[hardy-l] archaeology

[Rebecca Welshman]

Hi all,

Rosemarie, in light of your last - I think the finds will be preserved, but probably not the site.  Leading Oxford archaeologist, David Score, is quoted as saying:

"We take everything back to Oxford where we wash it, clean it and label it and our specialists examine the finds and look at the relationship between the different finds. 

The hope is that the finds will go to the Dorchester Museum when they have been studied – we always try and return the finds to the nearest museum." 

More info available from:
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART64085.html

My understanding of the procedure re road building excavations is that the archaeology is excavated, recorded, and then the road built on top.  It is often a way of 'recognising' the archaeology and promptly disregarding it.  Application for protection is rarely successful - if it were for example to be a Roman Villa with preserved mosaic floors..unfortunately I don't think Bronze Age funerary evidence will be preserved, especially in light of the difficulties involved in altering the course of the route within a downland area.  The National Roads Authority offer the following 'Guidelines for the Assessment of Archaeological Heritage Impacts of National Road Schemes':

"The archaeological heritage should be seen in conjunction with engineering constraints and other impacts such as those on the natural environment, communities, homes, farms, socioeconomic
factors, visual amenity etc. Each Route Corridor Selection process will have unique features and constraints may vary. In some cases the optimum route from an archaeological
perspective may not be the overall optimum route when other impacts are evaluated. However,archaeological aspects should receive detailed consideration, and indeed, in some cases they
may constitute one of the more important factors to be addressed during Route Corridor Selection and subsequent design of the road scheme."

The 24 museum article seems to suggest that there have been more finds this year, including a Roman burial within a Round barrow ..

Best wishes,

Rebecca