Kenneth Aitchison

Landward Research Ltd

The COVID-19 pandemic had serious effects on the delivery of commercial archaeology in the United Kingdom during 2020 and 2021. This article presents a contemporary history of two years of practice and political developments. Because of commercial archaeology's place within the broader construction sector, it became a 'protected' industry, resultin...

Local authority archaeology services in the UK response to Covid-19

State of the Commercial Archaeological Market in the UK in 2019

Development-led archaeology in Scotland delivery during Covid-19 pandemic 2020

Bisher fehlten im deutschen Sprachraum probate Mittel zur Dokumentation praktisch erworbener archäologischer Fähigkeiten. Die nunmehr vorliegende Adaption des in Großbritannien bereits breit in Verwendung stehenden „Archaeology Skills Passport“ für den deutschen Sprachraum versucht ein solches Mittel zu bieten. Der Pass ist einfach anzuwenden und i...

Over one generation of professional practice, archaeology has become a service delivered by the private sector. Traditional sources of grant and benefactor funding have declined in importance as archaeological funds. A private marketplace driven by legal compliance now provides the vast majority of archaeological financing. While heritage practitio...

Applied archaeological practice, as a means of investigating and protecting archaeological sites, landscapes, and material, is a young profession that emerged across the world during the twentieth century. As a practice that has become increasingly linked to land-use change and development expenditure, it has been impacted upon by all of the crises...

While, the U.K’s departure from the European Union will make a big difference to archaeology in the U.K, its effect on archaeological practice in mainland Europe will be minimal. Archaeological traditions of practice and funding will not be affected. The changes in the U.K, particularly regarding the potential loss of freedom of movement between st...

A survey of archaeological specialists has found that, in early 2017, specialists appear to have recovered from the economic downturn of the previous decade, but are cautious about the possibility that there will be increased demand for their services in the near to medium future. This study, which has aimed to collect data from a wide variety of a...

This Archaeological Market Survey report is on the State of the Market for Archaeological Services in the United Kingdom in 2015-16. It has been prepared by Landward Research Ltd on behalf of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, FAME (Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers) and Historic England. The overall aims of this survey a...

In a context of rapid changes across Europe, the ANHER project is a first attempt to produce a series of innovative education materials that systemically address wide concerns of professionals of both archaeological and natural heritage. This transnational report aimed at identifying the specific characters of archaeological and natural heritage an...

Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe 2014 has shown that measuring archaeologists’ capabilities is a tool that can be used to plan for the development of the profession, development that is necessary to enhance to protection and interpretation of the global archaeological resource.

Icon is delivering a National Conservation Education and Skills Strategy to shape the future provision of conservation education, training and research in the United Kingdom. It has undertaken research into the skills needs of the workforce, and is prioritising initiatives to improve training and qualifications, and is now seeking to re-engage with...

opinion on Icon, the Institute of Conservation, as a professional association

Comprehensive Labour Market Intelligence for the archaeological profession has now been gathered for the fourth time in the series of Profiling the Profession studies. This baseline survey used the same fundamental methodology that was previously employed in 1997-98, 2002-03 and 2007-08, and consequently a time-series dataset has been compiled whic...

The objective of this project was to conduct primary research into skills needs across the UK’s cultural heritage sector. The sector consists of four main sub-sectors: archaeology, conservation, cultural heritage institutions and planning and other related services for the built historic environment. The research incorporated 1,010 telephone interv...

Applied archaeological practice, as a means of investigating and protecting archaeological sites, landscapes, and material, is a young profession which emerged across the world during the twentieth century. As a practice that has become increasingly linked to land-use change and development expenditure, it has been impacted upon by all of the crise...

The EAA Committee on Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe has been working to deliver the Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe 2014 project since it began on 1 October 2012. This is a project supported by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union that is bringing together participants from twenty European states to identify how...

Each year the CPAA has met at the EAA Annual Meetings, and generated much discussion that has been well-received by those members in attendance (usually 50-60 members). In recent years the „landscape‟ of archaeological associations in Europe has changed, and the recession has added pressure on individual members and corporate organizations. This ha...

In 1990, the UK government introduced guidance relating to spatial planning that transferred responsibility for the funding of preventative or “rescue” archaeological work from the state to the developers that were threatening archaeological remains. The publication of this document—Planning Policy Guidance note 16: Archaeology and Planning, known...

In 2012-13, research was carried out into the UK’s professional labour markets of both archaeology and conservation, two similarly sized and comparable parts of the wider cultural heritage sector. The archaeological research was undertaken by Landward Research Ltd and the conservation study was undertaken by Icon, the Institute of Conservation.

Comparison of labour market intelligence for UK professional archaeology and conservation in 2012-13

Comprehensive Labour Market Intelligence for the archaeological profession has now been gathered for the fourth time in the series of Profiling the Profession studies. This baseline survey used the same fundamental methodology that was previously employed in 1997‐98, 2002‐03 and 2007‐08, and consequently a time‐series dataset has been compiled whic...

Using the data published in Conservation Labour Market Intelligence 2012–131, it is possible to estimate the monetary value of UK professional conservation.

One of the principal objectives of the European Union (EU) is to allow the free movement of labour. In the early years of the twenty-first century, increasing numbers of archaeologists sought to take advantage of opportunities other than their own, and the Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe project sought to examine how this mobility of indiv...

The aim of this project has been to gather, analyse and interpret labour market intelligence for the conservation sector in the financial year 2012–13. The reasoning behind this was that there was a recognised need for solid data that could help to improve understanding of the needs and current state of employment for the conservation/restoration p...

The Committee on Professional Associations in Archaeology held a formal session at the Helsinki Annual Meeting, where in addition to a set of papers there was extensive discussion of the nature of both professional associations and applied archaeological practice across Europe.

Professional archaeological associations are organizations that are concerned with the ethics and professional behavior and actions of archaeologists, rather than directly with archaeology as the material remains of past human activities. These associations set, maintain, and improve standards for archaeologists, and membership in these association...

Barometer of Progress A visual indicator of progress against the NCESS has been created, and posted on the NCESS pages of the Icon website**. This shows nominal progress from ‘not started’ to ‘completed’ for each of the sixty eight actions presented within the NCESS. This will be updated on a monthly basis;

Conservation Technician Qualifications One of the objectives in the National Conservation Education and Skills Strategy (NCESS)* is to ensure that there is greater support for existing provision and qualifications – taught courses, structured e-learning, research, and work-based learning – to increase access, build resilience, and unlock funding st...

Professional associations set, maintain and improve standards for archaeologists, and membership of these associations allows individual archaeologists to set themselves apart by demonstrating their commitment to quality and ethical work. Membership does not bring a license to practice but the visibility of these memberships – which often include t...

A survey of archaeological specialists has found that, in early 2011, specialists are operating in a shrinking market, encountering limited competition but are setting low charges for their work. This comprehensive study, which has aimed to collect data from a wide variety of areas of specialist activity within archaeology has received information...

In the autumn of 2008, the effects of the late 2000s global economic crisis suddenly and seriously impacted commercial archaeological practice in the United Kingdom. With 93 per cent of all archaeological work in the UK being developer-led, initiated through the planning process and delivered by companies competing on the open market (Aitchison 200...

In September 2009 a session at the European Association of Archaeologists’ (EAA) conference in Riva del Garda heard papers on the effects of the global economic crisis on archaeology. Some say that this was an unrelenting litany of misery, but it was in fact an illuminating exploration of ways that our sector was responding. Many of the papers, plu...

This is probably the first multi-authored attempt to take a global, or at least international, look at the current economic crisis and its effects on archaeology. Archaeologists of course have always shown much professional interest in crises, even if only from a distance. There have been as we know many and varied crises throughout human history:...

The job-market in commercial archaeology remains volatile. There was a small increase in the number of individuals in work in the three months ending 31st March 2010, but this followed a decline in the previous quarter. It is estimated that there was a total of 6233 individuals in UK archaeological employment on 1st April 2010. In August 2007, the...

Archaeological practice in the United Kingdom is essentially a private sector activity, undertaken by commercial companies on behalf of private and public developers. One direct consequence of the global economic situation has been a downturn in the UK construction industry, which began in the summer of 2007 and sharply accelerated in autumn 2008.T...

Archaeological practice in the UK produces considerable amounts of reportage that is never intended for formal publication. This grey literature forms a resource which has, historically, been poorly used by academic archaeologists, and problems of access have been blamed for this. This paper argues that this problem does not lie with accessing the...

Following job-market stabilisation in the second and third quarters of 2009, the number of archaeologists in work in the final quarter of 2009 fell back to about the level of April 2009. There were approximately 6200 archaeologists in employment on 1 January 2010, down from nearly 6900 at the peak of the building boom in August 2007.

The most important archaeological publication that the UK has seen, Planning Policy Guidance Note 16: Archaeology and Planning (Department of the Environment, 1990), has now been replaced. With publication of Planning Policy Statement 5: Planning for the Historic Environment on 24 March 2010, the official policy on archaeology and the planning proc...

The Invisible Diggers is three things – an overview of the historical development of archaeological employment, a report on the author’s participant-observer research carried out while digging, and analysis of an online questionnaire. The historical research adds to the limited work that has been done on the history of archaeological practice. The...

The first archaeological work in the United Kingdom that was deliberately undertaken ahead of development took place during the Second World War at sites that were to become airfields. A decade prior to this, sites that were to be flooded through the dambuilding programmes of Roosevelt’s New Deal in the United States were excavated before the water...

Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe is a major research project that examined the archaeological labour market, qualifications and opportunities for archaeologists to enjoy transnational mobility across twelve European Union member states. The research was carried out in 2007-08 and was primarily funded by the European Commission through the L...

Archaeology in 2009 is being adversely affected by a global economic crisis. This has followed a period of successful expansion of practice in many countries, and is now leading to reductions in budgets and job losses. Countries that have adopted a market-facing, commercial system to deliver archaeological management have been more seriously affect...

The Scottish Group of IfA held its AGM on 23 October, followed by a seminar on the effects of the recession on Scottish archaeology. At the AGM John Sode-Woodhead handed over the position of Chair to Ellen McAdam, and Daniel Rhodes was elected Hon Secretary.

The EAA Committee on Professional Associations in Archaeology (CPAA) held a very successful round table and AGM at Riva del Garda, attracting a larger audience than any previous CPAA session at EAA Annual Meetings.

Archaeology and Construction Engineering Skills (aces) is a transnational project, funded by the European Commission’s Lifelong Learning Programme under the Leonardo da Vinci ii strand. It brings together archaeologists and engineers from four countries (Norway, Poland, Turkey and uk) to develop learning materials for each others’ sector that can b...

We didn’t realise it at the time, but the IfA conference session “Industrial archaeology: reaping the benefits of development?” may have been a last public hurrah for the archaeology of the industrial transition. Since the April conference, we have learned that the University of Manchester is to close the University of Manchester Archaeology Unit a...

The Archaeological Archives Forum (AAF) is a representative body, established in 2002, which aims to link together all the major parties in the United Kingdom with an interest in archaeological archives so that common policies and practice can be developed and applied. Another goal is to identify the courses of action necessary to further best prac...

The economic downturn continues to have a direct and negative effect upon archaeology. In a very few months, archaeology has been transformed from a briskly expanding profession to one that is losing trained staff fast. Figures from IfA’s first rapid survey of Registered Organisations and FAME members were published in TA 71; since then, those stat...

More people work in archaeology in the UK than in any other European country, and most of them are employed in the commercial sector. The clients and funders of these archaeologists’ work are developers and builders. More than ninety per cent of all archaeological work in the UK in 2006 was initiated through the spatial planning process; for develo...

A university degree is effectively a prerequisite for entering the archaeological workforce in the UK. Archaeological employers consider that new entrants to the profession are insufficiently skilled, and hold university training to blame. But university archaeology departments do not consider it their responsibility to deliver fully formed archaeo...

In the UK, increased levels of developer funding has led to increased demand for archaeological fieldworkers, the producers of the primary data upon which all archaeological work and research depends. But archaeologists entering the profession are underskilled – while increasing numbers of students are receiving archaeological degrees, recent gradu...

Professional archaeology in England is funded from a variety of sources. This chapter of Cultural Trends presents research tracing the route by which this has developed, examining and quantifying the sources of funding for professional archaeological practice in 2000. This is the first study to quantify archaeological funding from all sources in th...

Profiling the Profession is a survey of the organisations in the UK that employ professional archaeologists, on a full-time or part-time basis. The survey was undertaken with seven objectives: � to identify the numbers of professional archaeologists working in Britain � to analyse whether the profession is growing, static or shrinking � to identify...

Les activités humaines inscrivent des traces dans le paysage, qui sont le seul témoignage des événements passés. Elles sont souvent séparées les unes des autres et de nous par des siècles, quand ce n’est pas par des millénaires. Il nous est possible d’étudier ces bribes de paysages anciens, et, par là, d’aborder la manière de vivre dans le paysage...

The Jobs Information Service of the IFA is an invaluable source of information about almost all the publicly advertised jobs in British Archaeology. It also provides an opportunity to review and analyse the largest body of information on trends in archaeological employment. The data for the years 1993 and 1994 have been used in an analysis of pay a...

methodology for identifying "murus gallicus" iron rampart nails using metal detector prospection on mont Beuvray (Bibracte)