Ancient Stone Monuments (ASMS), such as standing stones and rock art panels dating back to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, are indicative of Britain’s rich prehistoric past. Despite their apparent robustness and resilience, these iconic archaeological sites occupy a fragile place in the rural landscape.
These unique, non-renewable heritage resources have great cultural and
aesthetic value frequently acquiring national significance. They also have economic consequence due to their value to tourism and the image of Britain. Problems come however as they often reside in rural landscapes meaning they are under continuous threat from human, agro-industrial activity and climate change.
Responding to this predicament, the AHRC/EPSRC Science and Heritage Programme funded this cluster to assemble a group of experts to address scientific and heritage issues regarding their conservation and management. The cluster brought together experts from environmental sciences, such as geochemistry, molecular microbiology, ecology, geomorphology, botany, and hydrology; heritage studies, such as archaeology; and managers of heritage resources within government and non-profit agencies such as English Heritage; Northumberland County Council; and Northumberland National Park Authority. Integrating a wide range of disciplines around a common focus has worked well and drawn in scientists who had not paid much attention to the application of their disciplines to heritage challenges and given heritage managers opportunities to appreciate how scientific tools can be used to support their work.
The overarching goal of the cluster was to identify the environmental processes that promote the decay of Ancient Stone Monuments (e.g., anthropomorphic, biological, chemical, and physical weathering); determine how such processes might be affected by changing climate and environmental conditions; prioritise research to generate more effective treatments of decay to improve conservation practices; investigate monument monitoring procedures in light of new scientific methods; and develop ASM heritage science as a platform for future heritage and scientific investigation.
The cluster held two Workshops; the first one took place in March 2009 and included a visit to rock art panels at Lordenshaw to give participants a first-hand experience of the issues involved; the second workshop took place in over 2 days in June 2009 at the Great North Museum and included a session open to the public as well as a specific cluster focused day to identify potential projects to take forward.
More information about these activities can be found on the ASM Science & Heritage website.
Image: Cluster member examining rock art. Copyright Aron Mazel