Impact case study database

Figure 1: The SERF study area in Perth and Kinross (Figure 1) is rural and sparsely populated, and training volunteers is resource-intensive, so training 120 local volunteers as well as regular public talks and pop-up museums in the course of the project was highly unusual.

Development of Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy

The Head of Archaeology Strategy at Historic Environment Scotland (HES, HS’s successor) explained that ‘ due to Professor Driscoll’s role as a HS non-executive Director, he was invited to be the first Chair of the new Scottish Strategic Archaeology Committee [SSAC] … 2013–2019’ [5.1]. To this role Driscoll brought expertise and experience from co-directing the SERF project, leading the SSAC, including representatives from across Scotland’s archaeology sector, to develop Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy. The HES source [5.1] commented that Driscoll’s experience from SERF ‘ played a considerable role’:

The integrated approach … combining research questions through excavation and survey with training, community participation, creative responses, interpretation and exhibition, including pop-up museums, were an exemplar as we created the Strategy.

The Strategy’s aims, under the overall themes of collaboration and inclusion, are ‘delivering archaeology’, ‘caring and protecting’, ‘enhancing understanding’, ‘encouraging greater engagement’ and ‘innovation and skills’. It was launched to an international audience at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) conference in 2015 by Scotland’s Culture Secretary, Fiona Hyslop MSP, who emphasised the Strategy’s central goal, repeating in her speech: ‘ we want archaeology to be for everyone’ [5.2, 5.3].

The impact of the new Strategy and SERF on archaeology in Scotland

Major issues facing the sector previously included a strategic vision for allocation of the annual c.GBP1.4 million budget for HS/HES’s archaeological research funding [5.4]. Open to non-academic organisations, this is the largest single source of archaeological project funding in Scotland. Together, HES and SSAC introduced a new central funding eligibility criterion in 2015: all new projects must state how their work will contribute to delivery of Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy [5.5]. Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop MSP, referring to the period 2015-2020, stated that ‘ to date, over £6 million has been invested in grant funding by [HES] to projects delivering Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy’. [5.3]. The HES Head of Archaeology Strategy explained that ‘ on average some £1.4 million per annum has been invested in grant-aiding archaeological projects which need to deliver the strategy in order to ensure funding’. She added that there are further areas where the principles of the Strategy has influenced HES’s practice: ‘ in all our archaeological activities on our Properties in Care, the various contracts that we tender for archaeology, and archaeological collaborative doctoral studentships...’.

The shift in thinking about the aims of archaeological practice enshrined in the Strategy has also influenced archaeologists in the UK and beyond. A 2017 special edition of The Archaeologist, the magazine of the UK Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, was devoted to discussion of the Strategy [5.6]. HES has noted that it has been ‘ discussed in conferences and meetings in at least nine countries across Europe, featured in keynote addresses at the EAA meetings in 2019 and 2020, and has also been presented in the USA and China’. The Director of Rathmell Archaeology commented that ‘ Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy is a powerful tool in refocusing our discipline, showing the need for us all to support and achieve structural change for our common benefit’ [5.7].

SERF also explicitly fulfilled a key HS aim at the time, to investigate damage to ploughed sites, discovering that agricultural practices were causing irreversible damage to Scheduled Monument sites (3.1). These findings are now informing HES’s thinking as the body responsible for curating this national resource, leading to a review of cropmark Scheduling practice at HS/HES, informed by a workshop given by Brophy to HES in 2016. In turn, this has developed into a full review of the management and research of cropmarks. HES commented [5.1]:

The SERF project has been an important source of information for the cropmark review. … the SERF excavations provided up-to-date information on … monuments that were included in the review. SERF’s findings directly fed into decisions about designation [and] discussions with SERF project members regarding their findings on plough damage to buried remains have helped inform our approach to the review of these sites.

The Strategy is also impacting the commercial archaeological sector in Scotland, including through delivery of 185 CPD opportunities to explicitly address skills shortages identified through the development of the Strategy [5.3]. The Managing Director of Guard Archaeology Ltd stated that from his perspective, ‘ AIM 5: Innovation and Skills clearly has the most impact … [the Strategy] forms a coherent framework for commercial companies to form research strategies around and develop greater potential from the results of development-control work’ [5.7]. The Director at Rathmell Archaeology commented that ‘ there have [been] clear commercial benefits for us from engaging with the Strategy. It has helped us to: review our working practice; recognise the drivers behind policy change affecting our sector so we anticipate change; and promote collaborative working both within and outwith the commercial sector’ [5.8].

The impact of the Strategy on archaeology beyond Scotland

In 2015, Fiona Hyslop consulted with her counterpart in Ireland, and the SSAC supported the development of the Archaeology 2025 Strategy for Ireland. Royal Irish Academy members involved in this stated that during the process of drafting the Irish strategy, he ‘found Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy an inspiration in terms of its structure, language and vision ... the team behind Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy provided invaluable assistance’ [5.9]. HES noted that ‘ colleagues in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have acknowledged that it has been instrumental in the development of Strategic approaches for archaeology in their nations, as well as being followed closely elsewhere, such as in Belgium’. The Assistant Director of Northern Ireland’s Historic Environment Division stated regarding Archaeology 2030: A Strategic Approach for Northern Ireland that ‘ Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy was, and continues to be, a shining example that influenced the initiative.’ [5.3]. Fiona Hyslop noted that ‘ the fact that Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy has helped inspire other countries to adopt a similar strategic approach is testament to its strength’. [5.3]

In 2019, UofG Archaeology, led by Driscoll, hosted workshops with the Medieval Europe Research Community (MERC) to develop an international framework, the ‘MERC Manifesto’, based on Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy. This output was made freely available in Autumn 2020, and MERC’s members have undertaken to promote the framework’s implementation. MERC’s Chair commented that ‘The Strategy is an example for many (if not most) other European countries and regions. It was accepted as a viable inspiration for ‘mainstreaming’ archaeology in Flanders for instance, where the regional government is developing a similar strategy starting from Scotland’s Archaeology Strategy’. [5.10]