Conservation Principles, Policies and Guidance - English Heritage

ENGLISH HERITAGE CONSERVATION POLICIES AND GUIDANCE
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Intervention to increase knowledge of the past
122 Intervention in significant places primarily to increase knowledge of the past,
involving material loss of evidential values, should normally be acceptable if:
a. preservation in situ is not reasonably practicable; or
b. it is demonstrated that the potential increase in knowledge
• cannot be achieved using non-destructive techniques; and
• is unlikely to be achieved at another place whose destruction is
inevitable; and
• is predicted decisively to outweigh the loss of the primary resource.
If acceptable, an intervention demands:
c. a skilled team, with the resources to implement a project design based
on explicit research objectives;
d. funded arrangements for the subsequent conservation and public deposit
of the site archive, and for appropriate analysis and dissemination of the
results within a set timetable;
e. a strategy to ensure that other elements and values of the place are not
prejudiced by the work, whether at the time or subsequently, including
conservation of any elements left exposed.
123 The historic environment provides a unique record of past human activity,
but differs from written archives in that ‘reading’ some parts of it can only be
achieved through the destruction of the primary record. This policy applies
particularly to the excavation of buried archaeological deposits, but can be
relevant to the physical investigation of structures. It concerns intervention
that goes beyond the evaluation and targeted investigation that may be
necessary to inform and justify conservation management decisions.
124 The continuing development of investigative techniques suggests that, in future,
it will be possible to extract more data from excavation and intervention than
is currently possible, just as now it is usual to extract much more information
than was possible a few decades ago. This demands a cautious approach to
the use of a finite resource, and seeking to avoid loss of integrity, but it cannot
reasonably exclude all research at a significant place. It must be recognised
that much of the evidential value of the primary archive – the place itself – lies
in its potential to increase knowledge of the past, to help protect the place and
other similar places by a better understanding of their significance, to stimulate
research, to encourage the further development of techniques to extract data,
and to train successive generations of archaeologists.