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6_1_ARCHAEOLOGY COURSEBOOK
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DESKTOP STUDY
As its name suggests, this is an office-based
investigation using existing records. Some archaeologists, usually concerned with shipwrecks, aircraft or the investigation of historical individuals, continue to use written sources to track down or identify particular sites. More generally, most excavations and all research in Britain today begins with a search of information that has already been recorded. The majority of these investigations are part of the planning process and their purpose is to determine whether there are likely to be archaeological remains which might be threatened by development (►see p. 111). Desktop study involves researching maps and
historical or archaeological documents includ- ing aerial photographs about the area under investigation. If they are not in private hands, these are most likely to be held in planning departments, county records offices, local Sites and Monuments Record (SMRs) or the National Monuments Record (NMR) offices. |
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Legal documents. Records of ownership such
as Anglo-Saxon charters or court records of disputes often included physical description of boundaries and occasionally land use. Wills and inventories which can be linked to particular buildings can provide lists of contents which provide clues to function. Tax records. These are particularly valuable in
helping to identify landowning units and their economic uses. The Domesday Book is the best known but later tax surveys and tithe awards are often of more direct use. Economic records. Order and sales books are
invaluable to industrial archaeologists while nineteenth-century directories are useful in exploring functions of buildings. Estate agents' bills are increasingly being preserved to record changes in important buildings. Pictorial records. Paintings, engravings and
photographs can be of value both in identifi- cation and in tracing changes. They are particularly valuable when studying standing buildings. Archives of aerial photographs (APs) such as the RAF surveys of Britain in the 1940s are key documents in tracing landscape change in the last sixty years and are often the only record of many sites. Written accounts. Descriptions of places in
books, diaries and travelogues are of use in identifying the function, construction methods and identity of many sites. The work of early antiquarians such as Stukeley is particularly valuable for descriptions of monuments as they were before the modern period. Archaeological records. There are three main
sources here. If there are previous excavation or survey results they can often be accessed through libraries or local museums. Local |
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Historical documents
A diverse assortment of documents may be of
value to the archaeologist. These will vary by county, area and period. In most parts of the country known documents are archived or recorded in the County Records Office. In many areas, useful sources have also been catalogued in a volume of the Victoria County History (VCR) which is often the first resource researchers turn to. Only a fraction of early records have survived and those that have need translation and interpretation. Amongst the potential range available, the following categories are important. |
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