Community archaeology and a new direction for researching landscapes
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-01-16

Landscape archaeology has seen a dramatic change of fortunes over the last five years. For many years our unimproved open landscapes have been examined by management surveys which have entailed systematic walking across uplands and large estates, resulting in large numbers of dots on maps extending over enormous areas. This process has been invaluable for management purposes, allowing for the conservation of an extremely valuable resource, but it has done little to improve our understanding of the archaeology as there has been little or no detailed mapping, analysis or assessment of the individual sites. The funding for this type of survey has in any case dropped off in recent years, but in its place has emerged funding from HLF to undertake landscape community surveys and this is now providing a new resurgence in Landscape archaeology. These surveys are allowing for the production of detailed mapping and analysis of some very significant archaeological sites and the process has been both rewarding for the participants and immensely valuable for our understanding of our wider archaeological landscapes.

Jamie Quartermaine, Oxford Archaeology North