The MARS Project: An Introduction

Prof. Timothy Darvill and Dr Geoffrey Wainwright

• Background
• Introduction
• Aims and Objectives
• How MARS works
• Project program and management
• MARS in relation to other studies
• Conclusion

Background

It is a survey to see how many archaeological sites we have left, how many are still in good condition, how many are still in fair shape, how many have been lost, and how sites have come to be as we see them today. Its aims is not to pinpoint individual monuments which are at risk, but rather to identify broad patterns in the way that monuments change so that resources and skills can be deployed for the better protection and conservation of sites in future.

Introduction

Some sites, like Stonehenge in Wiltshire, are extremely well-known and clearly visible. The majority though are poorly known and in some cases lie hidden in the ground. All are of interest because of the information they hold about communities that lives, worked and died in the past.

The survival of archaeological sites is bound up with the use of the land in which they lie, whether this is agricultural, industrial, residential or recreational. This has been so for centuries. As a result some sites have survived while others have become denuded, damages or destroyed. What is not known at present is how many sites have been lost in recent decades, how many remain in good condition and what risks they currently face.

The Monuments at Risk Survey (MARS) is the first ever national census of the condition and survival of archaeological sites in England. This article introduces the work of the survey, and explains how it is being carried out.

Aims and objectives

• Systematically quantify England's archaeological resource in terms of:
• Changing knowledge of the scale and nature of the archaeological resources, including single monuments, ancient landscapes and historic urban areas;
• The scale and rate of physical impact on monuments since 1945, and the reasons and causes of this;
• The present condition and survival of the resource and future projections of these;
• The effectiveness of measures introduced to improve monument management.
• Investigate the implications of decay for different classes of monument in terms of the information preserved at different states of survival.
• Publish a range of reports on the study in order to reach a wide audience.

How MARS works

There are three main strands to the study: field-checking , analysis of aerial photographs , and researching detailed case studies.

The field-checking will be the most visible element. First, the owners and occupiers of sites in the survey transects will be contacted by a member of the survey team and an appointment made to visit the site. The survey team will wish to record information such as the visibility of the site and the current land use on and around it; they may take measurements such as its height and area. In this way they will build up a picture of the monument as it exists in the mid 1990s. In all the team will take between half an hour and an hour to complete their work. There is only one chance to visit all these monuments so programming will be tight.

Six field-survey teams will be at work simultaneously, two each in the north, midlands and south.

While the field-checking is going on the study of aerial photographs will be underway in Swindon. Experts in aerial photograph interpretation will pick out pictures which show the changes that have occured to the monuments in each sample unit over the last 50 years. They will record from the photographs much the same information as will be recorded by the survey teams. The photographs will show, for example, the kind of land-use and vegetation cover that existed on the monuments in the past. They will also show the ways that land-use changes such as urbanization and the spread of arable cultivation or afforestation have affected monuments. In this way it will be possible to track not only the way things have changed but also the causes and extent of change.

Finally, a selection of different kinds of monuments in various situations will be researched to see how they have changed and what this means for the preservation of archaeological information about their original construction, purpose and use.

The data from all three lines of inquiry will be carefulyl analyzed to reveal national, regional and local trends. As already indicated, the aim is not to pinpoint specific monuments which are at risk but rather to define general patterns which alow high risk situations to be forecast.

Project program and management

The main programme of data collection will begin in August 1994 and continue through to January 1996. Analysis and synthesis will take about 12 months, with the reports on the project being available in the spring of 1997.

MARS in relation to other studies

Work by Central Government

Monitoring Landscape Change (Barr 1986))

Countryside Survey 1990 (Barr et al 1993)

Land Use Change in Britain (DoE 1992a and 199b))

Work by the Countryside Commission

New Map of England (in progress)

Work byEnglish Nature

Natural Areas (English Nature 1993)

MARS is also complementary to other work being carried out by English Heritage. Although site condition data is collected as part of the Monuments Protection Programme the overall aims and objectives of the MPP are quite different from those of MARS and no duplication of effort is involved. In the short term the results from MARS will assist in targeting the resources of MPP towards those monuments and landscapes most at risk. Work on the MPP for its part will provide data for monument classes and scheduled sites already covered by the long-term survey programme.

Together, these various studies will provide a detailed statement of the natural and cultural resources of Britain; a sort of later 20th century Domesday Book of the environment.

How can I help?

MARS - Why is it needed?

• To identify those regions, landscape and types of monument most in need of protection and management
• To effectively allocate resources to those monuments and landscapes under greatest risk
• To provide high quality, factual information to assist with decision making in relation to:
  • Strategic Planning and Development Control
  • Environmental Assessment
  • Estate management
  • Archaeological resource management
• To aid the successful prediction of resource requirements in the next 25 years
• To act as a bench mark with which to monitor future changes and the effect of new initiatives

Conclusion