GUIDANCE FOR CLIENTS PROFESSIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY | A GUIDE FOR CLIENTS 2024 5 ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT: A QUICK INTRODUCTION The historic environment is all around us. It has been shaped by people interacting with the natural environment over thousands of years. It is made up of a landscape of fields, routeways, villages, towns and cities, of buildings and monuments and the objects they contain. It ranges from the mega to the nano scale, from vast river systems to fragments of DNA, and it exists above and below ground and under water. Archaeology is the approach and processes by which we gather evidence from the historic environment, understand what this evidence means and show how it can be used. It reveals how people have created and reacted to environmental and other changes. It shows how they adapted where and how they lived to meet the opportunities and challenges those changes brought. Some strategies and some places have succeeded; others have not. We can learn from them. Our environment is also changing rapidly. Environmental change is affecting where and how we live: our cities are growing and the ways we travel and produce energy are being revolutionised through major infrastructure projects. We need our economy to grow, we face pressure for space, we are confronted by technological, cultural and social change and, at the same time, we want to steward our natural and historic environment. Archaeology creates value for business and society To enable a sustainable future, to create value for business, society and the environment, archaeology needs to be undertaken sustainably. This year’s client guide showcases how archaeology is helping clients meet social value outcomes through engaging with new audiences, community participation and through supporting wellbeing and opportunities for learning and skills development. One study shows how archaeologists helped Transport Scotland create social value for young people, allowing them to learn about the design and construction of roads and archaeological research, and bringing immediate benefits through education and engagement. A second Scottish road project also built a highway from the past to the future, showing how public engagement can be safely managed on major construction projects and how archaeologists can bridge the gap between construction and wider economic, social and environmental benefits. A third, in England, shows how archaeologists helped a development project meet social value targets by involving families from overseas to explore and engage with their new communities, gaining transferable skills en route. The ripple effect shows how partnering with an artist to deliver an innovative, two-year heritage wellbeing project can result in more understanding of an area’s history, whilst fostering a sense of community. This is alongside more positive engagement with the experts leading to an understanding of the development work and its benefits. These four studies show how the development and planning processes increasingly recognise – and require – the social value outcomes that archaeology can deliver when undertaken by creative professionals. Few elements of a project can match the potential of archaeology to do this. They show the breadth of technical and soft skills, knowledge and imagination that can be applied. The archaeologist’s input to scheme design enables informed consideration of the opportunities and constraints it presents, maximising the benefits that archaeology brings to the scheme and reducing uncertainty. Our fifth study shows how multidisciplinary medical research into excavated human bones, undertaken long after archaeological fieldwork, is informing the study of musculoskeletal disease and its management. The research highlights one of the underpinning purposes of archaeology: we study the past to make sense of the present and prepare for the future. To most effectively maximise that value and ensure a sustainable project, archaeology needs to be carried out according to professional standards. The best way to ensure this is to use the services of a CIfAaccredited archaeologist or CIfA-Registered Organisation (https://bit.ly/2RJLL7o): CIfA accreditation demonstrates professionalism in archaeology. This professional approach assures clients that the work will both meet their needs and be carried out in the public interest. Creative professionals add significant social value as they work with archaeology at Powderham Castle (Photo: CIfA)
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