Geophysical Survey in Archaeological Field Evaluation

On 1st April 2015 the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England changed its common name from English Heritage to Historic England. We are now re-branding all our documents. Although this document refers to English Heritage, it is still the Commission's current advice and guidance and will in due course be re-branded as Historic England. Please see our website for up to date contact information, and further advice. We welcome feedback to help improve this document, which will be periodically revised. Please email comments to [email protected] We are the government's expert advisory service for England's historic environment. We give constructive advice to local authorities, owners and the public. We champion historic places helping people to understand, value and care for them, now and for the future. These guidelines are intended to help archaeologists, particularly curators, consultants and project managers, to better understand and engage with the techniques of geophysical survey, for the best results. It is hoped too that practitioners of geophysical survey will find them helpful and that, altogether, the guidance can contribute to raising the consistency and quality of geophysical survey in archaeological field evaluation. Geophysical survey in archaeology continues to flourish. As of 2006, it is estimated to be a component of at least 23.4% of all evaluations arising from planning applications The techniques are also finding an increasing role in the presentation and interpretation of archaeological sites, in contributing to archaeological and forensic research, and in helping to satisfy the demand for media coverage of archaeological subjects. Geophysical survey has a wider academic and professional forum than was the case several years ago. Since its inauguration in 1995 at Bradford University in the UK there has subsequently been a succession of biennial and Slovakia, and attended by an ever more cosmopolitan variety of specialists in geophysics and remote sensing.The Environmental and Industrial Geophysics Group (EIGG) of the Geological Society has similarly hosted a continuing series of biennial one-day meetings devoted to recent research in the subject.The journal Archaeological Prospection, initiated in 1994, has gone on to establish itself as the main vehicle for publication of relevant research and case studies; and an International Society for Archaeological Prospection (ISAP) was initiated in 2003 (http://www.archprospection.org). Archaeological geophysics is now a component of undergraduate teaching in at least 12 universities, although the only postgraduate degree courses devoted to the subject are the MSc in Archaeological Prospection at the University …