British

• British Archaeology has been using abbreviated web addresses provided by tinyurl.com. We have been concerned with their longterm effectiveness, and the CBA is now creating short URLs, in the form britarch.net/xyz, which are guaranteed to work in years ahead.

There is no shortage of online excavation listings. The Council for British Archaeology's Briefing, for example, is detailed and well-loved. Once work starts, however, it can be surprisingly difficult to pick up information despite the abundance of project websites. The rigours of excavation clearly preclude regular web updates for many directors.

Project websites may be individual (such as Achill Fieldschool, Eire or Tel Dor at – with birth announcements on the home page...), or hosted (Basing House, Hampshire, or Strathearn Environs and Royal Forteviot). Most are comprehensive, such as High Pasture Cave with online specialist reports and up-to-date news. Some are complex. Binchester Roman Fort seems to have two websites, neither of which links to the other (at Stanford and Durham), and the blog is not obvious.

Project websites can be bland; diaries or blogs offer a more personal approach, combining a flavour of the experience with academic detail. In Lincoln an international team has been working on Sudbrooke Roman villa: there is a brief dig diary, with information from the previous season. The Wallingford Burh to Borough Research Project has set up a more complex diary that may be browsed by trench, and includes plenty of images as well as video. Oystermouth castle is a community excavation in Wales with a comprehensive diary. While in Scotland the Ness of Brodgar excavations diary on Orkneyjar covers work progress, with the diggers' daily lot. If you long for sunshine try Tel Kedesh in Israel, or Egypt perhaps).

Community groups are often good at launching websites, if not always keeping them up to date. Amongst sites worth a visit are the Community Landscape Archaeology Survey Project, an umbrella for archaeological groups in Northamptonshire, which hosts pages on a Roman dig at Whitehall Villa; and the Navenby Archaeology Group, detailing their involvement in Pre-Construct Archaeology's summer excavation in Lincolnshire.

Given the amount of fieldwork that takes place each year, excavation webpages are surprisingly hard to find. Most commercial companies are coy about current activities. Commercial confidentiality plays a part, but most companies also carry out research. AOC Archaeology Group is one of the few providing links to work from their homepage.

The web lends itself to project information; it is an ideal medium to communicate your work to others, and to promote the ways in which archaeology takes place. Diaries and blogs provide a particularly direct account and of course video, photographs, reconstructions and plans all lend interest, though not everyone is blessed with a superfast computer or broadband. Online excavation material does not have to be written by the director, but it should be regarded as one of the new essentials of the archaeological sites.

Caroline Wickham-Jones teaches archaeology at the University of Aberdeen.

Digging on the web

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology – sitemaker.umich.edu/kelseymuseum.digdiary/home
- All you need from pictures of the breakfast buffet to the contents of the diggers' iPods – and archaeology too
Wallingford Burh to Borough Project – wallingforddig.pbworks.com
- Comprehensive excavation blog with links to project webpages, though pages do not seem to link back to the blog
Orkneyjar – orkneyjar.com
- Why not ask someone else? Updated information (and at least one blog) about all the Orkney excavations
Heather and Hillforts: Penycloddiau Excavation – heatherandhillforts.co.uk
- "Just when you think the weather couldn't get worse, it's cloudy, showery and the wind is even stronger"
Sagalassos Interactive Dig – archaeology.org/interactive/sagalassos
- Daily information, from excavations and fieldwork to visitors and weddings

Forest Heritage Scotland

Matt Ritchie introduces a website that blends landscape archaeology and social history using a rich variety of media.

As part of the Scottish Government's Homecoming Scotland 2009 initiative, Forestry Commission Scotland, in partnership with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, has sought to showcase the historic environment on the national forest estate. We have included both the accessible and the remote, hoping to attract people to explore the monuments in our forests, and to provide a platform for some unusual historical stories.

Following Homecoming Scotland 2009 themes, we focussed upon the deserted 18th and 19th century townships of the Highlands and west coast; several extensive early industrial historic landscapes; past woodland and forestry management; and wellpreserved defensive structures from World War Two. The sites were chosen for importance, accessibility and potential for interpretation.

The Forest Heritage Scotland project is unusual in its wide geographic scope – over 60 sites have been highlighted throughout Scotland's publicly-owned national forest estate – and in its multidisciplinary team, comprising specialists in archaeology, interpretative techniques, tourism and marketing. The breadth of knowledge and experience has enabled us to concentrate on our own strengths, contributing to the development of a wide-ranging and ambitious project, while the coordinator (based within RCAHMS) has achieved a consistent, lively and accessible tone.

The Forest Heritage Scotland website comprises short written descriptions illustrated with map extracts, archive photography, reconstruction drawings and aerial photography. We also use audio (with folk stories recorded in both Gaelic and English), short film clips and innovative 3D animation from laser scanning by terrestrial archaeological and aerial Lidar surveys.

The website promotes live interpretation events (run by FCS rangers and professional theatre companies). Users are encouraged to share their own experiences and personal histories, and to upload photographs. One element – Ancestral Leaves – is being promoted around the world by VisitScotland, the government's tourism agency.

From the outset we hoped to make best use of the various skills that were available to us, through innovative interpretative techniques. Forestry Commission Scotland's greatest asset is its dedicated and enthusiastic employees – and the best way of delivering heritage interpretation is by live performance and presentation. To help FCS rangers leading guided forest walks, we have developed a series of heritage-themed prop boxes, containing costumes, replica objects and detailed workshop ideas. These have included a "home guard" box for use at world war two sites, and an "illicit whisky" box at hidden Highland stills.

The project has also provided courses and support material on live interpretation techniques in relation to archaeological sites and historic themes. We have developed historical characters and walking theatre for use throughout Scotland, to support existing events or as events in their own right. We have devised a model for procuring archaeological survey on the national forest estate that provides baseline knowledge and aids condition monitoring – and also includes onsite heritage outreach and education, supplied by the archaeological unit working closely with a forest ranger (usually based around a demonstration of recording techniques).

One of the more unusual methods of interpretation that we have developed is to use Lidar survey (light detection and ranging) to inform 3D animation. The technique has been pioneered by Forest Research, an agency of the Forestry Commission.

Lidar uses pulses of harmless laser energy beamed down from aircraft flying at about 1,000m to effectively scan the landscape. The results can highlight archaeological structures and earthworks – and can be displayed as interpretative animations alongside historical map evidence and aerial photographs. Such surveys (and their terrestrial counterparts) also inform future conservation management.

It is intended that the website will outlive Homecoming Scotland and provide an interesting and unusual portal to the wider historic environment on the national forest estate for years to come.

Matt Ritchie is the Forestry Commission Scotland archaeologist.

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British

Archaeology

The voice of archaeology in Britain and beyond

Issue 109

Nov / Dec 2009

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