The staff of this branch offer expertise and advice widely in the fields of archaeological prospecting and scientific dating. Geophysical survey is now almost commonplace in field evaluation prior to development and its potential is finally becoming better appreciated amongst the professional community. There remains, however, a continuing need to extend the understanding of prospecting methodologies amongst archaeologists, to monitor and publicise survey results, to raise standards, to compare the merits of different techniques, and to encourage the development of the subject. Archaeometry Branch seeks to address all these concerns in a continuing programme of surveys, research, and collaboration.
The Geophysical Survey Database has now been accessible for over a year through the Ancient Monuments Laboratory homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/SDB. The database now includes details of some 700 surveys and the full text and graphics of recent Archaeometry Branch survey reports. It is accessed from around the world, at a rate of as many as 600 queries per week. The guidelines document Geophysical survey in archaeological field evaluation, published in 1995, will also be made available on the World Wide Web and in the meantime has been well received with some 700 copies distributed in the UK and abroad.
Our geophysical survey programme has included work on 20 separate sites this year. Opportunities to utilise subsequent excavation to provide feedback on survey results are given priority and, for instance, we have again provided support in advance of excavations on sites at Yarnton and for the Danebury Environs Project. Elsewhere, surveys have been conducted in support of the Humber Wetlands Project (at Rossington Roman fort; a triple ditched enclosure at Scaftworth; and a possible late prehistoric site at Westwoodside) and in the further evaluation of sites previously located by the Fenland Management Project (Eye Hill Farm, Soham (SOH9) and Langwood Farm, Cambs). Surveys at EH Historic Properties have been undertaken at Battle Abbey, Sussex, and Thornton Priory, Humberside. Undoubtedly the most spectacular achievement this year, however, has been the magnetometer survey of some 22 hectares of the Roman city of Uriconium (Wroxeter), a collaborative venture in support of the Leverhulme-funded Wroxeter Hinterlands Project directed by Birmingham University. Together with magnetic coverage provided by Geophysical Surveys of Bradford, about 40 hectares of the city have now been surveyed, a vast area in which the pattern of the Roman streets, buildings, and defences are emerging with exceptional clarity. The site is proving an important test-bed for the comparison of several survey and remote sensing techniques. The Branch is participating in this programme as well as pursuing its own interests on subjects such as mineral magnetism, microgravity surveying, and microwave imaging techniques.
The Sheffield Dendrochronology Laboratory, funded by EH, has recently moved into a larger and better-equipped laboratory with more office space. Its personnel have continued to be involved in a wide range of EH research projects and service work. As well as providing dates for several individual standing buildings throughout England, the Laboratory has also been involved with larger projects such as the Hereford City Project (now completed) which has created a dating framework for architectural building styles from the 13h to the 17th centuries.
The first phase of the Essex bellframe project has produced much-needed dates for some short-headed bellframes. Work on timbers from the Great Kitchen at Windsor Castle is nearing completion, and several building phases have been identified including the re-roofing in AD 1489, a phase of construction previously undocumented. The research project on the dating of vernacular buildings in Devon is beginning to produce tree-ring dates for the Crediton area and will be expanded to cover other parts of the county; a region where dendrochronology has previously proved difficult.
The increasing demand for dendrochronology on standing buildings, particularly those which are under repair, has been met by increasing our support for the Sheffield laboratory, and by commissioning work from a number of other sources. Towards the end of the year a major campaign was begun to date the different phases of work at Stokesay Castle, Shropshire.
This year has seen the full publication of the radiocarbon dating programme from Stonehenge, including full details of the samples and mathematical modelling on the World Wide Web (http://www.eng-h.gov.uk/stoneh). This has been very popular, with well over 25,000 accesses in the first few months. Fruitful collaboration continues with 3 dating laboratories, which has seen over 200 samples submitted from 25 sites.
