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This paper examines the Roman boat, buried beneath Guys Hospital in London, UK. A small part was discovered in 1958, and has been carefully left free of disturbance since that date. In 2009, a proposal was made to construct a 14-storey building above the boat; clearly raising challenges for preservation, not to mention the philosophy of burying or excavating and entire ancient monument. A trial pit was opened to see if any remains of the boat survived and uncovered well-preserved timber planks and nails preserved five metres below ground level. Consequently, archaeologists worked closely with the entire design team, determined that more was required than the usual scheme of preserving and monitoring the boat. A legal agreement was secured, making this one of the few projects in the world to have a clearly structured and enforceable plan, if the monitoring data show demonstrable deterioration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IT HAS BEEN accepted for many years that, unlike their silver counterparts, pewter chalices and patens found in priestly burials continued largely unchanged in form throughout the medieval period; this means that the presence of a pewter chalice or paten does not in itself currently offer any reliable dating of a related burial beyond a broad 13th–16th-century timeframe. Pewter chalices and patens recovered from 25 burials within York Minster between 1966 and 1973 are thought to represent the largest collection found within one church in England, and initial assessment of this collection and its related excavation data indicated that it offered the possibility of providing findspots for some of the vessels from recorded burials or dated archaeological sequences, and thus to provide more examples of tightly drawn dating. In the event, it has been possible to assign a single chalice and paten set to a recorded individual, and to provide others with periods within which, or after which, burial occurred. Scrutiny of the objects also resulted in the identification of two distinct forms of paten, one of which was shown in seven instances to bear incised motifs which had not been noted or commented upon previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will describe two phases of investigation to characterize conditions that have led to preservation of archaeological remains beneath the historic core of Nantwich. It will discuss the different types of monitoring employed and the relative merits between methodologies for monitoring key indicators, and outline experimental methods for the application of gas monitoring. The Nantwich project is in the middle of a five year programme and therefore interpretations presented here are provisional, and are briefly compared to similar studies from York. The continuation of conditions that have preserved organic remains beneath these two historic centres for over a thousand years are now subject to threat due to various causes from the impact of the modern world, and the conclusions suggest that achieving long-term sustainability of preservation conditions will require a holistic approach from spatial planners, engineers, hydrologists and archaeologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will outline the approach taken for monitoring of two waterlogged areas in England: the multi-period deposits beneath the historic town of Nantwich, Cheshire, and the Bronze Age timber platform at Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. These two examples allow contrast and comparison between urban and rural contexts, and between multiple ownerships and single development. The projects also illustrate how English planning guidance can be variously interpreted dependent on conflicting aims and objectives. The paper will describe the characteristics of the sites, their past history and present threats, and the suggested management strategies for each. The duration, spatial interval, and methods of monitoring (including use of In Situ redox probes, Time Domain Reflectometry, sediment geochemistry, and water-level measurement) will be discussed, and how short-term data-gathering is actually what influences decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A baseline survey in 2007 characterized the physical and chemical conditions for preservation within waterlogged remains at Nantwich. Installation of eighteen dipwells has allowed a five-year monitoring programme to be conducted from 2011. Two add-on projects supplemented this monitoring programme by examining the different methods for redox measurement, and for soil moisture measurement using Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR). Initial results show two main zones of preservation, with reducing conditions attributed to location of the deposits in the floodplain, and a second zone uphill with more variable conditions for preservation. This study shows that sediment-coring programmes combined with dipwell installations can provide useful data to assess and monitor in situ preservation conditions, which can help to formulate management strategies for conservation of waterlogged archaeological deposits. This paper focuses on the efficacy of the methodology, referencing in particular comparative monitoring techniques and lists a series of recommendations for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the approaches to characterizing and monitoring two very similar sites in proximity. It explores the paucity of scientific evidence for understanding conditions of preservation, and techniques for monitoring it, that presently exist for sites that lie in superficial unconsolidated sediments within which a capillary fringe has developed above a groundwater table, rather than for a more conventional water-logged site. Challenge and review by peers is essential for a robust approach to ensuring management measures are appropriate, rather than relying on the knowledge and experience of a single individual or team. Since 2007, a monitoring programme for the internationally important timber platform at Hanson's Must Farm clay extraction site has been developed and enhanced, whilst excavations within the footprint of the quarry have revealed outstanding preservation of organic remains. The 3000 year inundation and sedimentary sequence, and the 100 years recent development in this landscape, are described along with the unusual preservation processes which have contributed to exceptional survival of archaeological remains. The results from Must Farm are contrasted to the paucity of monitoring data from Flag Fen, and the separate trajectories between a developer-funded project and a nationally protected monument are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examples of wetland deposits can be found across the globe and are known for preserving organic archaeological and environmental remains that are vitally important to our understanding of past human-environment interactions. The Mesolithic site of Star Carr (Yorkshire, United Kingdom) represents one of the most influential archives of human response to the changing climate at the end of the last glacial in Northern Europe. A hallmark of the site since its discovery in 1948 has been the exceptional preservation of its organic remains. Disturbingly, recent excavations have suggested that the geochemistry of the site is no longer conducive to such remarkable survival of organic archaeological and environmental materials. Microcosm (laboratory-based) burial experiments have been undertaken, alongside analysis of artifacts excavated from the site, to assess the effect of these geochemical changes on the remaining archaeological material. By applying a suite of macroscopic and molecular analyses, we demonstrate that the geochemical changes at Star Carr are contributing to the inexorable and rapid loss of valuable archaeological and paleoenvironmental information. Our findings have global implications for other wetland sites, particularly archaeological sites preserved in situ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The 11,000-year old lake edge archaeological site of Star Carr in the Vale of Pickering of North Yorkshire is one of the most famous Mesolithic sites in Europe, and one of the earliest, dated to the period of climatic warming that immediately followed the final termination of the last ice age. One of the main reasons for this international importance is the richness of its organic artefacts, faunal assemblage and environmental data. However, recent investigations have demonstrated that these organic remains have severely deteriorated over the last 60 years due to the decay and acidification of the surrounding peat. This paper presents research into the effects on the bone (histological analysis using light and polarising microscopy, and Transmission Electron Microscopy, bulk collagen analysis, and amino acid analysis), antler (visual and metrical analysis, loss on ignition and Scanning Electron Microscopy) and wood (visual analysis, decay assessment tests and Scanning Electron Microscopy). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Environmental change caused by urban development, possibly augmented by climate change, may result in accelerated decay of in situ archaeological resources. Damage may be related to changes in hydrological processes. Such archaeological resources have to be considered in environmental planning. In this paper we highlight the need for improved hydrological data from urban archaeological sites using the case study of the City of York, UK, arguably one of the most well studied and well preserved urban archaeological environments globally. We suggest that the quality of hydrological data collected during routine surveys and experimental work must be improved and standardised in order for us to produce reliable archaeological risk models for urban sites. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental change caused by urban development, land drainage, agriculture or climate change may result in accelerated decay of in situ archaeological remains. This paper reviews research into impacts of environmental change on hydrological processes of relevance to preservation of archaeological remains in situ. It compares work at rural sites with more complex urban environments. The research demonstrates that both the quantity and quality of data on preservation status, and hydrological and chemical parameters collected during routine archaeological surveys need to be improved. The work also demonstrates the necessity for any archaeological site to be placed within its topographic and geological context. In order to understand preservation potential fully, it is necessary to move away from studying the archaeological site as an isolated unit, since factors some distance away from the site of interest can be important for determining preservation. The paper reviews what is known about the hydrological factors of importance to archaeological preservation and recommends research that needs to be conducted so that archaeological risk can be more adequately predicted and mitigated. Any activity that changes either source pathways or the dominant water input may have an impact not just because of changes to the water balance or the water table, but because of changes to water chemistry. Therefore, efforts to manage threatened waterlogged environments must consider the chemical nature of the water input into the system. Clearer methods of assessing the degree to which buried archaeological sites can withstand changing hydrological conditions are needed, in addition to research which helps us understand what triggers decay and what controls thresholds of response for different sediments and types of artefact. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]