Members of the Marine Archaeology Group committee pulled together the below documents as a useful document library for anyone working, studying or interested in learning more about marine archaeology. To suggest additional documents to include in the library, please email groups@archaeologists.net.
Historic England guidance documents
Please see below for an up to date list of Historic England maritime archaeology guidance documents.
Ships and Boats: Prehistory to Present (Selection Guide)
This selection guide help to define which historic wreck sites are likely to meet the relevant tests for national designation and be included on the National Heritage List for England.
Ships and Boats: Prehistory to 1840 (Introductions to Heritage Assets)
Principally drawn from the archaeological evidence, this overview identifies and describes pre-Industrial vessels (that is from the earliest times to about 1840) used on inland and coastal waters and the open sea, as well as ones abandoned in coastal areas.
Ships and Boats: 1840 to 1950 (Introductions to Heritage Assets)
This overview looks at ships and boats built after 1840. Principally drawing on archaeological, technological and historical sources, it describes vessels used on English inland and coastal waters and in the open sea.
Accessing England's Protected Wreck Sites (Guidance notes for divers and archaeologists)
These guidelines are intended to support individuals or groups wishing to access and/or develop projects on wreck sites designated under Section 1 of the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 in the English Territorial Sea.
Marine Geophysics Data Acquisition, Processing and Interpretation
These guidelines provide guidance on the potential and applicability of geophysical techniques for maritime archaeology, to provide basic information for and characterisation of wreck sites and submerged prehistoric landscapes.
Marine Licensing and England's Historic Environment
This advice is aimed at members of the general public and those wishing to undertake a project directed at an archaeological or historic site in England in the marine and coastal area.
Historic Wreck Sites At Risk: A Risk Management Toolkit
This document describes a methodology to be adopted by Historic England, contract archaeologists, Licensees and others engaged in the risk assessment and risk management of England’s Historic Wreck Sites.
Waterlogged Organic Artefacts - Guidelines on their Recovery, Analysis and Conservation
This guidance is aimed at anyone planning for or working with waterlogged organic artefacts, including archaeological curators, archaeologists and specialists (finds specialists, environmental archaeologists and conservators).
Military Aircraft Crash Sites: Archaeological guidance on their Significance and Future Management (Historic England 2002)
Belonging to a period still well within living memory, crash sites have significance for remembrance, commemoration, their cultural value as historic artefacts and the information they contain about both the circumstances of the loss and of the aircraft itself. Crash sites may on occasion also contain human remains, giving them additional value and status as sacred sites and war graves. It is therefore important that these remains are considered a material matter where they are affected by development proposals and local authority development plan policies and where research- or recovery-led excavations are proposed.
SELECTION GUIDES & INTRODUCTIONS TO HERITAGE ASSETS
See below for a selection of Historic England guidance documents which may be of interest
Maritime and Naval (Scheduling Selection Guide)
This selection guide offers an overview of the sorts of archaeological monument or site with maritime or naval associations which are likely to be deemed to have national importance, and for which of those scheduling may be appropriate.
Pre-1500 Military Sites (Scheduling Selection Guide)
This selection guide offers an overview of archaeological monuments or sites designed to have a military function and likely to be deemed to have national importance, and sets out criteria to establish for which of those scheduling may be appropriate.
Military Sites Post-1500 (Scheduling Selection Guide)
This selection guide offers an overview of military sites and monuments post-dating 1500 which are likely to be deemed to have national importance, and for which scheduling may be appropriate.
Maritime and Naval Buildings (Listing Selection Guide)
This selection guide covers buildings and structures on land that are associated with the sea, in particular infrastructure developed to serve, regulate and protect ship-borne trade and other vessels which exploited marine resources (principally via fishing). They are found in docks and dockyards, including those of the Royal Navy; shipbuilding and maintenance yards; harbours; and around the coast and in estuaries where customs houses, Coastguard stations, lighthouses and lifeboat stations all attest to the country’s seagoing heritage.
Military Structures (Listing Selection Guide)
This guide outlines our approaches to listing England’s military buildings and structures, some of the most eloquent witnesses to the impact of world events on our national story. Military sites are both offensive and defensive: they include fortifications designed to withstand assaults, and bases from which operations could be launched. To these the twentieth century added buildings designed to protect civilians from various forms of air attack.
Introduction to Heritage Assets -
ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE (NOT MARINE SPECIFIC)
Geoarchaeology: Using Earth Sciences to Understand the Archaeological Record (Historic England 2015)
This guidance document covers the use of geoarchaeology to assist in understanding the archaeological record. Geoarchaeological techniques may range in scale from landscape studies to microscopic analysis, and are carried out by practitioners with specialist knowledge about the physical environment in which archaeological stratigraphy is preserved, and excavations take place. The main aim is usually to understand site formation processes, but there may also be issues concerning site preservation, refining field interpretations of archaeological contexts and identifying changes in the physical landscape through time.
Managing Significance in Decision-Taking in the Historic Environment: Historic Environment Good Practice Advice in Planning: 2 (Historic England 2015)
The purpose of this Historic England Good Practice Advice note is to provide information to assist local authorities, planning and other consultants, owners, applicants and other interested parties in implementing historic environment policy in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the related guidance given in the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG). These include; assessing the significance of heritage assets, using appropriate expertise, historic environment records, recording and furthering understanding, neglect and unauthorised works, marketing and design and distinctiveness.
Management of Research Projects in the Historic Environment: the MoRPHE Project Managers’ Guide (Historic England 2015)
This guide will help you plan and run an effective project. It is written for those planning research and research and development (R&D) projects in the historic environment.
The Setting of Heritage Assets: Historic Environment Good Practice Advice in Planning Note 3 (Second Edition) (Historic England 2017)
This document sets out guidance, against the background of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the related guidance given in the Planning Practice Guide (PPG), on managing change within the settings of heritage assets, including archaeological remains and historic buildings, sites, areas, and landscapes.
Deposit Modelling and Archaeology. Guidance for Mapping Buried Deposits (Historic England 2020) This guidance is written to help archaeologists working within the context of development-led projects to understand what deposit models are and the benefits that can be gained by using them. It is also relevant to any archaeological work where the intention is to characterise deep sequences of deposits.
Curating the Palaeolithic (Historic England 2023)
This guidance explains the importance of the English Palaeolithic record (about 1 million to 11,700 years ago) in its Pleistocene context and best practices for protecting it through the planning process, illustrated by case studies from across the country. The terms Palaeolithic and Pleistocene are used to distinguish between evidence of human activity (Palaeolithic) and of environments (Pleistocene).
Non – Historic England guidance documents
- GUIDANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
JNAPC Code of Practice for Seabed Development (Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee and The Crown Estate 2006)
This code sets out recommended procedures for consultation and cooperation between seabed developers and archaeologists.
Historic Environment Guidance for Offshore Renewable Energy Sector (Wessex Archaeology 2007)
Guidance note on the survey, appraisal and monitoring of the historic environment during the development of offshore renewable energy products in the United Kingdom.
Offshore Geotechnical Investigations and Historic Environment Analysis: Guidance for the Renewable Energy Sector. Commissioned by COWRIE Ltd (Gribble, J. and Leather, S. for EMU Ltd. 2011)
Guidance on how best to achieve the integration of offshore geotechnical investigations and their data outputs, arising from offshore renewable energy projects, with archaeological historic environment analysis, and ensure optimum use of geotechnical data.
Protocol for Archaeological Discoveries: Offshore Renewables Projects (The Crown Estate 2014)
This document is a Protocol that will satisfy anticipated conditions relating to the reporting of archaeological discoveries across the offshore renewable energy industry, if followed correctly.
Archaeological Written Schemes of Investigation for Offshore Wind Farm Projects (The Crown Estate 2021)
This document sets out high level guidance on a range of archaeological methodologies that may be required in the production of WSIs and Method Statements.
Managing Change in the Historic Environment: Setting (Historic Environment Scotland 2016)
This document is part of a series of non-statutory guidance notes about managing change in the historic environment. They explain how to apply the policies in the Historic Environment Policy for Scotland.
