7. Reporting and Archiving
All investigations of the historic environment undertaken as part of the scheme should be recorded, documented and reported in a manner proportionate to their importance and impact, making this evidence (and any archive generated) publicly accessible.
The project should be reported to the local HER (usually through the Online access to the index of archaeological investigation, OASIS V), including a copy of the report and any requested data.
The physical (as opposed to digital) components of the project archive should be deposited with the designated responsible collecting organisation (e.g. the local museum); this should include any archaeological finds and prepared environmental archaeology samples, and any paper records.
The digital archive should be deposited with a trusted digital repository (e.g. the Archaeology Data Service, ADS) and specialist data repositories – see below. Embargoes should be applied where necessary. The archive produced must be stable, ordered and accessible, produced following recognised standards.
Some digital records and data types can be deposited with the PeatDataHub; including water table data, other standardised data recorded using the ‘Eyes on the Bog’ methodology, photographs, and maps.
Where the peat has been analysed for palaeoenvironmental data, these specialist datasets (including the raw data counts and associated stratigraphical logs) can also be deposited with their respective international databases. The location of the data should be signposted through OASIS and the report. Some examples are:
- Neotoma (a paleoecology database and community), which includes the European Pollen Database (EPD)
- Bugs Coleopteran Ecology Package (BugsCEP)
- Strategic Environmental Archaeology Database (SEAD).
Archiving will help deliver additional public benefits by ensuring that the data are available for perpetuity, thereby enriching future research and enabling better decision-making. Sufficient funds will need to be allocated for this stage of work, and it should be part of any agreement between peatland contractors and their archaeologists, exactly who will undertake this.
The requirements for archive deposition should be identified at an early stage of project planning. These, and the necessary funding, should be set out in the WSI and/or any updated project design produced as part of a post-excavation assessment report, and be supported by a selection strategy and a data management plan: