Owmby-By-Spital, Lincolnshire Tender for Assessment Project

National Heritage Protection Plan NHPP 2D1.104 Project brief for: Owmby-by-Spital, Lincolnshire Tender for assessment Project No: 4908 (CAS Pr 552) Date of Issue: December 2013 Project Summary English Heritage wishes to commission a project to revise and complete the Assessment of the Owmby-by-Spital archaeological project, work carried out by the Central Archaeology Service of English Heritage (now incorporated within the Intervention and Analysis team) between 1995 and 1999. This project focused on the threats to a Scheduled Ancient Monument, a Romano-British roadside settlement from ploughing and illicit metal-detecting, but in the course of the work much new information about the settlement was recovered. While most of the work is to be carried out by specialists engaged by the successful tenderer, some tasks are to be carried out by named English Heritage in-house specialists. Further background material, including assessments, plan information, archive quantification and digital files will be provided to organisations asked to tender. Tenderers will also be able to visit Fort Cumberland to inspect the archive for themselves. Where there are named contacts with e-mail addresses in the brief, they can be contacted directly by prospective tenderers. Queries on the archive can be directed to Claire Tsang ([email protected]), on finds to Nicola Hembrey ([email protected]) and on environmental archaeology in general to Gill Campbell ([email protected]). Any general queries can be directed to Brian Kerr ([email protected]). It is anticipated that the successful tenderer will also carry out any further analysis and dissemination as justified by the assessment, but this will be conditional on the production of a satisfactory assessment and on the acceptance, following appraisal by English Heritage, of a satisfactory updated project design. 2. Background The research project was initiated by the-then Central Archaeology Service (CAS) of English Heritage (later the Centre for Archaeology, now part of Intervention and Analysis) and fieldwork was carried out between 1995 and 1999. The project director was Fachtna McAvoy, who no longer works for English Heritage. This background section and other parts of this document are taken from the assessment report compiled by Mr McAvoy, whose contribution to this project we gratefully acknowledge. Finds work during and immediately after fieldwork was coordinated by Jan Summerfield; she no longer works for Intervention and Analysis team, but has indicated that she would be happy to answer any queries about finds collection strategies and processing ([email protected]). The completion of the finds assessments was coordinated by Nicola Hembrey of Intervention and Analysis team, and she would be happy to answer any queries relating to that work ([email protected]). The work was primarily intended to examine the effects of arable farming and illegal metal detecting on the survival of the archaeological resource within and beneath the ploughsoil. In so doing the project also examined the potential of artefacts and materials in the ploughsoil and the usefulness and cost-effectiveness of differing techniques and methods and sampling strategies for identifying and determining the potential of the resource. In undertaking this research the project gathered large amounts of new information on the archaeology and history of settlement and occupation at Owmby. In addition the large datasets gathered offered an opportunity to test and develop digital data collection, processing analysis and dissemination. Data from this project were made available to the Nighthawking survey (http://www.helm.org.uk/upload/pdf/NIGHTHAWKS2.pdf?1347456802) and the English Heritage and DEFRA funded COSMIC project. Following completion of fieldwork, site archive completion and assessment work was initiated. Some individual assessments were completed, and the draft collation is appended to this document, but there are gaps: there is no stratigraphic assessment, no overall statement of potential, and no revised aims and objectives. The project design for analysis was not drafted. Further assessment work was done on the pottery (by Ed McSloy) and on the CBM (by Wessex Archaeology). These documents are also appended. A distinction is made in the table below between those assessments that may need to be substantially revised, and those which will need to be reviewed in light of the revised aims and objectives of the project (3.1). Table 1: status of Assessment reports AssessmentAssessment to be Analysis (if carried out (C), required) to be revised (R) or carried out by reviewed (Rev) by Structure & stratigraphy N Contractor C Contractor Finds Lithics Y Contractor Rev Contractor Later prehistoric and Roman Y Ed McSloy pottery Ed McSloy Rev Post-Roman Pottery Y Contractor Rev N/A Ceramic Building Material Y Contractor Rev Contractor Small finds Y Contractor Rev Contractor Coinage Y Contractor Rev Contractor Glass Y Contractor Rev Contractor Stone (architect + objects) Y Contractor Rev Contractor Industrial and burnt material N Contractor C Contractor Clay Tobacco Pipe Y? Contractor C/R Contractor Conservation Y Contractor R Contractor Environmental Evidence All periods Human bone Y Simon Mays R Simon Mays Animal bone Y Fay Worley R Fay Worley Molluscs Y? Contractor C/R Contractor Plant macrofossils Y Ruth Pelling R Ruth Pelling Pollen Y N/A N/A Quite a lot of work was done on the digital data for this project, with a view to creating a project GIS. This is well-documented, and there are reviews of the project data and of the project GIS by Paul Cripps (2002) which can be made available. 3. Aims and Objectives The main aims for this brief are to: 3.1 Rapidly re-assess the project data against current English Heritage priorities and current regional, thematic and period-specific research frameworks, with a clear focus on the project’s potential contribution to Iron Age and Romano-British settlement studies. As part of this, the aims and objectives will need to be revised and expanded to include questions relating to Iron Age and Romano-British settlements studies, derived from national, material-based and regional research frameworks. 3.2 Discuss the emerging assessment results with the Activity Leads for NHPP Activities 2D1 and 4G2 (see section 8, below) with the aim of reaching a decision on whether this archive does or does not have the potential to provide any further useful information that might address the needs of these activities. 3.3 Produce a summary statement of potential, and a costed Updated Project Design for analysis, dissemination and archive deposition. 3.4 Check and complete (where necessary) the site archive. It will eventually be deposited with the City and County Museum, Lincoln. 3.5 The following represent the aims and objectives of the original project, as set out in the draft assessment. Aims 2-5 have been at least partially achieved through the transfer of project data to the COSMIC pilot project and Nighthawking Survey. Aim 1: To understand the archaeological resource and determine its continued historical significance: • To establish the nature and extent of the resource; • To characterise the resource; • To establish the condition of the resource. Aim 2: To identify and understand the threats: • To determine the nature of the threats to the resource; • To determine the impact of the threats upon the resource; • To determine site specific factors that may result in vulnerability. Aim 3: To identify the means of change: • To implement solutions that may be immediately required for resource protection; • To determine the effectiveness of the current system for management and protection; • To develop and test methods to improve the system for management and protection; • To identify a range of solutions to the management problems. Aim 4: To develop and assess the effectiveness of techniques and methods: • To determine the effectiveness of non-destructive and non-intrusive methodologies, individually and collectively, in evaluating the significance of the resource; • To determine the benefits of an integrated electronic system of data capture, management and interrogation, spatial mapping and presentation for the collection, assessment, analysis, archiving and dissemination of large datasets. Aim 5: To use the baseline studies of the resource and the integrated information systems for predictive modelling of the effectiveness of the various sampling strategies. 4. Business Case The National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP) sets out how English Heritage, with help from partners in the sector, will prioritise and deliver heritage protection for the four years 2011-2015. It will make best use of our resources so that England's vulnerable historic environment is safeguarded in the most cost-effective way at a time of massive social, environmental, economic and technological change. The heart of delivery of the NHPP is the Action Plan. This is divided into 8 themes (called Measures). These are further sub-divided into a series of Topics and Activities comprising over 400 projects. The Activities address specific areas of work (e.g. places of worship, historic ports, strategic designation) that have been identified as priorities for the Plan. This project falls within Activity 8A5: Offsetting loss through knowledge dividend. Where protection is simply not practically possible, we can offer funding

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