material. This sounds like a simple question but is often framed by how stores holding archaeological archives currently operate. If we were able to rethink how archaeological archives are stored nationally, would that change the response? That is the question we want to ask people who work with, use, research or create archaeological archives.
Join us for an online discussion workshop with colleagues from various walks of heritage and archaeology life, to discuss a series of questions and challenges about how we use archives.
The OSAA project team will be running two online discussion workshops with a cross-sector audience. The workshops will take place on Thursday 27 August and Thursday 03 September, from 10 – 12. They will include three facilitated breakout discussions and some shared group feedback, with an overall group of about 25 individuals at each workshop.
You can find more information and the link for registration below. Please only book to come to one workshop – they will include the same content, we just want to reach as many people as possible!
July 2020
The overarching aim of this project is to understand how the museum and wider archaeological sector can be best supported to ensure a sustainable model for the long-term storage of archaeological archives. Specifically, this research and options appraisal will explore what capacity already exists across England, review its effectiveness, identify different potential models considering future needs and benefits. The project will estimate the level of resourcing required to ensure the sustainability of options presented, providing a comprehensive report to help inform next steps.
The project will be delivered over the next few months and will involve the evaluation of various storage solutions, engaging with archive creators, managers and users in the process. To do that accurately, the data which currently exists about archives and archive creation needs to be updated.
The project team have been in touch to ask if CIfA Registered Organisations would contribute a response to the project by completing an online survey about archives held currently as well as thoughts on future solutions.
You can find the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3RKRQ29
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Courses for anyone who wants to learn more about archaeology, and have fun while they're doing it!
Our fab archaeology merch: dig team tee-shirts, Tatty Devine jewellery range, tote bags, and more!