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Metadata: Dover Urban Archaeological Database Project

Abstract:

The Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (now Historic England) developed its 'Urban Archaeological Database' programme in the 1990s. 35 of England's historic towns were identified as needing enhanced baseline datasets of archaeological information, of a comprehensiveness and detail that was beyond that which Historic Environment Records (HERs) can usually provide. These enhanced datasets were termed 'Urban Archaeological Databases' (UADs). Dover was one of the towns identified as requiring a UAD. Urban deposits are often highly complex, representing many phases and periods of activity in a single location. They can also be much disturbed making interpretation difficult. Urban deposits can also be very deep, either due to topographical reasons (many towns being in riverside locations) or to the accumulation of occupation debris over a long period of time. In addition, the urban context requires greater accuracy of representation and depiction in the HER than rural data. Smaller and more congested ownership plots mean that a slight error in depiction can lead to landowners being required to carry out unnecessary or inappropriate archaeological investigation during construction works. Historic towns are also among the most important archaeological sites in the country. Being located beneath modern towns implies a constant threat that only accurate information and improved understanding can help to reduce. The difference between how archaeological information is represented in a HER and a UAD is essentially one of detail. For example, prior to this project the Classis Britannica fort in Dover was represented by a single HER record, linked to a single HER GIS point. The work of transforming this into UAD format involved breaking the fort record into multiple new records each of which depicts a feature within the fort such as the walls, a gate, a barrack, a granary etc. Each component has its own record and its own GIS depiction. Similarly, the Event records (an Event is an archaeological activity such as an excavation or watching brief) in a HER are usually represented by a single record per Event linked to a single GIS entity. Under the UAD standard each intervention unit within an Event eg each individual trench, test-pit or borehole, is represented by a separate HER Event record. These can be grouped to indicate the relationship between them, but they are recorded separately, thus allowing additional information to be recorded such as the deposit sequences and depths of layers. These in turn can be used to develop a deposit model that can further aid understanding and prediction. Following the completion of the data work, an Archaeological Characterisation was developed. Characterisation can be briefly explained as the process of generalising and synthesising the raw data in the UAD to improve understanding. Within urban archaeological contexts it identifies the main activities that the data represents, where these activities are taking place and how they inter-relate. It should be noted, however, that as a summarising activity, characterisation always risks over-simplification, resolving complex data into too tidy a pattern. Characterisation is therefore best understood as a model, not a map, of past activity. The final stage of the project was to use the enhanced UAD data and the Archaeological Characterisation to develop a strategy that will help to improve how the archaeological resource is managed. This is to both safeguard it, and to identify ways to exploit it for the benefit of inhabitants and visitors. The method selected to do this was to develop an Archaeological Plan that would provide a strategy for managing Dover's archaeology.

Data holder:

Archaeology Data Service

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