21st-century Challenges for Archaeology

Historic England project lead: Steve Trow, former Director of Research, Historic England

CIfA project lead: Jan Wills, former Hon Chair, CIfA

During 2017 the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, in partnership with and funded by Historic England, convened a series of six discussions and workshops on important issues within the archaeology sector in England.

The main challenges

Six topics were discussed at workshops, each preceded by an online discussion:

• New models for archive creation, deposition, storage, access and research
• Professional standards and guidance - who sets them and what are they for?
• Designation and management of the archaeological resource in the context of a changing planning system
• New models for local curatorial services: potential future roles for local authority archaeology services and Historic England
• Synthesis of information from developer-funded investigation to create new historical narratives
• Challenges for archaeological publication in a digital age: who are we writing this stuff for anyway?

More than 150 individuals attended the workshops and over 70 people contributed to the online discussions.

Project report

The project reports can be accessed here:

21st-century Challenges for Archaeology project report

21st-century Challenges for Archaeology report Appendix 1: What about Southport?

21st-century Challenges for Archaeology report Appendix 2: Discussion questions and background papers

21st-century Challenges for Archaeology report Appendix 3: Transcript of online discussion

Next steps

CIfA and Historic England will discuss how best to implement or follow up the main recommendations of the workshops, in consultation with other sector partners.