Chartered Institute for Archaeologists 2023

P R O F E S S I O N A L A R C H A E O L O G Y | A G U I D E F O R C L I E N T S 2 0 2 3 2 9 CASE STUDIES | MANAGING ARCHAEOLOGY: Evaluation techniques that reduce uncertainty Finding rapid, cost-effective ways to evaluate large land parcels for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental remains has always been a challenge for developers and archaeologists. Archaeologists acting for developers have used various techniques over the years to evaluate sites in advance of development, with some, such as aerial photograph transcription, general remote sensing and geophysical surveys, making huge contributions to the number and location of new sites. For those areas where there is little pre-existing remote sensing data or which have geologies, soils or ground conditions unfavourable to crop or soil mark formation, and/or which have restricted scope for geophysical survey, other approaches for evaluation of these areas need to be found. Following an in-depth study in the Till- Tweed basin by the author and colleagues, a geoarchaeological methodology has been devised, termed the ‘landform element’ approach. Importantly, this is a phased approach, whereby archaeologists initially map, take sediment cores and survey a given land parcel to partition it into a series of discrete landforms. For each of these landforms they identify the archaeological potential and the types of methods most appropriate to their evaluation and they use this to drive the subsequent evaluation of the area. The case study from Killerby Quarry, North Yorkshire was approached in this way. Here, as part of the desk-based assessment for this new quarry, we created a detailed geoarchaeological landform element map for the land parcel. We followed this with a phased programme of evaluation that included targeted sediment coring, range finder dating and assessment of data collected from ancient features on the floodplain, such as buried channels and basins, that could tell us about past environmental conditions. We undertook an extensive fieldwalking survey at close spaced intervals to maximise finds recovery, with a particular emphasis on chipped stone artefacts. Following Excavation of one of the Early Mesolithic tepee-type structures with the hearth and the remains of its last fire visible in the foreground ©Archaeological Research Services Ltd