Archaeology in the margins - RCAHMS emergency survey in the 1950s
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11009902 |
|---|---|
| Authors | George Geddes (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 143 |
| Pages | 363-392 |
| Publication date | 2014-11-30 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0081-1564 • E-ISSN: 2056-743X |
| Publisher | Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.9750/psas.143.363.392 |
| OpenAlex | W2945214733 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 12 |
In the years following the Second World War, the British government made a number of changes aimed at improving our self-sufficiency, whether in foodstuffs, timber or energy. The combination of schemes of subsidy and improvements in technology brought with it an increasing threat to monuments that had survived by virtue of the fact that they were sited in marginal land. In response, the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) halted its national programme of County Inventories to undertake a rescue project that used newly available aerial photographs to identify threatened unrecorded prehistoric monuments, such as brochs, forts, palisaded settlements and earthworks. After eight years, the two archaeologists, with some help from other professionals and volunteers, had recorded more that 700 sites and prepared 190 measured surveys. While rescue was initially achieved through record, excavation and communication with the Ordnance Survey (OS), a small number are now protected by Scheduling. The results of the project went further, helping to underpin Stuart Piggott's development of a regional Iron Age synthesis in the 1960s. Now online for the first time, the information that was produced is the most detailed that exists for more than 90% of the sites, and, as with any documentary source, it is incumbent upon us to understand its strengths and weaknesses when we use it to understand, manage or protect the sites we care for and value
Archaeology · Cabinet (room · Commission · Excavation · Geography · Human settlement · Political science · Prehistory · Subsidy · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · History · Law
Making LiGHT Work of Large Area Survey? Developing Approaches to Rapid Archaeological Mapping and the Creation of Systematic National-scaled Heritage Data
An assessment of high temporal frequency satellite data for historic environment applications. A case study from Scotland
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Angus Graham and Gordon Childe (1935–46)
New dates for enclosed sites in north-east Scotland
A Norse House on Drimore Machair, South Uist
Notes on Berwickshire Forts, with a Description of those Recently Discovered
Report on the Discovery of Numerous Stone Age House-Sites in Shetland
The Forts, 'Camps,' and other Field-Works of Perth, Forfar, and Kincardine
The Excavations at Bonchester Hill, 1950
The excavations at Hownam Rings, Roxburghshire, 1948
Excavations in the broch and hill-fort of Torwood-Lee, Selkirkshire, 1950
Four new 'henge' monuments in Scotland and Northumberland
The excavation of a late Neolithic henge-type enclosure at Balfarg, Markinch, Fife, Scotland, 1977-78
The Fortifications on Traprain Law
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Archaeological Field Survey
Edin's Hall fort, broch and settlement, Berwickshire (Scottish Borders)
| Citations per year | 0.44 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2022 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |