In a world of big data and records born digitally, we need to manage information to manage the historic environment. Our digital humanities research includes technologies, systems and services, and developing the standards that underpin these. We will improve access to datasets, the analysis of information, and its communication, preservation, use and reuse.
Records are the body of knowledge for the heritage sector. Where sites have been excavated, demolished, or lost through other means, records may be the only evidence of the past. Historically, the development of multiple overlapping recording systems, incompatible standards and formats, under-investment in information systems and skills in the sector, have made it difficult to share that evidence. Emerging technologies offer the opportunity to develop services that will make the sectors information more accessible and inspiring, better suited to the effective management and protection of sites, and a more reliable resource for research. Our flagship activity, designed with partners to simplify and improve public access and professional use, is the Heritage Information Access Strategy (HIAS) detailed on our website. In addition, we contribute to and support initiatives to improve
the quality of specialist heritage information management through the Forum on Information Standards in Heritage (FISH). We have supported work on the trans-national definition of the Seven Grand Challenges for Digital Archaeology for the European Archaeologiae Consilium (EAC).
Research will have impact if it helps us to understand who uses heritage information, how they make use of it and what they need from information services. It could apply new technological developments to the management and dissemination of heritage information; or develop and apply existing data standards to facilitate management, dissemination and reuse as digital technologies change. It needs to build a commitment to sector-wide sharing, long-term preservation and reuse of information and data.
The commercial heritage sector (heritage consultancies and archaeological practices etc) are the largest generators on new information on the historic environment, generally through investigations undertaken to prepare a planning application or mitigate its impact. The scale of this development-led fieldwork now has the potential to radically change our understanding of the past. It has been estimated, for example, that over 75,000 archaeological interventions, ranging from trial trenching to full-scale excavation, have taken place since developers were first required to fund recording work in 1990.
Arguably, the full research potential of developerfunded archaeological recording work can be fulfilled only when its results are incorporated into larger-scale syntheses of the outcomes of multiple excavations and surveys and resultant new narratives are presented back to the public. While planning policy requires developers to bear the reasonable costs of the analysis and publication of the archaeological work they commission, retrospective synthetic studies require other sources of funding. In the last ten years or so, a number of synthetic studies have begun to draw together this enormous body of archaeological investigation and the initial results are compelling. But far more remains to be done. Research will have impact if it draws together and interrogates ‘big data’ to create new historical narratives for large areas, for types of archaeological site and for whole historical periods. It will allow us to pose a new and more refined set of research questions for the future. It will allow us to understand the strengths and weaknesses of current fieldwork and analytical methodologies and it will provide better information to support the land-use planning and statutory designation processes.
Part of the Research Frameworks Network