The Central Archaeology Service has been closely involved in supporting the English Heritage Stonehenge Conservation and Management Project. In March 1994 English Heritage received plans of 13 possible routes for an upgrading of the Amesbury to Berwick Down section of the A303, which currently traverses the Stonehenge World Heritage Site, and passes extremely close to the monument itself. For each proposed route the CAS (in conjunction with the Archaeology section of Wiltshire County Council Library and Museum Service) carried out an assessment of its direct impact on recorded archaeology.
As a direct result of the successful completion of this initial phase of work, the scope of the project was extended in order to compile information on the recorded archaeology within a study area of 135 sq km centred around the site of Stonehenge. The objectives of the project were:
Information held within the Wiltshire County Sites and Monuments Record formed the basis for achieving the first two objectives. The SMR is held on two separate but related databases: for every text record found on one database there is a corresponding digitised graphics record held on the other. 1,490 individual records fell within the study area, and these were subsequently checked and updated. Data on the totals of worked flint came primarily from surface collection undertaken during the Stonehenge Environs project, completed in 1990, and from evaluations carried out on sites for the proposed new visitor centre or along the proposed routes for the new road. A database was assembled of all occurrences of evaluation work, including geophysical survey, surface collection, auger survey, and test pitting. Using aerial photographs from the past 20 years, areas of grassland that had remained uncultivated throughout that period were identified.
All of this information was compiled into four separate maps which show a digital database of the recorded archaeological sites, the distribution of worked flint recovered from surface collection, the range of evaluation work carried out, and areas of uncultivated grassland (which inevitably have a high degree of correspondence with areas for which there is limited archaeological information).
Five of the criteria employed by the Monuments Protection Programme (survival, potential, group value by clustering, group value by association, and diversity) formed the basis for scoring the recorded archaeology. The MPP values attributed to an archaeological site were added together to give a total score for each site. These total scores were then combined with the result of the mapped totals of worked flint from surface collection, and divided into three ranges reflecting high, medium, and low archaeological sensitivity. The appropriate range was determined for every 50 sq m, and plotted to produce a fifth map, which is a visual representation of the sensitivity and importance of the recorded archaeology within the wider study area and the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
Digital Elevation Model of the Stonehenge landscape
showing the Recorded Archaeology ( jpg = 71361Bytes)
The databases and maps are important tools in helping English Heritage to formulate new strategies for the future management of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Integral to this process is the need to redefine the current boundary to take greater account of the surrounding archaeological landscape and the particular relationships of the monuments to themselves and Stonehenge. To further this aim the CAS are now looking at the question of inter-visibility between Stonehenge and its surrounding archaeological landscape using Digital Elevation Models.
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