Description

EVALUATION OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL
DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES AND
SAMPLING STRATEGIES
European Regional Development Fund Interreg IIC
- Planarch Project
by Gill Hey and Mark Lacey
with contributions by Neil Linford, Andrew David and Nick Shepherd


The introduction of PPG 16 in 1990 has resulted in a considerable increase in archaeological
evaluation, as archaeology is more and more integrated within the planning system.How can
effective mitigation strategies be devised and in particular how can approaches to sampling
be applied to evaluation, which both pass the test of planning reasonableness in respect of
cost and other constraints and yet can be relied on for accurate prediction in relation to
archaeological realities on and under the ground?
A variety of approaches has been developed over the years, including desk-based survey,
fieldwalking, geophysical survey, boreholing and, of course, the ubiquitous trial-trenching in
its various forms. Many of these techniques go back way before PPG 16 and time has seen
their refinement. There has, however, been little systematic appraisal of the suitability of
these tools for the job in hand and, in spite of notable progress in some areas, in others,
either through inertia or tradition, there has perhaps been a tendency for past practices to
be uncritically reinforced in the present. Thus, for example, 2% trial-trenching has perhaps
become an industry norm in some areas, with archaeological practitioners failing to realise
that such a scheme was devised with the specific objective of finding ring ditches in
Berkshire: the approach was mathematically based and carefully thought through to give a
high probability of locating ring ditches 40 m in diameter within a specific landscape context.
There is a clear warning to us all not to become archaeological lemmings.
Alongside the integration of archaeology in planning, recent years have seen increasing cooperation
between European archaeologists with the establishment of European Association
of Archaeologists and the European Archaeological Council, which brings together the
various state archaeological services across Europe. It is appropriate, therefore, that
approaches to archaeological evaluation are reviewed within the framework of the Interreg
IIC programme for the North West Metropolitan Area (NWMA) which is very much
concerned with spatial planning issues and is supported by the European Regional
Development Fund. For its part, English Heritage has been pleased to support a project
which is making a significant contribution to taking forward best practice in archaeological
evaluation and to the further integration of archaeology within the planning process.