Wessex Archaeology

Protocol

for reporting finds of archaeological interest

Annual Report to BMAPA 2005-2006

Prepared by

November 2006

2 0 0 5 - 2 0 0 6

British Marine Aggregates Producers AssociationandEnglish Heritage

Protocolforreporting finds of archaeological interestAnnual Report to BMAPA 2005-2006

November 2006prepared byWessex Archaeology

Project Background

In April 2003, the British Marine AggregatesProducers Association (BMAPA) and EnglishHeritage (EH) jointly published

Marine Aggregate Dredging and the HistoricEnvironment: Guidance Note

. The GuidanceNote sets out the character and importance of the marine historic environment and describesbest practice in dealing with archaeologicalmatters in the course of planning marineaggregate dredging in English marine waters. Itincludes details of measures to mitigate theeffect of marine aggregate dredging on thehistoric environment, including theimplementation of protocols to report and dealwith finds made in the course of dredging.Protocols for reporting archaeological findsemerged as a mitigation option as it becameapparent that watching-briefs byarchaeologists, either on board dredgingvessels or at wharves, were likely to proveineffective because of the scale and characterof the dredging process. Protocols are intendedto provide a ‘safety net’ for reporting findsthat occur once dredging is in progress, andare in addition to measures to avoid areas of archaeological sensitivity through desk-basedassessment and field evaluation.Such protocols have formed part of themitigation strategy set out in severalEnvironmental Statements for individualdredging licence applications. However, BMAPArecognised that it would be more consistentand effective to introduce a single, unifyingprotocol and in August 2005 BMAPA and EHintroduced a protocol applicable to all BMAPAmembers, covering all wharves, vessels andproduction licence areas.The Protocol was prepared by WessexArchaeology (WA) in consultation with BMAPA,EH and other interested parties. BMAPAmember companies have voluntarily committedto implementing the Protocol across allexisting operations. It is hoped that non-BMAPAcompanies will also adopt the Protocolvoluntarily.

Protocol

The Protocol provides for finds being made bymembers of staff employed by aggregatedredging companies on the seabed, on boarddredging vessels, and at wharves.Under the Protocol, staff report to a local ‘SiteChampion’ on the vessel or at the wharf andthe Site Champion compiles a preliminaryreport. The Site Champion passes the report onto the ‘Nominated Contact’, a single identifiedperson within each company (see tableoverleaf).The role of the Nominated Contact within eachcompany is to inform EH of the find as soon as