Archaeology Data Service

The ADS and Framework Archaeology are pleased to announce the release of Heathrow Terminal 5 Excavation Archive, 2011. Framework Archaeology is a Joint Venture agreement between Oxford Archaeology (OA) and Wessex Archaeology (WA) to provide archaeological services to BAA. Between 1996 and 2000 they undertook extensive excavations of an important prehistoric and Roman landscape at Perry Oaks sludge works, Heathrow, Middlesex. Further archaeological work in advance of a fifth passenger terminal ('T5') at Heathrow Airport took place from 2002 onwards, and the results of those excavations will be integrated with the data contained in this archive.

The Department of Archaeology at York University, which hosts the ADS, has been given a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. Introduced following the 40th Anniversary of the Queen's reign in 1992, the prizes, which rank alongside the Queen's Awards for Industry are awarded biennially for 'work of exceptional quality and of broad benefit either nationally or internationally'. This is the fifth to be conferred on the university in 15 years, only the second time it has been awarded to a whole Department.

The ADS, ASE, English Heritage and UCL are pleased to announce the release of Town and Country in Roman Essex: Settlement Hierarchies in Roman Essex datasets, This is a large scale regional study based on correspondence analysis of finds assemblages, including coins, pottery, registered finds, animal bone and vessel glass. Data was primarily gathered from existing published or archive sources and was collected from sites in Essex, south-east Cambridgeshire and London dating to the period c 50BC-AD250. The database includes linked tables on small finds, glass, pottery and coins, as well as for the following aspects of the animal bone assemblages: NSIP, MNI, tooth-wear, MNE and metrics for bone elements.

Do you use ADS data in your research? If so then the CAA Recycle award should be of interest.CAA believes that any vibrant discipline must continually return to its own roots and re-evaluate legacy data if it is to progress. Furthermore, in the field of Archaeology it provides a far less destructive means of researching the past, and maximizes the return on resources invested in fieldwork. Digital technologies have a particularly strong role to play in this regard, thanks to their ability to synthesize large volumes of information and because they often apply new techniques unavailable to the original investigators. To this end, CAA is commencing an annual CAA Recycle Award that seeks to recognize those who breathe new life into old data.

The ADS, The British Academy and Durham University are pleased to announce the release of Parts and Wholes: object categorisation and fragmentation in prehistoric context by J C Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska, 2011. The 'Parts and Wholes' project is concerned with the relationship between complete objects and their fragments. The primary premise of the project can be concisely stated: deliberate object fragmentation was commonplace in the past, with widespread re-use of the ensuing fragments in an extended life 'after the break'. The project studied the artefact assemblages from Chalcolithic sites at Dolnoslav tell and the Durankulak and Varna cemeteries in Bulgaria.

The ADS, SeaZone Solutions and English Heritage are pleased to announce the release of the Hastings to Purbeck and Adjacent Waters archive by SeaZone Solutions Limited, Maritime Archaeology Ltd, 2011.The project resulted in a GIS-based characterisation of the project area, extending from Hastings, Kent, to Purbeck, Dorset, along the coast and seaward across adjacent waters to the Median Line with France.

The ADS, the University of Arkansas and Barry Kemp are pleased to announce the release of The Virtual Amarna Project. This archive resulted from the 3D digitisation of objects from the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna using a Konica Minolta Vivid 9i system. Data includes images, 3D PDF files, meshes (obj) and point clouds (ascii). This archive was undertaken in conjunction with an electronic publication through the LEAP II project and the corresponding article (Limp et al, 2011) can be found in Internet Archaeology 30.

The ADS, the University of Newcastle and English Heritage are pleased to announce the release of the Historic Seascape Characterisation: The Irish Sea (English sector) archive by Sam Turner, 2011. The project comprises a GIS-based historic seascape characterisation (HSC) of the English sector of the Irish Sea. HSC is guided by the same principles as Historic Landscape Characterisation, and is intended to inform coastal and marine management and planning, with particular reference to the role of English Heritage and its statutory responsibilities.

The ADS, Worcestershire Historic Environment, English Heritage and the Royal Archaeological Institute are pleased to announce the release of the Midlands purple and Cistercian-type wares in the west Midlands in the 15th-16th centuries by Susan M Wright, Derek Hurst, 2011. This project aimed to develop understanding of a major ceramics industry, its products being some of the commonest wares on late medieval to post-medieval (transitional) sites though it is an industry whose origins, dating and distribution are not sufficiently well understood.

This searchable on-line database of fieldwork summaries has just been updated to include data from fieldwork carried out in 2009. Individual database records link through to unpublished reports in our on-line library of grey literature reports where appropriate. Updates to the Post-Medieval Fieldwork in Britain and Northern Ireland database will follow shortly.

Three new archives from excavations in Southampton have been added to this collection. The excavations were carried out in 2008 and 2009 by Thames Valley Archaeological Services and Southern Archaeological Services Ltd and cover sites at 20-26 College Street, Woolston Riverside and The 'Coach House' on Bevois Valley Road. Files available for download include reports, photographs and CAD diagrams.

These two resources from the Vernacular Architecture Group have been updated with new data and revisions. Some interface changes have also been implemented in order to make the searchable databases easier to use.